A LONG Overdue Update

Well, it has been nearly 4 months since we arrived home from Almaty with Nicholas & Emma.  And what a difference a few months make!  Emma has grown 2 inches, 2 shoe sizes, and gained 4 pounds.  She is a little clown, very independent, and easygoing.  She makes us laugh on a daily...make that hourly...basis.  Nicholas has grown physically too, but his transformation has been far beyond just physical.  It has been such a joy to watch him grow into the delightful little guy he is today.  He is picking up English like crazy and now understands most of what we say.  He has progressed leaps and bounds in his development, too.  He had surgery on July 27 to remove his adenoids and put tubes in his ears and is breathing and hearing (and I'm sure, feeling) much better now.  We are so in love with both of them.  I cannot even begin to imagine what has gone on in their minds...from the long, exhausting train ride to Almaty to meeting us again, to the long, exhausting plane trip home, and then living in a family with new foods, smells, sights....what an overwhelming process!  I think most adults would find it difficult to bear, and they have adjusted so quickly and beautifully.  Nathan is doing great, too, and truly enjoying the company of his little brother and sister.  We are so proud of them all!  I'll be adding more updates in the coming weeks to try to catch up, but really just wanted to share a few pictures with you all.  We cannot thank you enough for your prayers, support and love as we welcomed home our new children.  We love you!

Back to Kazakhstan!

After 5 LONG weeks of waiting, we are finally headed back to Kazakhstan to be reunited with our children.  We're scheduled to arrive in Almaty around midnight on Tuesday night.  Nicholas and Emma (yes, she's EMMA now...more on that later) will leave Karaganda on Tuesday night with their doctors, board an overnight train, and arrive in Almaty around 5:30 am Wednesday morning.  We will be there waiting with open arms!  We are so thankful to be taking Nathan with us again and he's very excited to make the trip and see his brother and sister again.  We are not taking our computer this time, but we will try to get to an Internet cafe at least once to give an update and post a couple of pictures.  It's a very quick trip...just 2 days in country, and we're scheduled to arrive back in Houston on Friday night. 

Here's a quick update on things since our last post....

Our last day in Karaganda was a whirlwind.  We went to court in the morning, then to the orphanage for our tea party with the doctors and director.  We had brought a bag full of donations for older children, since they are rarely adopted and therefore, rarely see any donations, or visitors for that matter.  Larisa, our facilitator, drove us to an orphanage for children age 6-16.  We only got to spend about 15 minutes there as it was the children's nap time, but it was 15 minutes we'll never forget.  I pray they will find love, purpose, and most of all, a family.  We made it back to Shapagat just in time for our last visit with Nicholas & Emma. 

We tried to explain to Nicholas (thru our translator Elena) that we had to leave but would come back to get them in a few weeks, but he did not understand at all.  We took them back to their room for the last time, hugged and kissed them goodbye, and took a couple of final pictures.  This picture is the last mental image we have of them....they look really puzzled, wondering why Mama looks so strange (I was crying my eyes out by this point)!  I think this (leaving my children) was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do.

So, about Emma....when we first arrived in Karaganda and met the children, Elena told us that we needed to finalize their names by that afternoon.  What?!  That's right.  We had a matter of hours to choose names for our children, so we chose Nicholas and Nadia, the names that we had talked about for months.  Remember, we didn't even have Internet access then, so we couldn't look up any name meanings, etc. and we were completely exhausted from jet lag.  Anyway, after about a week of calling her "Nadia", it just didn't seem right for her so we began exploring other names.  We finally decided on sweet "Emma", so she's Emma Elizabeth Leila Pylant.  We plan to call them "Nicholas Tamerlan" and "Emma Leila" for a while to help them transition to their new first names.   

We thank you all so much for your support and prayers.  Here are a few specific prayer requests as we head off on Trip 2:

1) Safe, smooth flights and train trip for the kids (we recently found out that Nicholas has severe motion sickness, so special prayers for him)

2) Glitch-free appointments at the clinic and Embassy on Wednesday and Thursday

3) That we would get to sit together on the plane trip home (we're not right now)

4) Good health and rest for all

5) Smooth transitions for all three children

Love,

Melanie

Preparing for Goodbye

We're making a really focused effort to take lots of pictures during the last few days, in hopes that it will somehow make up for the time we'll lose with them in March. We had our normal morning visit in their playroom waiting room...the last time we'll visit them in that room. 

After the morning visit, we went to a dress factory to pick up the traditional Kazakh outfits we ordered for the kids, and for our friends' little girls who were also adopted from Kazakhstan. The dresses are beautiful!!! We'll have to post some pictures of the children in them after they arrive home.

