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.

The Real Kazakhstan

We have been wanting to explore the culture of Kazakhstan, not only for our own edification, but also so we can share it with the children later. Outside of the airport, it has been hard to find. Most of the commerical shops deal in Russian items, given the strong Russian influence that was transplanted here during the Soviet era. Today, however, was a major breakthrough. We had lunch at a traditional Kazakh restaurant and went to a shop next door afterwards.

Kazakh food is largely meat based. The meal started with some soft bread and fried dough, the latter of which Blythe happily snarfed down, even though she thought it could really use powdered sugar and cinnamon. She managed to put away several of them though, so apparently the lack of sweetener was not a big drawback. Blythe had a bony dark fish, breaded and sauteed with vegetables. We could not identify the fish, but it was quite tasty. Seth had a breaded lamb steak with rice (also tasty). We also had some Kazakh tea with milk (tepid, but good) and Seth indulged in some traditional Kazakh mare's milk. It has the consistency of cream and the taste of sour milk with a zing to it. It may have been sour; how can we tell? Lauren and Denara had chicken dishes that did not look too heavy.

The restaurant had several private dining areas, and as the place was completely empty, we took pictures in a few of them. It reminded Seth of a Moroccan place that used to be in center city Philadelphia called "Marrakesh". The other Kaufmans will know what we're talking about. Everyone else probably won't, so tough.

Souveneir shopping in the Kazakh store was fun, and Blythe was excited to finally find a comfortable wool hat that was also practical and stylish. The traditional men's hats were much more stylized and were not very flattering on Seth, so he'll be going home with a Kazakh soccer shirt instead.

We had fun with the kids this morning, as always. However, there appears to be some wisdom behind limiting the required bonding period to 2 weeks, which we may not have appreciated before. The children are quite comfortable with us now. This is great, but the flipside is that the novelty has worn off. You may have noticed that almost all of our indoor pictures are in the same small room. This is (for lack of a better term) the bonding room. It's about 8' x 10', and on the weekends when the indoor playground is closed, it's all we've got. Cram 3 adults and 3 kids in there for 3 weeks, and the boredom becomes palpable. When we can run around outside things are good. Inside the kids are wild and insolent, and we can't say that we blame them. This is an artificial situation which has now served its purpose, and we are all anxious just to take our kids home.

And we're back online - did you miss us?

Due to some required traveling and technical difficulties, we have been offline for 4 days. We are sorry to have broken our daily blogging streak, but we'll try to catch everyone up.

We have now officially completed our 14 day bonding period! And it only took 17 days! June 18th was a typical day at the orphanage: half the time inside and half outside. Alina has become quite interested in pictures of home. We think we will be giving them this photo album when we leave.

June 19th we were at the orphanage in the morning and flew to Almaty in the afternoon. Highlights: Alina braided Blythe's hair (which is the first Seth has ever seen it braided); the bubble gun had its last hurrah and was laid to rest (thank heavens!); standard indoor/ outdoor spasticity. We informed the children we would be gone for a day to Almaty, but would be back soon. Lauren was planning to be there in our absence and we figured she could reassure them if necessary.

We have never expereinced air turbulence like that in the immediate airspace over Ust-Kamenogorsk and Almaty. We have now taken this 90 minute plane ride 3 times, and each time we were sure we would loose our lunch. Avoid this trip if you can.

We arrived in Almaty on the afternoon of the 19th and were taken to what appeared to be a very upscale hotel. As it turned out, the Hotel Kazakhstan was one of the low points of our visit. Picture a 25 story high-rise building, in the middle of a congested city in the throws of a summer heat wave. Now imagine that you are escorted to a room little bigger than a shoe box, where you realize the entire building has no air conditioning. We slept with our window and door wide open, hoping in vain for even the mildest breeze. And when we say "slept", we mean "layed in bed for 8 hours, listening to the wild Almaty nightlife, and actually sleeping for maybe 30 minutes". Complementary breakfast consisted of corn flakes in piping hot sour milk and yesterday's dinner rolls fried to disguise them as french toast. Accompanying this was coffee with a compliment of supposed dairy product that currdled immediately upon mixing (not sure what it really was; given the cultural surroundings it most likely was mayonaise). Thoroughly awful hotel, but at least it was expensive. The only redeeming quality was the view from our room. Note the snow capped mountains to the west of the city. Breathtaking, really. Seth wished he had time to explore, but we had a more exciting day planned at the U.S. Embassy!

We felt very patriotic listening to the musak rendition of "America the Beautiful" (over and over and over), and standing under the watchful eyes of George Bush, Dick Cheyney, and Condie Rice in every room. For once in our lives we felt like true VIP's. Our coordinator Oleg cut to the front of every line saying "Don't worry; international adoption gets priority." He is cleary buddies with everyone in that building, which doesn't hurt.

