Bouncing Back

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...

Brick Wall

I write this post through teary eyes and with an extreme amount of frustration and anger. We did not get Griffin's travel Visa yesterday at the US Embassy and therefore can not come home tomorrow. There is an error on his Kazakhstan passport...it lists him as a female, a typo made at some government office. The US Consulate here can not issue the Visa with that type of error. We begged and pleaded but he explained we'd have serious problems upon our arrival in the US with that type of error. Our adoption agency is working to get a corrected passport...let's hope they handle things better this time around. We hope to be home next Thursday.

This set back is almost too much to bear emotionally. I feel overwhelmed by shear frustration. At this point Jesse is the calm one and I'm the one pacing around like a caged animal.

We're so sorry Connor and Lana!

We'll pass along an update as soon as we have one.

Thanks for the Blanket (from Griffin)

Connor and Lana,

Griffin wanted to let you know that he really loves his new blanket, as you can tell from the picture above.  He can’t wait to meet his big brother and sister, and looks forward to hearing your voices on the phone this evening.  He wanted to speak to you this morning, but was so comfortable with his blanket, that he decided to sleep in late (which was a gift to mommy and daddy).

Love,

Griffin

Our First Full Day Together

Ahhh… it’s a good morning here in Almaty. We’re all feeling rested and refreshed today.  Yesterday we figured out the key to Almaty… it’s simple really: stay inside during the hot, hot, hot afternoon and go out after the sun goes down.  Yesterday for lunch we went to Mad Murphy’s Irish Pub. I know it doesn’t sound very adventurous but I was curious. Is there truly an Irish Pub in Kazakhstan?  Yes, it’s an Irish Pub. Jesse ordered Fish-n-Chips and a Guinness.  After walking in the heat we came back to the hotel for our family afternoon nap, and didn’t go to dinner until almost 8:00p.m. For dinner we went to Coffeedelia. The Lonely Planet Tour Guide gave Coffeedelia rave reviews and now we know why.  It’s a great coffee house / fresh deli with free Wi-Fi.  The frapaccino that Jesse ordered would make the people at Starbucks nervous… it was delicious!

Griffin is an active participant on all our excursions.  He enjoys his time in the stroller as we’re walking, and seems to take in the sights and sounds of the city.  He also enjoys all the food we give him… everything! We’re not sure if he is making up for a few missed meals or if he just really likes the new flavors and textures he’s getting.  (Daddy here – Lana, I bet he will really like our homemade Guacamole!).  

The only time he’s looked completely shocked was in the car ride to and from the SOS clinic. It was probably too much stimulation for him to process so quickly, but he still dealt with it well.  At the clinic we found out that Griffin is ~20 pounds. He’s so light but seems to be average height.  His legs and arms are tiny.  Most of the 12 month shorts we brought for him to wear are too big, because he has no butt to hold them on! He’s wearing 12-18 month shirts.  I think most of his 20 pounds is on his head – the boy is in serious need of a haircut.  He has so much hair and some of it is still tinted pink from the medicine they put on it almost 8 weeks ago.  My OCD issues are struggling with the hair… I’m so temped to cut it.

I’m not sure if Griffin remembered us from Shymkent 6 weeks ago.  Jesse thinks he saw a flicker of recognition (a bit if a grin…).  While I didn’t notice signs of recognition, I fortunately didn’t see signs of fear or anxiety either.  It has taken a couple days, but now he’ll smile when we get him from his crib and he’ll reach for us to pick him up.  Last night we had a new first -- we gave him a real bath. Jesse got in the tub with him, and at first he was scared, but by the end of the bath he was completely relaxed and loved the scrub down with baby body wash.  I think he’s starting to realize things aren’t so bad.

He’s Finally Arrived!

Amy did a great job summarizing our ordeal with the airlines (see post below). Needless to say, my version of the story wouldn’t have been as ‘family friendly’, and she’s right that I might have used a few expletives to fully describe the incompetence of our friends at NW airlines. Ahh, but to the fun stuff…

We arrived at Hotel Almaty early this morning, still dazed from our travels. However, we were quickly awakened from our collective stupor after our driver mentioned that Nurshai’s flight was scheduled to arrive in Almaty at 11:00 am, and our son should be in our arms before noon. The day was certainly beginning to look brighter.

Fortunately, his estimates were right on, as we got the call from the lobby (‘you must come to the lobby’… in stoic Russian accent) around 11:45am, at which time we scrambled for the miniaturized elevators and made our way to finally welcome Griffin to our family. I think we were both surprised by how well he looked, as we both felt that he would probably regress a bit during the 5+ weeks since our last visit. Not so – other than a few lingering spots from a rash that we knew about when we left, he looked physically healthy. And he was active, playful, and most important of all; he smiled after a few minutes of seeing us. All is well now.

