Festival of Nations

Last night was the Festival of Nations at the girls' school. They had a great time! It was really a fun event. Abbie, Lauren and I went early to set up and Quentin brought the two little ones later on. Quentin volunteered to serve one of the dishes in the food area so I had the little ones with me while Abbie and Lauren went off to explore. I really wanted to get more pictures than just these, but Reina was having a great time with "Make Mama Chase Me!" and Alina was raiding the diaper bag for crackers. By the time Quentin's hour long stint was up, I was ready for the little ones to go home=) They stuck around for just a bit longer while I did a quick look at the other booths. After they left I snuck into the gym for a peak at the Aztec dancers. They were amazing! I wish I had been able to see more of the dancers. They had some from China, Africa, Hmong, and some girls from the school did a Carpathian dance. Abbie and Lauren had a wonderful time running around with their "passports" seeing and experiencing a bit of the different cultures represented in their school.

Alina's progress

I haven't written for awhile on how Alina is progressing and where she is at now. She is, in one word, amazing! When we took her from the baby house she was very small. She couldn't stand up by herself, let alone walk or run. And I had no idea how many words she understood or if she could even speak any words (in Kazakh of course). Today she has gained the weight she needed, grown much taller, and is a very healthy little girl. She can walk and even run after her sisters. And she understands a lot of English words! She will follow simple directions, and you had better be prepared if you say the words "eat", "bath", or "shoes"! She will go running for them all=) She is even saying a few words, but only when she wants too. She will not say them when prompted, but just looks at us like we don't know what we are talking about. She manages to communicate what she wants to me just fine with hand gestures and her eyes. She has such expressive eyes.
We are seeing a pediatrician who is familiar with adopted children and have seen no need as yet to go to the International Adoption clinic here. Our caregiver has said that if she sees a need she will refer us there. Alina is on target for her age on everything but speech, but since that is very understandable given until 3 months ago all she heard was Kazakh, we are not concerned at this point. She has proven to be a very bright little girl and a quick learner. I decided to hold off on having her evaluated by the school district to see if she would qualify for any special assistance. If after she has been home for six months and her speech is not progressing I will have her evaluated and hopefully get some help with how to help her along.

Alina no longer has the tantrums when eating. I think she realizes that the food is there and plentiful. I ask her if she is done and if she shakes her head no I offer her one more bite. If she turns away then she is done, if she accepts the bite then we keep going. She is sleeping thru the night for actually about 13-14 hours. Occasionally she wakes up but will go right back to sleep. Our routine at night is a bath, then cuddling time for a bit, then I lay her down with her blankie and leave. Sometimes she babbles a bit, but mostly she just goes to sleep. We are down to one nap a day now, though she is very tired by bedtime. She really could take 2 naps a day still but it is easier on me if I can put both girls down for naps and have a couple hours to get stuff done.

Alina is doing great with her sisters. The older girls are great with her, and Reina is sharing more and more. Considering Reina is 2 I am thrilled! She still is very possessive of what she sees as strictly hers, but now will get a different toy for Alina if Alina is getting too close to "her" toy. Alina has bonded well with Quentin I think. She will now go to him and ask to be picked up if I am busy.

That's it for now!

Snow...

Things I never would have let my older children do when they were little...

Dress up

We played dress up the other day. I wanted to see if her little Kaz outfit would fit her yet. When my mom bought it we thought it would be a year or so before she could actually wear it. That was before we knew she would go thru 3 sizes of clothes in 2 months=) It fits!

Alina has also figured out where the food is stored. I keep her crackers on the bottom shelf so she can get to them easily.

Bedtime

Last night I thought I had gotten lucky and Reina had gone down to bed without getting up once. Then I started hearing loud breathing that I thought was coming from the monitor. I went down to check on Reina and this is what I found.

Everyone's fine....

I think I forgot to mention that after the tests they did on Lauren they really couldn't find anything wrong. She has been feeling fine since then, though we kept her home all day yesterday just to be sure. She missed her first day of swim lessons. Hopefully today she will be fine as well. I am thinking it was just a case of maybe not drinking enough, so we are keeping her well hydrated.

Reina has finally started really sharing with Alina. And she wants us to know it=) She will give a toy to Alina and tell me "I share Alina!" over and over. I then praise her and give her hugs and kisses which makes her really happy. It is pretty cute to watch. Yesterday I took Abbie to her yoga and swim classes while Quentin stayed home with the kids. Evidently he helped Alina to learn how to climb the slide and go down by herself. She is pretty wobbly so needs someone right there to watch and spot her. I had been reluctant to show her how to climb up because I new as soon as I did she would want to do it over and over again. Sure enough, as I am trying to get dinner ready she is climbing the slide. So I run over to spot her then run back to flip the french toast (yes, we often have breakfast for dinner=) ). I finally moved the slide into our bedroom and shut the door so I wouldn't have burnt french toast that no one would eat.

Life is never boring!

Did I ever mention that I thought that things would get back to "normal" after we finally brought Alina home and Abbie and Lauren started school? I know I have said it several times with a fond remembrance for "normal". I think I must have forgotten what "normal" actually is around here=)

I have been determined to get Reina potty trained. I was determined last week, which turned into this week, and will probably go into the next few weeks before I finally actually start trying to potty train her. Time keeps getting away from me and things happen. This last summer while the girls were in Idaho I moved Reina into a toddler bed. She has been sleeping really great in it except for waking up a few times during the night. Lauren was sharing her room with Reina, but after Reina waking her up to open the door so she could find me several times a night Lauren decided that she wanted her own room again. I don't blame her. So we moved Abbie upstairs into our "guest" room. It is now Abbie's room (and guest's when they visit=) ) and she really likes it. Lauren we moved into Abbie's space downstairs. Reina now has her own room. It was nice for about 3 nights when I could shut her door and know that she couldn't open it. I could hear her on the monitor if she woke up and needed me, but we didn't hear any little feet running into our room in the middle of the night for 3 whole nights . Then, she figured out how to open her door. Now I can't keep her in bed. I gated her in one night and she hated that. I found her asleep on her floor by the door. She had been playing in her room and must have just gotten sleepy and layed down=) So we are back to hearing the little feet at night and trying to get her to actually stay in her bed at bedtime.

Today I got a call from the school nurse at 10:30. Everyone has been really healthy so I didn't know who this was about. Lauren had passed out! Evidently she had complained of a stomach ache and headache and her teacher was taking her to the nurse. On the way there Lauren went white and slumped over. She came to right away and the nurse called me. I took her to the doctor. They did some tests but nothing seems to be wrong. Hopefully it doesn't happen again. If so, we will need to have her heart checked out too. When the nurse called I just packed the kids in the van and left. I forgot to change diapers, Reina still had her jammies on, and I probably looked a mess from rolling around on the floor with the little ones. I did run back into the house for jackets since it was pooring rain outside. The call from the nurse shook me up a bit. I couldn't imagine why a perfectly healthy 7 year old would just pass out. Lauren started to cry when I walked into the nurses office. Made me want to start too. She perked up after I gave her some gatorade in the car on the way to the doctor's. Quentin met us there and stayed for the results of the tests with Lauren while I took 2 crabby and tired toddlers home for their naps.