We brought Nicholas and Nadia's snow suits to try on them during the afternoon visit. We'll leave a big bag of clothes, shoes, diapers, snow suits, hats, etc. for them when we leave next week, and want to be sure everything fits. Nadia looked precious in her little red suit and she wanted it off as soon as we got it on her. Then we dressed Nicholas in his coat, hat and mittens and he liked them so much he didn't want to take them off. We tried several times and he made it very clear that he didn't wish to part with them! He ended up wearing all of it during the entire visit in the very sunny, very warm family room. We tried to conceal our giggles as we watched him trying to look at books and eat cookies with his fuzzy mittens on. Toward the end of the visit we noticed sweat coming from his forehead...he finally took off the hat for a minute to reveal a completely soaked, sweaty head. But he still wouldn't let go of the hat, and promptly put it back on. Perhaps he went to bed tonight in his winter wear. I'm sure we'll show him the video of this in a year and he'll be laughing too. We started thinking maybe he thinks we're taking him home now, and then felt really bad that we ever tried them on him. Poor little guy. I can't wait to show him all his clothes at home and help him understand that nobody will take his clothes or food anymore. 

We kissed them goodbye as usual, and had dinner at our favorite German restaurant just down the street from our apartment. 

Tomorrow between visits, we're going souvenir shopping and running a few final errands before court on Monday. Pacah-Pacah! 

At the Orphanage

We have been spending our time at Shapagat baby house in Karaganda. When we were here in 2005 it was called Malutka, but there has been a trend in Kazakhstan toward changing Russian names to Kazakh ones, particularly for government buildings. They are really trying to revive the Kazakh culture and language that was stifled in the Soviet era. It is one of two orphanages in Karaganda for children 0-5 years of age. Shapagat is a little bit outside the city, while the other baby house is right in the city center. It is a well-run, very clean and loving home. The caregivers, doctors and director take their jobs very seriously and try to make it a warm, loving place for the children in their care. We're posting some pictures of Nicholas and Nadia's room (Room 8)...you can see some of the other little cuties in the background. Their caregivers are very sweet and we're getting to know them as the days pass. 

Kids' Bedroom

Kids' Playroom

We've enjoyed getting to see nearly all of Nathan's caregivers, too. We took Nathan to his former room and showed him where his crib was, where he ate, got changed, etc. He really got a kick out of it. Ludmila took down a small photo album from the bookcase and showed us our family picture that we gave them when we said goodbye 5 years ago. I couldn't believe they still had it! They have all remembered Nathan and shout out “Nariman!” every time they see him. He's gotten quite used to being grabbed, squeezed, and having his cheeks pinched. It's very heartwarming, and it's been wonderful for him to see firsthand how much he was loved.

Nathan and Ludmilla

Nathan and Tania

Nathan and Galina

Nicholas has started giving us kisses...lots of them! I say “hug mama” and he runs into my arms, and say “kiss mama” and he kisses me over and over. He especially likes being tossed in the air by "Papa" and jumping into his arms.  We say “haroshee maleet-cheek” which means “good boy” to encourage him. He is very hungry for praise and attention, so we're offering lots and lots of it. He's also smart and determined. He gets upset if we take anything from him, which we sometimes have to do (like trying to run with scissors!) and will lay down on the floor and cry. He's definitely getting better as he learns to trust us, and we're getting better at being able to predict his behavior and redirect it. I know the language barrier is a huge contributor to this, and it must be so frustrating for him not being able to understand why we do what we do. Nadia is generally happy and busy. She protests loudly if she sees food and doesn't get it quickly enough, or whenever the food or drink is gone. One thing we've noticed is that these kids are tough...they fall down and hit their heads and don't even blink. In the orphanage it's generally every man for himself, and I think they're used to this.

Brothers

Nadia when she is mad--she doesn't like it when Mommy has to put her down, even if it's just for a quick photo!

There are a ton of families in the orphanage now. Four new families came yesterday and three more arrived today. Even though we still hate to leave next week, I can understand why they say there's no room in the orphanage for families who have passed court to continue visiting. But if they could just make an exception for US....(smile).  Dos ve danya for now.

Talking

The Boys!

Touring the City

The weather has warmed up a bit the past couple of days. I think we even reached 0 degrees F on Friday! On Saturday, our translator Elena and driver Karat took us on a tour of the city. The first stop was the site of the Soviet-era gulag, dating back to the 1930s. Gulag is basically a concentration camp. Stalin sent millions of people there—prisoners of war from WWII, as well as Russians and Kazakhs, mainly the educated, thinkers, artists, philosophers, or anyone else who might speak out against him. There were monuments erected on the vast snowy steppe outside the city—a monument for every nation's citizens who were buried in a mass grave somewhere underneath. It was amazing to see all the nations represented—Japan, Ukraine, Italy, Germany, Poland, Latvia, Finland, and even more. Stalin chose only Kazakhstan and Siberia for these massive gulags, and I'm stunned that I had never heard of them before coming on this trip. Elena tells us that nearly everyone in Karaganda has a story of a grandparent who lived and/or died in the camps. Stalin would send people there by the trainloads. The men would go to work in the camps, and any children would be sent to the orphanages. Families often never saw each other again. Such a sad history. Elena believes this is why Kazakhstan is generally a peaceful nation now. After the Soviet Union fell, all of the smaller republics ended up in some type of conflict with one of their neighbors...all except Kazakhstan. They were the only ones that had to endure the atrocities of the gulags and learned to live together with other races and religions through their shared suffering. It was amazing how much colder it was there than in the city. With no buildings or trees, the wind is free to whip across the barren land completely unhindered. I had to take my gloves off to take a few pictures, and felt frostbitten after about 30 seconds.

