Angel and Kevin's Kazakhstan Adoption Adventure

Home Study to Homecoming

2005-07-21T10:51:00.002-04:00

Below is a start-to-finish listing of all the blog posts from our Kazakhstan Adoption Adventure. I did this because I found it quite challenging to find a single day's post in Blogger's method of archiving on a monthly basis. So, this is kind of a table of contents, for lack of any better term.

The entries start at the top with the earliest entry, when we started this blog back in September of 2004. It's all paperwork and waiting until May of 2005, then the fun started: travel, meet, cry, pray, rejoice, groundhog days, court, waiting, and, finally, home sweet home.

To see how things are going since Homecoming, please visit www.garshok.com You may need an invitation to login to that blog. If so, please email me.

Wednesday, September 22, 2004 - Beginning the adoption process

Thursday, October 07, 2004 - Immigration red tape...

Friday, October 08, 2004 - Immigration approval!!

Tuesday, October 12, 2004 - Changes to Kaz adoption program

Wednesday, October 13, 2004 - All paperwork sent...whew!

Tuesday, October 26, 2004 - Slight delays

Friday, November 12, 2004 - November 12 2004

Monday, December 06, 2004 - Trust and obey

Wednesday, December 08, 2004 - We prayed for a clear answer...

Tuesday, December 21, 2004 - Bureaucratic red tape type stuff

Monday, January 10, 2005 - Finally, dossier is translated and in NY

Wednesday, January 19, 2005 - When you pray for rain...

Wednesday, February 02, 2005 - TWO BOYS!!!!!

Friday, February 04, 2005 - Ok, more info, time to focus...

Monday, February 07, 2005 - More info on the boys

Tuesday, February 08, 2005 - Destination known

Friday, February 11, 2005 - Medical evaluations

Monday, February 14, 2005 - Travel time frame

Saturday, February 26, 2005 - Small world

Wednesday, March 23, 2005 - UPDATE!

Friday, April 15, 2005 - God's time, not ours

Wednesday, April 27, 2005 - The Letter of Invitation has arrived!!!

Friday, April 29, 2005 - Travel visas

Tuesday, May 03, 2005 - Visa update

Tuesday, May 03, 2005 - Visa update

Wednesday, May 04, 2005 - Visa update

Thursday, May 05, 2005 - Morbidly obese friends...

Saturday, May 07, 2005 - We're here!

Saturday, May 07, 2005 - Almaty

Sunday, May 08, 2005 - Almaty

Tuesday, May 10, 2005 - Taraz!

Tuesday, May 10, 2005 - Papa

Tuesday, May 10, 2005 - Our first family picture!

Wednesday, May 11, 2005 - Day 2 in Taraz

Thursday, May 12, 2005 - The **BIG** News

Friday, May 13, 2005 - Open wide!!!

Saturday, May 14, 2005 - Stockings of the Day

Monday, May 16, 2005 - Just a bunch of pictures

Monday, May 16, 2005 - More Monday...

Tuesday, May 17, 2005 - What a HANDFUL!!

Wednesday, May 18, 2005 - Wednesday, May 18, 2005

Thursday, May 19, 2005 - Peanut Butter

Friday, May 20, 2005 - Is there DFACS in Taraz?

Saturday, May 21, 2005 - Mine's broken!

Sunday, May 22, 2005 - History of Taraz

Monday, May 23, 2005 - Day 14 of the 14 day Bonding Period

Tuesday, May 24, 2005 - Groundhog Day

Wednesday, May 25, 2005 - Another day in paradise

Thursday, May 26, 2005 - Kazakhstan or Colorado?

Friday, May 27, 2005 - Schedule

Saturday, May 28, 2005 - PMS

Monday, May 30, 2005 - Girly- Girl

Tuesday, May 31, 2005 - Sweet Fancy Moses!

Wednesday, June 01, 2005 - The heat...my God, the heat!

Thursday, June 02, 2005 - Milestones and disturbing images

Friday, June 03, 2005 - ICE CREAM!!!

Saturday, June 04, 2005 - Day 4 of 15 in the books

Monday, June 06, 2005 - Badges? We don't need...

Tuesday, June 07, 2005 - N-E-K-K-I-D

Wednesday, June 08, 2005 - Who’s the Boss?

Thursday, June 09, 2005 - Plof

Friday, June 10, 2005 - Sippy cup...DA!

Saturday, June 11, 2005 - Fashion Show

Monday, June 13, 2005 - 2 more days and a wake up!

Tuesday, June 14, 2005 - Garshok

Wednesday, June 15, 2005 - First time for EVERYTHING!

Wednesday, June 15, 2005 - By the time you read this post...

Thursday, June 16, 2005 - Decisions, decisions...

Friday, June 17, 2005 - The Good Kids

Sunday, June 19, 2005 - Parrott Monkeys

Monday, June 20, 2005 - Falling out of bed...

Tuesday, June 21, 2005 - Ookah-Bookah!

Wednesday, June 22, 2005 - The Playground

Thursday, June 23, 2005 - Hard Day's Night

Friday, June 24, 2005 - Earthquake?

Saturday, June 25, 2005 - Cool days, mountains, parks, and weddings

Sunday, June 26, 2005 - Our Last Sunday in Kazakhstan

Monday, June 27, 2005 - Last night in Almaty

Thursday, June 30, 2005 - 24 Sandlin Style

Thursday, June 30, 2005 - Good morning

Friday, July 01, 2005 - Happy July 1!

Saturday, July 02, 2005 - Ahhh, the weekend

Sunday, July 03, 2005 - First time in church

Wednesday, July 06, 2005 - Settling in, and a bunch of "firsts"

Saturday, July 09, 2005 - Thank you!

Thursday, July 14, 2005 - But wait! There's MORE!

But wait! There's MORE!

2005-07-14T16:45:00.000-04:00

Yes, this chapter in our lives has come to a close; however, this chapter was just the introduction to parenthood for Angel and me.

Many of our readers asked, and we thought it would be a good idea to maintain a regular blog of the monkeys' lives and our interractions with them. I don't know how long it will go on, but think about the possibilities, assuming Google (operator of blogger.com) stays financially stable, of maintaining an online blog for life! I doubt I'm the first to consider that.

So, without further adieu, please join us on occasion at http://dubandlena.blogspot.com, which has been in progress for a few days now, in stealth mode.

Enjoy.

Blessings,
kevangelenadub

Thank you!

2005-07-09T14:16:00.000-04:00

The journey that has led up to the adventure is past, and now our adventure in adoptive parenting has begun. So, with this chapter of our lives coming to a close, we want to offer a final blog post. It's simple, but it's the most meaningful of all our posts.

Thank you...

- to all the people who commented on the blog, emailed us directly, and otherwise contacted us to encourage, support, and pray for us and our kids. You know who you are, and we would not have made it, emotionally or spiritually, without your daily outpouring of love and support. Just as you looked forward to reading our blog each day, we couldn't wait to wake up in the morning and read your humorous and heartfelt words. We will forever treasure all of those words.
- Vera and Mit, without whom we never would have made it 2 days in Taraz. We hope and pray that you are reading this blog, because you truly have a gift from God to do what you do. You are blessed, and your amazing talents were a blessing to us for our time in Taraz.
- Marina and Sam, who still have never lost an American family in Kazakhstan! We tried real hard, but somehow they kept us safe and sound.
- The Morin and Miller families, who helped us, prayed for us, talked with us about the craziness that is Kazakhstan adoption, and were just plain God-sent friends for the better part of 2 months while we were all a little out of sorts and 14,000 miles from home.
- Marlene Shea at Delta Airlines. Who knows where we'd be if it weren't for your persistence and superb service. Perhaps someday you'll get to meet the monkeys!
- To the incredible Frankfurt based flight crew on the Frankfurt-to-JFK Delta flight for making us so comfortable and overwhelming Lena and Dub with love and attention as they became American citizens.

Thank you God, Jehovah Jire, who provides all things...

- for calling us to adopt children
- for giving us a vision with these words on Fathers day 2004: "Somewhere in Kazakhstan there are kids of some age waiting for their mom and dad to come get them. We don't know who they are, how old they are, or where they are, or where they are from, but I am their Daddy and Angel is their Mommy. We must now wait for God's appointed time until we meet them, but we already love them."
- for fulfilling that vision with William Roscoe and Miriam Helena, our monkeys, Dub & Lena
- for Karla Anderson, who faithfully walked us through all the initial questions and paperwork
- for Lori at Little Miracles, who saw us through to the end, answering all our last minute panicked questions
- for allowing us to tell our families in person, and for allowing us to maintain a bit of discretion until we could do so
- for moving our paperwork through immigration, translation, the Kazakhstan Consulate in NY, the Kazakhstan Ministry of Foreign Affairs at exactly the perfect timing. God's timing is always perfect.
- for several tests of our faith and willingness to simply accept your plan for our lives and this adoption process
- for providing a wonderful friend at the City of Conyers records office to clear the path for Kevin's youthful indiscretions to be finally and officially cleared.
- for FedEx, when it absolutely, positively, had to be there overnight. Our Kazakhstan visas within our passports, 2 days before we were to leave.
- for the diligent people at the Kazakhstan Consulate in NY, who recognized our dilemma, and turned our visas around in 1 day instead of the normal 5-7 business days.
- for modern communications, which allowed Angel to call Kevin from the highway in Louisville, KY to give him the news that we had gotten our referral
- for the amazing generosity of our Christian friends, who enabled us to fly to and (mostly) from Kazakhstan in the amazing comfort and luxury of international business class. Only God can provide hearts so willing to give.
- for providing exactly the funds we would need to travel and stay in Kazakhstan for 56 days
- for blessing Kevin's business, so much that he could put all of his daily work in the hands of his Christian business partners, leave for 56 days, and causing the business to grow during that time.
- for giving Dub & Lena such loving, open hearts that they can feel comfortable at home in any surrounding, even though they've never been in any other surrounding except the Umit Baby Home in Taraz, Kazakhstan.
- for providing us with a home that is well-suited to two toddlers, with a big room for them to sleep and play in, a big back porch for them to get rowdy in, a playground in the backyard, and a neighborhood now positively busting with new children!
- For Mary Alice, who turned her own life upside down to house-sit for us for 8 weeks, including walking our beloved doggie, dealing with our insatiable and insufferable cats, and taking perfect care of the place we call home to the extent that we did not have to think once about what we would do - or did do - while we were gone. You will always have a place in Fezzik's and our hearts, and in our home!
- for somehow getting us through a 46-hour marathon trip home, on standby for every flight, with limited pull-ups, no sleep, very little direction, and unlimited and totally undeserved grace.
- for giving Lena and Dub a limo ride home at the end of that surreal journey
- for all the people at the Church of the Apostles, our spiritual home, who embraced us and our journey as if it were a mission of the church itself, and whose staff leads us past the sometimes rough waters of jumping into toddler-dom with two feet just by showing us which room they belong in.
- for America, and all the military who protect her on a daily basis. Until we spend far too much time away from our home land, we tend to take it for granted. Forgive us God, and forgive us all you who serve in the military, for not appreciating everything about the greatest nation on Earth, the U.S.A.