Alina had her 18 month checkup on Tuesday. She is 22lbs 9 oz and in the 23% for weight! When we started she wasn't even on the chart! Her iron is low so we are working on getting that up with some iron drops. I am supposed to give them to her 1 hour before or 2-3 hours after a meal. That is like impossible. She eats all day! With 4 small meals and 2-3 snacks a day, that doesn't leave me too many options. So this morning she had to wait an hour for her usual milk. She got water (recommended to take with the drops) and cheerios (crackers are okay to eat with the drops so I figured cheerios would work). She was not happy about the water instead of milk. She LOVES her milk. The vanilla carnation instant breakfast is pretty yummy. I will try to give her her next dose this evening before bed. It will be stretching it. Dinner is at 5ish and bedtime is 6:30 for her.

Tomorrow Abbie has yoga and both older girls have swim lessons. Provided Lauren doesn't pass out again. We made it through a whole week at school with everyone on the right bus, or remembering to NOT ride the bus. It helps that Abbie has a huge post it taped to her desk saying "NO BUS ON WEDNESDAY".

First Family Photo!

Our first ever family picture with all 6 of us in it! (Thanks Uncle Dan=) )

Alina actually looking at the camera=)

Everything has been going really well this last week, except for a few bus mishaps. Abbie missed her stop on Monday, but just got off at the next stop around the corner. We caught up with her pretty easily, though I wasn't really happy about the bus driver letting her off at a stop not her own. Then on Tuesday she got on the wrong bus. Lauren got off at her stop, but no Abbie. This time Lauren told the bus driver that her sister wasn't getting off, so he used the intercom to call for her. No Abbie. So we walked back home and called the school. The school called the transportation department and they supposedly checked on all their buses. No Abbie. So by now I am getting really worried and call Quentin at work to come home so he can go out and look for her. The principal and some of the teachers were going to go looking in neighborhoods too, since it appeared that Abbie got off on a stop not her own. Then I get a call saying she was on a bus all along, that the bus driver on that bus apparently didn't check. Abbie says she heard her name on the bus communication system like 4 times but the driver on the bus she was on never asked. She went and told him that she was the "missing kid" they were talking about. The principal and teachers were great through all of this and Abbie got a ride home with the principal.

Now after this you would think Abbie would be extra careful. On Wednesday I picked the girls up from school so we could take Lauren to her first dance class. No Abbie. I checked with the office and found out she forgot and got on the bus for home. I rushed Lauren to her class then headed home to get Abbie from the bus. She looked pretty relieved to see me at the bus stop since she had realized that she wasn't supposed to be on the bus.

By this time I had pretty much decided that we were just going to forget the bus and I would just pick the kids up. End of problems. Abbie had a meltdown when I told her, and declared that made her feel like a "little kiiiiiiiid!" (complete with wail). So we have discussed this and she knows that this is her last chance. Any more forgetting or not paying attention and no more bus. We talked about safety, and that her safety always comes first. That she has to be responsible for herself and make sure she is staying safe. Her comment : " I think about so many things all the time that my personal life just flies right out of my brain!" Her teacher told me that she told her pretty much the same thing but with a "I am so smart and talented that I can't remember my personal life." That sounds like Abbie-LOL!

Lauren loved her dance class on Wednesday despite the fact that I pretty much dropped her off and ran. The parents aren't supposed to stay anyway. She says she got to use her ballet shoes AND her jazz shoes. But they didn't have time for tap. She remedied that when she got home and tapped a bit in the kitchen until I told her it was time to eat.

Reina, Alina and I had a playdate on Monday. We had a friend over and the girls had a good time. Alina was very shy at first, but warmed up after a bit. While I like the snuggles she gives when she is unsure of what's going on, I will be happy when she is more sure of herself and her place in our family and no longer needs to cling to me so much.

We went to Quentin's softball game last night. I packed some snacks and water bottles and we made a picnic out of it. The girls enjoyed getting out and it was nice to just sit and enjoy even though it meant bedtime an hour later. Too often when we get into the routine of school we just don't have time for sitting and enjoying each other. The girls get home at 4:15, we unload backpacks, I fix dinner for them. After we eat they have about an hour before the little ones go to bed and then we start homework. Bedtime at 8. It is even crazier when we have after school activities.

Oh! Too cute! Reina and Alina are dancing in front of the TV with the Fresh Beat Band right now. They love that show!

That's it for now...

Changes!

I was looking at pictures from July yesterday, from when we took Alina from the baby house. She has changed so much! Good and filling meals has had a lot to do with it. She has so much energy now and is walking all the time. She still falls a lot, but she gets right back up to walk again. In another month I am betting she will be running!
16 months old.
The day after we took Alina from the baby house in Taraz. She was about 18 pounds and in a size 9 months clothing.

Almost 18 months old.

Beginning of September at about 22 pounds. She now wears a size 12 months and sometimes 18 months.

On Thursday of last week the girls and I drove to Iowa to visit with family there. On Friday we headed to Moline, IL for a cousin's wedding reception. I have to admit, I was really worried about the car ride. Alina is a long way away from liking her car seat. Thursday we had a 4 hour drive and we stopped a couple times to eat as well. She slept for maybe 15 minutes when we first got into the car and later for another 10 minutes or so. Not good. I left at naptime in the hopes that she and Reina would sleep. Reina didn't sleep much either. For the last hour Alina cried to get out. I stopped a couple times to try to calm her, but all she really wanted was out. We arrived Thursday evening at my mother-in-law's house and despite lack of sleep she was doing great! I was a bit surprised that she wasn't as clingy as I had expected. Sleep that night was difficult and I ended up with her in bed with me. Friday we made the 2 hour drive to Moline, again at naptime. This time she slept for almost an hour. We got to our hotel and she had a great time exploring=)

Sometime during our couple hours at the hotel before Quentin joined us Alina decided she was through crawling and started walking everywhere! She fell a lot but would get right back up and try again. Later, at the reception she was trying to walk all over as well and I got a video of her toddling toward me.

They had dancing at the reception and our girls were having a great time! Reina, Abbie, and Lauren were out on the dance floor for most of the night. Reina made frequent trips to the cookie table to try to grab another cookie so we had to keep our eye on her=) I found a spot out of the way of all the dancers for Alina to walk and dance. She loves music. She starts bouncing up and down and waving her arms. It is really cute. I tried to post a video of the girls dancing but all my videos are too big for blogger. I keep getting an error message.

We are back home now and settling back in. Alina has been fussy and clingy for the last 2 days, but I expected she would have some adjusting to do. I was really worried the trip would mess things up for her. She couldn't know that we would be coming back home soon, the trip only meant new changes for her and I know it made her anxious. I hope, though, that coming back home helped her to understand that this is a permanent place for her. I know we have a ways to go there. It would help so much if she were able to understand me, but of course she is still learning our language and she is only almost 18 months old. We'll just have to show her every day that this is home and we are her family=)

Just Pictures

I can walk!!

Ring Around the Rosy

Certificate of Citizenship

Alina's Certificate of Citizenship arrived in the mail today!! It is nice to have proof=) I was going to take a picture of the certificate and post it on this blog but didn't want to go to jail. I had the camera ready to go when I read the little red words at the bottom. No copies, photos, or anything of that sort.

