Sorry for yesterdays short post. The internet connection was particularily short and I was on a time limit. I was dropped at the internet cafe while Andrew went with our clean laundry to the hotel to change. He wanted to get a little dressed up for supper and since I was wearing a new blouse that I had bought we thought this would be the best plan. It was so hot here yesterday...I swear it was 25 degrees C at least...and all my T-shirts were getting cleaned. I decided to borrow one of Andrew's and it was black and waffle knit. I was roasting consequently. I decided that during lunch I was going to buy something else. Now one problem we are having here is that our new translator isn't nearly as good as our old one. So most of the time we don't ask for her help. Andrew can speak broken Russian quite well...enough for us to get by at least. Everyone we meet smiles when he tries to speak and is encouraging. Anyway I bought a nice black polyester sleeveless shirt for around $40. It was the only one I could find that wasn't a belly shirt on me (and yes it is because of how tall I am versus all the wee people here).
Today's visit went well. She came in wearing a darling outfit today. Normally the outfits they put her in are special (short bus and hockey pads special) but today's was actually very cute. We changed her...which is increasing in difficulty as she likes to take her diaper away in the middle of the change...and then started a new game Mommy invented. For a while we have been using toy blocks to block her mouth and make broken sounds come out. Well today Mommy decided to use Dinara's hand to do the same. She was riveted. She loved that game and in the middle of the session she decided instead of this to try and eat Mommy's face. It made me laugh so hard (and Andrew and our translator) that I was crying. She is such a smart little bug as Andrew would say.
We went back to the Britainnica last night for supper, and boy was it a little more costly then our previous lunch there. Andrew had a salmon fillet with a cream caviar sauce and I had the chicken curry again. We both ordered the broccoli with butter sausce as we haven't been able to have too many veggies since coming here. The broccoli was mushy but tasted like heaven. I never thought British food would end up a real comfort food. We also had a lot of beer (Anddrew had 3 pints and I had 2) Getting this out of our system now as soon this will not be allowed as often.
Not much else to report other then that. We are getting more excited as soon our Dinara will legally be ours forever. Her provisionary visa has been issued so no worries there. Well bye bye for now. I'm hungry and need food. Miss you all. Lots of love.
Thursday, April 26, 2007
The Sandman Hits Hard Today
Our little girl was totally zonked today. We have been told that she has been moved out of the infimary today to a baby area again. This means they don't think she is sick and therefore doesn't have to be seperated from the other children. She has been in the infirmary since she came back from the hospital. She is now in the same group as the first little girl they showed us. We get to see her outside with the caregivers from time to time. I keep positive that her forever family is already in the process of coming and getting her. Well back to the issue in the title...our girl must have been a little tired today. We got her from the caregiver and within 30 minutes she had crawled to the stroller (that's where she likes to sleep now), indicated she wanted in and within minutes was totally asleep. I have never seen her fall asleep so fast. It was amazing.
This afternoon's visit was similar. She really only played for about 45 minutes and then indicated she wanted in the stroller. However, she didn't fall asleep right away. She only fell asleep for the last 10 minutes of the visit. It sometimes seems a little cruel to wake her to send her back with a caregiver but only 6 more days and then she is ours!!! We are totally excited. I have started clearing things away in an attempt to baby proof our room. Silly me didn't think about electrical sockets being different here and even packed some good ole North American socket baby proofers. Oh well. I can ditch them at anytime.
Well that's all for today. If you can't tell it's me Nadine back to blogging. You might be able to tell by the correct spelling and no coma splices. Also sorry from Andrew for spelling Bridget's name wrong (he put Briget). And kudos to all you Mary Poppins fans! We have watched this a lot since coming here...more then Nadine would like at times. Oh well...that spoon full of sugar and all. Miss you all. Talk soon.
This afternoon's visit was similar. She really only played for about 45 minutes and then indicated she wanted in the stroller. However, she didn't fall asleep right away. She only fell asleep for the last 10 minutes of the visit. It sometimes seems a little cruel to wake her to send her back with a caregiver but only 6 more days and then she is ours!!! We are totally excited. I have started clearing things away in an attempt to baby proof our room. Silly me didn't think about electrical sockets being different here and even packed some good ole North American socket baby proofers. Oh well. I can ditch them at anytime.
