Thursday PM...what a ride we are on

Steve sure enjoyed the meal last night at the Kaz' restaurant...Becky, so so. It was a traditional Kaz' meals...lots of meats and potatoes. Fresh tomatoes and cucumbers and juice, and some great rolls. Plus raisins, apricots, and peanuts. We are having rolls and peanut butter and soup for dinner.

We are sure on a roller coaster ride of emotions. After just four days of visits, we are ready to take Daniel home tonight. Alas,Kaz' rules require us to visit for 15 days, then we go to court, and ask to adopt Daniel. After that approval, there is more paperwork and procedures to be done. That could take a month, sometimes less. We will not know until the court hearing. We have to prepare a speech for the courts, and have that translated into Kaz'. Plus they will ask us questions, which we also need to prepare for.

This morning we got a tour of the orphanage. There are about 12 kids in his room, ten boys and two girls. Looks like they are in the 3 to 5 year old group. We met the social worker, and two care givers, including Mama Katcha. All are very nice, and they were able to tell us what a good boy Daniel is. They showed us some of his art work. He has talent, honest!! Each child has their own bed, and a place in the bathroom for their toothbrushes and towels. Very organized. Very clean facility.

This afternoon before our visit, Daniel got chocolate ice cream for his afternoon snack. It sure seemed to give him an extra energy boost. Kick ball, basketball (IU prospect for sure JJ), monkey bars, picking up stuff off the ground, and the like. We hope he sleeps well tonite, we know we will and can hardly wait to get back there for our morning two hour visit. We did manage to buy some more puzzles and games this afternoon, and a couple of new shirts.

OK...we had hoped to send a video tonite...but it is 25Mb. So here's our photo from this afternoon. It was about 70 degrees here, so Daniel din't have to wear that black hat. From our biased prespective, sure looks like he has some of those good Potts traits.

Oh, did we mention yet...he has big brown eyes and he's a lefty with the pencil and crayon, and a righty when it comes to frisbee and BB. So that means there will be two leftys at home now...Steve will be outnumbered and outsmarted for years to come

Thanks for all the posts. They mean a lot to us. We will be glad to get home to America, but we know now that it will be very hard to say goodbye and assure him that we will back. We asked Daniel who were his best friends in his group, and he answered...
Mama and Papa.....that says it all!

Thursday in Kaz'

Hi All

Thanks a bunch everyone...we have heard from the NW and WI and MI and all over in the last day. We can not tell you all how much we appreciate your notes.

Later today we will try to post a video that we took this morning. Our camera has the option to take a video, so we will attempt to post it here in a few hours.

Off for our 4-5 afternoon visit. Looks like the bag 'o goodies has the globe ball, a puzzle, silly putty, balloons, and a fruit snack from our Kaz' meal last night.

Stay tuned...love and hugs to all!!!

Stickers and bonding and kick ball,,,

One quick item before today's update....traffic in Oskemen is amazing. Our driver sure knows his way around, and we are grateful to have him at the right wheel. In fact, the driving wheel is on the right side of the car, so Steve sits up front on the left side, and sees everything without having to drive. Tonite on the way home after our first authentic Kazakh meal, we saw an accident right in front of us. We never envisioned this Kaz' adventure would involve worser traffic than the Loop or worser drivers than those Illinois morons we compete against everyday.

Stickers started off our morning visit - animals and reptiles. After that we tackled a 160 piece puzzle...together. Daniel sure was determined to find each piece and get 'em all to fit. We did in fact manage to complete putting it together, tho' we must attempt, it took us all day. Yet, after all that effort and focus, he sure enjoyed tearing it apart and putting back in the box. We sure hope his good manners and tidiness continue for years to come.

Our bonding time together is going well. We are trying to understand some of the basic words, yet this Kaz'/Russian language is very difficult. We do know that spaSIba means Thank You...and we try to say that as often as we can. We did meet an American in the hotel who is from Arkansas and now lives in Astana, the capital city of Kaz'. He knows the Clintons and shared some interesting comments about them, Walmart, and the like.