We had a not so good start to our day. I had Reina in the bathtub and somehow she cut her thumb. I still haven't figured out how she did it. I was helping her sister get ready for a shower and so was not looking right at Reina (shower and bath are right next to each other). I turn back to her and notice her thumb is bleeding. A lot. So I get her out of the tub, dry her off, get her dressed, and wrap a paper towel around it. It was bleeding so much I couldn't actually see the cut. I put pressure on it for about 15 minutes and it finally stopped. The cut is actually 2 cuts that went pretty deep into the pad. I put neosporin on it and wrapped it in a couple band-aids. She was crying most of the time cause it hurt, poor kid.

I got Alina out of bed (she woke up in the middle of all this) and got Lauren up to get dressed. Then we headed out for a walk and a play in the park to get Reina's mind off it. We went for about a 45 minute walk. Alina was great in the wagon with Reina! They had a great time pointing at flowers and Reina made bird sounds to answer the birds making noise around us. Then we headed back into our neighborhood to the park and the kids ran around awhile. Alina likes the slide and playing with the little rocks that cushion the playground area. Reina climbed the rock wall with my help and ran all over the place. Mission accomplished=) No more tears.

We headed back home where Reina decided to tear off her band-aid. The cuts are deep enough that the skin is going to get caught and pulled if not protected. So I convinced her to put another band-aid on and wrapped another one around that one to keep her from pulling it off. Then I drew a pink flower on the band-aid (they don't make cute finger tip band-aids, and a flower was all I could pull off. She wanted Dora the Explorer). So far that one has stayed on. We'll see if it is there in the morning.

This afternoon Alina had another doctor appt. She weighs 21lbs. 9oz! She has gained 3 lbs. 6oz since her appt. in Almaty a month ago. She had two more immunizations done and her ears checked to see if they were better. They also checked her hearing, but the machine wasn't working well. Her right ear is fine, but the machine quit working when they checked the left. We'll try again next time. I will be making an appt. for her to get her vision tested as well.

Her blood tests came back. She is a very healthy little girl! The only thing that could be a problem is that her thyroid appears to be overworking. We will wait a couple months and do another blood test for that to see if we need to go to a specialist.

She is walking more and more. Her main mode of getting around is still crawling or cruising the furniture, but she is getting braver and braver about just stepping out and walking on her own. She is going to be running soon!

That's it for now!

A Shay Day

The following is a story I received in an email. I have posted the full email in case anyone wants to copy and send. It is a wonderful story and made me pause to think about my own choices.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Two Choices
What would you do?....you make the choice. Don't look for a punch line, there isn't one. Read it anyway. My question is: Would you have made the same choice?

At a fundraising dinner for a school that serves children with learning disabilities, the father of one of the students delivered a speech that would never be forgotten by all who attended. After extolling the school and its dedicated staff, he offered a question: 'When not interfered with by outside influences, everything nature does, is done with perfection. Yet my son, Shay, cannot learn things as other children do. He cannot understand things as other children do. Where is the natural order of things in my son? 'The audience was stilled by the query.

The father continued. 'I believe that when a child like Shay, who was mentally and physically disabled comes into the world, an opportunity to realize true human nature presents itself, and it comes in the way other people treat that child. 'Then he told the following story:

Shay and I had walked past a park where some boys Shay knew were playing baseball. Shay asked, 'Do you think they'll let me play?' I knew that most of the boys would not want someone like Shay on their team, but as a father I also understood that if my son were allowed to play, it would give him a much-needed sense of belonging and some confidence to be accepted by others in spite of his handicaps.

I approached one of the boys on the field and asked (not expecting much) if Shay could play. The boy looked around for guidance and said, 'We're losing by six runs and the game is in the eighth inning. I guess he can be on our team and we'll try to put him in to bat in the ninth inning.' Shay struggled over to the team's bench and, with a broad smile, put on a team shirt. I watched with a small tear in my eye and warmth in my heart.. The boys saw my joy at my son being accepted.

In the bottom of the eighth inning, Shay's team scored a few runs but was still behind by three. In the top of the ninth inning, Shay put on a glove and played in the right field. Even though no hits came his way, he was obviously ecstatic just to be in the game and on the field, grinning from ear to ear as I waved to him from the stands. In the bottom of the ninth inning, Shay's team scored again. Now, with two outs and the bases loaded, the potential winning run was on base and Shay was scheduled to be next at bat. At this juncture, do they let Shay bat and give away their chance to win the game?

Surprisingly, Shay was given the bat. Everyone knew that a hit was all but impossible because Shay didn't even know how to hold the bat properly, much less connect with the ball. However, as Shay stepped up to the plate, the pitcher, recognizing that the other team was putting winning aside for this moment in Shay's life, moved in a few steps to lob the ball in softly so Shay could at least make contact.The first pitch came and Shay swung clumsily and missed. The pitcher again took a few steps forward to toss the ball softly towards Shay. As the pitch came in, Shay swung at the ball and hit a slow ground ball right back to the pitcher. The game would now be over.

The pitcher picked up the soft grounder and could have easily thrown the ball to the first baseman. Shay would have been out and that would have been the end of the game. Instead, the pitcher threw the ball right over the first baseman's head, out of reach of all team mates. Everyone from the stands and both teams started yelling, 'Shay, run to first! Run to first!' Never in his life had Shay ever run that far, but he made it to first base. He scampered down the baseline, wide-eyed and startled. Everyone yelled, 'Run to second, run to second!' Catching his breath, Shay awkwardly ran towards second, gleaming and struggling to make it to the base. By the time Shay rounded towards second base, the right fielder had the ball . The smallest guy on their team who now had his first chance to be the hero for his team. He could have thrown the ball to the second-baseman for the tag, but he understood the pitcher's intentions so he, too, intentionally threw the ball high and far over the third-baseman's head. Shay ran toward third base deliriously as the runners ahead of him circled the bases toward home. All were screaming, 'Shay, Shay, Shay, all the Way Shay' Shay reached third base because the opposing shortstop ran to help him by turning him in the direction of third base, and shouted, 'Run to third! Shay, run to third!' As Shay rounded third, the boys from both teams, and the spectators, were on their feet screaming, 'Shay, run home! Run home!' Shay ran to home, stepped on the plate, and was cheered as the hero who hit the grand slam and won the game for his team

'That day', said the father softly with tears now rolling down his face, 'the boys from both teams helped bring a piece of true love and humanity into this world'.

Shay didn't make it to another summer. He died that winter, having never forgotten being the hero and making me so happy, and coming home and seeing his Mother tearfully embrace her little hero of the day!

AND NOW A LITTLE FOOT NOTE TO THIS STORY:We all send thousands of jokes through the e-mail without a second thought, but when it comes to sending messages about life choices, people hesitate. The crude, vulgar, and often obscene pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion about decency is too often suppressed in our schools and workplaces. If you're thinking about forwarding this message, chances are that you're probably sorting out the people in your address book who aren't the 'appropriate' ones to receive this type of message. Well, the person who sent you this believes that we all can make a difference. We all have thousands of opportunities every single day to help realize the 'natural order of things.' So many seemingly trivial interactions between two people present us with a choice: Do we pass along a little spark of love and humanity or do we pass up those opportunities and leave the world a little bit colder in the process? A wise man once said every society is judged by how it treats it's least fortunate amongst them.
You now have two choices:
1. Delete
2.. Forward
May your day be a Shay Day.