Well that's all for today. If you can't tell it's me Nadine back to blogging. You might be able to tell by the correct spelling and no coma splices. Also sorry from Andrew for spelling Bridget's name wrong (he put Briget). And kudos to all you Mary Poppins fans! We have watched this a lot since coming here...more then Nadine would like at times. Oh well...that spoon full of sugar and all. Miss you all. Talk soon.
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Everything Good comes out of a Carpet Bag
The morning visit was good today. Nadine played with and entertained Dinara with kisses, toys and rides. I just sat back and struggled to ignore my tummy. I must have had something that disagreed with me. After the visit, I was dropped off at the hotel while Nadine went....SHOPPING. She took of to the bazaar to gather some bits, bobs and souvenirs. By the time she returned I was much better.
Now for the description of the afternoon visit and the reason for the title. Dinara started slow, playing with blocks while on her back then off like a shot to the diaper bag. She got the bag open then proceeded to remove all the contents of the main pocket: stuffed Stich doll, stuffed dog with rattle, soft toy nesting birds, book, diapers, wipes then finally the container of cookies. I then repacked the bag placing the cookies on the bottom. Once again she attacked the back, removing only a couple of items until the cookies were located. She then spent some time trying to open the Glad container with chewing, hitting, smashing and pulling. We gave in and gave her a half cookie. This promped more play with the bag, both removing and inserting items but rarely letting go of the cookie container for more then a moment. A few more cookie bits and play then she got up and went to the stroller...rest time! The end of a good day.
PS Guess the movie with the magic carpet bag. Briget is not allowed to answer.
Now for the description of the afternoon visit and the reason for the title. Dinara started slow, playing with blocks while on her back then off like a shot to the diaper bag. She got the bag open then proceeded to remove all the contents of the main pocket: stuffed Stich doll, stuffed dog with rattle, soft toy nesting birds, book, diapers, wipes then finally the container of cookies. I then repacked the bag placing the cookies on the bottom. Once again she attacked the back, removing only a couple of items until the cookies were located. She then spent some time trying to open the Glad container with chewing, hitting, smashing and pulling. We gave in and gave her a half cookie. This promped more play with the bag, both removing and inserting items but rarely letting go of the cookie container for more then a moment. A few more cookie bits and play then she got up and went to the stroller...rest time! The end of a good day.
PS Guess the movie with the magic carpet bag. Briget is not allowed to answer.
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Nightmares or Just Hate to Wake Up
Andrew posting today. We got an earful this morning. Dinara was telling us how bad everything was. Once we managed to get the diaper on her, she refused to let us get her dressed, screaming everytime we tried to put her pants on. Eventually, she just cuddled up to her mom and slept. At the end of the visit, the doctor came in and informed us where Dinara's troubles were...she had a fever last night. They were also unhappy that Dinara's legs were uncovered. Ah well.
This afternoon's visit was much better. She was again active:playing with her toys, walking with our help and loving getting thrown in the air. After all this she finally crashed, sleeping in the stroller.
On to news from back home. Happy birthday to Dinara's Nana!!! Nana (Andrew's mom)is now 60 years old and is still going strong. I'm sure she will get a birthday cuddle from Dinara when we return to Canada.
Bye for now.
This afternoon's visit was much better. She was again active:playing with her toys, walking with our help and loving getting thrown in the air. After all this she finally crashed, sleeping in the stroller.
On to news from back home. Happy birthday to Dinara's Nana!!! Nana (Andrew's mom)is now 60 years old and is still going strong. I'm sure she will get a birthday cuddle from Dinara when we return to Canada.
Bye for now.
Sunday, April 22, 2007
9 Days and Counting
Well we are down to the last 9 days before we can pick up our little girl. We are tired of just visiting with her and want to spend all our time with her. Andrew and I both discussed it last night and we really don't feel like parents yet. We only get to see her for 3 hours a day so it is much more like we are babysitting then parenting. Everyday I just tell myself how many more we have to go before we get to have her forever. We are happy we get to see her everyday but it is very trying handing her back to a caregiver after the visit.
