February 5th

By Mike on 2/5/2003 9:17:24 AM

We are getting close. We talked with our coordinator last night and she says we are all set.

There was one change this morning. We just found out that the US Embassy in Almaty, Kaz has made it so that our INS processing for Zoe will take place there instead of in Moscow. We are still waiting to see how it all pans out, but it looks like it should save us 2-3 days and as much as $2000. What a total blessing!!

That's all for now.
Mike
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Time to go

By Mike on 2/9/2003 6:02:13 AM

Friday and Saturday were a blur but it all went amazingly smooth. On Thursday I thought there was no way we were going to get it all done. Now at 6am as we head to the airport...WE ARE READY. I do want to say thanks to all those who contributed to the great parties at work on Friday and at my brother's house on Saturday.

I would like to leave you today with the message we put in our church bulletin about the trip.

It has been over six years since God started whispering to us that we needed to prepare for the adoption of a child internationally. That day has finally come for us. February 9th, Kim and I depart for a 3 1/2 week trip to Kazakhstan to pick up the latest addition to our family, a six year old Kazak girl who will become Zoe Louise Strout. The journey to this point with all its challenges, questions and heart breaks has taken us through the full range of emotions. Through it all we have done our best to remain steadfast in the knowledge that God is working His plan through us, even though at times we didn't have a clue what it was, and nothing can prevent Him from completing it.

We so appreciate all your thoughts and prayers over the last two years. As we head into the final leg of this journey, we have some general prayer requests.

1. Pray for safe travel as we will be going places where Americans and Christians aren't thought of too highly.
2. Pray that those first days as we start the bonding process with Zoe.
3. Pray for a smooth trip home with Zoe, who has probably never left the orphanage in her life let alone gotten on an airplane for 20 hours of flying with people that don't speak her language.

4. Pray for Hannah, Tyler and Zach as they hold down the fort at home.

Mike and Kim

 

February 11th, our first day in Kaz

By Mike on 2/11/2003 3:22:13 AM

We finally made it to Almaty, Kazakhstan 27 hours after we arrived at DFW. There is a 12 hour time difference fortunately so we arrived at 11pm and could go right to bed. The airlines were great, but 17 hours of actual flying time was brutal on the legs.

We had a little problems going through customs, but nothing to worry about. Then we met our translator and our driver. The are really nice guys and are very helpful. We feel very safe in their hands.

Our apartment where we will be staying the until Wednesday when we travel to Petro is clean. See the pictures in the gallery. They will speak for themselves.

This morning we went to meet with our facilitator, Gulzahn, to get the schedule and take care of the legal stuff. She told us that Zoe already knows we are coming. We are so excited. Even Gulzahn doesn't understand why she hasn't been adopted until now. She thought see would be one of the first to go instead of the last from her group. We will meet Zoe face to face for the first time Thursday at about 10:30am (wednesday night at 10:30 your time).

After that, we went to the ramstore with is a shopping mall, complete with ice skating rink in the middle, some decent food and a cybercafe where I am typing this very message. While here we met two other couples from america who are working with our same adoption agency. We had lunch with them and are going out with them this evening. They have been here a few weeks and are showing us the ropes. They said when they saw us they knew right away that we were from america because of the deer in the headlights look on our faces.

Tomorrow at 3pm, we leave for Petropavlosk where we will stay for the next few weeks. Please pray for safety for us as we travel as I hear the airplane is like a ‘schoolbus with wings".

Mike
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Feb 14 - been to see Zoe twice

By Mike on 2/14/2003 3:45:21 AM

Well this is the second time I am typing this as the power at the Internet Cafe we are in just went out. :-(

Anyway, sorry we haven't posted sooner, but we have been very busy trying to figure out our housing situation and other stuff. When we arrived, our rooms had been given to someone else so they put us in two tiny rooms, each with their own twin bed. At least we could share a toilet and shower (with the rest of the rooms too) again, :-(.

We finally got to the a place with the Internet today only to realize that we need to find a better way to get to the Internet. Just bringing up the hotmail.com homepage takes about 5 minutes (almost as long as at my brother's house). Until we get a new connection, we will not be able to upload any picture. Pity because we have some great shots of the town and more importantly, Zoe.

We have been see her twice now. She is adorable, bright and otherwise normal in every respect. She is a neat freak, always putting one toy away before playing with the next. She is still a bit tentative with us. We think it is because she is smart enough to realize what is happening and that she will be leaving all she knows soon. It breaks my heart to see her when she is sad like that, but I know that if she has to go to the next orphanage next year, her life will not be much fun.