Blog Book

Okay. Obviously I have been messing around with how the blog looks. I found a great website with free backgrounds and banners. They also can make your blog into a book for you! I was so excited when I saw that, I have been thinking about trying to make ours into a book and now I can. The website is http://www.thecutestblogontheblock.com/

Anyway, last night was Lauren's smore party with her new Girl Scout troop. They had a great time swimming in the lake, making smores, and playing hide and go seek with flashlights after it was dark. Lauren was a bit shy at first (which is not like her) and it took a while before she felt comfortable enough to join in. She recognized a couple girls from school last year and we even found out one of the girls lives in our neighborhood.

Next Wednesday is Back to School Night at our elementary school and the girls are really excited! Even Abbie who has been reluctant to go back to school here. She had a few bad experiences with some kids in her class. She never really felt included last year. Hopefully this year is different. It helps that we are actually starting the year here instead of moving in during the school year. Lauren is excited because she learned that half her Brownie Troop is in her class=)

Reina woke up at 5:30 this morning. At that point I figured it wouldn't do much good to try to put her back in bed (I would probably just have accomplished waking up everyone else if I had tried), so I napped on the couch for about an hour while she watched cartoons. Alina slept til about 10am! That kid likes to sleep=) I am definitely not complaining! Quentin put her down around 7 last night and she slept all the way through. Though by the time she woke up her diaper had leaked again. I checked on her around 11 last night and she was okay. I have tried everything with her diapers that I can think of. I doubled them up one night and that didn't work. I have tried one bigger size and that didn't work. I will try one of Reina's tonight and see if that does it. I am getting really tired of having to wash dirty bedding every morning or in the middle of the night. I really don't want to have to wake her up in the night to change her pants. It would take awhile to get her back to sleep, not to mention giving her bad sleep habits. But I can't let her sleep in wet and dirty jammies and sheets! I had the same problems when Reina was younger. I never remember having problems with the older two. But the diapers were a lot thicker then and contained more I think. If anyone has suggestions please let me know! I have even considered cloth diapers, but really don't want to go there. I am hoping that the problem goes away since she just had her last dose of amoxicillin this morning. Okay, diaper rant over.

Last night after I left with Lauren, Quentin and Alina were sitting in our big chair together. Quentin said she would stand up and look over the back of the chair with a "mamama". Then she turned around and plopped down. Quentin said "Down!" She grinned and stood up again. Quentin said "Up!" She plopped again, "Down!" Evidently this happened over and over again with her grinning and laughing. She is fine with Quentin when I am not around. She lets him hold her and play with her. He put her to bed last night without a problem. But she is Mama's Girl when I am there=)

Reina and I have been having some tests of willpower lately. She is definitely stating to the world that she is 2 and wants to do it HERSELF! Or HER WAY! The other day she decided that she really didn't want clothes on and that was okay with me. But the diaper HAS to stay on.

Reina: "Diaper OFF!"

Me: "The diaper needs to stay on."

Reina: "Diaper OFF!"

Me: "No, it stays on."

This repeated several times until I got her attention focused elsewhere. I think she is ready to potty train, but I am having a difficult time focusing on that right now. So I have decided as soon as school starts and we get a routine going, potty training will be my number one priority for Reina. I may get lucky and get Alina to use the potty too since she likes to copy Reina (not likely, but I can hope) !

Packing list for Kaz

Someone recently asked about this, so I thought I would add it here as well! This is what we took and used and some of what we wish we had taken=)

Packing list for Kazakhstan

over the counter meds:
benedryl
sinus
Tylenol
Nyquil/Dayquil
Tums
Pepto
Sucrets
antibiotic from doctor
first aid kit + ace bandage

scissors

spool of cord for clothes drying

charmin toilet paper to go (small rolls sold in travel section at target/walmart)

hand sanitizing wet wipes (in travel section; I used them to clean toys off as well so I brought several small packages)

hand sanitizer (1 large and 1 small per person for carrying on plane)

packets of 1 use Tide ( one packet lasted about 3-4 loads in our small sink in the bathroom. It was about 2 large loads in the bathtub. We did laundry about every 3-4 days and used one packet each time.)

clothes pins

washcloths (they don’t have any!)

disposable baby wash cloths (huggies makes a disposable washcloth with the soap already added. Just add water! We used these at the Frankfurt airport to refresh ourselves. I also used them for Alina after bringing her out of the baby house.)

face cleaning wipes (also nice for the long trip to Kaz)

mouthwash (several small travel sizes work. I took one with me on the plane so that I could clean out my mouth during the trip. When brushing our teeth in Kaz we used bottled water and rinsed our mouth and toothbrush with mouthwash.)

Travel size shampoo and soap. (To get you through until you can go shopping. They have a lot of the same brands of shampoo and soap that we do in their small grocery stores. You can also get Gillette disposable razors there, Always pads, dish soap for doing dishes in your sink, and boxes of Tide laundry soap.)

I brought a small tool that has Phillips and flathead screwdrivers and pliers on it. I never needed to use it.

If you travel in the summer bring sunscreen, bug spray/lotion, anti-itch cream (I took the benedryl itch stick) and a fly swatter! We had a few flys we couldn’t get rid of and wish we had thought to stick a fly swatter in. If nothing else it could have provided entertainment=) )

Lots of stuff to do; crosswords, books to read, card games, DVDs….

small flashlight

glasses repair kit

plenty of extra contact lenses

nail clippers

a couple toothbrushes ( you can also buy them there)

shout wipes, tide stick to go - get out stains

two adaptors/ converters – at least one should be able to convert the voltage!

long phone cord – we ended up not needing but if you have dial-up you might.

LOTS of Ziploc baggies. I took sandwich size and gallon.

Febreeze so you can refresh your clothes

small notebook ( we carried it around to shop with and had the shopkeepers write the price in it. They also used a calculator to show us. Also used it to take notes on Alina's progress, what we wanted to add to the blog, and what anyone told us about Alina. ie: the doctor, coordinator, social worker...)

IPOD
Camera
Tape measure – fabric (came in handy to measure our daughter)
safety pins
sewing kit
Vaseline
tape – wish I had brought masking tape
lint brush

Clothing:
I brought 4 pairs of pants and about 6 shirts. We ended up sending jeans down to the hotel laundry. They took 3-4 days to dry if we did them in our room. T-shirts are also kind of a pain to do in your room. Light cotton shirts (like the button down kind) would have dried quicker and been easier to wash. My husbands dress shirts he brought were very easy to wash. Take dark colors for pants. You will be sitting on the floor and kneeling when you are playing with your child!

We also each brought one nice outfit to wear to guardianship council and court. My husband brought a suit. I brought a pair of black slacks and a white top with black jacket. I now wish I had worn a skirt. It seemed more appropriate.

The laundry you will do the most is underwear and socks, so take a lot and you won’t have to do laundry so much! Also, a pair of slippers or slipper socks to wear around your hotel or apartment. The floors are never very clean and all my white socks I brought looked so bad when I got home I tossed them. Or you could just always wear your shoes. The baby house may require you to remove shoes (ours did not) so you might want a slipper to wear there.

Gifts:
I brought these the second trip.
I brought lots of tissue paper, ribbon, and gift bags I could lay flat in my suitcase.
I also made thank you cards out of printable business cards. Avery has templates you can use online. I put a picture of my husband, daughter, and I and wrote a short generic thank you and printed them out. I used a hole punch to make a hole and tied a ribbon through it to the gift bag. Really simple and it didn’t take up much space.