God provided every detail and dollar down to the final day, and we rely completely on Him to provide for the growth, strength, and maturity of these incredible children, His children, for whom we are blessed to care for a season. Thank you, God! You truly are the Great Provider, Comforter, and Father to the fatherless!

Blessings,
Kevin, Angel, Dub, and Lena

Settling in, and a bunch of "firsts"

2005-07-06T15:37:00.000-04:00

Today's Wednesday, and we'll be attempting our second visit to church, this time for our "Hour of Power", which is a praise, worship, and prayer service at Apostles, very informal. But it will still be a first for Dub & Lena. We're still a bit overwhelmed at the attention they got on Sunday!

Well, July 4th fireworks were completely rained out, but we did get in a few other "firsts". We went to our neighborhood pool, and put D&L in a real pool for the first time. They seemed to know what it was all about, or at least they are really good at faking it. There is a small (about 10' in diameter) kiddie pool at Umit, and we were told that they let the kids swim in it during the summer, but we never got to see that. Anyway, both Lena and Dub were very comfortable in the water, and both loved "READY...JUMP!" off the side into Mama or Papa's arms. Angel got them some great floaty swimsuits. Lena's works fine, but Dub's little floats get all up in his face, so we'll try something different next time.

Does this bathing suit make me look fat?

Daddy! Get a tan!

I don't think they've ever seen such a lawn, or any other wide open space!

So, as if I were herding cats, I had to go round 'em up!

Then we went to have dinner with the Lucas family in Marietta. We went to Taco Mac, where Mama and Papa chowed on some wings and Lena & Dub chowed on their first taste of good ole American Mac&Cheese! They ate it all up, and sucked down a large glass of lemonade (another first) to boot. They crashed hard in their carseats on the way home, and slept through the night.

Tuesday was the first day of "reality": Papa back to work (albeit in the basement) and Mama taking on the 2 monkeys on her first day as a full time Mommy. There were a few incidents, but everyone came out unscathed, and both Monkeys were fast asleep a little after 9pm. We're slowly going to pull that bedtime back, but since it's summer and that's what they've been used to for all their lives, we won't worry too much about that one just yet.

I mentioned earlier that Fezzik (aka, Pie Boy) has assumed the role of "MSS", or Monkeys' Secret Service. Well, he continues to refine that role. He goes where they go. He sleeps in their room, and WILL NOT leave until they are asleep. He is their body guard. He knows their value. Fezzik is one very special dog.

Below are some more pictures from the rainy July 4th weekend. For now, please pray that we will continue to be able to communicate well with L&D, and that God would enable them to grow and thrive in our new home. God is good.

Blessings,
Papa Bear, Mama Bear, and Baby Bears

The Barnetts have Monkeys too!

Not sure where D&L picked up on this little thing, but they like to make this funny face like they're going to blow their top. Odd...but that's what makes them fit so well into our home.

NayNay got Dub & Lena new hats from Guatemala. Dongo, NayNay!

Sparklers are now legal in Georgia.

You'd think they'd be scared of something other than cats...like fire, maybe...not.

Mama dressed the monkeys up all red, white, and blue for Independence Day.

When all else fails, take a long drive.

Not sure how we got this shot, but Lena somehow stopped for a photo in the middle of all the action.

A whole new generation.

Lena and Dub LOVE their new toys. So does Papa, because Lena and Dub LOVE to push their little cars up the street, then down, then up, then down, then up, then down, and then it's nap time, just like that.

First time in church

2005-07-03T23:12:00.000-04:00

Whew, what a day! Up at the (now) normal time of 0630, morning walk through the neighborhood, eat breakfast, and get ready for church. This was a model morning for what is sure to be a struggle often enough. We arrived at church 45 minutes early! The kids were very, very good in church, and we had decided beforehand not to press our luck, but rather to leave just as the sermon was starting and listen to it from outside the sanctuary. Good decision. The July 4th celebration at Church of the Apostles was spectacular, as usual. However, today was extra special for the Sandlins. First, we had two brand new American citizens with us (that'd be Lena & Dub, in case you are still on your first cup of coffee). Second, Stan Carder was doing the morning announcements and welcome message, and he offered a very special welcome to Dub & Lena, not a small task in such a large church. We were moved to tears as he asked us to stand up and be recognized for adopting these two wonderful kids from Kazakhstan.

Lunch, and then headed east, first to Conyers, where we met up with "Nana" and Jim Hartley at the GA Int'l Horse Park, where Nana (that's Cator) is at a horse show all week. The kiddos loved Nana from the start, and had a blast petting horses and just playing in the barn while the rain poured down for over an hour.

Then we hopped back in the car and headed further east out to Lake Oconee to meet NayNay and Gee (DNell and Jimmy Borland) to eat, ride in Gee's boat, and see the July 4th fireworks from Reynolds Plantation. While we had fun with sparklers and kids running all over in the pouring rain, that rain was really strong and prevented us from seeing any fireworks. We're pretty sure Reynolds cancelled them, but we didn't (couldn't) get in the boat to go see.

Lena & Dub love NayNay and Gee, and we had a great time. Kiddos slept for 90 minutes in the car on the way back, and went straight to sleep when we got home.

Ahh, great weekend. Monday should be a fine day of rest for all, then we start "life" as we'll now know it with kids, meaning a normal daily schedule and some solid routines that the kids can get used to.

Blessings!
K,A,D,L

Ahhh, the weekend

2005-07-02T10:59:00.000-04:00

We made it through 2 full days of being home. Seems like MONTHS that we've been here. Today, we're reconquering our home after the onslaught of arriving with 2 new toddlers and a keen sense of total confusion and unfamiliarity after being away for so long.

Yesterday, Friday, we went to Chick-Fil-A, again, mainly because Angel and I were craving a fine chicken sandwich, but also to give the kiddos their first taste of a fine southern tradition. However, they just don't like chicken. No idea why. Dub tricked us by making all his chicken disappear, so we gave him his reward for making all gone, a bite of a brownie. A few minutes later, we found half of his chicken on the floor. Oh well. Lena ate half of hers. The both LOVE fries, and, of course, brownies. After lunch, we let the gals from Paper Affair (Angel's former employer) gush all over them. Lots of fun.

Naptime, normally 12-3, turned into 3-430, and we woke them up to see Aunt Liney (Caroline) and her husband Ronnie and daughter, "Princess I", Jessica. Su Jackson, a dear friend from Church, also visited with her children. Dub & Lena were fairly gracious, but very shy with their new friends. One thing's for sure: they take a while to get comfortable, and then they let loose. We're not sure what that "while" is yet, and maybe it's different for each environment.

We did finally see them act themselves in public, as we went out for pizza with Diana and Mark Harris and their newborn, Houston Harris. We went to NY Pizza in Vinings, which is right next to a train track. When this BIG machina went by, Dub and Lena were in awe. There was also some LIVE entertainment, to which Dub sang along gleefully. But, for the most part, they were pretty quiet...until we got them in the car on the way home, then they wouldn't shut up! Obviously, they are very comfortable with us, and rightfully so, but we do hope that someone else will get to see this very funny side of the monkeys.

So, you're caught up to today. Tomorrow, Sunday, is a big day. Church at 1030 - July 4th is something else at Church of The Apostles (www.apostles.org) - and then lake and fireworks on Oconee in the afternoon. I'm sure we'll be exhausted after that. Good thing Monday is actually a holiday.

One story to relate, from last night. Dub got up all by himself to garshok in the middle of the night (4am). He climbed up on the stool, just as Papa arrived to make sure he didn't fall over or whatever. I got him turned around (he faces forward now with the new training seat, and does just fine), and then he leaned forward as he always does to make sure, uh, things point in the right direction (down rather than up). At that point, I don't know what happened. Somehow, he missed the seat when his hands when to prop him up, and he tumbled head first and arms behind him onto the tile floor. His head softened the fall, if you can imagine that. I picked him up to comfort him, then realized that he might be so hurt or upset that he'd garshok all over me! He didn't, and he has a remarkably hard head. After a couple minutes of comforting, he did his thing, and toddled off to bed as if nothing ever happened. then of course he proceeded to keep mama up for the next 2 hours babbling and refusing to go back to sleep. She finally got him to sleep at 6...then Lena squawked "gaahhshuuuaak". That's 'garshok' with a distinctly southern drawl.

Oy. Now for the pictures. We had to FIND the camera and the flashcard reader first!

Nothin' like flying first class!

Lena is noticeable weary, and this is the FIRST of three plane rides in 36 hours.

Papa, whassat? Whassat? Whassat?

Dub made a new friend in cousin Jessica, aka, Princess I.

He even dresses like Papa!

We got a good long time playing on a playground WITHOUT any rude tweenagers!

Remember YOUR first time on an airplane? They were a little scared, but more curious.

We saw on Thursday just how small Dub and Lena are for their age. William and Madaline are 9 months older, and 2x as big.

The new Sandlin dinner table. Notice the dog underneath. He serves several functions in their new lives. First, he licks up everything they drop. Second, Fezzik has taken on the now official role of personal body guards to the monkeys. I'm reading "Executive Orders" (Tom Clancy) in which Jack Ryan is suddenly made President. He hates having the SS always around him, but they have a job to do. Fezzik is the MSS - Monkeys' Secret Service.

Thank you to the Hales for a lovely - and edible - homecoming treat!

First trip to Chick-Fil-A

EVERYTHING with wheels is a machina, including their new wheelbarrow.

EEEEEEK!!! Newman's gonna eat us! PAAAAAAAAAPAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!

Really?!? We get to play here all day? With nobody to knock us down? WOW!

Perfect size for little Kazakh monkeys.

Be it ever so humble...This is a fresh photo from our morning walk, sure to be a new daily event. At just before 7, we met up with 2 other couples out walking their new additions, and lamented the fact that it's not gonna be "cocktails in the cul-de-sac" but rather "sippy-cups at the sandbox" for most people on our street. Four new babies arrived while we were in Kazakhstan.