So as of May 3rd we are her forever family! This means we will bring some clothes to the baby house that morning for her, get her dressed and then take her with us back to the hotel. We will also be bringing the 69 pounds of clothes that we brought for donation; as well as little gifts for the caregivers, director and doctors that have taken care of Dinara for us. We wanted to throw a little party for them all but they don't have a room in which we can do this. Oh well! We are also going to buy the baby house some things they need...we've been told curtains but we are waiting to hear how much they need. Here they sell curtains by the meter not by the package. After we take her out of the baby house she is all ours. We will be staying in the hotel for another 3 days (until May 6th) and then we are going to Almaty. Here we will get her passport and some more paperwork out of the way. Andrew thought leaving to Almaty would be a good idea as we could break up some of the flying for our girl. We will stay in a nice apartment in Almaty and I will be able to cook for us finally!!! After that we are going to fly business class to Moscow. We saved a lot on our hotel here so we are spluging for the 5 hour flight. We are also going to try and upgrade our seats home (Lufthansa seats are like cement, but warmer). Well that should be enough for today. Talk soon. Miss you all.
So as of May 3rd we are her forever family! This means we will bring some clothes to the baby house that morning for her, get her dressed and then take her with us back to the hotel. We will also be bringing the 69 pounds of clothes that we brought for donation; as well as little gifts for the caregivers, director and doctors that have taken care of Dinara for us. We wanted to throw a little party for them all but they don't have a room in which we can do this. Oh well! We are also going to buy the baby house some things they need...we've been told curtains but we are waiting to hear how much they need. Here they sell curtains by the meter not by the package. After we take her out of the baby house she is all ours. We will be staying in the hotel for another 3 days (until May 6th) and then we are going to Almaty. Here we will get her passport and some more paperwork out of the way. Andrew thought leaving to Almaty would be a good idea as we could break up some of the flying for our girl. We will stay in a nice apartment in Almaty and I will be able to cook for us finally!!! After that we are going to fly business class to Moscow. We saved a lot on our hotel here so we are spluging for the 5 hour flight. We are also going to try and upgrade our seats home (Lufthansa seats are like cement, but warmer). Well that should be enough for today. Talk soon. Miss you all.
Bats in the Cave
Hi there everybody. Sorry about the lack of a post for yesterday...the internet connection here was extremely slow. It took over 15 minutes and the screen for posting didn't even load so I gave up.
Not much has changed in our day to day activities. We get up at 8 am still, watch some news for little while, go for breakfast, load the diaper bag (refill cookie container, get diapers, etc.), go visit Dinara from 10-11:30am, go for lunch, go to the internet cafe, back to the hotel for another couple of hours, go for our afternoon Dinara dose 4-5:30pm and then back to the hotel for beer and supper. Not that exciting really...well we are excited to see our daughter but other then that we just kill time. Today we decided to try a new restaurant...the Britainicca. We posted pics of it earlier. We were told that it is the most expensive restaurant in Kyzylorda. We agree but the prices are still quite reasonable. I had chicken curry and Andrew had an oriental styled chicken. It was marvelous. Not as good as at home but much better then what we normally eat. We plan on going to this restaurant at least once a week from now on. They also have billards...American billiards. It costs 1000 tenge per hour (~$9 US). This is a little pricey but we might do it if we get bored enough.
Well you might be asking why the name of the post today. Well we had our first kind of interesting task as parents. Dinara had two boogers in her nose today. I managed to get one out no problem but the other one wouldn't budge. I think they crazy glued it in there. Tomorrow I'm bringing tweezers with me. That booger will be no match for me then. She was quite still while we were trying to get it out. I was impressed. She is also walking much better today. All we had to do was hold her hands while she walked around. This is a good sign that she is getting stronger each day. Yeah!!!
We have to be going. I hope you all are well. Oh! We have been told that Moscow should have received Dinara's medical on Thursday so her provisionary VISA should be issued on Monday hopefully. Whoopee!!! Talk soon. Miss you all still...and cooking for myself. Paka Paka (bye bye).
