Tuesday 23.10.07 Second rain delay

Another rainy, wet, dreary, cold day in Kaz. Gloomy gloomy. Not a good day to play ball…just stay inside and play. Daniel watched the same Nija Turtle movie he saw yesterday, but this time, it was in English. He was glued to the screen again, and laughed and seemed to recognize what was going on.

We did take a few minutes today and resized the baseball bat. Daniel helped Papa with the hand saw, and no one got hurt or cut. Plus we took a different approach on the stickers, it is a sand art picture that you have to peel off the sticker, and then pour the various colors of sand on the sticky part. We got about 1/3 thru our first project - a bird in the jungle. It is quiet colorful.

We did make more progress on the computer games. Daniel’s mouse skills are improving, and he has learned how to enter his name….D a n i e l.

Ok…here’s today’s photo of Daniel in his muscle man undershirt.

Daniel Jake Madison...singing and eating

Hi All

Here's a MOV...hope this one is viewable without cracking any necks out there.

Yes, that will be Daniels name on his new birth certificate.

Also...for any one wanting to post a comment, just click on the word COMMENT below each posting. You can make in anonomus or leave your name.

Bye Bye

Monday…Rain out game in Kaz’ - rescheduled for 23.10.07, NW lot

Hi All..Mama is better. She says about 90% or so. Throat a little sore and the antibotics help.

The sad news was, we woke up to rain and it was wet all day. Uck. No ball game. But we did want to show you his new bat. It’s a bit too tall for him, so Papa has to find a way to cut off about three inches of a birch branch. Engraving to follow that.

Due to the rain, we stayed inside and watched more Nija. He just laughed and laughed, and yes, sang the monkey Pucka song. Again, he laughs and laughs. We did find out today that we can also watch these movies in English. It will be interesting to see how he reacts to seeing the turtles speak English. He does know good boy, bye bye, and he can count one to five. When we left this morning, he left the room and then came back and said…have a good afternoon…In Russian…but the words are there.

We introduced Daniel to the world of computer games. And he seemed to understand the concept of clicking with a mouse, moving and dragging, and just had a ball. We think he got the highest score ever recorded in the history of Microsoft. If Bill Gates is one our blog followers, please check in.

Oh yes, just one more photo. Here we are playing memory game with the Mickey Mouse cards. He did a good job each time, and amazingly, he won every game. In fact, he had so many sets of cards, he gave a few extra pairs to Mama and Papa so at least we could say we had a few matches. We are so thankful that he has such good manners and likes to share. Plus, we are finding out more and more, he is a good hugger.

We have said this before...and we mean it each time. Thanks for all your posts. We look forward to checking the comments and finding familar names and new ones too. Thanks Janet and Jim...I know recall who you are.

Could not resist one more photo

OK People

Just one more snapshot for the day. We are off to bed and get our strength for Monday's big game. Hope you all were able to view the video. Jim and Janet...in Saudi...thanks for checking in..and do let us know who you are. We'd like to know. Thanks

OK...here's the photo from this morning....tho' it is only a Nija movie, one might think he is at the controls of some space ship or mega corporation or a Big Ten Football game. You be the judge.

And next time, we;ll post a video that is in not 90 degrees off. Sorry...this is a work in progress and we appreciate your patience and comments.

Becky and Steve

Sunday afternoon…one week anniversary

It has been a week since we arrived in Ust’. What a week! And it’s another sunny afternoon, but unfortunately, Mama still has a sore throat and is sleeping again. Hope these new local meds work…soon. Even Daniel seemed a bit sad this morning that Mama was not feeling good. They just blew each other kisses. It was cute.

For our only visit today, we watched a DVD of Nija Turtles. It is in Russian and Daniel sure laughed a lot. We were so curious if our little energetic, non stop action, climber, jumper good boy, would even be able to sit still. And sure he enough did. He sure din’t want to be bothered with any questions from the translator…he wanted to watch the movie. It looks like each of the Nijas has a different color mask over their eyes. I know that one of them is called Rafael…but who are the others and what are their colors…please!!!

We’re going to try a MOV file again. It is about a monkey and ends with a line about the monkey going Boop Ka. Yes, that in Russia is the same for all five year old…poo poo. Daniel laughs every time and so do we.

Hopefully our Monday update will include a healthy Mama for starters. We have a big baseball game planned on the SW lot of the orphanage. We have that globe ball and Papa did find a good size branch of a birch tree. It’s perfect for Daniel and we are sure he’ll be hitting ‘em over the fences. No exercise program needed for his parents; just the one of trying to keep up with him.