Still reeling a little, and everyone is still nursing colds. We'll get there. One thing that helps is that it only takes a few seconds to upload all the pictures. Back to the re-conquest of the house!

Blessings,
Kevin, Angel, Lena and Dub

Happy July 1!

2005-07-01T09:23:00.000-04:00

Starting to feel somewhat human again, but not totally. We took the monkeys out to see their near-the-same-age cousins, William, Madaline, and Sam. William and Madaline are 3-4 months older than Dub & Lena, and Sam is 9 months younger. William, Madaline, and Sam are all WAAAAY bigger than little Lena and Dub. Yes, Dnell, it's true: William is almost twice Dub's size. Of course, it really seemed to us that William and Madaline had grown a foot or two since we left, then we realized that while they probably have grown, we have seen nothing but little orphanage kids for 2 months, so our vision is skewed. Dub & Lena will catch up soon, as they eat their fill of food and get lots of lovin from Mama and Papa!

This trip to Aunt Leah's was their first time in car seats. They didn't mind at first, because they both fell instantly asleep. They skipped their nap yesterday afternoon - you try sleeping in a brand new room full of way cool toys that you've never touched before! When they were sleeping in the car, they tried to get a little more comfy and the car seats wouldn't let them. Not good for them, but they'll get used to it. The love riding in Mama's machina!

They slept all night last night, and we got to sleep in this morning till 0630! They woke up happy, and went straight back to their toys.

Papa's still sick, Mama's gettin better, and the kids still have this deep, rattling cough, but seem no worse for the wear, and already adjusting very well. They were very shy with William, Madaline, and Sam, and William kept asking, "Why don't they say anything?" This morning at the breakfast table, we couldn't shut them up, so it's just a matter of comfort with their environment. A few more trips to Aunt Leah's house in Covington will take care of that.

Today, Dub & Lena will get out of the house a little more in Mama's machina as we try out Chick-Fil-A, more for Mama and Papa's cravings than theirs, but still to see if they are real southerners. They don't like grits, or at least didn't this morning, so the jury is still out on that one.

House is a mess, and we don't know where our clothes are or which light switches go to which lights anymore...where are we again? What day is it? Who are these little people and where did they come from? Oy...guess it'll be a few more days.

Blessings,
Sneezy, Doc, Happy, and Jumpy

Good morning

2005-06-30T13:20:00.000-04:00

Everyone slept till 10am this morning, thank you GOD! Kids weren't used to the house and the garshok location, so woke up at 3am standing at their bedroom door wispering "garshok" in their innocent little voices. Took care of that. Then they slept till 10. Lena woke up and came to bed with us at some point this morning, but she went fast to sleep between us. Dub woke up at 10 screaming because somehow their bedroom door got closed all the way. I found him crying pulling on the closet doors trying to get out.

Dozens of emails have come to us praising the God of the Universe for our safe return. We are overwhelmed by His grace. He brought us home. We're home. Home to...

Our beloved doggie
air conditioning
our bed - did we mention the beds in Almaty were a box spring with a 1" futon on top?
coffee on demand - in Kazakhstan, you get one teeeny weeenie little cup, period.
Diet coke on ice
broadband internet access
normal toilets
washer & dryer
dishwasher
Mary Alice's apple cake
New toys (galore!) for the kids - they LOVE them!!
my wireless network
people speaking English
Our neighbors - and at least 4 new babies since we've been gone!

Home. Folks, never take it for granted. Be it ever so humble, there is no place like home. When we were frantically trying to get Lufthansa tickets, the agent asked "Don't you like Kazakhstan?" I guess I looked at her like she had a zebra for a nose, and said "No, Kazakhstan is fine, but it is not my home." She understood.

God is so good. We are home. We have 2 new kids, who are just as happy as they can be. Thank you God for bringing us home with these 2 little gems.

Later tonite, when I can think better, I'll go through and fill in some of the harrowing details of our trip home. The blog from last night really is just the generalities. OY!

Blessings beyond all comprehension,
Sneezy, Sleepy, Grumpy, and Happy

"24" - Sandlin Style

2005-06-30T02:20:00.000-04:00

My name is Kevin Sandlin, and I am a new parent of two Kazakh children. I have spent 56 days away from my home. My children have been ripped from the only surroundings they've known for 3 1/2 years. We're now free to come home. This is the longest day of my life.

The following events happen between 5AM Eastern Daylight Time on Tuesday, June 28, 2005, and Midnight EDT on Wednesday, June 29, 2005. Events occur in real time.

5AM EDT (3PM Kazakh Time): We left the apartment, with all our bags packed, to go to our American Embassy interview and then head straight for the airport to leave for Moscow at 7pm. We had to be there 2 hours early to get through customs, passport control, etc. The embassy interview was simple, painless, and quick, and we were out of there by 430. On to the airport.

7AM EDT (5PM Kazakh time): We arrived at Almaty Int'l Airport in 2 cars, because Sam's car was not big enough to carry all our luggage and the 2 kids. We went though the security scan, showed em our passports, and tickets, and headed to check-in. Marina is still waiting, watching to make sure all was well through check-in. And that was a good thing, because all was not well. We learned very quickly and clearly that we needed a visa just to arrive at the Moscow Airport (Sheremetyevo). Unfortunately, nobody had told us that before. Not the hotel with whom we had a reservation. Not the travel agency who sold us the tickets. Nobody. And, it takes 2 days - at least - to obtain a proper transit visa for Russia. Our flight left at 7pm, and we were without options. While Kevin discussed the matter with Marina, AirAstana, and Airport security, Lena and Dub had repetitive meltdowns in the middle of the airport while Angel struggled to keep her sanity for a few more hours.

8AM EDT (6PM Kazakh time): We arrived at the travel agency to (a) get our money back for the tickets, and (b) ask them why they would sell us such tickets without even the slightest mention of a visa. We had to leave a credit card with Marina, so she could go back the next day during normal business hours and get our card credited. They never did give an answer on the visa thing. I decided that they owed us at the very least the use of their phone to call Delta long distance. They obliged. I spent 75 minutes on the phone with Delta (long distance, agency's dime) trying to find seats on a flight from Frankfurt to Atlanta, then Frankfurt to anywhere in the U.S. Meanwhile, Lena and Dub had a cracker for dinner, wet their pants several times, and got filthy playing all over the sidewalk in front of the travel agency.

10AM EDT (8PM Kazakh time): We left this travel agency with 2 kids with dirty pull-ups, no explanation of the visa thing, but confirmation that we were on a Delta flight from Frankfurt to JFK in NY. We also learned that we needed to get Lufthansa tickets to Frankfurt after 10pm when the Lufthansa ticket office opened at the airport. No, don't ask why their business hours begin at 10pm. The travel agent assured us that there were "plenty of seats" on this Lufthansa flight.

1030AM EDT (830PM Kazakh time): We arrived back at our apartment (we'd paid through Wednesday) to get the kids something to eat, let them garshok, and gather our thoughts and options now that we were not going to Russia. I took a long hot shower and changed clothes (looking back, it's a real good thing I did that, since I had not bathed that day, and was pretty rank from all the previously mentioned activity).

1230PM EDT (1030PM Kazakh time): We are sitting in the office of the Lufthansa ticketing agent, who tells us with a blank stare that this flight from Almaty to Frankfurt is totally full, and there are 4 people on standby. That said, she recommends we get on the standby list and wait it out. The flight is scheduled to leave Almaty at 320AM local time, 5 hours from now. I remark to Marina that she should never do business with this travel agency again, since they have as of this point totally hosed this customer.

1PM EDT (11PM Kazakh time): We arrive at the Almaty airport, against the pleas of Marina who offered to drive us back into town and take us out to eat, and set up camp for the next 4 hours in the general waiting area of the airport, which is noisy, crowded, cold, and filthy. We told Marina that we were very tired of driving, and wanted to be stationary and prep and plan for the next 72 hours. During these hours before the flight that we might be on, we fed the kids some more, and them let them lie down and sleep on their blankeys on the floor. No fewer than 8 people walked right up to us and demanded that we move the kids to the benches (typical airport bench fare, e.g., not real comfortable to lie down on) because they'd get sick for lying down on a cold surface or would wake up with a back ache. The kids slept hard for 2-3 hours while we waited on pins and needles to find out if we were going to get on this flight. Moscow was out...NYET! We tried to get a meal, but the nearby airport cafe was out of most things, including bottled water. As I reviewed the menu, the waitress hovered over me as if I were a restaurant critic.

5PM EDT (3AM Kazakh time): I'm in the men's room helping Dub garshok - we're almost exclusively on the big potty now, just in case you were curious - and Marina sticks her head in the door, and yells, "Kevin! You must hurry! You have to check in!" So we got on the flight! Poor Dub, to be on the other end of that speed-garshok!

11PM EDT (6AM German time, the following day): We arrive at Frankfurt airport after one of the most miserable, hot, crowded airplane rides ever. Just to mention that it was Lena & Dub's very first airplane ride is the only thing that was good about the flight. That, and the fact that it got us halfway home. Lena and Dub both cried mercilessly at every drop of the hat, such as when we put their seatbelts on, when we told them, "no, you cannot go wander around - in the middle of the night - and bother people", and especially when we said no to their 17th request to garshok within a timeframe of about 30 minutes. When we got off the plane, it was cold and rainy in Germany - we had to get out on the tarmac and run to a bus - and it felt SOOOOO good! We met a bunch of college students who were returning from Kazakhstan after visiting for Campus Crusade for Christ. They were extremely nice, and they all regretted not approaching us earlier in the flight so they could babysit while we slept!

1130PM EDT (630AM German time): At the Delta counter, Angel learns two things. First, we are NOT confirmed from Frankfurt to NY because our tickets from Moscow to Atlanta never got cancelled, and she left her contact lens case and glasses case on the plane from Almaty to Frankfurt. While Angel babysat 2 very upset, tired, irritable kids, Kevin trapsed all over Frankfurt airport trying to (a) find the Delta desk to make an actual confirmed arrangement, and (b) trying to locate a lost & found function to get Angel's contacts back. Well, 1 outta 2 ain't bad, is it? We were confirmed on the 11:55AM flight from Frankfurt to JFK. We confirmed that Angel's contacts might come to us in the mail, but we're not counting on it. The Frankfurt airport is absolutely HUGE, and, perhaps it was the time of day (0630), empty. At times I was wandering down huge halls completely alone, not another soul in sight!