Site of Soviet Gulag

A view of the city from the road

After the gulag, we went to the Russian Orthodox church and then to the mosque. We had attended a service at the church when we were here in 2005, but we had never been in a mosque before. Me, Elena and Nuria had to put on hooded robes to cover ourselves (even though we had on huge winter parkas). Women are only allowed in a small room on the lower level, while the men go upstairs to a larger prayer room. We got to see about 3 different weddings starting before we left to continue our tour. We drove by a coal mine (the main industry in Karaganda), the Kazakhstan soccer team's stadium, the former KGB building, and the maternity hospital where all our children were born. It was an enlightening day learning more about this developing nation.

Orthodox Church

Church Interior

That afternoon we got to talk to our coordinator, Larisa, about staying for one long trip, just as we did during Nathan's adoption. It wasn't looking good so we didn't get our hopes up. We noticed that none of the other families here mentioned the possibility of 1 trip.  Sure enough, Larisa said it's not possible anymore. The orphanage director is no longer allowed to let families take their children to their apartments during the waiting period. And there is no room in the orphanage for families who have already passed court to continue visiting with their children. We are very disappointed at the thought of leaving Nicholas and Nadia. But we've learned that you have to go with the flow. Everything is not in your control. So unless the judge waives the 15-day waiting period (which has never happened to our knowledge), we will be returning home without our 2 newest little ones. We will go to court on March 1, fly to Almaty on March 2, and fly back to Houston on March 3. We should be able to return about 3 weeks later to pick them up and bring them home.

That's about all we have to report. All 3 of us have had brief bouts of illness the past couple of days, but are on antibiotics and feeling much better. Thanks for your prayers!  We love you.

Our Apartment Building

And now some fun pictures of playtime at the orphanage!

Learning Russian and Finding the City's Best Pizza!

We got our water back. Hooray!!  It feels good to be clean again, and we were happy not to move apartments.  Nicholas and Nadia are doing great.  I wish we could bring them home tomorrow.  Nicholas talks more and more everyday...some in Kazakh and some in Russian, so we're never really sure what he's saying.  But it's great seeing those walls come down as we earn his trust.  Our Russian is getting better and our translator, Elena, has been helping us with important phrases like "Are you thirsty?"...."hochesh peet".  He also got a haircut, and looks very dapper!  Nadia babbles a lot...mostly "ya ya" and "ma ma" and "da".  We found out that until a month ago, Nadia was in the same room (#6) where Nathan was.  We love those ladies, so this was exciting news. 

We went to a new mall yesterday, "City Mall" and ate the best pizza we've found so far.  The mall also had a Lego store!!  Nathan was thrilled and has been working on building cars from his new set.  We got quite a bit of of snow yesterday.  It looked beautiful and we were happy to be warm inside our car!

More Photos and an Update

Well, we're having problems getting onto blogger, so not sure how often we'll be able to post.  Our lunch on Sunday was great.  We were celebrating our friend Stephanie passing court. She is French and is adopting a precious little 2-year old girl with a cleft palate.  The food and company were both fabulous.  We spent the rest of the afternoon exploring markets and shops and trying to stay warm. 

We're having a great time with our kids and have seen their personalities blossom.  Nicholas spends the majority of our visits laughing, hugging, and running from one activity to the next.  Such a huge change from the stoic little boy we first met last week.  He and Nathan have shared some boy-bonding time through (what else?) wrestling and are really starting to enjoy each other's company.  Nadia is glued to me and fusses if I put her down or hand her to anybody else.  I am enduring this the best I can (smile).  They are so precious...

We spend the morning visitations in a small foyer just outside of their room.  There are about 15 other children, ages 1-3, in their room.  When we come, they all run up to us, eager for a smile or pat on the head.  They are all so desperate for personal attention, and it's difficult to walk away from them each and every time.  I pray that they would be reunited with their families, or that God would send new ones to love them.  We get to spend our afternoon visits in a much larger "family" room with other adopting families.  The caregivers send a snack for Nicholas and Nadia when we pick them up in the afternoon, which is usually a piece of bread, a large piece of apple (seeds and all), and a glass of either hot milk or hot tea.  They both scarf it all down, barely breathing between bites.  Nadia is used to feeding herself and drinking out of a regular cup (not a sippy cup).  But she still drinks with a sucking response, so we just bought her a sippy cup and hope to start giving her formula in a bottle once we have her full-time. 

We're all doing great...everyone's healthy and happy.  Our apartment building has lost all cold water (we think a pipe froze underground), so we've been without for 5 days now.  This means that all tap water is scalding hot...we can't take showers, do laundry, and we have to wash our hands very quickly!  But we're managing just fine.  If it's not fixed tomorrow, they'll probably move us to another apartment.  Thanks again for the prayers and for following along with us!  We love you!