Better Than We Ever Expected

We've been meaning to update the blog ever since Saturday when the kids got here, but (as you might imagine) it's been hard to find a free moment. Now that they have been here a few days, we are happy to report (once again) that these kids are great!!

We imagine that most people in our situation would be standing at the arrival area when the kids got in with colorful sign, balloons, etc. Once again, however, we have underwhelmed ourselves. The kids flew into Hartford Saturday night with their escort at 7:30. Asher was asleep, so Blythe had to stay home while Seth rushed off to get them. He arrived a few minutes early, surprised to find the kids had gotten in 20 minutes before and had been standing around with their escort who clearly looked worried that he had landed at the wrong airport. Aren't we great parents? As bedraggled as the kids looked, they were overjoyed. We figured most people are overjoyed when they realize their 36 hours of flying have come to an end, but we were hoping the excitement was genuine. Here they are just loaded into car at the airport.

Their escort, Oleg, told us it was an interesting trip. Honestly, his services were expensive but he clearly earns every penny: a 7 hour layover in Frankfurt with nothing to do followed by a mad 2 hour dash in Philadelphia during which time they had to get through customs and find their way to the domestic terminal before making their final flight. In Philly the customs officer looked at his escort documents, visas, etc, then had to ask the officer next to him if this was for real. That must have taken some fancy maneuvering to get past the rookie customs officer in time for the last flight.

When Seth pulled into the driveway, Blythe was waiting on the front step with balloons. The kids were shrieking with joy (which really made her day). We got them in and fed, gave them a bath, and then of course hoped that they would actually sleep. Miraculously, they did! Blythe's strategy of just putting them in the bedroom, shutting the door, and ignoring all thuds, crashes, and giggles that followed worked pretty well - they were asleep in half an hour.

Sunday was exhausting. However, we think we did pretty well. We managed to take all the kids to Stride Rite and get them outfitted with foot wear (a dire essential really, as the shoes we had bought Kostin in Kazakhstan were too small and had actually started to cut into his heels!) The kids loved the new swing set Blythe had ordered, and ran around like crazy people most of the day. Alina was more helpful than we could have hoped for. She took Asher in and out of his car seat, cleaned the kitchen after each meal, and helped Seth make a lasagna for dinner! Mind you, they still don't speak a work of English, and we know about 6 words in Russian. We have all become quite proficient in the international language of gesticulation.

Asher is the one having the hardest time adjusting. He is fairly jealous of having to share his toys and our attention. By the end of Sunday, however, both boys were fast asleep on Seth's lap watching "Cars". We don't think it will be long before Asher won't remember what it was like without his brother and sister. We should mention, however, it was poignant to get up the next morning and find Asher in his crib smiling as if the last 24 hours had just been a bad dream, only to be horror stricken when smiling Kostin came bounding in behind us to play with his little brother.

Today Seth came home to find half the kids from the neighborhood playing in our back yard. These kids are quite the social attraction for the time being. They're having a great time, and we can't get over how well they are fitting in. We get lots of hugs and kisses every day, so we think we're off to a great start.

Psych Out

So, for those of you who may be wondering.... the kids have not arrived yet. Not to worry! They will be here on Saturday (August 9th). Our escort had some conflicts, but no red tape entanglements. As you can imagine, we have been flat out trying to get everything ready. Once they arrive (and we get some pictures) we will post again. Sorry we didn't update this earlier!

Waiting Period Ends

So, better late than never with good news. We just heard from our coordinator today that the waiting period officially ended without any protests. If all goes according to plan, we'll be welcoming Alina and Kostin home on August 4th. Their rooms are all ready for them, though at the moment they are filled with all of our stuff while our master bedroom renovation comes to a close. The race is on to get ourselves moved out of there before the kids have to move in. Otherwise we might be sleeping in the basement for a few nights (at least it's cool down there). We're also in the process of having the yard fenced in, which we thought would be a good idea with 2 children with whom we cannot yet fully communicate.

We haven't posted since leaving the Almaty airport, so we should bring everyone up to date. First of all, Seth really wanted to get a decent picture of the mountains that loom over Almaty. He didn't, really, but this is the best he got.

Once we got home, we headed off the next morning to go get Asher at his Grammy's. We should say that we almost didn't recognize him as he had grown up so much! He was very clingy the first couple weeks we were back, and it has taken him some time to learn to trust us again. We were afraid that after a month away he might not recognize us, but this scenario was even more heart breaking. We think he'll be pretty excited to have his brother and sister here. He's at that phase when he is very intrigued by older children.

Asher did have a very good time with Grammy up on the farm in Brookfield, Massachusetts. The day we picked him up, he took us on a tour of the farm. He can't wait to show Alina and Kostin the horses, donkeys, goats, and roosters! You can see he learned a great deal in this video clip.

Anyway, we're just very excited to share today's good news. Pretty soon we'll be posting pictures of the 5 of us together, so stay tuned....

Greetings from Almaty International Airport

Well, free WiFi in the airport, so we have a few minutes to blog. Our court appearance yesterday was brief and successful. We were overjoyed (as can be expected). Afterwards we said goodbye to our friend Lauren, and to Dan & Allison with whom we have become very close. We flew back to Almaty last night, and no sooner had we reached the tarmac when the skies opened up with a monsoon like storm that lasted over an hour. Most folks were afraid to leave the aircraft; we were 2 of 6 people that bolted for the transfer bus, then sat watching the deluge coming down and waiting for the rest of the passengers.

