What do you do with an hour????

The International Doctor was here to see Jody's baby today and it was decided that we would be at the baby house at the same time so I got to spend the entire time with Denis which was over an hour. After about 25 minutes he'd been through everything in the knapsack, drunk as much of the juice as he wanted (and spilled as twice as much on my jeans) Denis looked at me with his hands in the air as if to say 'Now what do we do?" I was hysterical. Denis has become so accustomed to our short little visits that he was bored by the 25 minute mark. The funny thing is Yulia was shortly at the door to say she was bored and wondered what we were doing as she had nothing to do. It was too funny.

Actually I sat there in the isolation room with Denis as he took everything out of the knapsack and I thought those 2 long flights home next month should be a LOT of fun. Actually I hope Denis will be so interested in everything that the journey will be fun. I do have to get a lot of electronic toys for him because he likes things that do something.

One thing he played with today was my camera. I gave in and let him play with it when he came over and took the wrist strap and put it around his tiny little arm like a pro and then looked at me as if to say, "Well look I'm responsible and ready to use the camera". I'd showed him how to use the strap about a month ago when I let him look at the photos on the camera, it's touch screen and likes making the pictures move. Today he LOVED taking pictures. They were almost all of his left fingers as he holds the camera with a finger or two over the lens. I'd already decided to let him have my old camera, good call.

Oh, at one point during the visit the door flies open and there in the doorway is the doctor and one of the nurses. She looks in and then walks away. I felt quite smug as I had my mask over my face when she looked in, and I was so happy that I didn't have Denis on the window ledge or upside down, he was just in my arms. Whew, that was close. I actually wear my mask most of my visit and as I've said before Denis will put it back on if it slips off. Won't he be in for a surprise when I take him home and he learns that I don't wear them.

This afternoon Jody had Kendra, her family and I over for lunch. It was a lovely afternoon. We had a great time telling stories and watching Kendra's daughter's antics. Jody and I walked to the Chagala after lunch so that Jody could use the internet, she still doesn't have it in her apartment. I'd brought my knitting, so we had a nice hour in the lobby of the Chagala. And then we froze on the walk back to our apartments. As we were only walking a couple of blocks we both figured we wouldn't need long johns, WOW we were wrong. That was a cold walk home. Tomorrow promises to be around the same temperature. The upside of the temperature is the beautiful sunshine. It has been rare to see the sunshine in the past month.

Oh, I had an interesting morning before going to the baby house. When I got up there was normal electricity, however after a few minutes the power dropped dramatically and 20 minutes later their was no electricity at all. Jody mentioned the lack of street and traffic lights on her walk to my apartment this morning, so the power outage was more than the just my building. The power was back by the time we returned from our morning outing. I have to say that going through your morning routine by candle and flash light is really interesting.

Well,I'm back to a 20 minute visit tomorrow, Wednesday will mark the end of the appeal period and Thursday the judge can sign the adoption decree into fact. Tomorrow also marks the beginning of my 9th week here, I think I'm ready to go home, especially after learning the finally paperwork seems to be taking 5 to 6 more weeks. That would just be too long away from home. I'm ever so sorry to leave Denis, but living here with a 2 year old would be near impossible, especially as the temperature is dropping  and I'm sure there will be more snow. I can't imagine trapsing all over town to get water and groceries with a two year old, and there isn't much to do here with a child. We actually don't see to many children out and and about, I don't know where they are hiding but they aren't often out in public.

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Another Day Another 20 Minutes

I was wondering the other day how much time I've actually spent with Denis, and then I decided I probably didn't want to be any more sad than I am. I'm getting organized to leave and I'm amazed at how sad I am at the thought of leaving this city that I've come to consider home. I was teasing Yulia today that I now know exactly where to go for most of the things that I need or want. As I've said before I'll be sad to say goodbye to my friends. During the drive to the baby house Yulia told Andre that I will be leaving soon and he said that I can't go I'm almost a citizen I should get my passport and not worry about Denis'. LOL

