Bonding Day 14... yippee!

It’s a rainy Tuesday evening here and Jesse and I stayed in tonight, meaning we ate at the hotel restaurant for dinner. Dinner in the hotel is ok, but it’s very expensive. The cost here is $50.00 dollars and the cost at our favorite restaurants (Istanbul and Address) are $10.00 for both of us.

The rain brings a mood of discontent. We’re getting antsy to come hope yet nervous about leaving Griffin for a month. Yesterday (Monday- Bonding Day 14) he came in for our visit with a big lump and bruise on his head. He must have taken a fall sometime over the weekend. I’m not sure why but I felt angry when I saw the bruise on his head, the anger turned to sadness just knowing one of us wasn’t there to help when it happened. He’s starting to show signs of attachment. Today was the first day he cried and we actually saw tears. And the reason for the tears… I sat him down to play before he was ready. We usually start each visit with some hugs and kisses and today I guess he needed more “hug time” and less play time. It was so sweet! I hope he knows how much that means to us.

The desire to get him home is over-whelming at times. We are finished with the official 14 day bonding period and our adoption application has been submitted to the courts. At this point we’re waiting to find out the actual court date. We’ll leave to come home after court and pray for a speedy return. We asked Nurshia if there is any chance of the Judge waiving the 15 day appeal period that starts after court, and she said it doesn’t happen here in Shymkent.

As we get closer to departure we’ve been doing a little souvenir shopping. What you can accomplish without speaking a common language continues to amaze me. We’re now fearless; we go into any shop and just figure out a way to get what we want. There are usually a lot of hand gestures and laughs but who cares, it is fun now. For example, we had to get pictures printed from our digital camera. We take a flash drive into the camera store and somehow placed an order for 1 hour prints. You should have seen us trying to explain that we needed 2 copies of all the photos, size 4x6. Got them printed, piece of cake. We’ve been in clothing stores and got the kids a few things, all by pointing and showing sizes of kids with our hands.

Our biggest accomplishment yet… we ordered a custom made traditional Kazakh outfit from a dress shop. We had to pick the style, the colors and the size. Did we want a hat, shirt and boots to go with the outfit? Did we have a cell phone number so she could call us when it’s ready (that was a tough one)? Keep in mind there are no order forms and absolutely NOTHING is in English. I don’t know who had more fun with the almost non-verbal exchange, the lady working there or us. I should be videotaping these outings; it would provide serious comic relief.