February 22, 2010

Another snowy morning here in Semey; everything is covered in a white blanket. Unlike back home, the snow does not get all dirty, which is strange because they only use leaded gas. They are already starting to clear the snow in the park; they use large shovels made out of wood; they look hand made but work really well, better than our shovels,

We found out last Friday that we will be going to court on Friday 26th at 11.30. We had chosen not to share this because we are still missing one important document. We were able to get it updated, but only will have an email version not the original. But because we had already planned on leaving Sunday the 28th, Tatyana said we have nothing to lose by trying. The judge knows we are missing this, but we have to also get the approval of several other court members, so we are going to cross our fingers. The worst case is we will have to come back and make 3 trips and we would value your prayers at this time, because we have a 50-50 chance either way. A few people have asked if we have everything worked out, so this is why we are updating you only now.  I do not have any type of feeling either way. Normally I always think the worst, so I am trying to think positive. If we have to come back, yes it is a pain, but we would do any thing to make Oliver our son for ever. So, that’s the big news of the day. We are sorry if we kept it from everybody, we just are not to sure how it will end this trip.

Today when I went into the group to collect Ollie I called his given name. We are trying really hard to call him Ollie, but because it took us so long to pick a name we have been using his birth name. Now it is a little hard to get out of the habit. Anyway, when I called his name he turned around so fast, and as always, gives me the biggest smile. What is funny, he already knows we are different from the care givers because when we have him he really does not want to be put down. We joke and say how he is trained to play in the group, but with us, we are there just for him, which is the way we want him to think. I was able to try a few outfits on him today while in the playroom, nobody ever comes in there while we are in there. He really is not that big, he fit in to 9 month clothes great right now and 12 month has a little room, so that helps for return visits. He looked so different in little gap outfits. Carolyn had said yesterday how miss matched he always looks, well not today, although I was unable to take a picture as at this time. He was unhappy from all the trying on, sorry you are going to have to wait a while longer. After this he was so tired so I decided to let him sleep 15 mins, because he was so unhappy and it was cruel to try to keep him awake. He was asleep in seconds, but must be a very deep sleeper as it took a lot to wake him up poor boy!!!!!!!!!

Next we went to a bigger grocery store to buy diapers to leave for Ollie while we are gone. We had just picked up 4 jumbo packs, they are really hard to find, and we were just about to pay when the power went out so we had to leave everything and leave. The power was also out at the photo store so we were unable to do a lot today.

We were able to take our walk and see our park dog.

Now it is time to go for our afternoon visit. This week is really flying by, tomorrow we are going to an outside market, Wed is my birthday, then on Thur our facilitator is coming to go over the court process and go over what we should have in our speech. Lets hope the weather stays good. Last time she meant to come they closed UST where she lives, nobody was allowed to leave the city. Tatyana is not due here until later Friday afternoon. Today I was able to feed Ollie in a high chair not sure why, but he seemed to be fine with it, then we went upstairs to play. He was really interested in playing with a shape sorter, banging the shapes together. He also is really in to playing peek a boo. He was getting a little tired by the end of our visit but hung in until the end. When we took him back, a few babies were in walkers. There is one little baby we have nick named speedy, he is really fast and is able to open the door and slide out to where Dominic, Victoria and Isabel are waiting. He is so funny and seems to know what he is doing, so Isabel gets to push him back in to the group. He does this several times each visit. Isabel always leaves saying, I hope speedy either goes home soon or is adopted. I hope for that to.

After our visit we went to a large auto market to buy some KZ car decal stickers. Our driver seems to know where you are able to buy almost everything. We also had to print the photos for court. It is not like going to your local CVS, the store owner goes through the chip with you and you just say da- yes or Nyet-no. Well, after 700 photos we were done. We have to go back in the morning to pick them up, put them in an album, I write a short sentence, and then Victoria will translate it in to Russian.

We also went for an early dinner. At home I really do not eat red meat, here the chicken all seems to be dark meat except for the chicken kebab so I have eaten more red meat these 3 weeks than I normally do in a year. Oh well, it tastes really good. Now lets just hope my dress fits for court!!!!!!!!!

The Vigale Family

Adoption Journey to Kazakhstan

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