Well, that was our whole morning. After that we were back on our turbulent flight to Ust-Kamenogorsk, and the Shiny River Hotel (which strangely is beginning to feel like home). And that brings us up to the present.

The most salient point about today's visit was Kostin's defiant behavior. After an hour of throwing Alina's necklace beads and slamming doors, we wondered what had happened to giggly, happy Kostin. Our suspicions were confirmed when we sat him down to talk, and with a face that looked as if it was on the verge of tears, he told us that we have to come visit EVERY day. There is no getting around it; when we leave at the end of the week Kostin is going to take it very badly. We did our best to explain to him we are going away to get everything ready, and that soon he will come to live with mommy and daddy forever. There is alot of jealousy that gets stirred up by other kids in the orphanage who are not being adopted, and we suspect some of the other children may have told him we were never coming back for him. We assured him that we love him and that no matter what anyone says, we are going to take him home. Our saving grace is that he will be with Alina who seems to have a much better grasp of what is to come.

Blythe gave the same explanation to Alina that we would be going away for a month to get everything ready for them to come live with us, including her bedroom. She then piped up and told us Kostin will get the bottom bunk and she gets the top. We were already planning this based on her gymnastic skills. At the end of Blythe's detailed explanation, we asked Alina if she had any questions. She immediately asked how to say "I need the bathroom" in English. After we told her, she danced around the room singing "I need bathroom! I need bathroom!" Blythe has been teaching her English through repetition, and she clearly feels this is the most important English phrase to know. We would agree.

Meet Alina

The true Alina was shining through brighter than ever today. Back in the indoor playground, she appeared to be in her element when she and Seth began kicking a ball back and forth accross the room. Although the ball was 4 feet in diameter (and at one point knocked her over) she had impeccable form which was apparent to eveyone as she dribbled the ball. We immediately began talking about the possibility of her playing football (soccer). When asked if she wanted to play in the states, she emphatically shouted "Da! da!" Kostin piped up that he wanted to play as well after demonstrating his somewhat awkward form. Blythe had Denara tell Alina she was a very athletic girl and that mama is proud of her, to which she replied "I'm not a girl, I'm a boy!" Alina does seem to have an amazing blend of being the girly girl with a fashionable purse and being extremely athletic and agile in most physical activities. The way sports leagues fill up in West Hartford, it's a good thing we found this out early. We do feel that this is the true Alina opening up to us. On our first day here Kostin was just as giggly as he is now, but Alina was quite shy and wary. Now she seems truly at ease being spun through the air by daddy. What a difference 2 weeks make!

Have we mentioned the giant pillow barrel in the indoor playground? We didn't get alot of pictures yesterday, but this has got to be the most popular item in there. It's quite versatile. You can stand it on end, stuff it full of children, and then put a cap on it and listen to them giggle non-stop. Alternatively, you can lay it on its side, stuff it full of children, and roll it accross the room (again with the associated giggling).

It was actually quite chilly outside today. We spent most of the time in the indoor playground (primarily tickling the children - this really is their favorite pasttime). When we did go outside the kids were in sweaters! The automated bubble gun made another appearance today, though the other children on the playground seemed to take it stride this time. How quickly new toys become passe.

We have to sign off a little early again tonight. Our hotel internet was down all afternoon, but we did want to make sure we got this post out before the end of the day. We finish bonding in 2 days, and we really can't believe how fast the time has gone. More again tomorrow.

Indoor Playground

We had been wondering what they do with all these kids in the winter, when it gets to be -40C (according to Denara, our interpreter). Today we found out when we were allowed to play in the indoor playground. This was actually quite impressive. We're not sure that we will be able to compete with this at our house. However, we imagine that this room is unually filled with 50 screaming kids, so in that respect, We're sure our playroom at home is an improvement.



Unfortunately, our camera battery died before we could many more pictures. They did have some large stuffed blocks (about 3 feet high) in various shapes. They also had a large stuffed barrel thing that the kids would climb inside so we could spin them around. Lots of fun. Kostin and Alina also performed a short piano duet. Not short enough, really, but it's nice to know they have some musical inclination.



Lauren also brought a doctor playkit for Tanishka today. Kostin seemed to take to it, after Tanishka had finished giving her Teddy Bear an enima. He seemd more fastenated with the stethascope which was fine by us. Alina gave Blythe a sick visit exam with the axillary thermometer, the otoscope, and the reflex hammer. Ultimately she let Blythe go with a little medication box that was labelled "glucose". She knows her mama well.




Blythe also brought a "painting by numbers" kit for Alina. She spent a little time with it, but overall she seems to enjoy free-form much more. We think that's okay, given that she really is pretty good at it.



So today is Monday, and everything is closed in Kazakhstan. We think this is the secular day of rest held over from the Soviet era. It doesn't seem to have any Muslim significance. The point is that we don't have much more to report today, so we will sign off early. Hope everyone is doing well back home.