Well, just in case the MOV is too big, here’s a photo from our Sunday visit. We sure do enjoy all your comments and prayers and support. And yes, NAP…COL and Max will be awesome in 2008…you and MRR will be showing him a lot of stuff. And vice versa too NAP…lookout!!!

Bathed and Cleaned and a bit colder

This morning Mama woke up with a sore throat and little tired. She fought it off for most of the day and did pretty good during our only visit, but after getting back home to Shiny River, she is sleeping and fighting it off. So this post will actually be going out Sunday AM, Kaz’ time. (It is now Sunday, 7AM. Mama still has sore throat. Fortunately we have the name of an antibotic that we can get at the drug store this morning. Hopefully this will clear it up).

We spent a good portion of the morning looking for a clock radio and a plastic baseball bat. Alas, no luck despite trying about five places. Alas alas, Mama did find a bunch more puzzles, Nija Turtles, Memory Cards, and the like. We are sure trying to help the local economy.

We were successful in buying a clock radio at Daniel’s Supermarket. It is a couple o’ three blocks from here and the grocery store has a lot of good items…juices, fruits, soups, vodka, cheese, vodka, and more vodka. We purchased the clock radio in a store in the basement of Daniels, all by ourselves. The only statement we understood from the salesperson was six months. Apparently that is our warranty period. The hotel does not provide clock radios; so now we can tell the time in dark (and these room are nice and dark and quiet) plus listen to some local talk shows, local music, and even a couple of English stations too.

OK…getting back to that Baseball bat, although we never did find one, Daniel did - on the playground. He found a two foot long stick and started swinging like a major leaguer. While they weren’t all home run caliber, he sure kept his focus on the ball and was determined to do well each time. He now knows what “good boy” means. We doing better with some basic Russian and he is progressing on the English.

And oh yes, the weather sure turned a bit colder today. This morning Papa was out in a typical October attire for a Michiganer - a short sleeve polo shirt. But not for our visit in the afternoon as the temperature must have dropped about 20 degrees from the morning.

And oh yes (again) Daniel was bathed and clean today. We also found out he is ticklish. That will surely mean lots of fun back home in America.

CLOSING COMMENT...we are unable to post a photo, something is amiss with the Internet or our Blogspot. We will try again later. WE PROMISE!!!

Friday update...one week since we left

Another warm day here...shorts would be great to wear if we had any. Now we know we shouldda brought more toys and puzzles and the like. Just hope there ain't no Siberia winds heading this way. Hey, that reminds us...here's a map of Kazakhstan. Note that we are in the NE part of the country in Oskemen (Kazakh' name) or Ust-Kamenogorsk in Russian. We are about 200 miles from Mongolia, China and Russia.

For all those family and friends and new adoptive family friends, you all know what a process it has been for us...letters of recommendations (thanks Jacque, Diann, and Tom) way back in January, then a home study, a collection of assorted other papers for our dossier, and then just a few weeks ago, our Letter of Invitation. And then, the travel time and wear and tear on us to get here. Well.....it was worth all that and more. He is a great kid and we are honored to add him to our family. We are so blessed and extend our thanks and hugs and handshakes to all that have helped us along the way. We can hardly wait for you to meet Daniel.

Saturday morning is bath day at the orphanage, so we will miss our morning visit. The routine is very important and they have a set schedule. we sure will be missing him a lot tomorrow, yet also happy he will be clean when we see him in the afternoon. Taking a bath once a week sure reminds us of being young kids...tho' we just can't understand how our parents could stand the BO of four kids under toes and under lots of dirt too. As to how long ago that was...we are not going to give specific dates nor range of years. Needless to say, the majority of our blogspot viewers can also remember those days as well - especially at family gatherings when we all sit around and try to recall names of pets, neighbors, teachers, and the like.

This latest photo was taken with the timer on our camera. Papa had to run back to the couch to join Mama and Daniel. He sure loves to be photographed, and loves to see the pictures on our digital camera. A shout-out here to Ashley and Ryan for encouraging us years ago to get with the 21st Century and go digital. Sure glad we did.

Good to hear from NYC and Northern Michigan bloggers...soon Kentucky perhaps and Southern Illinois.

Bye bye...we are going to bed...nearly 9 pm here and we are pooped. Will be shopping and sight seeing with our driver and translator in the morning. Gotta get more puzzles and a baseball bat and.........