Day 2 with Bryce

The little man wasn't feeling very good today. He's currently fighting a cold plus we think he's cutting another tooth. On our last visit today, he was content to sit in one of our laps and gnaw on his teething ring. He was trying to gnaw on the wooden handles of one of the rocking horses in the play room today. We can just picture finding him chewing on our coffee table at home. :)

Since things were pretty quite at the Baby House today, we thought we would tell some of the interesting things we've seen since we've been here:

-The elevator in our hotel in Almaty was literally big enough to fit only myself & Wayne in it.

-There are people sitting on each street corner selling scoops of sunflower seeds out of big bowls.

-There are two lanes of traffic, however; within each lane of traffic, there could be 2 lanes or 3 lanes of traffic depending on the moods of the drivers. It's pretty much a free for all over here. Nobody wears seatbelts and everybody travels at their own speed. Trying to cross over to the other side of the street is like playing Frogger.

-There are bakeries at almost every street corner. We found one 2 minutes from our apartment and have been walking over there in the evenings to get little treats. We will definitely not be loosing any weight on this trip.

-We went to a good restaurant last night for dinner called Kamelot. Their menu consists of items like "The Golden Haired Maiden", "Nightime Hurricane", "Bohemian Chops w/ Onion", and "Apple Forest Schnitzel" It was good but, it's anybody's guess what you'll end up with.

Aliya took us on a tour of the town today so, here are some of our pics:

Cari & Wayne in front of The Hero of the Soviet Union monument. She was a 30 year old Kazak woman who was a gunner during WWII

Old Mosque

First visit with Bryce

We had our first 2 visits with Bryce today. Our first visit was from 9-10 this morning. We have to take diapers and a change of clothes with us each day so, as soon as we got to the Baby House, we gave our diapers and clothes to Aliya. She then took them to Bryce's caregiver and they changed his diapers & clothes and brought him out to us. Wayne held him first this morning and since they don't see men in the baby house, he started to cry. So, I took him and calmed him down. Then it was on to play time. We spread out a blanket to play on and laid out all of his toys. He can sit up, can pick up his toys, and crawl. We had a fun time playing with him and by the end of our visit, we had him smiling and laughing.

Here are details about the little man: Born on May 25, 2006, he has 6 teeth, blond hair and the brightest blue eyes you have ever seen. As of the beginning of March, he weighed 19.7 pounds.

After our visit, Aliya took us to the Regional Historic Museum where we were able to learn about the history of Kazakhstan and the Kazak people. Afterwards, she took us to a neat bookstore where we were able to buy a book about Uralsk and then also children's books that are both in Russian and English.

Our afternoon visit was from 5-6. There were no tears this time so, we're already making progress. He loves to play with a little ball that grandma bought him and a Taggies blanket. There was another family in the room with us this afternoon so, he was very interested in what they were doing.

Some of you may wonder why we haven't posted any pics of Bryce yet. Well, as much as I would love to, we've decided to wait until we officially take custody of him after our court hearing. So, for now, you'll have to bear with us and enjoy our pictures of us sightseeing around Uralsk.

Outside of our apartment building

Cari & Aliya outside Regional Historic Museum

Our First Meeting

I have a chance now to sit down and get everyone caught up on what's been going on with us the past couple days. We moved into our apartment yesterday afternoon (Thursday) and unpacked our suitcases and got settled in. We were to meet with the Ministry of Education earlier in the day but, they had something going on so, we were unable to meet with them until about 6 in the evening. When we went to the Ministry, we had our interpreter Aliya with us along with our adoption coordinator Olga. Wayne and I were interviewed by 2 member's of the Ministry and they asked us such questions as: Why are you adopting from Kazakhstan, What do you think of our City, Tell us about yourselves, What type of child are you looking for... We were both really nervous but our interpreter told us we answered the questions fine. After they met with us, they granted us permission to go to the Baby House, however; the Inspector that had to go with us on our first visit was unavailable so, we were unable to go to the Baby House last night. We went grocery shopping and then came back to the apartment and made our first "home cooked" meal consisting of mac & cheese and ham sandwiches.

So, our first visit at the Baby House was this morning. We were nervous we weren't going to be able to go this morning either because they had a hard time getting in contact with the Inspector. We finally made it over there around 11:30 and sat in the office of the Baby House Director where they brought in 3 babies for us to choose from. The first 2 babies they brought in just sat in our laps and looked around the room. When they brought Bryce in, they gave him to me, he looked around the room, and then burst into tears. :) So, we were able to see and hold him for about 2 minutes before they came back in and took him away. They said it was his lunch time so, he was hungry. We discussed his medical information with the Director and then set up time for our daily visits. Unfortunately, there is only one visitation room available and several families are here now adopting so, we are only allotted time for one visit a day. Our first visit with Bryce will be Saturday morning from 9:00 - 10:00. We'll let everyone know how it goes.

For now, I'll leave you with some pictures that we've taken so far:

Starting off on our journey

Sitting in the apartment

Cari & translater Aliya coming out of "Kid's Cafe" after lunch

Russian Orthodox Church

WE'RE HERE!!!!!

Just a quick note to let everyone know that we're here. We arrived in Almaty, Kaz Wednesday morning at 4am. We were taken to a hotel to rest up for a little bit before going on to complete some paperwork. We were to leave Almaty at 7 last night but, our plane was delayed until after 10 so, we didn't arrive here in Uralsk until 2 Thursday morning. We were taken to stay at a hotel last night and then moved into the apartment where we'll be staying for the next month this afternoon. We are still waiting to meet with the Ministry of Education to receive permission to visit the babyhouse and then after we have our interview with them, it's off to the babyhouse to meet our little man. We'll keep everyone posted. The internet connection is slow here so, we'll post pics when we can.

Love,

Cari & Wayne

Where in the world is Kazakhstan?

I've had a few people ask me "Where in the world is Kazakhstan?" when I've told them that's where we're adopting from. So, I thought I would post a map to show exactly where it's located:

We're located to the East of Kazakhstan on the little dot in the Pacific Ocean. So, luckily, we won't have too far to travel.

It's a boy!!!!!

We just wanted to let everyone know that we'll be leaving soon so, we've been busy making flight arrangements and sending off for our Visas to enter Kazakhstan. We'll have 3 weeks of twice daily visitations with him and then we'll have our day in court when the judge finalizes the adoption. If the judge grants immediate execution, we'll hopefully be home a week later for a total of 4 weeks in country. So, add this website to your "favorites" and follow along on our journey to pick up Bryce.



Now that we know we're having a boy, we were able to set up our airplane bedding this week...

50 pounds per person

We were reading through our adoption program manual this morning and came across the "Planning for your Trip" section. It states that for inter-country travel, our luggage should only weigh 50 pounds per person. We decided to look at what we already have to pack and all of our gifts, toys, and baby clothes already take up one suitcase...