Not much has changed in our day to day activities. We get up at 8 am still, watch some news for little while, go for breakfast, load the diaper bag (refill cookie container, get diapers, etc.), go visit Dinara from 10-11:30am, go for lunch, go to the internet cafe, back to the hotel for another couple of hours, go for our afternoon Dinara dose 4-5:30pm and then back to the hotel for beer and supper. Not that exciting really...well we are excited to see our daughter but other then that we just kill time. Today we decided to try a new restaurant...the Britainicca. We posted pics of it earlier. We were told that it is the most expensive restaurant in Kyzylorda. We agree but the prices are still quite reasonable. I had chicken curry and Andrew had an oriental styled chicken. It was marvelous. Not as good as at home but much better then what we normally eat. We plan on going to this restaurant at least once a week from now on. They also have billards...American billiards. It costs 1000 tenge per hour (~$9 US). This is a little pricey but we might do it if we get bored enough.
Well you might be asking why the name of the post today. Well we had our first kind of interesting task as parents. Dinara had two boogers in her nose today. I managed to get one out no problem but the other one wouldn't budge. I think they crazy glued it in there. Tomorrow I'm bringing tweezers with me. That booger will be no match for me then. She was quite still while we were trying to get it out. I was impressed. She is also walking much better today. All we had to do was hold her hands while she walked around. This is a good sign that she is getting stronger each day. Yeah!!!
We have to be going. I hope you all are well. Oh! We have been told that Moscow should have received Dinara's medical on Thursday so her provisionary VISA should be issued on Monday hopefully. Whoopee!!! Talk soon. Miss you all still...and cooking for myself. Paka Paka (bye bye).
Thursday, April 19, 2007
Toy, Bed or Method of Transportation...the Eternal Question Continues
Today was a fun day of watching Dinara sleep. We purchased a stroller two days ago and we finally introduced it to her today. She loves it! She was smiling as we wheeled her around and fell asleep in it. We were told by our new translator that she doesn't sleep well right now due to her congestion and that she is waiting to sleep while we are around. I'm okay with this. Yes we don't play as much but she needs her sleep to get better and stay better. We would take her out of the stroller for a little while and she wanted right back in. Whoopee! One less thing to worry about when we are in airports. We want her to be able to sleep in the stroller so in Frankfurt she can get some rest.
We received an email today from our Agency telling us that the medical information should be at the embassy in Moscow today. Yeah!!! This means Dinara's provisionary VISA should be issued today or Monday. I am going to call Moscow today to make sure this is happening. I will either call the embassy directly or get our cooridinator to go and check. One way or the other I am finding out some information!
Well not much else has happened today. Our little girl is continuing to get better...her congestion doesn't sound as bad. Her mother is continuing to buy her stuff (well not so much anymore as I have a suitcase filled with stuff for her). She loves the blankets that Grandma has made for her...sometimes she will sit and just pet them. Dinara is beginning to become more vocal...lots of baby babble, which is promising as many of the sounds are beginning to sound like English.
Enough for today. I'll see about getting some pics to post from the bazaar. The pics might have to be posted when we get back though...I'm not sure bringing my camera and screaming tourist is such a good idea. I'll take some pics with the cell phone and show you when I can get them off the camera. Miss you all.
We received an email today from our Agency telling us that the medical information should be at the embassy in Moscow today. Yeah!!! This means Dinara's provisionary VISA should be issued today or Monday. I am going to call Moscow today to make sure this is happening. I will either call the embassy directly or get our cooridinator to go and check. One way or the other I am finding out some information!
Well not much else has happened today. Our little girl is continuing to get better...her congestion doesn't sound as bad. Her mother is continuing to buy her stuff (well not so much anymore as I have a suitcase filled with stuff for her). She loves the blankets that Grandma has made for her...sometimes she will sit and just pet them. Dinara is beginning to become more vocal...lots of baby babble, which is promising as many of the sounds are beginning to sound like English.
Enough for today. I'll see about getting some pics to post from the bazaar. The pics might have to be posted when we get back though...I'm not sure bringing my camera and screaming tourist is such a good idea. I'll take some pics with the cell phone and show you when I can get them off the camera. Miss you all.
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