We have confirmed that Daniel definitely loves kick ball, and he sure can kick it a piece. He had us both worn out chasing it back and forth. The weather is mild and the leaves have all turned and fallen. As shown above, Daniel loved laying in a pile of leaves with his new kick ball. It's a globe ball and shows the USA and Kazakhstan, and one HUGE big airplane.

And hey, a shout out here to Michael Ross...no need to be concerned about losing your leave-laying talent. I only got in the leaves once today, and Daniel just posed for this photo for a moment or three. Must have been nearly ten years ago that Uncle Steve got to bury Mike in a pile of leaves and leave (no pun intended, honest) him there for an hour or more. No, I din't leave him, but I did have to check in on the little tike every five minutes or so to make sure he was still in that big pile and still alive. Remember that MRR??

Thanks a bunch for all the postings .... it is great to hear from you, and from what we are reading, the word is getting out to more of Indiana, and other parts of the Heartland. Including Steve's college friends from IPT. Thanks

Quick picture from earlier today

Now a few words to accompany this photo from Tuesday. Daniel, and all kids in Kaz', love to eat bananas. They are a special treat here, and are priced about the same as they are back home.

And for those viewers with a keen eye, yes - that is a puzzle there in the background. He is so focused on putting 'em together.

Tuesday..day two....Stickers and bubbles and hugs

Today we took Daniel a book of stickers - all types of stickers that he had to peel off and placeover the correct silhoutte. He loves cars and big trucks and airplanes, and he was able to place them all in the correct locations. What we originally thought would be just one set of stickers, cars, turned into two more sets. Heloves stickers. We spent over an hour with airplanes, and big trunks, and "machinaca", AKA in America as cars.

He also enjoyed the bottle of blow bubbles. He made lots of bubbles and giggled a lot when he caught them or smashed 'emwith his hands. we also played kick ball and catch with a bouncy ball. He loved playing with the ball and was proud of his abilities to kick and catch. He did very good and never seemed to run out of energy.

We did take a snack for him and us - a banana. They are a special treat here, and many of our new adoptivefamily friends recommended that we take some to the orphanage. He loved that too. And we loved getting a couple of hugs when weleft him each time today.

Oh yes, there at the top...that's our first photo of the three of us. Daniel in fact says "we" when he looks at the pictures of the three of us.

Editor's note....fortunately I had a chance us some of this blogspot stuff from America...where it all appeared in English. Yet, now all I see are Kazakh letters. The format is the same, but the words sure aren't. If there are any savy world travelers reading this, please let us know if we can turn the English back on. TIA

Our first visit to the Orphanage

Monday evening here in Oskemen, Kazakhstan. What a day...first we had some documents notarized, then to a government agency, and then finally to the orphanage to meet the director and were introduced to three boys.

Then we went back in the afternoon to visit one on one with Daniel. He is five and has lots of energy and seems very active, polite, and courteous. Tho' we were not speaking Russian, nor was he understanding English, we were able to communicate - thanks in big part to our translator, Ilena. We played frisbee and climbed up and down the playground equipment. Daniel was very proud of his ability to climb up and around and over and jump...wore us out just watching him....LOL LOL.

We also sat down and looked at book that had some pictures. It was amazing how he came up with a story for each one....the bear in the cage, the people left at the dock by the big boat, and the like. Starting on Tuesday, we will be visiting with him twice a day...10-12 in the AM, and then 4-5 in the afternoon. This is our schedule for each day, except Sunday...that is only one morning visit.

We are very excited to have found Daniel and look forward to the days and weeks ahead to see him and bond more and more everyday.

Thanks for all your posts and prayers.

Becky and Steve.....pinching ourselves that in Kaz' we can.

Sunday Noon in Oskemen...aka Ust

After four airport...Ohare...Frankfurt....Almaty....Oskemen....We have arrived.

We made it without a hitch...and without much sleep either...probably like 10 hours total between us for the three days. We are still alive and kicking...We are at Shiny River...very nice hotel. Not the Isrtsych as we originally planned.

Beautiful day...fall leaves...a lot Chicago and the Heartland should be at this time of year.

Becky and Steve