After another excruciating night in a different really expensive but uncomfortable Almaty hotel, we are on our way this morning. We will be back in Hartford Friday afternoon, and we will of course continue to periodically update the blog with the adoption process. Everyone say their prayers as we wait until July 14th. That is the point at which the objection period ends, and after that no dark horse family members can appear to object to our adoption. We're feeling very optimistic, but we will still breathe a big sigh of relief when the kids arrive in the U.S. (likely the beginning of August). Thanks to everyone for following along. We'll see you stateside.

Досвидание Alina & Kostin

Today was our last day at the orphanage. We brought presents for the kids to give to their care givers. We found out a few more crucial things about the kids. For instance, Alina's favorite ice cream is vanilla, and Kostin likes chocolate. Blythe was concerned she would not have the right kind of foods in the house when the kids arrive, so she asked Alina what her tastes are. Alina seemed very happy to be asked and explained she likes meat, cooked vegetables (never raw), but does not like soup. Blythe was able to get several more pictures of the bedrooms and bathrooms, as the kids might enjoy looking back at their old home. Kostin's room had 14 beds in it. His care giver was emphatic that we take a picture of the lunch spread as well. She seemed very proud of their set up there.

The bathroom is very orderly like most things in the orphanage. Short sinks and toilets (sans seats and toilet paper). Each child gets a hook for their towel and washcloth. Blythe already has several ideas on how to whip our house into shape. For those of you who do not know, Blythe LOVES to have things organized and systematic.

As you might imagine, goodbye was not easy. The kids spent the 2 hours in the standard fashion (ie: running around like crazy people). At the end, though, Kostin became very clingy. This was bittersweet. He kept giving us hugs and saying "mama & papa" over and over. Alina has a better handle on things, but she is also sad. We feel like the sooner we go, the sooner the kids come for good. We also feel confident that all will go smoothly. However, we hate to leave them, and we won't really rest easy until they arrive in Hartford. There is a 2 weeks appeal window after the court hearing for family members to challenge the court decision if they desire. No family members have shown up in over a year, but it doesn't mean we aren't nervous!

We are off to Almaty tomorrow afternoon when the hearing is over. We will blog if we can. Otherwise we'll update everyone from West Hartford! We leave you with the peaceful image of fly fishing on the Irtysh River (taken during Seth's last walk around town).

Court Prep

Our friends Allison and Dan lent us their video player and DVD's last night. Ah, to veg out in front of mindless entertainment! It's like we've been going through withdrawal. While Seth put together the court documents (attaching pictures to our daily log) we watched Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. We picked this because Blythe didn't think she had seen it before. Ten minutes into the movie she realized this was the one with the little bugs that crawl into people's ears, and remembered this had scarred her emotionally as a child. She had nightmares all night of horrible torture, and blamed it all on the movie. Seth sat reciting all the lines by heart, though, so he was pretty happy. Blythe thought the whole thing was pretty low budge, other than the crucial 5 minute ear bug sequence when she was hiding under a pillow. The only other film that has ever frightened Blythe this much was K-19: The Widowmaker. This is the submarine movie where half the crew dies a horrible mucous sloughing death due to radiation exposure. As it turns out, Spock dies just that way at the end of Star Trek II, so she'll be needing a good psychiatrist when we get home.

Anyway - the kids. We learned something today: the only thing more frustrating that legos are cheap knock-off legos that fall apart if you look at them funny. After only a few minutes, our session regressed to the kids running around like crazy people while the adults ignored them in a vain attempt to assemble these pieces of junk. Interestingly, Alina had no interest in the pseudo-legos as she professes she is not a boy (seems to be a changing profile). Kostin tried to enjoy our lego car creations, but when they started falling apart he was back to the tea set. As a result, the pictures from today are identical to yesterday, minus Kostin's pink wife-beater tank top.

The other highlight today was flipping the dome pillow thing over so the kids could use it as a teeter-totter. Don't try this at home. Whenever we looked up from the legos kids were flying in all directions. We took immediate action by not looking up anymore.

This afternoon (after a rest) we will head over to Allison & Dan's room for an evening of movies and scrabble. They have their 3 and 5 year old sons with them, and they are adopting a beautiful baby girl. Guess that 3 is their magic number too.

Tea Party

Courtesy of Lauren, the children had a tea set to play with today. Initially, Tanishka was the only one interested. Yet when the service was used for juice and carbonated water, Kostin was the first in line for "tea", with Alina not far behind. Kostin became enamored of his tea cup and hid it between two boxes with himself on top (like a hen on an egg). We think he imagined himself to be invisible, so we kind of played along.

Blythe was on cloud 9 today as Alina was very attentive. Many hugs and many questions. She wanted to know what kind of pajamas Blythe wears to bed. We told her short pants rather than nightgowns, which is what Alina prefers as it turns out. Kostin was much more behaved today. In fairness to the children, when they can run around outside with their friends for a while they are much happier. Given they know the orphanage much better than we do, and there is really nowhere for them to get lost, we just let them do what they wanted today. After about an hour they gravitated back to us (which was comforting) and we headed inside for the tea party.

We are in the home stretch. Our court date is Thursday morning the 26th. After that we are on a plane back to Almaty that afternoon and flying back to the states the next morning. We asked our friend Laurie (who left this morning) what we can expect from the court process. She said you pretty much phase out as the entire thing is in Kazakh. Our job is to stay awake and look courteous, and speak only when spoken to. We think we can handle it.

Wish us luck!! We'll be posting on the blog for the next couple of days. We may get a chance to post on Thursday if we're lucky. Otherwise, we'll be posting sporadically once we get back to the states. With any luck, the kids will be arriving at the beginning of August and we would like to keep everyone abreast of how they're doing.