Today

We woke up this morning and headed down to breakfast. Andrew tried to order pancakes (bliny) but evidently they don’t serve them. It’s become quite the joke between the families – one gave us syrup so now I will buy some pancake mix at the store. Instead he had fried eggs and bacon. I just eat a little off his plate and drink coffee. The hotel staff don’t seem to care – we only get one free breakfast and all the couples just share with their spouse. Usually everyone orders ham and cheese omelets – they probably think that’s all Americans eat. :) Little do they know I can never get them folded right when I make them. :)

You are all probably tired of hearing about the details of our visits with the boys but that is the highlight of each day! :) We, of course, think our boys are the cutest, sweetest, and smartest kids in the whole world and everything they do is noteworthy. :)

Patrick was excellent this morning. He seems to like our new routine and is so happy after his nap. He really liked the banana puffs today. Our driver came into the room we were playing in to let us know he was back and Patrick backed up into my lap for safety – very sweet! He met another family here today and buried his head in my shoulder. :) He didn’t cry at all except when we first got there. When our time was up, I took him to the caregiver and he went to her but when I told him goodbye in Kazakh he reached out and touched my hand. He kept looking back at me as I was leaving – it’s so hard only seeing the boys once a day but we are glad for the extended time!

This afternoon we prayed with another couple headed to court to finalize their adoption. Their little boy is so cute and they are wonderful parents. We are so happy for them! We met them before we came here (online) and really enjoy them. We will be sorry to see them leave but are so excited for their family! We just returned from their room and everything is great…they pick up their baby in a little bit! We are thrilled – the 15 days were waived so they will be here only 1 more week. **On a side note: we tried very hard to find the courthouse to meet them when court let out and walked a good 1 hour without success. :) We have now seen some other parts of Uralsk. We went with friends and had icecream which made the walk much better!

We will visit Calvin shortly and think we may stay inside…since he doesn’t walk, he gets very bored outside. We’ll see, maybe we will go for a little walk – it’s very warm here, so hopefully we will not have to bundle him up in a snowsuit. :) We are enjoying the weather! It was so cold when we arrived last week but it has been in the 70’s and sunny this week. All is well – life is good. We will have a celebration dinner for the finalized adoption tonight at the hotel restaurant.

Calvin was delighted to see us! He was really into the banana puffs today and does pretty well with them. He kept demanding more – we tried a little juice (with lots of water added) but he was more into the food. :) They will not let us feed him cereal or anything – we wish we could. They also do not think he needs formula…we know he does. He loves the fish puppet from Aunt Liz and Aunt Margaret and laughs so much when we play with it. He also puts it on his hand but doesn’t quite understand what to do with it. He has a diaper rash and I have been given permission to use baby wipes to clean his bottom and then use diaper rash ointment. I feel bad for him – they don’t clean him very much because they are afraid he will catch a cold. He demonstrated his strong will again today – we have to teach this little boy to talk so we understand what provokes this aggression! :) He loved playing with a balloon (of course with careful supervision) – the other family brought it for their 3 year old son who didn’t want much to do with it. :)

We had a wonderful dinner – 2 ½ hours! (We’ll tell more stories about this tomorrow!) The baby had to retire early and we were among the last to leave. The food was very good tonight. I had a chicken roll with mushrooms and Andrew had a stew with onions and beef. Mostly it’s just nice to have such good company. One more week and we will be turning our papers in to go to court. Yeah!