It’s Thursday morning here in Almaty, and I keep thinking that we should be sitting on a plane right now on our way home. The disappointment I feel is still very strong, but the tears are almost gone. Actually, I received words of encouragement last night on the phone from Connor, our wise 6 ½ year old. He’s fully aware of the situation regarding Griffin’s passport issue. He asked me during the conversation “who typed the word female?” (Yes, he used the words “typed and female”). I replied that I wasn’t sure who typed it incorrectly, but whoever it was made a mistake. He said to me “you know mom, it’s ok if you make a mistake sometimes”. So that started me crying all over again. Thanks son for your support, I really needed it!
As for an update as to when we’re coming home, we don’t know for sure yet. We’re hoping for next Thursday. We should get more information today.
So in effort not to turn this blog into doom-n-gloom for the next 6 or 7 days, we’ll continue to journal our activities. Not at all to say I’m happy to still be here, but at least we are stuck in a beautiful city. Almaty is surrounded by mountains that are clearly visible, and the streets are lined with big, mature trees. While walking on the sidewalks, there is usually plenty of shade, which provides relief from the midday heat. There are also many parks in the area that are nicely landscaped. The language barrier here is not as drastic as Shymkent, since many people speak at least some English and cafés tend to have English menus. Although, buying a band-aid turned into a 30 minute ordeal, and even drawing a picture did not help. Jesse ended up soliciting the help of a local that spoke English to help translate, and now we are careful to keep the outer package in the event we need to buy more.
It’s Jesse’s turn to use the laptop, so I’ll check in later with more information about Griffin. By the way, I’m so excited to get his pink hair cut today at noon!
Jesse here---
The last few days have certainly been difficult. It seems that the closer we come to the finish line, the more elusive it becomes. While we have weathered many challenges during this adoption, this one was particularly painful. We not only had our expectations set on having our entire family together today, but we also set the expectations of Connor and Lana. Fortunately, as usual, our children have wonderful perspective, and are rolling with the punches very well. Yet again, they are making mommy and daddy very proud indeed.
On a very positive note, Griffin is completely oblivious to any of our administrative conundrums. He is sleeping well, with two naps a day and at least 8-10 hours of sleep at night (yep, I'm sure I just jinxed it). And he eats like a horse. Actually, his newest moniker has become the ‘human tick’ (with love, of course), because if we would let him, he would literally eat until his little pot belly burst. It seems that he is accustomed to eating as much as possible, as fast as possible, which makes us a bit sad. So, for now, we accommodate him without letting him hurt himself. I’m guessing that he’ll gain about 3-4 pounds over the next few weeks – hopefully all in his arms and legs!
As a real-time update to Amy’s note above, Griffin’s haircut went very well today (we’ll post a picture later). He now looks less like our little girl, or as a boy about to try out for a junior Beatles band. And Amy’s OCD has been satisfied, for now…
We hope to hear more regarding the status of the passport this afternoon, and in the meantime, we are attempting to make the best of our time together here in Almaty. The weather has cooled a bit, meaning it is now in the mid 80's. Perhaps we will be able to make an excursion to the mountains this weekend. More to come...