430AM EDT (1130AM German time): Dub and Lena get their first taste of what it's like to fly first class. Ohhhhhh...swweeeettttttt! Looking forward to an 8-hour flight, we provided the kiddos a dose of children's tylenol night time. "May cause drowsiness". Yes, please. They both literally conked out at exactly the same time, as we waited on the tarmac to take off. Unfortunately, our flight was delayed an hour, significantly eating into the actual medication time. Dub slept hard for 90 minutes, and was then wide awake. Lena slept for all but about 2 hours of the flight. All of the flight attendants and many passengers gushed and ooohed and aaahhed over the kids, and all were blown away that this was their maiden voyage home from Kazakhstan to live with us. We need to remember the very special cabin steward, a very nice German man, who adopted us for this flight, babied the kids with everything we could ask for, and generally made us feel right at home. Thank you God for providing such angels in our path.

315PM EDT: William Roscoe Sandlin and Miriam Helena Sandlin touch down on American soil, thus becoming American citizens! Now for the paperwork part. Customs took a total of about 25 minutes, including standing in a short line at JFK. We now have all we need to make Dub & Lena active citizens of their new country, like a Social Security Card, an American Passport, etc. They each actually maintain dual citizenship until they are 18 years of age, much like their father, who held dual citizenship in Zaire.

415PM EDT: We find and go into the Delta Business Elite Lounge at JFK. Ultra sweet. Everything you could want to make a brief stay thoroughly enjoyable. Kevin walks over to gate 12 to find out that our planned flight to Atlanta is not only overbooked, but they hvae 44 people on standby. When Kevin was gone so long, Angel figured we weren't getting on the flight, and we'd have to stay in NY (yeah, like she would argue with that!) or find another flight. But Kevin's patience and God's totally undeserved grace provided. At 645PM - the plane was due to take off at 520PM - Kevin came running into the lounge yelling "let's go! let's go!" We grabbed everything - except Kevin's cell phone, which was charging in the lounge - and ran down the jetway and got on the plane. Angel realized the missing cell phone when she got to her seat (we weren't sitting together; girls in business, boys in steerage), and the gate agent called the lounge. A representative from the lounge came sprinting down the jetway with the phone. Unfortunately, it wasn't our cell phone, but someone else's! The nearest flight attendant managed to get the airplane door open again and tossed the phone out so that whoever just lost their cell phone wouldn't have such a hard time getting it back. Ces't la vie! This flight was also delayed due to harsh weather in NY. As we waited on the tarmac, I decided to pre-empt Dub's garshokiness. He had already made a mess, and these were our final pair of pullups. I got him all cleaned up, and, since he had JUST gone, I figured I was safe. My instincts are not good. We had been back at our seats maybe 5 minutes when Dub totally soaked his pants. I guess I reacted with some degree of disappointment, and that brought Dub to heartbreaking tears. He cried himself to sleep, and slept until just before landing, when we managed to find a change of clothes and a new set of pullups (I think we took Lena's off her and put them on Dub).

10PM EDT: We're in Atlanta! Woo hoo!! We decided, as we did with flying Business Class wherever and whenever we could, that Dub and Lena only get to "come home" once, so we called Carey Limousine and got a fancy shmancy car to bring us home. Mary Alice was waiting with open arms, and as of 215AM, they are still in awe at the pets, THEIR toys, their beds, their room, their bathtub, their new clothes...their new home.

10AMEDT: Everybody slept in this morning, Thursday, June 30. We're home.

God is an awesome God. We will get some much needed rest, and then post some follow up messages to this amazing chapter in our lives, as it draws to a close, and prepares the way for an exciting new chapter!

Thank you for your prayers. They worked. We're home with 2 beautiful children. I am stunned silly, and can hardly believe we're actually home.

Blessings,
Kevin, Angel, William, and Miriam

PS - if it sounds a little like I'm blathering, that's possible. Please have a little grace. We got home 3 hours ago, and I have actually fallen asleep 3 times on my keyboard, but I wanted to make sure everyone was up to date.

Last night in Almaty

2005-06-27T23:03:00.000-04:00

We're booked on Air Astana to Moscow on Tuesday night, hoping to get on the flight from Moscow to Atlanta on Wednesday. We're on the waitlist, but with SkyMiles, you never know. We will go to the ticket counter and beg, plead, or whatever else it takes.

Today we had the requisite medical examination of Dub & Lena, required to get our exit visas. They are both healthy. Dub weighed in at just over 26lbs and Lena 23lbs. They're about the same height, 33". The doctor gave both kids a clean bill of health, with a few recommendations. He said Lena's "outey" belly button should go away. First time I've heard that. He said, after we told him that Dub sings all the time, to make sure that we get him in front of lots of music asap.

After a great nap (all 4 of us), we just played and played and played, then went out with Marina to a local mall where they have another great indoor playground filled with the little plastic balls. We ate at "King Burger", which is actually BurgerKing, not sure why they changed the name like that. Dub devoured half a hamburger and a bunch of fries. Lena wouldn't eat her hamburger, but loves fries. Go figure. Came home, said bye-bye to the Morins, who are here till Friday night, and put the kiddos straight to bed. BIG day tomorrow.

Our embassy interview is at 4pm, after which we go straight to the airport for the 5+ hour flight to Moscow. We arrive in Moscow at 10pm local time, and don't expect to get to our bed until at least midnight, having heard that Moscow customs are wearying to say the least. We'll do our best to keep the kids up until we get to the hotel, so that they will be sure to sleep through the night and be ready for an evern bigger day (God willing) on Wednesday.

So, I don't know if we'll post tomorrow, probably not, since we'll be traveling until very, very late. We're staying in the hotel across the street from Sheremetyevo airport, so we'll hoof it over there first thing and beg to get on the SVO-ATL flight.

Please pray that God would grant us this little piece of totally undeserved grace by putting us on Wednesday's flight to Atlanta. If He chooses not to, so we'll spend Wed-Sat in Moscow and head out on our confirmed flight on Sunday. Thursday through Saturday's flights are overbooked, so those don't look likely. Pray, pray, pray!!!

Blessings,
Sleepy, Weary, Grumpy, and Happy

Our Last Sunday in Kazakhstan

2005-06-26T21:14:00.000-04:00

Today was our final Sunday in Kazakhstan, God willing. Who knows when we'll actually leave, but worst case has us in Moscow one week from yesterday, and over the Atlantic on Sunday.

Today, we only had a few major meltdowns…before breakfast! Lena had another hard day. I imagine that their not being able to express themselves makes it tough on them to express themselves. Frustration leads to meltdowns, and we had a few today, but ended on a good note.

At least they both melted down at the same time. Saves a lot of time, you see.

We went to the park again this morning, since it was so nice and cool. Still can’t get around the rude pre-teens who run over our kids, though. This time, Angel caught up to one, just as he left Dub on his face. From then on, I followed them around, and got in the faces of these pre-pubescent urchins, and made it clear that they were to act like humans and not animals, at least while we are there. No idea what their parents thought of me yelling “NYET!!” at their kids every 5 minutes. D&L had fun, got dirty, and had a nice long nap to show for it.

This could have been a major catastrophe, but Mama’s mommy touch averted that one. Note Dub’s expression, which occurs just before he explodes. Funny, but it takes 5-10 seconds for this look to fully develop, and then a few seconds after that for the sound to emanate from his lungs. It’s a good warning system.

We think this animal is some sort of deer, but we’re not sure. L&D love them (there are two) and we finally got a chance to get a shot of them riding it. The other one looks as if it is grazing, with its nose close to the ground, so everyone piles up grass pullings from around the area and puts them under its nose, L&D included.

After nap time we went for a good hunting (my kind of shopping) at Tsum (pron: zoom) for all kinds of neat local Kazakh stuff.

Lena melted down for the 17th time on the way home, so only Dub got to spend a few minutes before dinner playing on the playground at the apartment with Chelsea and Alec Morin. So Dub got even dirtier!

This is the view from our bedroom window. Kinda gray today, but cool. We asked Marina where something was located relative to the hotel, and she said, “It’s the gray building.” Oh, that helps.

All in all, a good, full, fun Sunday. Blessings to all. Please pray for our safe and uneventful passage home this week, whenever that might turn out to be.

kevangelenadub

Cool days, mountains, parks, and weddings

2005-06-25T21:35:00.000-04:00

What a fun, full day we had today!

Lena and Dub, ready and waiting to head out to the mountains.

But first, have to relate the adventures of the previous night. Dub sat up singing to himself from 830 until 11, when he finally drifted off to sleep. Four different rocking sessions made no impact at all, but at least he went to bed willingly and without tears. Somewhere around 3AM, Lena fell out of bed. Kevin found her not beside the bed, but right in the middle of the floor. Guess she knows how to fall properly, and rolled to avoid solid impact. Right. Looks like we'll need to get some bed rails from Wal-Mart when we get home. Both Monkeys woke up at 6am, and hopped in bed with Mama and Papa. Although we didn't like being jolted awake at 6am, it is so encouraging to see these two gaining so much confidence in their place in our lives that they get up on their own, garshok, and then hop in bed with us.

Speaking of garshok, we had a breakthrough of sorts today. Dub, for the first time, decided he wanted to use the big potty. He's seen his sister do this since we busted them out of Umit. He was scared of sitting backwards on the potty for a while, but just today overcame that fear without warning. We like this development, although he looks very funny sitting backwards on the toilet with his little legs splayed all about, and it works.

So this morning, we went with the Morin family and Kate (local interpreter) up to the mountains. It's somewhat cool here anyway because of the recent rainstorms, but on the mountain top, it was probably no more than 60 degrees. Boy did that feel good. No weddings parties on the top of the mountain today. In fact, it was just about deserted. Kate explained that it was so because of the very rainy weather the past few days.

The view from the top of the avalanche dam, above the Olympic skating rink, below the ski resort, called Chimbulak.

This is the opposite side of the dam from the skating rink. In the summer, people go down and spell out their names and messages with rocks.

Then we went to the Ramstor mall, which is very much like any of our smaller U.S. shopping malls, except that it has a large grocery store inside. We looked for a khaki skirt for Lena (no luck), got some necessary groceries, and then ate at the sort of equivalent of KFC. Lena is the first child I've ever seen who wouldn't even look at chicken fingers, much less chow on them. So she went without lunch. Didn't want anything to eat at all. Dub made up for it, as usual. They played for a long time in the typical fast food kids playground (the same kind that require lots of Purel in the US), and then we headed home and tried for naptime. You'd have thought they'd have been exhausted, but Dub slept maybe 30 minutes, and Lena only an hour and a half or so.