We also met with the orphanage director and had lunch. It was very fun and interesting to sit and talk for nearly two hours about hunting, America and the fall of communism. My leg still hurts from Kim kicking me when I started that topic. ;-)

Well, we had better get going. Hopefully I will be back in touch very soon with pictures.

Mike
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website change

By Mike on 2/15/2003 6:43:38 PM

If  you look carefully at the home page, you will notice a few changes. I finally got around to having the video and journal preview panes automatically update. Now if you are checking to see if we have added any new videos or journal entries, you have to look no further than the home page.

Hopefully I will be doing the same for pictures in the next day or so.

Mike
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Feb 17 – A walk around Petro

By Mike on 2/17/2003 6:09:48 AM

Today after our visit with Zoe, we came back to our hotel room, had some sausage, cheese and bread that we bought at the local market for lunch and then went for a 90 minute walk around the neighborhood. Yes, it was very cold, probably in the double-digits below zero before the 10-15 mph wind, but we were going stir crazy in our room. It certainly wasn’t as cold on this walk now that I have a traditional Russian mink hat. Upon our return I got to thinking that I should tell you a bit more about our home for these two weeks.

Petropavlovsk, Russian for Peter and Paul, is a city of about 200,000 people located just 40 kilometers from the Russian border. It is on the map for two main reasons, it is a somewhat major railway hub for the region and the former USSR used to have a weapons plant here, now since closed. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, the number of jobs has dramatically fallen to the point where today there is about 40% unemployment. Even if a person can find a job, the monthly salary is likely to be less than a few hundred dollars. Despite this, the people seem content and the community seems peaceful.

Architecturally, nearly everywhere you look you will see 8+ story apartment buildings, remnants of the city’s communist history. These buildings have no elevator and are divided into 500 square foot apartments. From their outside appearance, I wonder how some of them are still standing but I hear that they are still stable and many of the apartments are decorated surprisingly nice. Parking is not a problem because most families can’t afford a vehicle.

The streets are always bustling. Even though walkers outnumber drivers, the narrow streets, busses powered by overhead electrical lines and an apparent lack of traffic rules make for chaos that I wouldn’t want to drive in. Despite all this, we have seen very few accidents. Hopefully I will be able to upload some pictures of Petro and Poludino, where Zoe’s orphanage is. Perhaps next time I can tell you a bit about Poludino.

I am finally over my cough and head cold. It is so nice to be feeling good again. Thanks for all your prayers about this. As Kim mentioned yesterday, our biggest prayer request now is that we have wisdom about how to move Zoe closer to us. Today we saw little improvement in her attitude. I think to a certain extent, she is just strong willed and is not willing to be out of control. Keep praying as we know God can make it all work out.

Until next time,
Mike
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Feb 18 – A  breakthrough day!

By Kim on 2/18/2003 4:53:13 AM

We went to the orphanage this morning as usual and first thing we got to meet with Alma’s doctor.  She said Alma was up to date on all her immunizations and that she was very healthy although she was a very tiny and rather sickly baby.  She said Alma has a good appetite and is easy going.  She thought though that Alma was rather speech delayed.  We told her that we had some experience with that and it did not frighten us.  She suggested we put her on vitamins right away and try to avoid chocolate- Alma may have an allergy. The allergy must not be too severe as Alma has eaten 8-10 peanut M & M’s almost every day we have met with her.

After our meeting with the doctor, we went to the music room.  A nun came in and taught the kids a Bible lesson.  To the best of my Russian, it sounded like Jesus healing the sick girl.  Then they sang a song.  The chorus was “Kak Vyeleek Bok.” How great is God! Alma was busy goofing around with her daddy so she didn’t hear too much but I was awestruck that God provided a way for me to know a Russian praise song.  The nun came over to us afterwards and asked if we knew prayers and Jesus and we said “Yes.”  Then she said, “I love you,” in English and asked if she had said it right.  We laughed and said “yes” and she said those are the most important words of all.

We were determined today to convince Alma that she needed to try to learn some English.  We told Marina, our interpreter, to tell her that we didn’t expect perfect English we just wanted her to try. She later sat down with us and looked at the picture book and said almost everything we asked her to say.  She seemed genuinely interested!  Praise God!

We have had a great deal of trouble learning Russian.  About the time we think we have a word or phrase down, it changes.  For instance…we call Alma, Alma but we noticed the interpreter called her Almusha.  Russians have nicknames for everyone- tender names that I don’t think they realize that they use.  Anyway, we have started calling her Almusha too and we notice that she calls us Mommy and Poppy.  It’s very cute!  Today, when we showed her the pictures of her sister and brothers, she called Hannah sesstrunka instead of sesstrah.  It is the tender word for sister.  She seems to be growing attached! It won’t be long before she calls her sweet brothers brahtinka too!  We told her today that her brothers were putting her swing set together so I can’t imagine it will take long for her to see what neat guys they are.