Carry On:
I packed a small carry on with one set of clothes, all our adoption paperwork, travel size toiletries, face wipes, some baby disposable washcloths, Tylenol, and other stuff I would need if my suitcase didn’t make it with me to Taraz (And it didn’t! I was very glad of the extra clothes). I also put some snacks in for the car trip from Almaty to Taraz. Granola bars and chocolate=)

I also had a neck pillow that I was very glad to have on the airplane. Quentin took an eye covering, too. Wish we had thought of ear plugs=)

I had a small travel purse to carry my passport, travel info, and a copy of our LOI in.

First Doctor's Visit

Today was Alina's first doctor's appointment. It was a difficult one to get through but necessary. She had blood drawn, the TB test given, and two immunizations. She was not at all happy during all of this as you can imagine. It was hard for me too, it always is when I see one of my children upset. Good news is she quit crying as soon as I picked her up off the table=) During the exam we discovered she had 2 ear infections! She has had a cold, but she gave no indication that her ears were bothering her. I am going to have to be suspicious when she has a cold and just get her checked out next time just in case. I am going to watch her to see if maybe I missed something. She might just be used to getting them at the baby house and doesn't react with pulling her ear, or not eating or drinking. She has been eating and drinking great! No ear pulling that I have noticed.

She weighs 19lbs 15oz. Almost a whole pound more than her medical in Almaty 3 weeks ago today. She is in the 4th percentile (she actually made the chart this time) and the 12th percentile on height. Head circumference is 18th percentile. She is pretty proportionate all around=) Developmentally she seems to be doing great! Of course she is a late walker, but we are working on that. It is also hard to tell with speech right now since we don't speak the same language=)

She is learning so much every day! Today while eating lunch she grabbed my nose. I said "nose" several times. She did it again a bit later and I repeated "nose". Then I asked her "Where is my nose?" I stressed the word nose. I asked the question several times. She looked at me, then down my face, and grabbed my nose! We played this game several times with me touching her nose as well. She thinks it is a great game. I can't believe she caught on so fast! She says "up" and "mama" and "da" for Daddy. Today she said "Aba!" and was looking at Abbie, so we are pretty sure she was calling her sister. She is also taking more and more steps on her own. She will push herself up from the floor and take a few steps before loosing her balance. Then she grins really big and will try again.

She is such a cuddler=) I love it when we are getting ready for bed and I am holding her for a bit before laying her down. She grabs hold of her blanky and lays her head down on my chest and pops her thumb in her mouth. Makes me go all mushy=)

She is also fine with Quentin now. She plays with him and goes over to him. She is not shy of him anymore. The only time she has a problem with him is if he picks her up and I am right there. Then she wants me. She is fast learning that Daddy is for playing=)

I am still feeling sick. I went to the minute clinic this evening when Quentin got home to get my throat looked at since it has been sore for 4 days. Luckily no strep on the rapid test. I doubt it shows up as strep at all. It really doesn't feel like it, but my tonsils are all swollen and sore. I wanted to be sure, cause if I have it, then chances are someone else does or will soon!

K....off to bed we go!

A New Perspective.....

I know=) It looks like she is going to start throwing eggs any minute! This is actually her "extreme" happy look! LOL

It never hurts to get someone else's take on an issue.

All the kids have been sick as well as Quentin and now me. I have been really tired the last few days because of this as well as Alina waking up nightly, sometimes more than once or twice. I would then sit with her for an hour (not good when you are sleep deprived and sick) or sometimes more to get her to go back to sleep. With our other children I would not do this. We would put them back in bed, kiss them goodnight again, and leave the room. I have been sitting up with Alina since we took her from the baby house. She would fuss and get very upset if someone wasn't sitting next to her.

Last night she woke at about midnight and I stumbled into her room to sit in the rocker there. I sat there for an hour before she finally quit rolling around and fell asleep. I was just getting into bed when and I heard her on the monitor again. I couldn't do it again. After letting her cry for a bit hoping she would go back to sleep on her own, we decided that it wasn't going to happen. Quentin volunteered to go down and calm her. We weren't sure if this was a good idea or not since she is still unsure of him, but I was willing to try it! Well he went in, layed her down, rubbed her back for a short while and sat in the rocker. A couple minutes later he got up, patted her on the back, told her goodnight, and left! It was quiet. When he got back I thought "Wow! That was quick getting her back to sleep!" He told me she wasn't asleep, she watched him leave the room. Well, she slept the rest of the night.

Naptime today I tried the same tactic, not sure if it would work with me or not. It did! I can't believe it! Evidently she doesn't require me to actually stay in her room until she is asleep anymore. I was going to start trying to put her down and leaving the room as soon as we all were over this cold since I was anticipating a struggle over this. And it was so easy! We'll see if she will continue this=)

Lesson for today: Be open to someone else's perspective and ideas! It just might work. I would have never thought it would have worked last night. I think it is a sign that she is much more comfortable and secure in her new home as well.

Walking!

Alina took several steps in a row today! Quentin and I were having her walk to each other and she started doing it without holding on. She is making amazing progress. She is also saying "Mama" regularly now and even "Dada" some. If you ask her "Where is Dada?" she will look at Quentin. They have been playing peek-a-boo=)

Today's post isn't much because I am not feeling too great, but I had to share the walking bit and some pics and video=)

It is not quiet at our house!

Well, I got the cold. I woke up this morning with a heavy head and overall just not feeling well. The good news is the kids seem to be over the worst of it. Quentin still feels pretty bad, but he usually develops nasty sinus stuff with his colds that prolong it and make it worse. I am hoping I am over it quickly. The kids only seemed to have 1-2 bad days. The two little ones still have runny noses but don't seem to be feeling bad now.

And so today has been a quiet day. I even had dinner mostly set up during naptime in preparation of the kids waking up around 4pm. Just had to cook it. Today is also the first day I have made dinner for Quentin and I! Granted it is just chicken with some olive oil and seasoning that I will bake in about an hour, but I did actually manage to get it ready to go=) Quentin has been making dinners for us while I have been getting used to having another little one to care for. It is all about planning ahead!

Before naptime UPS delivered a package for Reina from the Disney Store. I ordered her some fall/winter jammies the other day. She picked out Minnie Mouse and Tinkerbell. Probably cause they are both pink=) They arrived and Reina had to immediately put on Tinkerbell. She has worn them all day. We'll see if I can get them off her before bed so I can wash them=)

Quentin's coworkers sent home a basket of goodies for Alina yesterday. It was really thoughtful of them! All the goodies will be put to good use. Reina has claimed the rubber ducky though. It helped her eat her spaghetti last night=)

Alina is becoming more and more sure of herself and her surroundings. She ventures into the play area on her own and will play quietly. She likes to terrorize Reina when she is trying to slide down our little slide. Reina will cower at the top. I don't know what she thinks Alina is going to do to her=) That is about the only time Reina has a problem with Alina now. They actually have been playing well together. Alina also likes to bounce on Daddy's back! We were playing with her last night and she crawled over to him and tried to climb on. Quentin said she saw Reina do it earlier when I was downstairs with the laundry again. So I put her on and she started bouncing. It was so funny. She gets a huge grin on her face when she is excited and you can tell she wants to squeal. She really doesn't make much noise. She will babble a bit, and she definitely knows how to howl, but she only makes happy sounds occasionally. You can tell by her face that she is excited and happy though.

