Court Date

Woo-hoo! We have a court date! It's Monday, July 14th. That's exactly when Gulnara predicted.

We must arrive a couple of days early so the judge and prosecutor can observe our bonding with Milan before court (another new requirement.) Since it takes almost 2 full days to get there we will leave on July 9th – 2 days after my 40th birthday and 6 days after Frank’s 40th birthday. That’s what I call a celebration!

Sorry I’ve been out of commission for a while. Not only have we been busy since our return, but I also think that I was just too emotionally drained to write. Writing and reading blogs only made me ache more. The first trip took a lot out of us and it was incredibly hard to leave our love bug behind. I needed a little hiatus to recharge and regroup.

I’ve decided to stay in Kaz for the whole time. Frank will need to come home for work after about 2½ weeks, but I will stay until mid-August. Milan and I should be home at least a week before his birthday, which is on August 23rd. (Which reminds me, we have a winner in our birth date guessing contest – Stacy Segebarth!!! She was only 9 days off, having guessed August 14th. Stacy, I’ll be in touch for your address so I can send you your Vintage Velvet CD!)


I want to share some additional TIPS AND ADVICE for future AP’s, especially since there are so many who will be traveling soon:

Key Items:

International Cell Phone: We got ours from http://www.onesimcard.com/ We chose the International Mobile Phone Solution. We paid about $120 for ours (which includes the SIM card), plus the airtime. You can buy a refurbished phone for a little less, or rent one. I recommend you purchase $40-$50 of airtime to start, and you can easily add minutes from overseas. Overall we used about $200 of airtime, but we used the phone more than we thought – especially since there was so much craziness going on with our process and we couldn’t access the net from our apartment. It was a lifesaver for us.

Blue Pen: Take it with you everywhere you go. Nobody ever has a pen on them in Aqtobe -- not even in the grocery store checkout. It’s weird! Blue is required for some court documents. We took one of those retro Bic 4-color option pens and used it all the time. Also, take your passport with you everywhere you go. They don’t usually mention that you will need it for your various appointments (notary, airline, clinic) but when you get there they ask you for it.

Magellan Eurosurge Power Converter: The other brand didn’t work with higher voltage items.
Sonic Impact Video 55 iPod Docking Station/Speaker/Video Player (if you have a iPod)
A Small Funnel: For transferring water from the large bottles to smaller ones
Portable Comfort Foods: Instant coffee (General Foods International - Vanilla is the best), instant oatmeal, granola, green tea, peanut butter, etc.
Sheets: Fitted and flat
Shorts: To the knee for females is ok in public in Aqtobe, but Frank only wore his in the baby house.
Baby Clothes/Shoes: In a variety of sizes. It's slim pickins in Kaz .
Bibs: Fabric drool bibs and plastic meal bibs with the pocket at the bottom
Washcloths & Droolcloths
Stacking Cups
Teething Ring
Board Books: Touch and feel
Cheerios
Teething Cookies
A Small Tote Bag and Several Plastic Bags (from the grocery store)

Two great, makeshift toys we created were two water bottles – one filled 1/3 with water and the other filled with a handful of uncooked rice. Milan loved to shake them up! He also loved the plastic truck we bought in Kaz; It held a bunch of little blocks in its bed.

Milan was not as into the balloons, bubbles or stuffed animals as we thought he’d be. We did leave him with a little stuffed cheetah that we slept with for about 2 months prior. International adoption doctors recommend this because it will smell like us (and home), and scent is a powerful, core memory trigger and many primal responses are linked to it. This is one small thing that we can do to potentially increase his familiarity and comfort level with us. We hope this became his “lovie" (like a Linus blanket) and it brought some comfort to him. He did seem to like it the best out of all the animals. We will also try to use the same soaps, shampoos, scents we used on the first trip so we are more familiar.

I recommend to future AP’s that you learn some Kazakh in addition to Russian because the caregivers usually speak it to the Kazakh children. Also, the locals seem to prefer it. It’s hard to find educational materials, but there is a good list of key phrases in the LMI Yahoo Group files. The only Kazakh we know right now is Sah-Lem (Hello), Boll-mite (Don’t do that), and Molla-dit (Good boy), but we are trying to learn more. Milan's receptive language skills are very good and he understands quite a bit of Kazakh, even though he doesn't really speak yet.


Some Things We’ll Do Differently on the Second Trip

Consolidate our technology: Last time we brought a video camcorder with mini DVs, a large, Nikon SLR camera and our small Canon PowerShot. This time we’re only bringing the small Canon, which also takes video clips, and we just bought The Flip for additional video. We just didn’t use the Nikon camera very much last time because it’s large and bulky, although it takes better photos. We’re also bringing a different computer, with XP instead of Vista. We will still take our iPod and docking station.

Rolling Backpack: The versatility of being able to roll or carry it will be important during the return flights with Milan.

Columbia Clothing: Nice pieces made for hiking/fishing, etc. so they are ultra lightweight, breathable and dry quickly. Frank found some pants that zip off into shorts. Perfect, since grown men rarely wear shorts in Aqtobe because of Muslim values. (We were once moved into a private room in a restaurant because Frank was wearing shorts!) He can zip them off when we’re in the hot baby house and then zip the legs back on for city outings.

Speaking of hot baby houses, Aqtobe is more reasonable than some others I’ve heard of. Yes, it’s warm, but at least they allow us to open the windows, which is taboo in many other cities. Plus when it’s hot they let the children wear cool clothing instead of several layers. The layering is done because in Kaz they believe that colds and other illnesses come from the wind/cold temperatures. They think that the children must always stay extremely warm (even sweating) to avoid getting sick. In some cities the babies sweat their way through life, without so much as a breeze on them. I’m glad they’re not so fanatical in Aqtobe.

I am still tweaking our packing list, but if anyone would like a copy please let me know. It’s pretty comprehensive and we almost didn’t miss a thing. A big thanks to Jen and Marshall for sending me their great list many months ago to help us create ours!

Here are more photos and videos of our adorable little goofball. (The real reason you’re here!) I like the Chase Me video almost as much as the Under the Table video from a couple weeks ago. I’ve only watched these about a hundred times. Are we there yet???

Notice the drool?

"Honey, bring me the scissors!"

VIDEOS:



Chase Me

Get Down





Tippy Toes