We took Almusha a toiletries kit.  It has toothbrush, toothpaste, shampoo, nail polish and hair stuff and she climbed up behind me and did Mommy’s hair today.  You will have to see the pictures because she was really having a good time! 

We visit until 12:00.  At 11:50 we start to clean up and put away all the things that we brought.  Today, she wouldn’t put things away.  She climbed up behind me and started doing my hair again.  Before this she always seemed ready to go – like she was tired of us.  Today, she patted Papa’s shoulders and said “up” and we walked her up to her class.  We took some pictures of the absolutely adorable kids in her group.  SIDE NOTE:  Anyone thinking about adopting from here should feel very confident that the children are very well taken care of!!!!!!

While I was snapping pictures of the boys and girls, Mike hugged Almusha and told her “Ya tibyah loo-bloo.”  (I love you in Russian.)  She said,  “Ya tozha”  which means “Me too.”!!!!  Thank you everyone for all your prayers and encouragement.  Keep it up and pray us home!

Kim

 

Feb 18 – Things still progressing

By Mike on 2/19/2003 6:46:03 AM

Kim and I were rightfully excited after our meeting with Zoe yesterday, as you could probably tell from her journal. Today we were careful to keep our expectations low just in case Zoe regressed. I am happy to report that while she didn’t change by leaps and bounds today, all went well. Halfway through the meeting I told our interpreter, Marina, and Kim that if we had to get on a plane with Zoe today, I thought we, and Zoe could do it. All agreed with me. We still have some communication issues to work out in the next few days, but we are definitely feeling much better about what is coming for us and Zoe.

After our visitation, we took our interpreter out for lunch and then went shopping for clothes for Zoe and also some souvenirs. The three of us ate at what was reported to be the nicest restaurant in Petro, just a 5 minute walk from the hotel. Their salads were great, the soup was average and the steak was actually two hamburgers with a side of fries. That’s ok though as it was only about $15 for the three of us with tip (always figured right into the price of the meal BTW). The atmosphere was nice as was the decorating inside. We chatted for over an hour with Marina about her, her family and what we can expect in our remaining days here and what we can expect in court next Tuesday.

After lunch, we walked several blocks and visited several stores in search of some Zoe clothes and matroishka dolls (not sure of the spelling and Kim is asleep). The temperature was still probably below 0, but it was so sunny and nice, we didn’t really notice until the last few hundred feet when we turned into the wind.

Wednesday is travel day as it is the only day with flights between Petro and Almaty. Three other American families that were here in the hotel with us are headed to Almaty after gaining custody of their new kids in court yesterday. We are hoping there will be some new American adopting families arriving on this week’s flight to Petro from Almaty. It would be fun to show them the ropes like the previous families showed us the ropes last week.

As we look forward to the next few days, this is what our schedule looks like. Tomorrow is regular visitation day at the orphanage with a slight twist. With the permission of Yuri, the Director of the Poludino orphanage, we are going to start making a video of the orphanage and its kids that we hope will illustrate what a great job they do there and will encourage people to want to get involved somehow, perhaps even by adopting one of these great kids. It should be a fun project.

Friday, instead of us making the 2 hour round trip to Poludino, Zoe will be brought to us in the morning so she can get her passport photo taken and she can spend time with us in town. After the photo shoot we will have lunch with her here at the hotel and then we will do a bit of shopping for boots. Saturday and Sunday will again be regular visit days at Poludino. In the afternoon, we hope to make a trip to the weekly open-air flea market and take lots of pictures. For those of you from east Texas, it is a lot like Canton, though only about the size of a city block.

We covet all your thoughts and prayers. Keep it up as it really makes a difference. The fervent and effectual prayers of a righteous man accomplish much!

Daaz vi daania,
Mike
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Feb. 21 – Tears of Joy and…

By Mike on 2/21/2003 8:39:00 AM

As some of you may remember from previous posts, today was the day Zoe would come to town to get her passport picture taken and spend time with us. She arrived shortly before noon and played with us alone in our hotel room until lunch at 12:30  with no interpreter. You heard it right, no interpreter. This was definitely the next step for us. Could we communicate enough to each other? The answer was a resounding yes. It was great.

At lunch she had some chicken soup and ate the entire bowl almost all by herself. After lunch we went for a walk to a local shoe store to try on some boots we had been eyeing al week. Another blessing, they were the last pair in stock yet fit perfectly. It was then that our interpreter told us that usually after lunch she takes a nap for a while so we came back to the room without interpreter.