Dub's first ride on a good ole mall amusement ride. This one being Mighty Mouse.

Lena's first ride on the same Mighty Mouse.

So, our goal for the afternoon was to get them some serious exercise. That took us back to the local park, Panfilov Park, which, by the way, is very beautiful, for the playground and to visit the Soviet Great Patriotic War (WWII) memorials and see all the local wedding parties there. Success! Although we still are not able to find a time at the playground when pre-teens are not pounding all over the contraption knocking down our (and others') toddlers. Kevin has to act as something of a body guard, lest the Monkeys end up under the sand with half a slide on their heads. We walked the entire park, got lots of pictures, chased pigeons, chased brides and grooms, and just made it home in time for dinner and bath time.

We've mentioned the Kazakh weddings, and we'd love to incorporate this tradition into Dub and Lena's weddings. In the Kazakh tradition the bride and groom get married (usually a civil ceremony unless they are very religious) then they and the ever-increasingly-intoxicated wedding party of family and friends visit 15 different locations around the city paying homage to their lost relatives and their country. One location is on top of the mountain, and the rest are scattered through the city. They leave a bouquet of flowers at each location. In the park, one of the 15 stops is a huge WWII memorial with the eternal flame for the Soviet soldiers who fought in the War. The memorial is simply stunning. The wedding parties decorate their cars with streamers and they drive around the city honking and everyone waves. Then, whoever is left standing (it's OK to drink in public here) finishes the evening with a typical reception.

Decorated wedding party car.

You can see how many brides have visited the eternal flame and left flowers just today!

Here is one wedding party after they paid their tribute at the eternal, flame.

Here is the main face of the Soviet Great Patriotic War (WWII) memorial. As with the millions of roses, a picture cannot do it justice. It's stunning. At the bottom, you can see a newlywed couple getting their picture taken here.

Below are three of the minor memorial statues, just as stunning, but not as big, as the main one.

Another view of the gorgeous Russian Orthodox Church at Panfilov Park, across the street from our apartment. Outside the church in an open courtyard there are battery operated Jeeps that kids ride on and have photos made, and the area attracts a lot of pigeons.

A very fun day was had by all. Each Monkey had one meltdown, but recovered quickly.

At most, one week till we're home. Thank you for your prayers and continued encouraging emails and blog comments.

Blessings,
KA+dl

Earthquake?

2005-06-24T20:22:00.000-04:00

We were enjoying one of the Monkeys' favorite activities, watching machinas and buses out the bedroom window, when Angel came in and asked why were were jumping up and down. I said I wasn't. A few minutes later, Anne Morin called and asked if we felt the earthquake. What earthquake? Marina called a little later to say she saw it on the local news. It was a 3 or 4 point earthquake on the kyrgyzstan-Kazakhstan border. I've been googling "earthquake+kazakhstan" ever since. Nothing. Oh well.

That was the highlight of our day. It is cool and rainy here, which makes good sprints down to the playground until it rains again, but other than that, not much to do. Of course, as I type this, Lena and Dub are perfecting their rendition of the "Oookah-Bookah!" dance. Lena's got the arms working, but Dub sticks with the basic hands-on-knees-funny-walk.

Yesterday, Dub had a hard day. Today was Lena's turn. They were both congested and a little feverish last night, so we gave them some medicine (yes, with sleep aid) and they were toast at 845 and slept all night. First time for us. Somehow Lena maneuvered her way to the bottom of her bed, and then did a header into the space between the bed and the wall. This is the same space Dub got stuck in the first night, but he didn't go head first. So Mama hears the screams, and runs in to see 2 feet and a little white butt wiggling uncontrollably over the side of the bed. The rest of the day saw many frustrating moments for poor Lena. There were many tissues used on the little girl today, bless her heart.

The odd thing about Lena is that, when she gets a little discipline (and I DO mean a little, like being told "no" to something), she pouts first. When she doesn't get her way, she starts screaming with tears. Then she sits down, legs straight out, arms by her side, head hung over her chest, and sobs. The more she sobs, the lower her head goes, and the more, uh, "stuff" comes out of her face. Next thing you know, her head is literally resting on her legs, her shirt and pants are soaked from tears and other facially-emanated fluids, and she's still sobbing over being told "no" to something usually very simple. I guess it's the little things.

We talked a long time tonite about which of these kinds of battles to fight, and agreed that "no" means "no", but to temper that with overwhelming love at the same time. What that translates into is letting her have her little (or big!) sobbing times, but then hugging her and reassuring her for as long as it takes to get Lena to come back and "Susie" to leave.

"Susie" is the Ballenger little girls' alter ego, who only does bad things. "Jamie" is the boys' bad side. So, we love Lena, but sometimes, like today, Susie comes around a LOT! We still love her, even when she's having a hard day. We love her even more when she's crying, because that's when we all need the most love, right? Right.

We're headed to the mountains tomorrow with the Morin family (Happy belated birthday, Anne!), and have begun a serious countdown of single digits until we go home. Not sure if we'll be able to get on a flight out of Moscow earlier than July 3rd, but our friend at Delta is working on that for us.

Blessings,
5@ndl1n4

Hard Day's Night

2005-06-23T19:31:00.000-04:00

Up most of the night with Dub. Wouldn't go to sleep. Finally went down for the count around 11 after mama and papa and mama and papa rocking him over and over. Then he fell out of bed at 3AM. Woke up crying at 5AM. L&D woke up for good at 730. Mama is still very sick, so Daddy did the morning routine. Dub was HORRIBLE! Would not be quiet so mama could sleep. Would not obey anything whatsoever. Cried at least 5 times for no real reason BEFORE breakfast. At breakfast he dropped most of his eggs on the floor.

Went to playground again this morning. Hot. Both L&D were very upset when we left. Papa went to market and laundry while mama got kids started on lunch. Lena eats so slow, and they were so exhausted that Dub literally fell asleep on the table after he ate. Nap time started out really easy today. Whew.

Lena successfully negotiated the suspension bridge, despite any number of very rude and inconsiderate Kazakh youths there. They'd run over a 3-year-old without a second thought. In fact, they have, do, and did, both yesterday and today.

He just sat there waiting to be excused, and fell fast alseep.

Even Lena thought this was nuts, as she chewed her food 432 more times.

Unfortunately, naptime ended with 2 little versions of Stalin's revenge. Mama got that call, since Papa was napping because he didn't sleep last night. Oy. Didn't do much this afternoon but play with the kiddos.

Things we've recently learned about L&D:
- Lena takes more time than a finicky cat to eat every meal. She eventually eats, but it takes forever.
- We didn't see tears from Dub for 5 weeks at Umit, and that only after a nasty fall on the pavement. Now he cries at the drop of a hat.
- L&D are learning to share, but it's slow and painful.
- Dub is fat. Ain't no way he's the 22 pounds they said he was before we arrived. He's a load.
- Lena is very talented. Things like throwing and catching a ball just come naturally.

All this is in the constant light of knowing that they have been uprooted from a very mechanical lifestyle at Umit, and are seeing brand new things every single day. So, we're giving a little grace as we get to know them - the REAL them, as they let their proverbial hair down.

The Playground

2005-06-22T21:45:00.000-04:00

Seeing the wonderful results of getting the Monkeys on a good playground motivated us to take them out this morning AND this afternoon for lots of exercise, despite Kevin and Angel's continued illnesses. Kevin is improving thanks to some good antibiotics, but Angel is now where Kevin was two days ago. We'll get there.

All our paperwork is now complete for the Embassy visit, which is Tuesday at 4pm. After that visit, we are free to go. Just gotta get plane tickets from here to Moscow and Moscow to Atlanta. We are waitlisted on AirAstana's Tuesday night flight to Moscow, and are waiting to see if we can get on any seats on any flight from Moscow to Atlanta. The medical check up will happen Monday morning at 9am. That and the Embassy exit interview are our only remaining obligations. We're just waiting for the Monkeys' passports to go from here to Taraz for exit visas; then Taraz to Astana for exist visas; then Astana to Almaty for exit visas, then to us so we're outta here. Marina is very confident we'll be on track. So much so that she was the one who made the waitlistings for our flight out on Tuesday. Good stuff. In case you can't tell, we're ready to come home.

That's about it for today. Below are the pictures from today's trips to the playground.

Here's the outside of our apartment building. Good ole Soviet styling.

An overview of the playground at the apartment building. FAR better than Umit, but still a little scary in places.

This is one of the scary ones. Anyone know what this is? Looks like some sort of KGB torture device for failed Soviet Olympians.

First, Daddy has to set the example. See kids? It's easy...don't worry...Daddy's a pro!

OK, at this point, my arms are a little tired. It's been 7 weeks since I've worked out in any form or fashion.

Ninety-eight...umph...ninety-nine...

Dub looks about as happy to be in this position as Daddy does! Actually, he hung on for a good 5-6 seconds before abrubtly letting go. Good thing I was anticipating that!

Ditto for Lena, but she screamed and begged to be taken down.

OK, here's a bar a little more their speed. And they knew just what to do!

Run, Forest! Run! Ya know, I can run like the wind blows.

Push me Papa! WEEEEEEEEEEEE!!! They both did well for their very first time ever on a swingset.

Nice Soviet swing. This thing go any higher? Boring.

These pretzels are making me thirsty.

Kiddos are down for the count. Nightly routine is forming nicely. Thank you for all the prayers and support. We're closing in on the end of this adventure, and keeping our chins up, staying positive. The samsas here are excellent, and we have DIET COKE! Actually here, they call it Coke Light, but it works. Now, if we only had some crushed ice....

Blessings,
Tarzan, Jane, and the Monkeys

Ookah-Bookah!

