Day 55 - Flying to Almaty

We left late late in the evening for our flight from Karaganda to Almaty. It wasn't scheduled to leave until 11:55pm. Hauling 3 kids and 4 bags to the airport at 10 o'clock for a 2 hour flight where 1 kid decides not to sleep at all, adds up to 2 tired parents. Actually all the numbers in that last sentence add up to 20, but that number didn't seem significant. Maybe that could be the number of minutes I was downstairs in the baggage area with security?

Turns out that traveling with weapons in your checked baggage makes security guys ask a lot of questions. Not nice sounding ones like "Where did you buy such an awesome souvenir?" or "How did you talk your wife into letting you get something so cool?" but more like "These bomb-like items in your bags look strange to us and we'd like you to explain what they are." Geez, I didn't think the six baby doll toys would be a problem, Officer Man. Oxana came with me and explained the situation. I think she said something like "Just make sure he takes it or he'll try leaving this thing with me!" Well, whatever she said worked fine to get us on our way.

Our plane ride was not nearly as nice as the one to Karaganda. The plane was a little bigger than a tin can which was appropriate since we were jammed like sardines into it. We couldn't even cross our legs while seated - it was that tight. It also took twice as long as the other flight since the plane was prop driven instead of jet. And the compartment above Jamie's head was held on with tape. Maybe all this negativity is because someone didn't sleep at all on the flight. She only cried a little bit, but keeping a toddler entertained in a space that you can't cross your legs in is a tough one. I was also expecting a new Boeing 737 like the one we flew in on and a Fokker 50 just isn't the same.

But we made it!

The apartment we have in Almaty is the same one I spent the night in on my way out to get the boys. It has a nice little playground outside and we are within walking distance of a couple parks. We went to our adoption agency's offices for a few minutes to fill out visa applications for Sasha and then did some grocery shopping at the mall, but other than that we mostly just stayed in the apartment and tried to catch up on our sleep. There's plenty of time to explore the city tomorrow.

Jamie: We meet another couple working with our agency at the mall - it was a rather surreal experience. Here I am, trying to figure out how a single scoop of Baskin Robbins can possible cost 550 tengue when I swear it was only 300 tengue in Karaganda, when I see a couple and their child who we crossed paths with at the agency's office. I get ready to introduce myself and the kids when they greet us with, "Oh, we know all about you! You're the Morningstars - we've been following your blog!" It was cool because a big reason that we have kept up this blog is because others' blogs were so very helpful to us as we were researching and preparing for adoption and I'm glad that we've been able to do the same for this couple. But I'll have to admit that it was a little odd to have a total stranger know us by name. Small world!

Day 54 - Goodbye Karaganda

I can't believe that today is our last day in Karaganda! As I write this, Steve is packing up our 40,000 suitcases (a rough estimate - five people traveling in Kazakhstan in the winter sure use up a lot of luggage space) and I'm typing because it's a safe, quiet activity that will not interfere with this packing. He's always passionate about suitcases - it's best to steer clear and just let him work his magic.

Honestly, I just can't believe that we're leaving. I thought it would be so cool to go to Almaty and hang out in the big city, but now I just want to stay in happy little Karaganda! Not that we have a choice, of course, our schedule is definitely not our own and now it is time to go to Almaty to finish Sasha's US paperwork. I'm just feeling a little wistful about leaving.

We got Sasha's new birth certificate yesterday and I have to say that I teared up a little when I saw a document that listed (albeit in Russian) Steve and I as her parents.

Anyway, we've spent our last few days here enjoying a few more Karaganda sights. We went to the Bazaar, which was really cool. It's an open-air market (I know, seems a little odd to have just south of Siberia, but whatever) and most of the kiosks are metal shipping containers situated next to each other to form makeshift stalls. Pretty ingenious!

Here are a few favorite sights at the Bazaar:





Yesterday we went to the "Ecomuseum" in the ground floor of the geology building here in Karaganda. It was really cool, although I guess we should have sprung for the tour because we had no idea what we were looking at most of the time. No matter, the boys got to twiddle dials and flip switches to their hearts' content, and that was truly all they needed in order to have a good time.

And then today was a big old banquet at Mario's Pizza Palace - we got the whole crew together! Ben, Chanda, Jennifer, Oxana, and even the Gildehauses were there! Jill and Matt Gildehaus are our original travel companions - they flew in last night and we will continue the rest of the trip together now that they've been reunited with their son John Marat.