This was the highlight of the day. We helped get her all ready for her nap and even though she fought us for a few minutes, we were still parents in the end and she laid down on the bed. She was still restless, looking at her watch and tossing and turning. Eventually she settled down to the point where Kim could gently caress her face and then rub her back. In seconds, she was snoozing, complete with cute little breaths.

After about 45 minutes, the interpreter showed up at the door and said it was time to go so Kim gently woke her up. After going to the toi-LETTE she came back into the room with a new timid smile as if she woke up a different person. I put her boots and coat on her and we sent her on her way with a big hug and ya-TIBIA lu-BLUE (I love you). After the door closed I looked at Kim and with huge tears in her eyes she said, “I feel like her momma now.” We took a minute to compose ourselves and then exhaled for what felt like the first time all day. It was certainly a day we will never forget.

Now for the “and…”. We went out for a walk to get some more groceries and some pads of paper. About half way through the 2 mile walk, I really started feeling week in the legs. By the time we got home it was official, the head cold I fought on the first part of the trip reared its ugly head again, only this time with fever and the chills. I suppose it may be a different bug. All I know is I feel gross. It was way too ironic when at dinner, that bluesy, jazzy song “Fever” was playing on the boom box. You know the one…”FEVER, in the morning, fever all through the night. You give me fever.” We could definitely use your prayers about my health as we are in the very busy final stretch here in Petro.

Mike
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Feb. 23 – Ready to be done

By Mike on 2/23/2003 8:52:05 PM

A good Monday morning to all from Kazakhstan. Sorry this journal is later than usual. Yesterday was a surprisingly busy day. We had our visitation in the morning as usual without incident. I think Zoe, Kim and I are all ready to be done with visitations and are ready to begin our new life together as a family. When we see Zoe with her group that she has lived with for years, she just seems tired of them and ready to move on. I suppose this is all part of the transition.

After the visit, we had to do some fun shopping with our driver and interpreter. We asked the orphanage director, Yuri, if there was something we could buy for the kids or the orphanage. He suggested we purchase several pairs of cross country skis for the kids. Being the jock I am, I was thrilled to get the kids something athletic.

We got back to the hotel, went shopping at the corner store for our lunch, bread, some sausage, cheese, water and yogurt and then headed home. After a quick lunch we were off shopping again, this time for the remaining gifts for all the great people who have helped us here in Kaz. We did take our last opportunity to walk the huge and chaotic open air market. It is like a huge flea market where vendors sell everything from skinned frozen mink, the critter, not the pelt, to beautiful blown glass and dozens of good clothing booths. We had to be very careful as we were without interpreter. If one of the vendors catches you eyeballing their merchandise for too long they will start yelling at you over the crowd and try to pull you into their booth.

We got back home and it was time to give the other woman in my life, my laptop, some overdue attention. I started working on the video we are producing, a documentary about the orphanage and the kids in it. I finally quit for the night at 1am after putting in about 6 hours. It is coming along well. Hopefully today we will get our interpreter to translate the interviews with Yuri, the doctor and the head caregiver, Lydia. My aggressive goal is to have it done to show at the farewell party tomorrow after court. Realistically though, it will just be a rough draft as the microphone we purchased generates a nasty humm that I can’t seem to get rid of.

Well, I need to get going here. I am 20 minutes behind schedule and need to catch up and meet our interpreter for our last trip to the orphanage for visitation. Pray for our safety as we travel. We got a few inches of snow yesterday and the roads are likely pretty bad. Also continue to pray for our court date tomorrow starting at about 9pm Monday night your time. We hear it is generally a formality, but we want to make sure God is in it. Finally continue to pray for my health. I am still fighting ‘the Grip” as they call it here. At this point I am just too busy to be sick so I am acting as if I am not and hoping my body will get the message. I know, this isn’t how to get better, but I don’t have much choice right now.

Take care all,
Mike
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Feb 25 – Gotcha Day

By Mike on 2/25/2003 6:56:25 AM

In the adoption world, the day parents are officially granted custody of their new child is Gotcha Day. Today is ours. I will try not to get all emotional and mushy in my journal because I am sure Kim’s for today will have enough of that for both of us. That isn’t to say that it wasn’t an emotional day for me though because at times it was tough to keep my composure.

It was a frantic race last night trying to get everything ready for the proceedings at court and after. The alarm went off the next morning at 6am and we leapt out of bed, well maybe crawled is a better word, bathed and headed for the door with all the gifts and Zoe clothes and way too much more by 6:45. Talked briefly with our coordinator and then we all headed to court about 90 minutes away.