We enjoyed the rest of the day hanging out over a late lunch, getting in a good afternoon nap (which it took all of my strength to awaken from), and a casual dinner under the stars (outside dinning at the hotel… nothing fancy, but convenient). Tomorrow morning we head to the SOS clinic to get the final medical review and approval, and should have the rest of the day to ourselves. Assuming all goes well there, we are then scheduled to go to the US Embassy on Tuesday for our final interview and paperwork, and Wednesday will be a contingency day in case anything pops up. Then we are back to the airlines Thursday… and homeward bound.

He’s sleeping peacefully in his crib now. Any misery associated with our travels seems pretty insignificant. Goodnight all.

Misery Loves Company (2nd Trip Travel Woes)

I’m going to author this post because if Jesse did it would all look like this %#!%&*. All along we’ve tried to maintain a positive fun blog, but instead I ask you to feel our pain!

We’re so eager to get back to Kazakhstan that we get to the Cincinnati airport early. We ask the ticket counter agent to help us work out our seat assignments on the return flights, the ones with Griff. He’s unable to help so he gives us 800 # to call. Jesse calls the 800# to discuss our situation… we’re traveling with a 17 month old who’s spent 90% of his day in a crib and major “freaking out” is highly possible. He explains that we’re hoping to have seats together and in the 2 seat section of the plane versus the 4 seat section in middle of the plane. The lady on the phone acts like we’re asking to change the orbit of the earth. She says she can’t help unless we’re ‘status members’ – bingo! -- Jesse has Delta Gold Medallion status. Delta and Northwest are both part of SkyTeam Alliance, so his status should work on this airline. The NWA lady says she can’t verify his status and refuses to help any further. A supervisor gets on the phone, calls Delta to verify his status as Gold and then says she can’t really help because the flights are full and then literally hangs up on Jesse. The very frustrating phone calls last almost 45 minutes and we got nowhere!

As we’re sitting at the gate waiting to leave the NWA agent says we’re going to be delayed because the flight before us is delayed going to Minnesota and they have to wait for the pilot to move that plane out of the way so we can began boarding our plane. Moving us to another open gate would have been too easy, right. We start to panic now because we only have one hour in Detroit to catch our next flight to Amsterdam.

RUN FOREST RUN… we get to Detroit at 9:05p.m. and our flight leaves at 9:20. We land in terminal C but have to get to terminal A. We ran, seriously ran, through the airport. I’m sure looking like two big ole dorks; me in my flip flop sandals, pushing an empty baby stroller and Jesse dragging luggage behind him. He gets ahead of me (nice to be wearing running shoes) and I’m yelling … “just goooo, I’lllll catch up” We come running up to the gate, out of breath and red in the face and the airline agent looks scared to death and says, “But where is your baby?” Our only laugh of the day!

We’re the last to board the plane and feel encouraged when the pilot comes on to say there will be a slight delay while we wait for a few additional passengers and late luggage to be loaded. About 20 minutes later, there’s another announcement about a further delay, only this one ended up lasting almost 7 hours. Yes, it happened to us. We sat inside the plane on the tarmac with little or no air conditioning for 7 hours as they did a repair. We were not allowed to leave the plane “for security reasons”. After two hours we got a drink of water and after five hours we got a bag of pretzels. We sat for 7 hours on the tarmac and then had to endure the actual 7 hour flight. We got off the plane in Amsterdam, walked straight to the gate for the Almaty flight that is now boarding and walked directly onto the plane. No time to stop for a bathroom break or a sip of water, directly onto the plane and then sat for another 7 hour flight! For those that are keeping track, including the Cincy to Detroit flight, we had the joy of experiencing ~22 hours of time sitting in our less than 2 feet of coach space… together. You’ve got to be kidding me… I wanted to cry!

So we’re here now, in Almaty at the hotel, amazingly with all of our luggage. We’re laying down with our legs propped up to help reduce the leg pain and swelling. You should see Jesse’s ankles, they look like baseballs. And we’re thrilled to be waiting for Griffin to arrive… very soon the last 24 hour nightmare will be forgotten.

Robeez Shoe Donation

We'd like to send out a huge THANK YOU to Robeez Shoes for their generous donation. Robeez donated 30 pairs of their adorable shoes to the Baby House in Shymkent. Let me tell you...these shoes are so cute! I applied to be a part of their Heart & Soles Program and was accepted. The donation was shipped to our house here in the States and we'll deliver it to our coordinator in Kazakhstan. A special thanks to Robeez employees Stephanie and Kelly for your assistance in making this happen.

You can find out more about Robeez (a division of Stride Rite) at www.robeez.com