Before bed last night the kids and I went downstairs to get ready for bed. While I was in getting beds ready, Lauren picked up Alina and ran around chaising her sisters. Alina was loving it! When I came out of her room to see what was going on I just started laughing. She had her face scrunched up in her happy look and was actually laughing and squealing. Her laugh sometimes sounds like a cry which is why I came out of her room pretty quickly to see if she was alright. I let them run around for awhile, Reina screaming at the top of her lungs. Then I picked out a couple books and had them sit on their beanbag chairs. Reina was up and down in her chair a lot. Abbie and Lauren sat and listened. Alina tried to eat the books and tissues I had next to me to wipe noses.

She is getting more and more used to Quentin. We are about to the point we were at when he saw her last in Kazakhstan during court. Except she doesn't want him to pick her up if I am in the room. She will let him if I am gone.

More later.......

Our crazy girls=)

Tunnel fun with Reina

I managed to get a picture of all four girls!

Tonight Abbie, Lauren and Reina went downstairs to watch "Aristocats". They like to play the end of the show over and over again and run around singing the end song with their stuffed cats. I had to get a video of it! They did it about 6 times in a row. The last couple of times I held Alina on my knee and she bounced and shrieked along. It was so funny!

1 week home!

"What do I do now Reina?"

1 week home and everyone is sick. Except me. Which is a good thing, since everyone needs cared for and I don't have time to get sick=) Abbie came down with it first, then Reina and Lauren. Then Quentin got sick and now Alina. It is just a really stuffy and runny nose and a general not feeling well (Quentin has the sinus headache and pressure too which is not good) but when they all have it it seems much worse. Alina was fine until about a couple hours before bedtime when it became obvious that she was getting it too. I predicted a rough night and had Lauren move into the guest room so that Alina wouldn't keep her up. I predicted right! She woke up a couple times and took a long time to get back to sleep, and after the second time of me trying to get back to sleep and being woken up again, I gave up and Alina and I slept together in Lauren's bed. She slept well the rest of the night. I did not=) Oh well. I am used to not so much sleep, especially when the kids are sick.

This morning I put Reina and Alina in the bathtub to wash all the night time cooties off=) This morning it was separate baths, but Sunday night I put them in together and they had a good time. Reina showed her all about standing up in the tub when you are not supposed to. She also got Alina to splash a bit and to suck on the washcloth. Yuck.

Reina had her 2 year check up yesterday morning. Quentin was miserable and stayed home from work. I felt a little guilty about asking him to keep the other 3 kids while Reina and I went, but I was having nightmares about 2 loud older kids and 1 little one all wanting attention while I was trying to concentrate on Reina. Next Monday is Alina's appointment and I will have to take all of them. I know Reina will occupy herself though, while I am with Alina, where Alina wants my constant attention. So this visit shouldn't be as difficult. I checked on flu shots for the family and the pediatrician's office has the flu mist in right now. It is much easier talking the older two into the mist than a shot. So Abbie and Lauren will get the mist on Monday too. The little ones will have to get the shot. This year EVERYONE is going to be vaccinated. Last year Abbie and Lauren brought the flu home from school and it went through everyone. 5 days of fevers each and I am a believer in the vaccine! The only good thing last year was that Quentin, Reina, and I had had the vaccine and didn't have the symptoms as bad. I didn't get the older 2 vaccinated. That was a mistake I won't repeat. The pediatrician also mentioned that the swine flu vaccine will be in later this fall. They only have the shots for it and it is a 2 shot series. I think we will do that one too.

Yesterday before Alina got sick, we headed out for the first time. We went during Reina's naptime. I needed to get school supplies for Abbie and Lauren so they went too. We hit Target and loaded up on lots of school stuff. The girls got new gym shoes and I actually talked Abbie into a pair of nicer "dress" shoes. Didn't have to talk Lauren into any, but had to talk her out of them since she still has a pair that fit and are hardly worn. Alina did great while shopping for the first 20 minutes, then I had to keep handing her crackers to keep her quiet. If I wasn't fast enough she would squeal. It was really cute. I was only slow on purpose a couple times =)

Alina and Quentin are doing much better, but she is still shy and definitely prefers me. Since we went through this with Reina, but to a lesser degree, we realize that she just needs time. We were going to head to Iowa to introduce her to more family this weekend, but have decided that we will wait. We want to give her more time settle in. We will be going to a wedding in Iowa over Labor Day and will see the family then.

Here's hoping I don't catch the cold! I think the odds are stacked against me though=) I have wiped too many noses in the last few days.

Adjustments

Home for 3 days............
The afternoon we arrived home.

Warning: another long one!

When adopting, many of us don’t think beyond that wonderful moment when we bring our child home. In reality it is after this point that the real challenges and rewards occur. From this point on this blog will be about the joys, adjustments, and frustrations we encounter in our daily doings.

Our major challenge right now is that she only wants me. During our bonding time she went to both Quentin and I. She also went to about anyone who held out their arms who was familiar=) Quentin was not able to go with me the third trip to bring her home and is now wishing he had been able to go. She became very attached to me, and understandably. I was her one familiar link with everything she had known before. It even took her a couple days before she would go to my mother at the hotel. The first night we got home, she wasn’t letting anyone get too close, including her sisters. The next day was better, but when Quentin got home from work she had a meltdown when she saw him. We decided that the best way to get her over the first hump was to have him comfort her out of it. He picked her up and I stood back. We quickly saw that my presence was not helping matters, so I hid behind the kitchen counter. About 10 minutes later she was quiet, but as soon as she saw me she started in again. Day 2 was much better. She would sneak grins at him, but not look directly at him. Day 3 was much the same, but she let him get closer. We were in the kitchen and she came crawling in by Quentin. I dropped behind the counter again (I will be glad when I no longer have to hide behind the counter or in the bathroom) and Quentin talked with her and eventually picked her up! She even let him feed her her pediasure for the evening=) I stayed behind the counter and mopped up my kitchen cabinets and realized yet again that I really need to mop the floor too. Saturday I went out for a couple hours (yeah! Alone time!) Quentin had booked me a 1 hour massage without me knowing and surprised me with it Friday. So I went and relaxed for an hour then hit SuperTarget. When I got home, Quentin said there had been no tears! They all played on the floor together. However, she let me know later that she was not pleased I had left. She was very clingy and fussy when I even stood up from a chair. I think it will be awhile before I go anywhere without her again.