We arrived at court a bit early but soon went inside only to wait around another 30 minutes for everything to be ready. It was fine though as Yuri the orphanage director kept the time light by cracking joke after joke. I really wish I understood more than 15 words of Russian so I would understand what he was saying. Our two translators couldn’t stop laughing but when they translated it just wasn’t as funny.

Finally it was time for court. We went into the Judge’s office/hearing room where we sat on one side with our interpreter. Directly across from us was a very nice lady from the Ministry of Education, the department that is ultimately in charge of orphans, Yuri, and the prosecutor, a 6’4” blond Russian looking man that appeared to be about 23 years old. To our left, the Judge sat behind his desk complete with a pretty nice computer and stacks of papers. My understanding is that this Judge presides over ALL cases for the region.

The proceeding was a breeze. First the Judge read the laws regarding adoption. Then the lady from the Ministry of Education told the Judge that based on what she knew about us (nearly all from our paperwork) she was in favor of the adoption. Then Yuri spoke and gave us a sparkling recommendation. The prosecutor then asked Yuri about any health problems Zoe might have and Yuri responded that there were some at birth, but they were completely cured and she was totally healthy now. Finally it was our turn. I thought I was going to have to give some sort of speech so I (over) prepared a statement that covered all the bases. The prosecutor asked us only one question. “Why do you want to adopt when you already have three children and are young enough to have another naturally.” I stood up and told the court the following.

“Both my parents passed away when I was young and when I was about Zoe’s age, I was taken in by a family even though they had kids of their own. Kim and I appreciate the difference it made in my life to taken in by this family and for 7 years have wanted to give a child the same opportunity. Additionally, my wife and I have been blessed not only financially but also with great children, family and friends. We feel it is a good thing to share those blessings with Zoe.”

That was it. We were asked to wait outside the Judges chambers while he rendered his verdict. When we returned, we stood has he read 4 single spaced pages of laws and findings about us. At the very end he explained that he agreed with all findings and had granted us parental custody of Zoe and ordered the name on her birth certificate be changed from Alma Z to Zoe Louise Strout. Tears were shed by most. For those keeping track, this was at exactly 10:35pm CST.

The next stop was, for lack of the correct name, the region’s human records office. We walked into the large room with about a dozen ladies standing around waiting to get some things processed and one lady behind a big old wood desk. We walked in and sat down and everyone started whispering about “amedicans”, looking at us at while smiling ear to ear. They parted like the read sea and let our translator walk right up to the desk. The clerk dropped everything she was working on and immediately took up our work, changing Zoe’s name officially. She prepared several documents and recorded the changes in several journals (no computers here). When she was done, she called us to the desk and announced to the entire room it her very loud Russian voice exactly what our business was and then gave Kim and I each a big hug. She said it was such a thrill to have “Real Amedicans” visiting. After we completed signing the books she made another announcement to the entire room and then the whole room applauded. Kim and I were totally flattered to the point of embarrassment that all these people would be so thrilled for us and Zoe.

From there it was off to the orphanage for a wonderful celebration lunch hosted by Yuri and Lydia, the head caregiver. I am about out of space in this journal. I will let Kimi pick up where I left off. It was GREAT DAY.

Mike
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Feb. 27 – She’s ours!

By Kim on 2/27/2003 6:57:47 AM

I am sorry that I didn’t write yesterday. My life is very busy and different. 

Our girl doesn’t like new things!  She cried going up in the airplane the first time.  She didn’t like the feeling of going up and coming down.  The middle seemed to be alright though. We had two legs to fly to get from Petro to Almaty. We are very thankful for Ermek her little buddy who’s family flew with us.  Ermek was very encouraging to Alma.  He kept saying, Nee boiss ya (don’t be scared) and the second time we went up she didn’t want him to see that she was scared so she put on a happy face and seemed to be better. By the time we landed the second time in Almaty she was an old pro at it, standing up and looking out the window at the tiny cars and the huge beautiful mountains that are on the edge of the city.

Last night we gave Zoe her first bath. I ran the bath water and she said,”Nyet!” I said, “Da”, and “Nee baleet”, “it won’t hurt”.  We had to pick her up and put her in fussing at us.  As soon as she got in she discovered she loved the bath tub and she has asked me three times today for a bath!

OH MY!! We have just experienced a momentous occasion!!!!!!! Alma’s very first uncoaxed English!  She said, “Papa, don’t do that!”  He was tickling and teasing with her.

Everyone seems to be amazed at her progress.  The agency people couldn’t believe how happy and well adjusted she was.  The doctor was pleased at her development…although she did say she has a heart murmur but she was almost positive that it was completely functional.