Ben and Chanda brought caviar flavored potato chips to Mario's, which I think has to be the pinnacle of our survey of strange chip flavors of Kazakhstan. To be honest, all of the anticipation made for a bit of a let down - I mean, you expect a lot from a caviar chip. They just tasted like slightly fishy potato chips. Oh well, at least we have a cool photo to show for it and they made for some fun celebration-meal conversation!

After Mario's we headed over to the Tsum (sounds like "Soom") one last time for a final souvenir purchase. I cannot believe that I actually acquiesced to this, but we are now the "proud" owners of a genuine replica Kaz sword. Oh well, I can justify displaying it as part of my daughter's birth culture, right? I should probably just be proud of myself that with eight and five year old boys, this will actually be our first weapon on display in the home. Plus it makes a heck of an apple slicer.

And we rounded out our last evening in Karaganda with a scoop of Baskin Robbins and a final trip to Babylon. Steve challenged the boys to a final game of laser tag and while they were running out their crazies Sasha and I hit the kiddie rides. Her favorite, by far, was the giraffe that played It's a Small World in its entirety four full times before it was over. That's a whole lotta fun for 80 tengue.

We've had an amazing time here in Karaganda and our 54 days are simply filled with memories... meeting Sasha, navigating with our really crappy Russian, becoming a family of five, and the incredible folks that we've worked with - Oxana, Natasha, Vadim, the baby house workers... It's hard to leave such a great group of people. But I will admit that it feels good to be one step closer to home.

Day 53 - Our Chatterbox

For not talking much, Sasha sure has a lot to say! Right now, she only has a couple of articulated words that we can understand - kukla (that means doll in Russian) and Mama (the most important word she could know, naturally). Other than that, she does her talking with her hands and boy has she taken off with the sign language!

She already has 11 words: more, again, all done, food, drink, toilet, mama, papa, banana, cookie, and potty (which, humorously enough, is a bit of a dirty hand sign in Kaz so we try to only use that one in the apartment!). It's been amazing watching her figure out how to really use those words, like chaining signs together ("more food banana"). Ben has also really latched on to the signs and now tells us many of his needs with his hands. Hey, whatever works! At this point I think Sasha has basically exhausted our sign language vocabulary. Time to go home and get out the sign language book to learn some more!

We've gotten lots of questions along the lines of, "So, is it harder than you expected?" Those are never easy questions to answer... I guess it just depends what "it" is and what day and hour you're asking!

I think that the pre-adoption process what harder than we had anticipated. The paperwork was arduous, but about what we figured it would be. It was the waiting that truly was a difficult, stretching, learning, growing time. It was good and we have grown so much through the process, but it was hard.

But everything about Sasha has been so much easier than we thought it might be! In the face of so much unknown, Steve and I really tried to prepare as well as we could. Bonding issues, speech issues, FAS, motor delays, cognitive delays, sleep issues - an adoptive parent really has to be prepared for a lot! I am so grateful for the preparation that we did and we know that our adventures with Sasha are truly just beginning, but so far it has been so much easier than we had feared. She's a toddler, with all of the strong will and burgeoning independence that every healthy toddler has (and then a little more). Couple a kiddo on the verge of the "terrible twos" with one who is just getting to know and trust her Mommy and Daddy, and you have your hands full. But an amazing kid like Sasha makes you grateful to do it all (except, maybe, change dirty diapers).

We've also had questions like, "Does she miss the baby house?" And, honestly, we have to say that she doesn't seem to miss it at all. She doesn't pine away or cry for mysterious reasons or have trouble settling down at night or any of the things that I thought might happen. I think that Steve and I have really successfully moved in to take the place of her caregivers and her brothers definitely fill any void she has for noise and raucous activity!

And she definitely puts her baby house skills to good use. She's learned some amazing bob and weave techniques that she uses to thwart her brothers' attempts to retrieve toys from her vice grip paws. We attribute this to her having learned that she who runs away with her toys, lives to play another day. Or at least keeps them a few minutes longer. She really is amazingly adept at keeping whatever food or choking hazard or intricate Lego creation she's gotten her paws on that one of the four of us wants to have back!

We are just so thankful that our first days and weeks together - first as three and now as five - have been so overwhelmingly positive. We are one blessed family.