2005-06-21T12:16:00.000-04:00

We saw the entire spectrum of behavior today. Kids slept a full 10 hours last night and Dub only woke up once. Must’ve been the really good drugs. ;-) We gave them a hit of Children’s Tylenol nighttime to help with the coughing, fever and crud. And it’s an added bonus that it has a sleep additive. A few seconds of pushing he back and forth (as opposed to picking him up and rocking) lulled Dub back from his mystery terror. Dub actually woke up this morning happy for a change. Lena always does. We had a fun morning, playing monkey games and tried to eat last night’s leftovers for lunch (still didn’t go over well) then it was nap time. Ugh. Neither kid likes the idea of naptime and puts up the usual fuss. But today was beyond the pale. We did the usual routine and both started screaming and yelling “garshok” (which, for the thousandth time, means “potty”) even though they both had gone just after lunch. So we got them back up, let them garshok, dried the tears and tried again. A little whining and they eventually fell asleep. Dub slept about ½ hour and started his usual whimpering. He was so exhausted and kept drifting off and rubbing his eyes. I push-rocked him back to sleep and just when I thought he was out, he started screaming. For an hour and a half (of a 2 hour nap) I alternated rocking him to sleep and then he’s start screaming the moment I put him down. We contemplated what to do: do we let him scream himself to sleep and wake up Lena or run to him and pick him up (don’t want to start THAT!) or go in and pat him to sleep? Kids get so hot when they are screaming, so between the hot child, the hot room, the frustration, the back-breaking continuous rocking we were completely frazzled. By the time we just said “Forget the nap, Dub” Lena woke up and naptime was officially over.

We have found another little activity that the monkeys like. In our bedroom is a large window with a deep window sill that they can sit on, so long as Daddy is there the hold them up, since it’s 4 feet off the floor. Out that window, they have a great view of the main strip through Almaty, and they just love to sit there and spot “machina!” (car), “bus!”, and “tuwuk”. They especially like “yewwow bus!” There’s also a spectacular view of the Tien Shan mountain range, so close it looks like you can reach out and touch them. They are only slightly smaller than the Rockies; however, Parrott Monkeys don’t care much about mountains.

We spent the afternoon with the Morins. We walked down to Plovic Park where we found a great playground. It was a real first for the kids. The playgrounds at Umit are pitiful, consisting of a climbing bar, a slideless slide, and a dirt-box instead of a sand-box. This one had 4 different slides, a suspension-type bridge that really freaked the kids out! A couple of climbing posts and the ground – get this – was covered in SAND, not weeds! No ticks. No bugs. No mosquitoes. Just nice sand. And about 10,000 of your closest Kazakh friends. The other kids wouldn’t have been so bad, but it was the teenagers who pushed Lena out of the way so they could go down the slide that really ticked me off. Guess the mommy gene is starting to kick in. I was on the other side of the playground and couldn’t get to her to tell her off. Not that she would’ve understood. But they had a grand time and didn’t want to leave. We walked from there to the Russian Orthodox Church in the park that survived the 1910 earthquake. Built entirely without nails. We showed the kids where Jesus lives (they wouldn’t yet understand that He really lives in our hearts) and showed them His pictures on the wall. To hear His name mentioned by kids is so precious. Geeeezus! I know He smiles when He hears it! Off to the market then home in time for dinner.

We tried pasta tonight. Trying to experiment and see who likes what. I made rigatoni with tomato sauce and Dub scarfed his down like there was no tomorrow. Lena licked her spoon a few times then pushed her plate away. I’m not going to be one of those moms who make 5 different dinners for each member of the family. But I’m also not going to force the clean plate club. I’ll take the Glen Arden Camp for Girls rule (once they understand English): 4 bites of everything on the plate. It could be a bite the size of a pin-head, but make the effort. But here we are in a strange city, strange new food, so I tried to think what else she might eat. While giving Dub HER plate, too (which he polished off) it occurred to me that maybe she might like plain noodles with butter. Bingo! She cleaned her plate.

Kevin taught the monkeys to do the “Ookah Boookah” dance, where you hold your arms like a gorilla and say “Oookah Bookah.” They thought it was a riot. We finally got a picture of Lena in the act. Then we taught them to say Ooooo Ooooo Eeeee Eeeee like a monkey. They thought that was a riot as well.

So we saw it all: the horrible no good very bad nap time to the Ooo Eee Ookah Boookah dances. Guess it’s just a day in the life with toddlers.

Pray Marlene can get us out on the 29th!

Blessings,
KADL

Falling out of bed...

2005-06-20T21:05:00.000-04:00

First Mama then Dub. Dub is a light sleeper and wakes several times a night. He just sits up and whimpers, and then if I pat him on the back, he goes right back to sleep. But I'm afraid he'll wake up Lena. So last night my mommy ears were turned on and when I heard him whimpering, I rolled over to get up and pat him, I fell out of bed. I was sleeping so hard, I couldn't remember where I was, and thought I was still in the hotel in my own twin bed instead of sharing half of a double bed with Kevin. Guess I was too close to the edge. Not that it's really a bed. It's a box spring with a 1" mattress on top. I think a bed of nails would be softer. Then I remember the email pictures that went around showing the mudpits our troops have to sleep in, and I'm very grateful for the 1" mattress.

In Umit, the toddlers sleep in little beds that have tall side rails that keep them from falling out of bed. Here in the apartment, we have twin beds (as we do at home). You can see from the picture, the rooms have these really weird walls that look like a wagon wheel. The third time Dub woke up whimpering, I went in to pat him and couldn't find him! I heard the whimpering and looked closer in the dark and realized he had fallen out of bed and was wedged in the opening created by the wagon wheel effect. I yelled for Kevin because I couldn’t move the bed and he came running in. Lena woke up whimpering. It took about 10 seconds to rock everyone back to sleep.

Today (Monday) we all have the crud. The kids have had it since we got them and their little coughs are so bad a precious friend who is an RN on Mercy Ships suggested we get some amoxicillin since the pharmacies are not restricted like in the US. That was adventure! It took 4 tries to get someone to speak English (there is a US Flag and a Kazakh flag painted on the side of the building, so I assumed SOMEONE spoke English!) I told her I needed amoxicillin for my 3 year olds. She barely understood and tried to tell me about dosages and tablets. When I asked for liquid that really started something. She finally ended up giving me 10ml of something and was told to add it to .5L of water and the dosage was ½ tsp every day. I typed it into a Russian/English website and it came back vitasepen. Sound familiar to anyone? They seemed very nice, but I’m not comfortable giving my kids strange medicine unless I’m sure it’s the right one.

We finally got the TV working here, and D&L watched some Russian cartoons while Papa rotted in bed with this crud. Believe it or not, they were bored with TV, and proceeded to cooperate in burying all their toys between their 2 blankeys. It was like watching a small colony of ants put their respective skills together to land all their worldly possessions on one blanket, then wrap them up in that blanket, and then cover this all up with the other blanket. I sat and watched the whole thing while listening to their toddler conversation in Kazakh. Quite amazing to see them speak to one another in Kazakh (or their version of it) and acknowledge one another’s ideas and implement them.

For no reason we can see, L&D would not eat dinner. Mama made roasted chicken breast with “smashed potatoes" and carrots. She tasted it and it tasted fine to her. They are both a little sick and Lena has a 99 degree temp, so perhaps they’ve lost their appetites. Either that or they don’t like Mama’s cookin! I think Dub was mad about something but we couldn’t figure out what. He just kept mumbling the same thing over but we have no idea what it was!

We’re figuring out the bedtime ritual, but Dub still fights it every step of the way. As soon as he realizes that the lights are out, the toys are put away, and mama and papa are done reading them a soft, quiet story, he starts freaking out. Unfortunately, we have no idea what’s behind this, or if it might be the same thing that wakes him up in the middle of the night screaming (other than falling out of bed, that is). Eventually, he let’s Mama rock him to sleep, and he’s out. We continue to struggle with implementing good habits now versus realizing that these kids have had their world shaken and they need every ounce of love and touch they can get. It’s a tough line to draw, and we’re only learning by trial and prayer.

Please pray that we will all get rid of this crud, so we won’t be shut-ins the whole time we are in Almaty. We all walked to the market (3 blocks) today, and we were all toast by the time we got back. Lena and Dub just shut down and would not walk, so Mama and Papa had to carry one of them each, along with an armload of groceries. OY!

And we continue to thank you for and covet more of these wonderful emails and blog comments. We’ve been away a long time, and it’s still a thrill to see a new name at the end of an email! Keep ‘em comin!

Blessings,
Kevin, Angel, Dub & Lena

PS - unfortunately, the few pics we took on the train didn't really turn out, probably because we were so exhausted, rather than from the movement of the train. Here's one that gives you the general idea.

Parrott Monkeys

2005-06-19T18:56:00.000-04:00

ALMATY, KZ - June 18, 2005 - Special Bulletin - A new, heretofore undiscovered breed of primate has surfaced in a most unlikely location. Kazakhstan, not normally known for its primate population, now boasts a small population of the breed most commonly known as "Parrott Monkeys" (Latin: spasticus repetis). There are two overwhelmingly common characteristics of this rare breed. First, they repeat virtually everything that is said in their presence, no matter the language in which the words are spoken. These words are then permanently memorized in the primate's brains for later use in childlike babbling, simple songs, and dreadfully tired screams before sleep. Second, these animals never, ever stop moving, even during their slumber period. It's constant motion 24/7.

End press release.

Now, Almaty. We're here. That's about as excited as I can get. Saturday was long. Sittig here trying to remember what we did, and drawing a blank. Bazaar (WITH monkeys), haircut for Kevin, said bye to Hotel staff, finished Season 3 of "24" (OUCH!). Saying goodbye to Mit and Vera was tough. They have played such a major role in this most amazing adventure of our lives and our kids' lives. There is no way to show them the gratitude that will forever be carried with all four of us.

We thought it best to get the monkeys to bed at the regular time, then get them up to go to the train. Bad idea. We got on the train at 130am, and the kids absolutely freaked out. Dub, as it turns out, is very scared of the dark. Without some light on, he screamed uncontrollably at the top of his lungs. Lena was just wide awake. We tried both of them on the top bunk. Didn't work. They kept peering over the side to see mama and papa, and that could have easily meant a header over the side. We tried lots of blankets on the floor, and mama and papa in the bunks. Didn't work. They were so excited about being able to see and touch everything that they just sat up and babbled (see above press release). We ended up with Kevin and Lena in the top bunk and Angel and Dub (screaming) in the bottom. Sleep is estimated at 2-3 hours, but no confirmation of that. oy. Note to self: EvERYTHING is brand new for Monkeys, so they will get excited anytime they are somewhere new, especially when we want them to calm down and sleep!

Now in Almaty, we're staying in an old Soviet apartment. From the outside, and in the stairwell, it's hideous. Most Americans wouldn't go within 2 miles of this building. Inside, it's quite nice, in a 1972 disco-deco sort of way. But, it is much larger than the Gazovic room, has a second bedroom for the Monkeys, a full kitchen, and, best of all, it has great A/C. Yes, we're spoiled. The apartment is right downtown, walking distance to lots of great stuff, as we just found out. All the exotic foods we tried in Taraz are available in one place just 2 blocks away. Once we have our wits about us again (ever??) we'll head out and get some good local grub. It's raining here, which is a welcome site, sound, smell, and coolant. It's about 10 degrees cooler here than in Taraz, so it's not that big a deal.