We were worried that she would have trouble sleeping alone but last night she slept on the sofa bed in the living room of our apartment with no trouble at all.  Mike rubbed her back and she was asleep in about 20 seconds.  We are trying to drop the 1-3pm nap so I am sure she was very tired.

During visitation she seemed to fight us not wanting to look at the photos of her new life, but now she is eager to look at them.  She also will say whatever we ask her to in English but until 15 minutes ago she didn’t say anything uncoaxed.  Our only frustration is her stubborn lack of trying new things.  She refuses to try new foods.  She eats very well the things she knows and likes though.

We are seeing everything through new eyes.  Last night she turned on and off all the lights at our apartment about 40 times.  The light switches at the orphanage are too high for the kids to reach. She also went potty at least 10 times. She loves to wash her hands with liquid soap.  She is very clean and loves to wash out clothes with me or wash dishes!

Gotcha Day was amazing and very emotional. I wish we had on video all the kids in her group kissing her goodbye.  I wept!  It was so sweet and so permanent. Then I cried some more and hugged everyone goodbye.   We will miss the sweet people at the orphanage, the hotel and especially our interpreter Marina.  It was hard to say goodbye to her as we got on the plane for home.  We could have done none of this without her.  As Mike mentioned, people were very receptive and accepting of our adoption.  We had heard that the people didn’t like their children to be taken from their country but we did not find that to be true. Everywhere people smiled and gave their approval!

It is very funny to be back here in Almaty.  When we arrived everything looked old. This time everything looks so new and beautiful, especially compared to Petro. We are very much appreciating the temperature difference too! Perspective is a very strange thing, isn’t it?  Our new apartment is beautiful and very comfortable.  It has a new bathroom with a huge bathtub, a cute kitchen, wonderful leather furniture in the living room and a washing machine. There is a guestbook and we found out Alma’s good friends from Petro stayed here as well.

Well, I must go and work on our INS paperwork for Monday.  Please pray that Monday goes smoothly and we can switch our tickets to go straight from Almaty to Frankfurt to home without stopping in Moscow.  We have decided to pay the penalty and make it easier on all of us.

We can’t wait to see all of you and introduce you to our girl! 

Because of Him,
Kim

 

New pictures 3/1

By Mike on 3/1/2003 3:52:56 AM

I thought I would let everyone know I put about a dozen new pictures on the site today. These will probably be the last upload of pictures before we travel. We will continue to journal up until Monday morning your time.

Mike
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March 2 – Really ready to go home

By Mike on 3/2/2003 9:32:58 AM

We went to the Green Market today.  It is a huge open market and we didn’t stay long because it was just like the open market in Petro.  After that we went to the Tsoom store again to do the last of our souvenir shopping. We made a quick trip to the Ramstore to get everything we may need for gifts or on the airplane and then it was back to the apartment. It is hard to believe we are in an exotic foreign city and we are in our apartment by 2pm packing a day earlier than necessary. We must just be ready to get back to our real life.

On the brighter side, today we went out to dinner with a really great family from Seattle that has just finished their first week of trying to adopt two boys, nine and thirty months. We had a great time sharing experiences and talking about Kazakhstan. One quick note about them…they started their adoption process trying to adopt both of these boys, but due to some law changes here in Kaz, they may only be able to bring home one. This will be terribly difficult for them as they have been splitting their visitation time between these two boys and have come to love them both much. We know that the fervent and effectual prayer of the righteous man accomplishes much because the Bible says so. We ask all of you to fervently pray for Marty and Kathy so that both these boys can know the joy of having a family to call their own at the same time!

As Kim mentioned yesterday, our journals are getting a bit weak these days because there just isn’t a whole lot going on for us. Sure we could tell you all the cute stuff Zoe did in the last 24 hours but most of all she is just being a 6 year old, which in and of it self thrilling and a total miracle all things considered. We were so proud of the way she sat at the table tonight for over two hours as us adults chatted about the fall of communism and such. She is a good girl. We can’t wait to have all of you meet her.

Finally, tomorrow is our INS interview which gets Zoe her citizenship. It will happen at 4am your time on Tuesday. Pray all goes smoothly as we will likely be the first Americans to every go through this process in Kazakhstan. All previous ISN interviews have been done at the US Embassy in Moscow.  Also, keep us in your prayers as we begin the long journey home tomorrow night. We leave for the airport at 1:30 pm your time on Monday and will arrive around 2pm Tuesday your time at DFW. Fortunately we will only fly two legs, Almaty to Frankfurt and then Frankfurt to DALLAS TEXAS, yee-haw. We can’t wait.

Hasta la vista for now. Sorry about that. We ate a place called the ElPaso Bar and Grill tonight and I am feeling a bit TexMex’y.