Sleeping:

We have had several adjustments to make. I had planned on having Alina share a room with her 2 year old sister Reina, but after trying to get both to sleep at the same time I decided that wasn’t going to work=) Alina gets to sleep pretty quickly, but Reina won’t go to sleep with me in the room. And I don’t dare leave her awake while Alina is asleep. She would wake her up for sure=) Yesterday I moved the crib into Lauren’s room. Lauren volunteered to have Alina in with her and it worked great last night! Alina actually slept for about 13 hours, with only once waking up. Alina will not fall asleep by herself. I don’t think she likes to be all alone in her room, so I sit in a rocker next to the crib while she gets comfortable and drifts off. It usually doesn’t take any longer than about 20 minutes. She likes me to look at her and frequently makes eye contact and grins when she realizes that yes, Mommy is still there. If she wakes at night I go in and give her a hug and kiss, lay her back down, and sit in the rocker again till she falls asleep. She wakes really fussy until I come into the room. I think she is just wondering if I will come or not=) Our other girls are really good at bedtime and only require us to tuck them in with hugs and kisses and they are out for the night. Our 2 year old has started to wake at night again, but with all the changes that have occurred lately I am not surprised. We recently moved her out of her crib and into a toddler bed, so she is able to get up and move around. Which is not so good at 2am=)

Meals:

Mealtime has required me to get organized! Alina eats RIGHT after she wakes up. If I want to avoid meltdowns then I need to have food ready to serve. Breakfast for her is a cup of pediasure and cheerios. She still likes a morning nap, so when she wakes up I give her oatmeal and a few animal crackers. She still likes to have control over her last bites, so the crackers work well. After her afternoon nap I give her a yogurt and more crackers so she is okay to wait till dinner time. Dinner so far has been mashed potatoes and eggs. She has gotten picky about what she will eat and I am still trying to find things she will eat. Especially fruit and veggies. She will eat a banana sometimes, but I have yet to find a veggie other than potatoes that she is okay with. She eats the scrambled eggs by herself, but I help her with the potatoes. She also LOVES bread=) A child after my own heart! She ate some of her sister’s pizza ( pizza dough with cheese on top that they dip in spaghetti sauce) last night and really liked it. In the evening about an hour before bed I give her another pediasure. It is really nice that her older sisters can help with getting some of there own food, cause it has been crazy at mealtimes! They have mastered the “make your own lunch please!” It doesn’t help that everyone eats different things and I have to make several different dinners every night. I created a nightly menu about a year ago to help me figure out what to make every night. This also helps when the girls don’t want what I am making. I just point to the menu and say, “That’s what it says!” They are sticklers about what is written down is law=)

We are now having a lot less meltdowns at mealtime! I think Alina is realizing that she will be fed and her tummy will be full. I make sure she has plenty of finger food to feed herself during a meal so when I start cleaning up she doesn’t get upset. We did have a problem with the high chair the first couple times we used it. I put her in and she arched her back, threw up her hands, and hollered. So I picked her up out of it and took her out of the kitchen. She quieted down but reached out towards the kitchen. So I put her back in the high chair with some crackers on the tray. She started to arch again so I took her out and left again. The third time she sat in the chair quietly and ate her crackers. The problem started I think in Kazakhstan when I had to hold her and feed her because I didn’t have a highchair. I think she really liked doing it that way. Once she realized that the chair meant the only way she was going to get fed, she was okay with it. About 2 mealtimes later and she doesn’t fuss anymore when I put her in the chair.

Sisters:

The day after we got home, Alina seemed to be best buddies with her two older sisters. Abbie and Lauren have been great with her! If they are in the room playing with her, I can leave the room without major hollering occurring. Reina is another matter. The first night home Reina was thrilled with Alina. Alina would fuss and she would bring her blanket over, because to Reina the blanket makes everything better=) We were trying for a picture with the kids all together when Alina grabbed Reina’s hair and pulled. She got several strands out and Reina was holding her head saying “hurt!” I don’t think Alina meant it, it is just that she has a thing for hair. She likes to suck her thumb and finger her hair or mine or whoever happens to be holding her. Well, this made Reina rather gun shy around Alina. Alina would also fuss if I picked up Reina. She was very jealous of the other girls with me for the first couple days. Now she just comes over to me for some loving too=) Reina is getting better around her. She still brings her blanket over to her, and likes to go get Alina out of her crib with me. But if Alina crawls near her she starts fussing a bit and will run away. Today she let Alina give her loves, so we are making progress. I really wish I had caught Alina’s hand before she grabbed hold of Reina’s hair!

I think that is enough for now! We are getting things organized and a routine going. We may even venture out of the house soon=) I am a bit nervous of going to a store with all 4 girls so Quentin is doing the grocery shopping for now. It will be different when Abbie and Lauren start school and I only have the 2 at home during the day. I may be a little less overwhelmed when thinking about going out!

Alina is full of smiles and is very playful. She loves to snuggle and would prefer to be glued to my side. Hopefully with time she will start to feel a little more secure in venturing further from me. She has come a long way in just the few days we have been home!

More Pictures

View of the mountains outside our hotel room window.

Bathroom. The shower didn't have an upper hook so we had to hold the shower head. The bathtub was really narrow, too.

Two twin beds plus a baby crib

Plenty of room for Alina to play

Our hotel room in Almaty

small market across from Hotel Kazzhol

Out front of the Hotel Kazzhol in Almaty

Eating at Koo-Koo-Roo Chicken

Train ride to Almaty

Pictures!

Tickle time!
First bath. She wasn't sure what was going on=)

Eating crackers at the Hotel Zhambyl

Gotcha Day!

Trip 3 to Taraz

Warning: This is very long!

Part 1

I promised a more detailed account of our third trip when we returned home, so here it is!

My mother and I flew to Almaty, Kazakhstan on July 17th after a slight delay with obtaining our Visas. Always before the visas have taken 5 days from the day I send it out to the day I received it in the overnight mail. This time it took 8. And of course we had booked our flights on the 16th and when my mother’s passport and visa didn’t arrive by the afternoon of the 15th I called our wonderful travel agent and had them reschedule our flights for the next day. Eldo at Golden Rule has been wonderful! I don’t know how he managed to save the day for us so many times, but he did. As it turned out my mother’s passport arrived later the afternoon of the 15th so we could have gone the 16th, but I had already changed our tickets.

After 3 flights we arrived in Almaty at about midnight the 19th. Kural our driver was there to pick us up and drive us to Taraz. We slept most of the way there, then checked into the Hotel Zhambyl (same room 221). We showered and went out to Medved for lunch. At about 2pm we decided to take a “nap”. Well we woke up at about 2am the next morning=) We read for a couple hours then tried to get some more sleep. At around 7:30am we headed downstairs to check email and ran into Lynda and Wayne who had just arrived. They said we were to meet Janette our coordinator at around 9am.

When we went down to meet Janette, we ran into Kim who is in Taraz adopting her daughter Alina. She is staying the entire 3 months! Janette arrived and asked us if we would like to go to Umit today to pick up our kids or to wait until we are leaving for Almaty. We all said “TODAY!” of course=) Mom and I had had a good nights sleep and were prepared to bring Alina back with us, but the Robeys had just arrived. I felt for them since they would shortly bring an active 3 year old back to the hotel with them on very little sleep.

At 3pm we headed to the baby house. We were told to wait in the gazebo while Janette and the translator went in to dress and bring the kids out. The baby house was under construction and they didn’t want us in there. Alina was brought out and they handed her over to us! She was looking very scared (I hadn’t seen her in a month) and had no idea what was happening. The car ride back to the hotel was nerve racking. We had a new driver and he was swerving all over the place. Of course Alina wasn’t in a car seat and there were no seat belts in the back seat so I was trying to keep her from being jostled too much. She sat there and clenched her hands. We were really relieved to get to the hotel.