My visit was suppose to be 20 minutes but I think it was actually 30 minutes. It is such precious time. He is such a loving boy. He really enjoys giving and receiving love and attention. I so can't wait to have him forever. Towards the end of our visit he decided to check out my purse and found my sunglasses case, he decided that would be a great thing to keep and he put up quite a fuss when I said he had to return it. I quickly redirected his attention by having him turn off the light. Then we went and took a picture with today's caregivers. I think there are 4 teams of 2 who work with the children. I have photos of 3 of the 8 caregivers, and I have photos of all the children still in his group. I need to learn all their names so I can tell Denis when he is older.
These aren't new photos, just the three I had printed today,

1. We are family - taken just after leaving court after learning the judge said yes
2. Playing outside on a beautiful day at Baby House 1
3. My favourite picture of Denis and I taken our first week together at Baby House 2
   

I brought a baby photo album for Denis. When I arrived there were photos of my brother, my sister, Dastan, Alex and Loretta. I wanted to show how Dastan and Alex have grown and I wanted to show Denis the people he will come to know when he comes home. Today after our visit Yulia helped me to get some photos of Denis and I to put into the photo album. I was looking at the picture of Denis and I from court day, the day we became family and I realized that we really do look alike. I especially like how our smile is so similar. I'm so glad that I trusted the journey that God took me on to find my son, this certainly has been a journey of blessings and Denis is the greatest blessing of all.

While we waited for the photos to be printed, Yulia and I went to the big church so I could purchase an icon. I want an icon of the Virgin Mother and infant Jesus. Yulia thinks the exact same way I do, as she suggested the same icon when I told her I wanted a religious icon. As Yulia said I was here for Christmas and I became a mother here. Today I saw the icon I liked, but unfortunately there wasn't a lady working in the store on that side, supposedly someone will be there tomorrow. However, Yulia told me about a prayer card you can purchase with your name on it. I purchased one with Denis' birth name. It has a prayer and it states his name day celebration. He actually gets two, lucky boy.

Tomorrow I go to the baby house at the same time as Jody. The International doctor is coming to see her baby. I hope the doctor takes a long time and I can spend all that time with Denis. We go for 9 a.m., it will be dark when we leave the apartments.

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It's getting random

Well life here isn't getting random, but the things I thought about writing for my blog are sort of random ergo the title of the entry.

It snowed today, not a lot but just enough to make everything look pretty.

When I logged into google to write this entry the temp. sky condition, and wind speed were identical in Toronto and in Uralsk. We are 10 hours different and the humidity was different otherwise...

I was asked by an assistant magazine editor to use a photo of the shawl above in their upcoming issue of the magazine that I got the instructions to knit the shawl. I have to get a picture of someone wearing the shawl. Umm, I gave it to Louisa and she is 3 and 1/2 hour flight away, hopefully I'll see her next weekend, I hope the magazine can wait.

I bought red grapes yesterday at the mall. They were quite sweet so I washed and cut in half a few to bring to Denis. I really doubt he's tried grapes before. I put them into a container with sliced banana. I had to slice the banana as he would stuff way too much into his mouth at time from a full banana. Anyway he tried a grape half and decided it wasn't for him, but wasn't too keen on eating the banana as it made his fingers dirty (very neat and tidy my son) so I feed him the banana (oh, and don't forget you can play with stuff if your mother is putting the food into your mouth for you, did I mention he is smart too????) After a while he looked at the grape again, then tried to feed it to me through the mask. It was a great game. Eventually he pulled the mask away and fed me the grapes. He was intrigued that I liked them, then he must of figured if momma likes them they must be good. He put one in his mouth and the face, you'd think he was sucking a lemon, but he ate all the remaining grapes.

Today he was just finishing snack when I arrived. It was his favourite caregiver working. He came running to see me and gives me tons of kisses. The caregiver always has him give her a kiss when he comes with me, she is the one who taught Denis to blow kisses. He wasn't too interested in eating or drinking, but he decided we should share his drink of juice. Then he began a game of pretending to be asleep and wanting me to comfort him, telling eh? I so look forward to when I will be doing that for real.

Today Jody and I walked to the WWII monument and then to the Pushkin Hotel for lunch. We had steak and fries with a can of pop for $14 each, not bad in one of the better hotels in town. It was nice to walk in the snow, it wasn't too cold but it was overcast.