We also got some good news: we CAN leave on the 29th. We've emailed the greatest agent ever at Delta (Thank you Marlene!!) to see if we can get the SVO-ATL flight on Wed or Thurs. We'll see. Not getting our hopes up, and we're fine if we have to stay till Sunday.

Coupla notes on L&D: they are really bonding to one another. As I write, Angel is cooking dinner, and the two monkeys are in their room babbling, playing, and otherwise having a great time together. It is a wonderful thing to see. Dub has not stopped babbling (again, see press release above). They are starting to include "mama" and "papa" in their Kazakh sentences, e.g., "Mama, minee!" Which means, "mama, look!" And, of course and as mentioned also above, if we say ANYTHING in their presence, we get their version of it shortly therafter.

I guess all this is to say that our kids are quite normal as toddlers, and that in itself is one great gift from God.

Sorry no pictures. Can't find the flash card reader. We do have some great pics from the final day in Taraz, and I'll try to post those tomorrow. We're starting to see a daily schedule through all the fog. Perhaps we can maintain that for 2 weeks, because it's really going to go down the drain after crossing the Atlantic.

Thanks again to you all for the uplifting comments and emails. And, as a side note, it is not necessary to sign up for a blogger account to leave us a post. Just choose "Other" from the 3 choices on the comments page, and that will let you type in your name, or any other alias you'd like us to figure out (Thank you, Snow White...I almost deleted that one as spam!).

Blessings upon blessings,

Kevin, Angel, Lena and Dub

The Good Kids

2005-06-17T08:47:00.000-04:00

No matter what it takes to get them to sleep, they wake up at exactly the same time everyday: 7AM. Mommy and Daddy are NOT used to that after 6 weeks of sleeping till 9 and napping from 12-4. Do we have to grow up now? :-)

Friday's breakfast was very fun, with Katiana, one of the Hotel Gazovic's waitresses, taking a very fond liking to Dub, and he to her. She fed him, cleaned him up, and just loved all over him all during breakfast. Lena, for reasons we don't understand, is all of a sudden very shy in public. Who knows. Dub will run to anyone who opens their arms for him, but Lena pouts and won't go to anyone.

After breakfast we decided we'd get some exercise by walking the whole park behind the hotel. Dub and Lena both feigned the need to garshok. Neither went. Lena then decided that she just didn't want to participate at all unless someone carried her. There were pouts, tears, screaming, sitting and refusing to move, and then nothing. We darted from shade tree to shade tree trying to keep cool-ish for about an hour. We were going to give them their first experience hopping around in the water fountains with the other kids, but the thought of lunch and nap time made us postpone that for Saturday.

I'm FREE! I'm FREE!

Our first PB&J! Yummy!

Today we tried a new method of getting them down for naps. We got them all cleaned up from lunch, then rocked them just a little to slow them down. Then we put them in their cribs with a board book and Pooh blankey, and we went into the bathroom, closed the door and read our books until they went to sleep. Took about a half hour and a couple of "JATT!" (that's Kazakh for "lie down") admonitions from Papa. They - then Papa - slept until 330. We packed up most of our belongings until 6pm, when we met Vera, Mit, and the Littlejohns to go have dinner at a traditional Kazakh Yurta.

The view from the floor to the top of the Yurta.

The Yurta waitress, in traditional Kazakh garb.

The food was great, and Dub & Lena were very well behaved. We sat on the floor at low tables, and ate Samsa, Plof, and, much to our chagrin, did shots of Vodka. It's offensive to Russians to say "no" to a drink of Vodka, so we capitulated. The heat of the Yurta (it was 630pm on a 97 degree day and the Yurta is just a really nice TeePee with no A/C) combined with the filling food and the Vodka was sufficient to knock us all down. We let D&L try "Cumus", fermented Mare's milk, which we tried a few weeks ago. It's too much flavor for us bland Americans, and Dub & Lena didn't much like it either. They did eat everything we ate, though.

They love their backpacks. They fill them up and wear them first thing in the morning.

Deciding to make the most of our time in Taraz, we went out to the Taraz square at 9pm to see the lights, people, performers, and to get a picture of D&L with the Rooster. It's "The Year of the Rooster" in China, and the Kazakhs acknowledge that, too. Lots of fun.

It's the year of the Rooster.

This is one of several performing groups we saw on the square Friday night.

A very quick hot bath, 2 books, and the kids took maybe 15 minutes - and NO screaming or crying - to get to sleep. Woo hoo! We even got in one episode of "24"! We're almost done with Season 3!

7am came very early today (now Saturday). Going to be a long day, since we have to catch the Spanish Train to Almaty at midnight tonite. Not sure how we'll do that with D&L, but we're thinking we'll keep them up until we get on the train, then let them crash with the rhythmic rocking on the tracks.

Something new about Dub: in 5 weeks of bonding, he really never said much, other than to parrott what we said to him (Love you, see you, garshok, mama, papa, etc.). On Thursday, he started babbling incoherently, and he hasn't stopped since. Just saying stuff as he thinks it, we guess. When I read to him last night, he babbled something that sounded like the words to the book. As I write, he's just wandering around the hotel room talking. No idea what he's saying. I guess we'll see something new every day as we get to know them more and more and more.

Tomorrow, we'll post from an apartment in Almaty, time TBD.

Blessings,
Sleepy, Sneezy, Grumpy, and Dopey

Decisions, decisions...

2005-06-16T10:07:00.000-04:00

Well, we made some good decisions and some bad decisions today, which I suppose is about par for the parenting course, no?

Good decisions:

Breakfast at the hotel. The kids are very good when you put them at a table with food on it. Half an omelette, a bowl of porridge, bread, cheese, and pancakes went over very well. And, the very nice hotel staff took to the chilluns quite nicely, babying and spoiling them at every turn. They got half an apple and a piece of candy as we left breakfast. Bonus: Kevin and Angel got adult food at this meal.

Alina, the Hotel Reception Desk lady, cooing over Dub.

Ditto for Lena.

Long walk around the park. Kids loved being out and about in the sunshine without the restrictions of Umit over them. We walked all over the park, stared in amazement at the "swimmers" in the local little fountain as they ran all over the place staying cool in the water. We climbed a million sets of stairs, which is odd, since Taraz is almost completely flat, except for the hill in this park by the hotel. They are both quite good at going up and down stairs.

It's just a big fountain, where most of the kids run around in their underwear in 2 feet of water.

Afternoon nap. Both slept like babies for 2+ hours between 1-330 today. Note to self: Lena wakes up very very happy, but Dub is like his Mama. So, we should not wake up grumpy to early...we should let him sleep.

Bad decision:

NOT getting the kids out for a LOT of exercise between nap and dinner time. We met another couple who had just arrived from Almaty and met their two kids at Umit. They naturally wanted to pump as much information out of us as possible. So, while we had fun meeting them and sharing our stories, the kids were bored for a couple of hours, and were not tired AT ALL at bedtime. OY! You know how that turned out. However, it was opposite the first night, as Lena quietly lay in her bed until she went to sleep, and Dub screamed bloody murder for an hour until Mama finally rocked him to sleep. She has the touch.

Dinner of broth soup, bread, cheese, and smashed potatoes was a hit, as was the two cookies afterward.

Finally, at the end of the day, as we silently wispered about how we'd get them to sleep tomorrow, we realized neither of us had eaten since breakfast. See "bonus" above. Funny thing is we weren't hungry either.

So, day 2 was, generally, a success. Still working on the bed time routine, and we'll get that figured out sooner or later. And then we'll travel on 2 planes for 2 days and completely mess it up again! But, that'll mean we're home, and that's ok.

Thank you all for your continued comments of encouragement. It means everything to us to hear how so many people care so much.

Blessings,
Sleepy, Sneezy, Grumpy, and Dopey

PS - don't be surprised if these posts get shorter and shorter, with more and more mispellings and mindless blathering. We'll get there.

First time for EVERYTHING!

2005-06-15T22:46:00.000-04:00

First time for...

- Leaving Umit for good. Pakka Umit!

- Entering a hotel, and trudging up 4 flights of stairs. Oy!

- Napping (well, trying to anyway) anywhere but Umit.
- Eating a samsa, and walking the streets of the city where they've lived for 3 years.
- Eating dinner around the top of a mini-fridge and praying before that meal.

- Taking a hot bath with a brother/sister.
- Wearing zipper-jammies to bed.
- Sleeping in a totally unfamiliar crib, when they're used to sleeping in toddler beds.
- Crying themselves to sleep.
- Waking up in totally foreign territory.
- Hopping in bed with Mama and Papa when we wake up!

Whew. What a day. What a night!

We did the ceremonial (allowed) gift giving to the Director of Umit, and told her that we really appreciated the training and care that the kids got in their first 3 years. We got a few pictures of her with the kids, and then we video'd the whole ride "home" in Mit's van. They took the stairs at Gazovic like champs, but would not sleep one minute during their regular naptime. Too much new to see! We made it quiet time just the same.

Then we got them dressed and went out for their first walk around their hometown. We got samsas and Cokes and copped a squat in the shade and had lunch. They LOVE samsas! Once back to the hotel, we had some good playtime and then Angel prepared dinner. Dinner for them was raman noodles with veggies added in. We were never able tofind out exactly what they eat, so we didn't know they wouldn't like little chunks of veggies in their soup. They looked at it like it was pinecones and rocks in their bowls! So, we got rid of most of the veggies, gave them each a big chunk of bread, and they went to town on all the broth. They also enjoyed the instant "smashed potatoes" (as Vera calls them). Being in a hotel room with nothing but an electric kettle makes cooking dinner a little complicated.

Then it was bathtime! We got the whole thing on video. Both gave the same reaction to being plopped down in the warm water: OOOOOOOOOOHHHH!! They loved the bubbles and fun cups and, of course, Rubber Ducky! They were not real fond of the handheld sprayer, but they got used to it. I think they will like this little tradition of bathing every day, although we probably kept them in too long, since they both ran to us after drying off holding their hands palms up because they didn't recognize the prune like texture of their fingers and palms! Oooops.

Get me outta here!

Daddy, I'm gonna toss this ball out the window, ok?