The next 4 days we spent in Taraz getting to know each other. Mom and I took her for a walk to the grocery store for diapers and baby food. We even went to the bazaar one morning (of course we did!). Alina had her first bath and didn’t mind too much. She does NOT like to lay down in the bathtub but doesn’t mind just having the water poured over her head. Meal time was a problem. I was not allowed to bring her food while visiting so had no idea what her reaction to food would be. The first meal she sat in her stroller and clenched her little fists and ate as fast as I could get it into her. And she didn’t stop. I finally had to stop feeding her because I thought she would get sick. When she realized there wasn’t going to be anymore she went into a meltdown. She flung her head back and kicked and screamed. I picked her up and took her into the other room and she stopped immediately. This behavior was repeated each time she ate or saw food. I took the approach of always having a snack on hand that she could see. Also, giving her a cracker to hold helped. She liked to have control over that last bite. She would nibble on the cracker for a long time to draw it out. As long as she had the cracker the meltdowns didn’t happen as often. She was also really tense when she ate, so I encouraged her to touch and play with her food. It took about a week before I got her to smile and not be so focused on the food and spoon. The meltdowns are now much less frequent, and she has gotten picky=) I still make sure she has a cracker in site and that if she wants it she can have it. I think she has realized that I won’t let her get too hungry and that the food is available. In the beginning I am sure she was wondering who was going to feed her and whether or not the food would be consistant.

Alina became quite attached to me right away. She wouldn’t let anyone hold her. She finally warmed up to Mom a few days after we brought her back. During our visits to the baby house she would let anyone pick her up and carry her around. It is very different now. I realize that it is because I am the most familiar person she has right now, though I think she is becoming more attached and we are bonding (at least I know I am!).


Part 2

Friday night we headed to Almaty. I have already told about that trip so I won’t repeat here=) We very much enjoyed Almaty. It is like big cities all over the world. Many more conveniences but also more expensive. We ate at Koo-Koo-Roo Chicken a couple times and also at the hotel dining room. They have very good meals at both places. Koo-Koo-Roo also has a little convenience store. There is a small mini-mart across from the Hotel Kazzhol as well. We were told there was a supermarket down the street a ways. We went there and found an actual grocery store that you might find here! The grocery was on the 1st floor, then there was a mall area on the 2nd floor, and an internet café on the 3rd floor along with a food court and children’s play area. The internet is much cheaper there than at the hotel. I will try to draw a map and scan it in so you can find it.

Tsum is another attraction. They have an outdoor walk with fountains. Inside you will find the 3rd floor is full of souvenir shops. We bought quite a bit there=)

We were scheduled to go to the SOS clinic on Monday the 27th. Nicolai picked us up at 2pm and took us there. It was pretty easy. The doctor looked her over and plotted her growth chart. She is at the 25% in height (out of 100 kids she would be shorter than 75 of them and taller than 25 of them). She is below the 5% in weight. We’ll see how quickly she grows now! She is 16 months old and is in a size 9 months right now.

Tuesday we were supposed to have our embassy appt. but we were informed around noon that Alina’s passport was not in Almaty yet. We could have it overnighted if we were will to pay an additional $100. Otherwise it probably wouldn’t be there until Friday. We were scheduled to leave Almaty for the USA Tuesday night, so I had to call Quentin and have him get ahold of Eldo at Golden Rule first thing in the morning. Quentin called that night at around 9pm and said Eldo was working on it but it didn’t look promising to leave the next day. He called again at 11pm and said Eldo had found us tickets on the 31st, 2 days later. We booked them (thank you again Eldo!) and breathed again=) It made us really nervous to have to change the tickets less than 12 hours before we were supposed to leave. We had to trade in a nice 2 hour layover in Frankfurt for a 7 hour layover, but overall it wasn’t bad.

Wednesday the passport had arrived and we headed to the embassy later that afternoon. YOU CANNOT TAKE PICTURES OF THE EMBASSY. I was pulling out my camera when Nicolai told me “NO!” and pointed to the security personnel. Good thing to know=) The appt. went quickly. The man I talked with at the window was American. He explained all the documents he was giving me. There was the manilla envelope that you are NOT to open and are to give only to the immigration officer upon arrival in the USA. He gave me a packet of documents including her birth certificate (old and new) in Russian and English. Her adoption decree in Russian and English, the court decree and other documents related to court both in Russian and English, and her medical information. Then he handed me a paper about applying for a social security card. Then I got her passport! Yeah!! Her visa was in it. That was it. I took everything back to our seat and Nicolai asked to see her passport. Am I glad he did! Her passport number was incorrect on her visa. He took it back to the window and they cancelled the visa that was in there and issued another. MAKE SURE YOU CHECK ALL INFO ON THE PASSPORT AND VISA. It needs to match up.

We were now officially done with everything that needed to be done before I could take Alina out of the country! But we had another day and a half to wait. We went shopping=) We left Almaty at 3:15am on the 31st and after 2 long flights landed in Denver where Alina became a US citizen! After customs I was directed to the immigration area and told to wait for my turn. Alina’s name was called and her packet of info handed over. About 10 minutes later we were cleared to go. Mom had gone to get the luggage so that we could rush to our next flight to Boise, Idaho (we only had 1.5 hours in Denver). We managed to get to the gate and found the flight was still there. They were waiting on the pilots to arrive. Alina had been great on all the long flights. She got antsy and bored, but Mom and I managed to keep her occupied. The last 2 hour flight was not as easy. I think she decided that enough was enough=) She hollered for awhile and then discovered that ripping out the pages of the magazines was a lot of fun and relieved stress. She shredded them. I was really sorry to leave a mess for the flight attendants, but I thought it better than a screaming child on a 2 hour flight.

Part 3

We landed in Boise at 8:30 pm. My sister was there to meet us and take us to her apartment. Alina was in a daze by this time. My sister had the carseat installed so I put Alina in it. She did not like it at all. She hollered for awhile but eventually calmed down on the drive. We unloaded and put in some laundry and went to bed. Alina ended up sleeping on me for most the night. Poor thing was exhausted and very unsure of what was going on. I couldn’t get her to sleep more than a couple hours in the playpen at a time and finally gave up. The next morning we headed to my mom’s house and visited with my Great-Aunt Margo and some of her children and grandchildren. Alina was back to charming everyone=) She wouldn’t let anyone hold her but she walked with my help and giggled and smiled. That night we saw my other sister and her husband and Alina was all smiles again.

Sunday we headed back to the airport to drop us off to go to Salt Lake City so that Alina could meet her grandmother there. Again the first night she slept with me, but the next night she spent the whole night in her crib. We visited with Grandma and her sisters who were visiting. Alina also met her Aunt and Uncle and cousin Ayvah.

Tuesday morning we headed back to the airport to go home!!!!! We had a short 1 hour flight to Denver then a 2 hour layover that Alina enjoyed crawling around and looking out the window. Then 2 hours to Minneapolis! We were met by Quentin and our 3 girls. Alina was under the impression that she was an only child I think, and entitled to ALL Mommy’s attention. She saw the girls come give me hugs and kisses and her eyes got real big. She was not sure at all about this. We got in the car and she was happy looking out her window for awhile. Then she decided that she wanted out. Luckily we were fairly close to home then.

Alina had refused to take much of a nap on the flights so was very tired. We got home and she wouldn’t let me out of her site and preferred me to carry her. The girls were excited, but Alina wasn’t really in the mood to see anyone new. She wouldn’t let Quentin near her.

I put her to bed and we all went to bed. She did sleep through the night in her crib though!

Okay. That post is long enough=) I will continue from this point in another post. I will say that the next two days have seen Alina come to really enjoy her sisters, though Reina and her have a bit of sibling rivalry going on. Alina is extremely jealous of anyone near me. She is crawling and exploring everything. I am predicting that she will be walking within a month. She is already starting to take steps on her own. Right now she is pushing her little car walker around and grinning from ear to ear=)

That’s it for now!