All too soon it was time to leave again, I won't see him tomorrow as it is Christmas day. I will be going on Saturday and maybe Sunday too, we'll see.
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Reunion

Yesterday I was finally back to the baby house after the New Year holiday. Earlier in the day Jody and I had helped Kendra and her mom move their belongings back to their apartment after their stay at the hotel. We ate lunch at Kendra's apartment and enjoyed talking, as we tend to do a lot of that. By 3 I was back in the apartment and at 3:35 I was getting dressed for going to the baby house, but then I began to wonder if I really was going. I picked up my cell phone to call Yulia to ensure that I'd be going and my cell phone rang with Yulia calling to make sure I remembered that I was going. Too funny.

We arrived at the baby house to find the front doors locked. We walked around and went in using the court yard door. We never know what door will be open or locked. One night we went to leave and the front door was locked, we had to go out the kitchen door.

Upstairs we went and I get the play room door to see Denis sitting on the couch. He saw me and came running a smile breaking out on his face as he got closer to me. I bent down and he threw himself into my arms and gave me a great big hug. We were at the door of the play room for a few minutes talking to his friends and getting and giving hugs and kisses. Yes, kissing through a face mask is an experience not to be missed.

Eventually we went into the isolation room for our visit. Denis quickly got out his juice and banana. I've started cutting up the banana as Denis was stuffing too much of the banana into his mouth at a time. But excuse me, my son doesn't like to have dirty fingers, and I will give him the fact the banana was really slippery, so I ended up feeding him the banana. He'd discovered that my watch, which clips onto my purse, has a button which when pushed shines a red light. Well we had that red light everywhere. Then I gave him my flashlight. Ah the fun you can have at 2 with a flashlight.

At the end of the visit I pulled out his diapers and clothes for tomorrow and Denis knew that time was up. He tried to hide that he was holding the flashlight, I moved from the isolation room into the hall where the cubbies are and he looks at me while hiding the flash light and says "paka mama' and blows me a kiss. Total monkey eh? The nanny took the flashlight away from him and returned it to me, and Denis let us all know that he wasn't happy.

While Denis cried I took one of his group mates with me to my knapsack. It turns out the first pair of running shoes I bought for Denis the ones around 4 sizes too big, are the perfect size for Artomb. The nurse last week asked if it would be okay if I gave them to Artomb. So I gave him the shoes. He went to put them into Denis' cubby, but Yulia said no they are not Denis' they are yours. Oh what a marvelous grin broke out on his face. He was very happy to put them into his cubby. Denis knows what clothes are his, so I'm hoping he won't cause a problem when he sees the shoes.

Today is already beginning to brighten outside and it is only 9:30. Not sure what we will do today. We are still on the hunt for fruit and vegetables. I think I saw a delivery of potatoes at a store up the road yesterday when I was there buying my essential. I bought 5 bags of potato chips. Hey, nights are long here and I haven't been able to find chips at the stores closer to me. After the baby house Yulia took me to a store that sells notions as I need a button or two to finish the hat I knit for myself on the weekend, unfortunately they were doing inventory, maybe the store will be open today. I'm so getting comfortable here in Uralsk, I will be ever so sorry to leave.

I'm still not sure about my time line for returning home and for returning here. I think I'll be changing my airline tickets for going home for a 3rd time, by the time I get home I'll have paid almost twice the value of the ticket, ah such is life with International adoption. Time for breakfast and then phone calls to determine today's events. It's cold out there -8 C with a 26 km wind, I know it is much colder in the Eastern part of the country, but that is cold when you walk for 30 to 40 minutes. We'll have to start taking the bus.

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Changes

I've always loved looking at the changes in the photos of the children from beginning of bonding 'till later, so that what I've posted today. The first picture is on the day I met Denis and the second was taken the day the judge said yes. Oh, the green mark on Denis' head is marker stamp of some kind, it lasted quite a few days.

I haven't seen Denis since the 31st because of the holidays. I'll be back to the baby house tomorrow, it will be great to be with him again. I've started thinking about leaving and returning home. I can't believe I've been here for 7 full weeks. I will be so sad to leave, and not just because I will be leaving Denis. I know the sooner I leave the sooner I'll be back to collect him, no the sadness comes in knowing I will be saying goodbye to the wonderful people I've come to know here. Yulia, Nastya and Andre will be hard to say goodbye to. When I return I'll probably only be in Uralsk for a couple of days. If everything goes right the entire trip will take no more than a week. I'm getting into the final stretch, I can't believe that it is coming to a conclusion, one I've dreamed of for years.

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