Happy Father's Day from KазаKстан!

A very happy Father's Day to everyone back home. They do not have such a thing in Kazakhstan, but we celebrated it all the same. We have now developed a chant for learning English phrases. Seth & Kostin stomped around the playground singing "I am happy!" Subsequent verses include "I am hungry", "I am thirsty", and the ever popular "I am tired". As long as Kostin thinks it's a game he is happy to play along. Alina is making a real effort and is improving. We have her recite 5 English words at each session, and a little bribery with carbonated water never hurts. Kostin got to playing with his clay again, which opened the opportunity for Blythe to teach English names for colors. He liked saying "green, blue, red, orange, yellow, white". This may be just the inroad we have been looking for with him.

All of the children have taken a turn feeling sick. It is an orphanage, afterall, so germs spread like..... the plague. Kostin was first - we edited out the pictures with his nose running. Lauren's daughter Tanishka was next (and is still not allowed to go outside). Alina said she felt stuffed up today, although that didn't seem to curb her energy level. She has taken to shooting pictures with Lauren's camera (we're too uptight to let her use ours) and she seems to have a good eye for image composition.




We did alot of painting again today. Kostin and Seth played a fun game where Seth would put together several 20 piece puzzles Lauren had brought, then Kostin would destroy them. He is very talented. Alina broke out half way through the session for spa time (weekly bathing here at the orphanage). We didn't want to prevent that. As some of you have already been wondering, we are not looking forward to leaving the children in a couple of weeks. Once we have our mandatory court appearance on June 26th, we will head home the next day. The kids have to wait until their paperwork goes through and they get issued passports. They will be escorted by a chaperone to Hartford, probably at the beginning of August. So we think Alina will understand (though she will be sad). Kostin was crying for his papa the other day (according to the caretakers) so we don't think he'll handle it well. We plan to make a calendar with some pictures we have taken so they can count down the days until we see them again.














We will miss them of course, but neither of us are happy to be away from Asher for so long. Last night we spent an hour watching home videos on our camcorder so we could remember what he sounds like. As bad as it sounds, you start to forget stuff when you're away for so long. Kind of creepy.


This afternoon our driver took us to a place about 20 minutes outside the city to have lunch. This was in the hills above a hydroelectric dam on the Irtush River that widened it out to a lake for as far as we could see. We noted quite a few large boats, so we're guessing the lake went on for 10's of miles. We had lunch at a riverside place (on a barge, actually). A nice light fish meal with rice, and Seth indulged in a couple of beers.














Overall, a very lovely and relaxing afternoon. On the way home Denara took us to a bookstore where she said they had books in English. On examing the half of one row on one shelf that defined the English section, we realized this was probably the advanced reading list for university students studying English (of which Denara is one). Seth was out of reading material, so it looks like sci-fi will give way to George Eliot, Arthur Conan-Doyle, and Robert Louis Stevenson for now.

Good Food at Last

Today we jump right to the end to tell you we have finally found a place to eat with good food. Our friend Lauren found a Georgian restaurant (the Russian kind; not the kind with ribs and fritters) that looks like the authentic facade of "Olive Garden". But that's where the similarities end. The specialty seemed to be a mixed grille, but Blythe managed to stumble upon a white fish baked with cheese and butter surrounded by..... fresh raw vegetables! And even a leaf of lettuce! (Garnish; not meant for consumption.)

We had to wait a long time for the food, but it was the kind of place where you sit outside sipping your drinks all afternoon without anywhere you have to be for hours. You know, the kind of place you see in the movies. We sat in a stone grotto with a light breeze blowing, and overlooked the beautiful Irtush River. We later found out the water is heavily polluted, but it didn't spoil the ambience.

Anyhoo, let's back up about four hours. Blythe brought Alina a sparkly purse, glittery nail polish, and floral hair clips to match - essentials for any girly girl (which was the only description we were given of her prior to our arrival). After Mama did Alina's nails, Alina went on to share the wealth with Tanishka. The two of them seemed quite at ease with the whole makeover thing.

More clay for Kostin. While we were taking pictures of the girls, he seemed to have alot of fun playing with the containers the clay came in. He spent alot of time talking with them and cuddling them. Ultimately he decided the orange container was dirty and it had to sit in the corner as punishment. Interesting.

The day ended with an impromtu game of hide and seek. Not all that technically challenging in a 12x14 room, but the kids seemed thrilled. They really didn't hide anywhere, but just sat behind a desk chair clutching each other and giggling furiously whenever we looked at them. This is the less physically tortuous version of hide and seek.


We want to thank everyone for the prayers and good thoughts which have payed off. We got our court date moved up and procured seats on a flight that has been booked solid for days. Well done everyone! More tomorrow.