Mike
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P.S. Some of you probably didn’t hear, but the kids stopped by yesterday for a few minutes to get their picture taken overlooking Almaty. This is our first family photo (compliments of Photoshop) ;-)

 

Last message from Almaty

By Mike on 3/3/2003 11:07:35 AM

Real quick as I am about out of Internet minutes here in Almaty. We found out at about 9:45 that INS was able to get Zoe's visa processed. Unless the snow we received all day today holds us up, we will be in the air by 4am.

Thanks for all your prayers! See you all very soon.

Mike, Kim and Zoe!

 

March 8 - Home!!

By Kim on 3/8/2003 10:11:01 AM

Well, we have been home for a couple of days now.  The first night, Zoe woke up at 3:00am and couldn’t go back to sleep.  I played with her for 3 hours and then Mike got up and took her to work.  The ladies at his work have been following our adoption via the website so when they saw her they were so excited.  Mike said they would call her name and she would run to them like they were old friends.  He continues to bring home presents from work for her.  Thank you so much everyone at Tyler CVC for the wonderful gifts! 

At 3:00pm Zoe went to her room and took a nap.  I had to wake her and keep her awake at 5:00 but she slept that night from 8:30 until 7:00am.  She had a nasty fit before bed as we tried to get her to eat something.  I think all she had eaten that whole day was an orange and some stew.  I probably should have been more sensitive as I have been fairly nauseous these first few days myself so eating wasn’t a priority but I don’t weigh 37 pounds!  Anyway, she woke up and wanted to know where Papa was.  I think she wanted to make up to him.

The next day we took my parents to the airport.  It was such a pleasure to have them here.  Mom cooked for us just like when my boys were born.  We roared at dinner one night because Mom had made a wonderful meal and Zoe wouldn’t eat any of it.  My mom said when she was growing up her mother used to say. “Eat your dinner, some little child from the other side of the world would love to have that to eat!”  There was our little sweetie from the other side of the world with her lip curled up saying, “nee hichoo- I don’t want.” Great- Grandma Arnn is probably laughing in heaven too! I am so excited to go to Minnesota in June and spend some quality time with them when Zoe has found her place in the family and the language barrier is less.

Yesterday morning she woke up at 4:00am again.  We played quietly in her bed until the sun came up about 6:00 and then got up and dressed.  Breakfast all of us had cereal.  I told Zoe I wanted her to just eat one.  All the rest of the kids ate their breakfast and were excused from the table.  Zoe goofed around on her chair until she fell off of it.  When I sat her back in her chair, she went ballistic and had a screaming kicking fit. I told her it was time to sleep and she fought and kicked and climbed out of bed.  I told her she had to stay in bed, she screamed and got out again.  I lightly swatted her behind and she seemed to be familiar with that because she stayed in bed.  I told her “10 minutes of quiet” in Russian and she screamed and kicked the bed.  After 10 minutes I went in and asked her if she was done.  Then I told her in Russian , I loved her but I didn’t love her nasty fit and then I told her I was always going to be her Mama. She smiled and hugged me and we have not had a problem since. 

We met Papa in town for lunch at Taco Bell.  Zoe ate the insides out of 2 soft tacos. PRAISE GOD!  We went to Wal-Mart and bought some groceries.  Zoe does not seem to get over-stimulated; she was more bored then anything and kept saying, “Let’s go. “  After that she helped Papa clean out the garage.  She loves to help do ANYTHING.  Your will be rinsing a dish and find two extra, tiny hands in the sink with you. Last night we ate spaghetti and she had seconds!  We went to Mike’s brothers house after dinner to try to keep Zoe up.  We showed them the videos of the orphanage being sensitive to the fact that it may be painful for Zoe but she loved to see herself in the videos and watched along, telling us when she saw herself.

We took her home at 8:30 and she didn’t even want a bath. She put jammies on right away and slept from 8:45-7:30.  She even woke up at 5:30 to go to the bathroom and then went back to sleep! This morning she ate a good breakfast. She seems to be more willing to try new things now.  We are trying to make it clear that we just want her to try it! We are trying to keep busy as we know that she had a very structured life before.  Today we are going to Hannah’s track meet and then maybe to Longview. 

Because of Him,
Kim

 

Week one results

By Mike on 3/12/2003 11:38:43 PM

It has been just over a week since we got back from Kazakhstan so I thought it would be good to look at a few benchmarks to see who we and Zoe are doing.

