Travel Update

The current plan is for me to leave for Kazakhstan on Dec. 5th, arriving in KyzylOrda Dec. 7th. I'll then take Ethan to Almaty on around Dec. 9th or 10th, and spend the next week there. We hopefully will fly home around Dec. 16th. I'll be traveling with Christy, the other mom, and Mark will stay home for this trip. But of course all this is subject to change.....

Photos of Ethan

Below is a link to 13 more photos of Ethan. It's a smaller album than the previous link. No need to register -- just click on the yellow 'view slideshow' button. (Note that the link address for the photos may go off the page in your viewer)
http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLandingSignin.jsp?Uc=hmeuuf2.14huegoe&Uy=-mxwnca&Upost_signin=Slideshow.jsp%3Fmode%3Dfromshare&Ux=0&UV=680243886261_49953381710

Home Part I

We arrived back in Boston safe and sound today. There are even still a few leaves still left on the trees.

Leaving

We leave for the KyzylOrda airport in a few minutes. First we fly to Almaty, then from Almaty to Frankfurt Germany, then back to Boston. That is if they don't change our flight again....

Ethan took every large stuffed animal in the room today, made a big pile of them, and jumped on top of them. Then, he hid underneath, and we had to find him. He put some of them to sleep, with blanket and bottle. We're not sure how much he understands that we'll be gone for a while, but our translater offered to visit him and show him our pictures again a couple of times while we're gone. (Thanks Juldize!)

When we were leaving, he gave me a big kiss on the mouth. Very sweet! And then he waved good by, and said "by, by, see you tomollow!" (that's what we usually say to him (except with r's and not l's of course). I don't think he understands what it means yet, just something you say when you leave -- at least I hope!)

Wish us luck on our long trip home.

Court Date

Today we went before court to get approval to adopt our children. We were in a tiny room, with a very large judge (width-wise, not height-wise). We went in with the other American couple who are here, our translator, our coordinator, a representative from the orphanage, and two people who we think were lawyers representing the children. The judge asked us a few questions, such as why we wanted to adopt from Kazakhstan, if we were going to be able to take care of the children, and then he wanted to see pictures of our homes. Then we went out of the room briefly, and came back in and he told us he had approved our adoption. Yeah!!!

Now, by Kazakh law, there is a mandatory 15 day waiting period, so we are all going to go home to the US. The other mom, Christy, and I will come back in a couple of weeks to finish the paperwork. If everything goes ok with our flights this weekend, we'll be home late Sunday night.

The reality of Ethan being our son started to sink in around 10 minutes after court. I am very, very excited. Can't wait to bring him home! Can't wait to have everyone meet him.

Balala (children)

If everything goes well (please, please), we're scheduled to be home late Sunday night. We had a lot of trouble getting flights out of here, and didn't really sleep last night talking with our travel agent back home (who is exactly 12 hours time difference from us). We're hoping everything will go smoothly, and even if it does, we're going to be traveling 30-40 hours to get home counting layovers.

Today Ethan was a complete sweety. He is definitely an amazing kid. Not that we're biased, or anything. He wanted to know if we had a television in America (yes). We also went over the little book I made for him about going to America again with the translator, and apparently after asking if mamma and pappa had made the book for him, he complemented me on the crayon drawings. (Stick figures rule!)

We're starting to be able to communicate with him a little better, with his few English words and our few Kazakh words. We learned that when Tatianna and Ethan scream "ba-la-la" at the other kids, they are just yelling "children!" (and not nah-nah-nah, which is sort of what it sounded like).

Tomorrow morning is our court date. Please wish us luck.

Dinosaurs

We were told yesterday that our court date will be Friday morning. Yeah! That means we might actually make it home this weekend.

I made a small book for Ethan trying to explain that mamma and pappa were going to fly back to America, but that they would be back to pick him up and bring him home after that. We are telling him that we need to buy clothes and toys for him (which is true!). It seems pretty rough on the kids to have to wait so long to leave, but such are the rules here.

The other day there was a mix-up, and they brought Ethan and Tatianna to the room in the morning, but we weren't scheduled to get there until the afternoon. Apparently they were both pretty upset when we didn't show up, and were crying and worried that their mommas and poppas weren't coming back for them. We really couldn't explain it to them, both for language as well as conceptual reasons.

Yesterday we brought Ethan some dinosaurs, and he learned to say the word in English. He likes playing little games with them. Amazing how some interests really transcend cultures.

I don't seem to be able to access my email account right now. Hopefully later.