1. Everyone is over their jetlag now.
2. Zoe is still having a difficult time staying up past 8pm since we dropped her midday nap. As a result, she is up and ready to go by 6:45am.
3. Eating is going much better. She drinks milk and will eat almost any meat we put in front of her including chicken. Breakfast is still the most difficult meal of the day. We are still working to find something for her to eat other than fruit.
4. Bath time is great. She loves it.
5. Zoe still feels the need to find Kim and personally tell her "pee sit" (potty time) at which point Kim or I respond, "Go ahead."
6. We need to work with her more on being modest. Our 11 and 12 year old boys and I don't appreciate when she doesn't close the bathroom door before using the toilet or taking baths.
7. She is getting used to the American way of dressing. It has been at least in the mid 70's these past few days here and she wasn't sure about wearing shorts until we told her sistrunka wears them all the time.
8. Her ability to understand our English is progressing rapidly. I would guess she probably understands 50% of what we say already. She still speaks very little English, but we work with her constantly on it.
9. Socially, she does just fine with other kids as well as adults, whether it be family, friends or people from church our my work.
10. We are working hard trying to figure out how to raise a strong willed, close minded child. Our first three kids were so easy. Sorry to all those parents of strong willed kids who we just couldn't relate to until now.

That's about all for now. Pray for wisdom for all of us. We so want to do the best job we can transitioning Zoe to our family and life in America but are daily working very hard to figure out how.


Mike
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March 30 - Week 3

By Kim on 3/30/2003 8:02:46 PM

Well, we had a rough week. Twice this week when we told Zoe she had to apologize for something, she refused.  The first time I told her she had to stay in her room until she told her brother she was sorry.  She refused for 4 HOURS!!!!  The kids and I were very patient and tried not to make it seem like we were humiliating her but I did say, she HAD to say she was sorry.  We showed her that we all say we are sorry to each other because we love each other.  NO GO!  Eventually, the one that she was supposed to apologize to got her to loosen up and apologize.  We hoped that it was over until Mike went through the whole thing again on Sunday morning.  Yikes!  You should see this child put her chin down and pout.  It’s kind of frightening!  Anyway, the Sunday argument had started because she was so grouchy before church.  Mike said he wouldn’t take a grouchy child to church.  I gently told her to go to her room so her “grouchies” wouldn’t get spread to everyone in the family.  I told her if I felt grouchy I would go to my room for the same reason.   Sunday evening when she got grouchy because she didn’t want to eat the 1 piece of celery I put on her plate, we asked her if she was grouchy and she shook her head no and found a new attitude! Please pray that she gets it and we won’t have to see much more of that!!!!

Zoe’s English for the week:

1.         Buckle up
2.         ____________ is crazy!  (Her favorite person to put in the blank is her sweet silly Uncle Jeff.)
3.         Daisy is a naughty dog. (Our Chihuahua is having accidents in the house.)
4.         Bouncy bouncy (She loves to bounce on our trampoline).
5.         Baby sleepy (she is usually talking about her doll.)
6.         Ice cream bar
7.         Bike
8.         Church
9.         Track practice. (We take Hannah there a couple of times a week.  One time this week she called it Track potty and we all had a good laugh - Zoe included!)

 

April 19 - A breakthrough

By Kim on 4/19/2003 5:29:42 PM

Well, we have had an interesting and wonderful week with Zoe.  Last Saturday we were showing her pictures of the orphanage and we told her that it was her old home and this was her new home.  She said that the orphanage was not her old home it was her new home.  We were kind of surprised, but carefully tried to explain to her that mom and pop, her siblings, her cousins, her aunt and uncle, her friends and her dogs live HERE.  Then I reminded her that there were no ice cream bars, trampolines, swimming pools, playgrounds, horse rides, candy, etc. at her old home.  She seemed to “get it” as she then walked around the whole house touching things and telling me she didn’t have this at her old home.  A couple of days later, Mike showed her the pictures again.  He asked her if she got sad looking at the pictures of her old home.  She said it made her happy because she lives here now!  Praise God!!!!

Since then, others have really noticed a change in her.  The people at church said she seems better adjusted and less angry.  Thanks everyone for your prayers.  We didn’t even know that this was an issue and God helped us find it and settle it. 

A mixed blessing, Zoe’s language is coming at an amazing speed, but it is a little sad for me because I know she is losing her Russian.  Right now she is listening to the CD we gave her in Kaz of kid’s Russian songs. I turned to the song that she sang in Kaz and knew all the words for.  Already she doesn’t remember the song. 

We are so pleased at how well Zoe is fitting into our family and how well our big kids are adjusting to having a new sibling.  They are so sweet and patient with her.  I couldn’t have imagined that it could be this good in such a short time.  We all love her so much and are so glad that God put her in our family!

Because of Him,
Kim