Then came bed time. Zipper jammies were fun, but after about 10 minutes both kids were sweating up a storm. Shorts and t-shirts it is. They HATED their cribs, and it took 2 hours of rocking and comforting to get them to sleep. Dub was discombobulated, but not upset; but Lena cried at the top of her lungs until Mama figured out that her crib is loosely constructed and has a great rocking action. After 30 minutes or so of that, she fell fast asleep. Then about 1030pm, Daddy made a nice boo boo and got Dub screaming. Mama took over and rocked him to sleep in about 25 minutes. They slept all the way through the night until 7am, which is more than we can say for ourselves. Mommy-ears were on both of us.

You'd have thought the vodka would have helped him sleep. (KIDDING! It's a souvenir from our celebration night with Vera, Mit, and the Morins.) For those of you who have seen the picture of Kevin with his arms around a Heineken bottle, this should look familiar. See below for picture of Kevin circa 1968.

This morning, it was "hello...garshok" from both of them, but they both awoke with smiles. Garshok, nose-blowing, a Flintstones, and some apple juice, and we're about ready to go to breakfast.

Thank you so much for all your wonderful comments on the blog. It means the world to know that our friends and family are out their praying and caring for us.

Hang on Dino! We're comin' home!!

Blessings,
The new family of four!

By the time you read this post...

2005-06-15T12:04:00.000-04:00

...we will already have Dub & Lena in our legal custody!

What an amazing blessing from the very hand of God! As we posted a few days ago, Thursday is going to be incredibly busy for Vera and Mit, with 2 families (us and the Morins) getting custody of our kids and another family (the Littlejohns) arriving and meeting their children for the first time. So, as we arrived today, Vera went straight to the Director of Umit, and told her what tomorrow would be like. The director said, "Get them out of here!"

So, with that, we are about to go get Dub & Lena one full day early!

Please pray for Dub & Lena. Their little lives are about to be turned upside down. We are sure that they know something is up. Dub was very emotional today. We walked around Umit saying "packa" (Russian for "goodbye") to everyone and everything, including the flowers, Stalin's playground, all the people we saw, the cold blue staircases, the music room...everything!

And, please pray for Angel and me, that we would have the wisdom to raise these beuatiful children as God would have us to do. Don't forget, we're rookies! We have no idea what we're doing. Hence our extreme need for God's guidance and wisdom.

Tonite's post should be very interesting indeed, assuming the monkeys ever go to sleep in their temporary new home.

Blessings,
Kevin, Angel, Dub, and Lena

Garshok

2005-06-14T21:52:00.000-04:00

Garshok!

We felt the need to once again say this word, and then address its significance in our (and your) lives because of our adoption adventure in Kazakhstan. The following quote is from one of our readers, who will wish to remain anonymous:

“I had to e-mail you because I was laughing about your Aunt (Aunt Ci-Ci, actually Angel’s sister, but Dub & Lena’s aunt) wanting to name her cat 'Garshok.' Funniest thing - after reading your blog a few times each day and constantly seeing the word 'Garshok', I have started saying to myself, "Oh, I need to garshok." I couldn't believe it the first time I thought that! I will really get worried when I start saying it out loud! So yes, that word is definitely here to stay. No doubt about it.”

So, a word of warning for those of you who have caught yourself saying this word: stop saying “garshok”! Don’t think “garshok” when you have to “go”. Don’t think about it when your little kids have to go on the little kids’ potty. Certainly don’t SAY it out loud! Remove this word from your mental vocabulary! Forget you ever heard it, and say it no more.

And now, on to today’s post. Garshok. Very, very busy day today. Two visits, a massive trip to the Bazaar, appointment with the Notary, stops at several building supply stores to pickup ceiling tiles and molding for the Bonding Room at Umit. Garshok. And finally a long quiet walk down to Gros Market for a new i-card and some essential foodstuffs. We’ll wait until Thursday morning to do the big shopping trip to prepare us for the next few days here at Hotel Gazovic with D&L.

For those of you reading this blog in anticipation of your own visit to Taraz to adopt, garshok, please pay attention here. We were told to bring gifts for all our children’s caretakers and nanny’s. (FYI, a Nanny does the laundry, feeds, bathes, and generally cares for the kids; whereas a Caretaker is an educated teacher of sorts who gives the kids lessons, kinda like pre-school). Well, each of our kids has 9 Nannies/Caretakers. We were told that "presentation of gifts is very important." So, Angel, being the ever-conscious southern shop-a-holic that runs in her family, got many little “dits” and put them in nice little blue and gold (Kazakhstan national colors) gift bags with pretty tissue on the top. BAD IDEA. Turns out that, while we are expected to bring gifts for the Director, Social Worker, and head Doctor, we are also expected, but not allowed, to bring gifts for everyone else! Yes, catch-22! We have to bring gifts, but the doling out of these gifts must be a serious Jack Bauer-like covert OP! We’ve successfully delivered about half the gifts, rewrapped in the tissue, and we’ll take the nice gift bags home, saving our money and our manners, too. garshok.

Trip to the Bazaar was successful, but darn near killed us both. Garshok. Did we mention the heat? My clothes from this morning were soaked completely with sweat when I got back to the hotel. Took me an hour just to cool down! Yes, it’s just as hot and more humid in Atlanta, but in Atlanta we go from A/C house to A/C car to A/C store to A/C mall to A/C car back to A/C home. Not so here. But we survived.

This afternoon, we gave Dub & Lena one of the things we got at the bazaar: their very own little backpacks to put their very own STUFF in! They have to pull their own weight around this household! See, these kids don’t know what it’s like to have “my” stuff. Everything belongs to the playgroup (little communists!) so Dub & Lena have never had anything they can call their own. Garshok. Today, each got his and her own backpacks full of their own book, doodlepad, Pooh blankey, spoon, yogurt, and sippy cup. They were overwhelmed, especially once they figured out how to put the full pack on their back and walk around with heads held high!

It was a great, albeit short, visit. Then we got some serious video of the woman whom we have heretofore referred to as “Brunehilda”, the same Nanny who threatened to “chop it off” if Dub continued to garshok in his pants. Garshok. He loves her and she really cares about him. Remember your toughest teacher in high school or college? Don’t you look back with tons of respect for that person? That’s how we view this tough woman from Uzbekistan. Mubarek is her name, and we got 20 minutes of video of her instructing Dub and telling him she loved him, and him giving her a big hug and a kiss on the cheek. Great stuff. Can’t wait to show the videos to Dub next year and when he’s older. I’m not sure what sort of memories it will evoke. Garshok.

So, one more day, and we get to bring home the monkeys! We’ll continue the special gifting Operations on Wednesday, but other than that, it’ll be much simpler than today. Please pray for the most special bonding for us and D&L on Thursday night, when they will get their FIRST warm bath! We just learned that they get one cold bath per week. Garshok!

Until tomorrow, garshok blessings from Kevin, Angel, Lena and Dub.

PS - some of our readers have experessed their sincere delite in reading about things like, ahem, GARSHOK! For those of you who find this sort of reading mundane and otherwise common, you can go garshok!

This is the hospital in Taraz where Lena was born.

Inside the hospital lobby, if you could call it that, they have posted a list of the babies that have been born here in the last few months. Privacy? HA! Name, mother's name, weight, DOB.

2 more days and a wake up!

2005-06-13T08:43:00.000-04:00

Today is the first day of our final week of visitation. We have 2 more days - Tuesday and Wednesday - and then we bring Lena and Dub back to Hotel Gazovic with us on Thursday. Vera has told us that Thursday is going to be a wild day. She has the Morin family taking custody of Dianna (more commonly known as "Tookie"), the Sandlins taking custody of Dub & Lena, and the Littlejohn family arriving from Almaty to meet their two children, all on the same day. So we might not even get to go to Umit to get L&D until late Thursday afternoon. That's OKAY! We get them on that day for the rest of their lives!!

So we had a good visit this morning, although (it's a Monday) Lena was her usual Monday self. We've got the sippy cup thing down, but Lena asked mommy to remove the cap from hers so she could drink it like a regular cup, and mommy said no. Lena threw the cup across the room, so mommy took it away. 45 minutes later, "susie" went away and Lena came back. It was good to have her back.

Pouty Lena.

Happy Lena, along with the rest of her playgroup, a frame from the video we shot this afternoon. Not quite as high quality as the regular photos.

Between visits we had a great lunch at the Miller's apartment across town, and then went to Tsum, the local souvenir shop, and got some more gifts, bath toys, and other stuff.

This afternoon's visit was very good. All the Morin family was there, since the Umit Director is away, the mice are allowed to play. Normally, kids like Alec (10) and Chelsea (13) Morin are not allowed inside the orphanage building because they think that the outsider kids will give germs to the orphans. So we had a grand time, and then we got a full video of Lena's play group's room and their bedroom. We'll be compiling a DVD of Umit inside and out for posterity. It'll be interesting to see if Lena and Dub will remember any of Umit when they are older.

Lena sleeps in Bed #9.

Lena putting her shoes in her locker, also #9.

Bye, bye, Lena...until tomorrow!

Dub & Papa playin around.

Lena started informal Piano lessons with Chelsea Morin today.

We got Lena and Dub's "official" medical records today. Lena's early days look very serious. Turns out she was a few weeks premature and somewhat small at birth. Dub was fat at birth, and otherwise healthy. Both get the typical orphanage label of being physically and speech delayed. Both true and both changeable with proper love, care, diet, and time.

2 days and a wake up. WOW! We still have 10 episodes of season 3 of "24"! Gotta go! :-)

Please pray that our days here in Taraz with D&L will be funfilled wonderful full-time bonding days. Still looks like we'll be returning home on July 5, but we'll be patient and wait to see if God wants us to come home a little earlier.

Blessings,
Kevin, Angel, Dub & Lena

Fashion Show

2005-06-11T22:05:00.000-04:00

Today was a great day! Thanks to a storm last night, it was a bit cooler today. It was overcast so the sun never really came out strong until the afternoon. Only 3 more visiting days to go, so it’s time to start wrapping things up here. While I sat in one of the little huts with the kids and played, Kev went around Umit and did a walking video tour of the orphanage. Because it was Saturday, things are a bit more quiet. The Director went to Almaty so the rules were a bit more relaxed. Not much, mind you, but a little. We need to start thinking about what we have for the kids: bath toys, clothes, shoes, bedding, etc. We had been told to bring coats and sweaters and long sleeves…needless to say, I’ll be shopping at the bazaar again before I leave. I found a little pair of shorts for Dub, basically sweatpant weight shorts that were only about 75 cents a piece. I know I can’t find that even at TJ Maxx in the states! SO I’ll go stock up on those. They're not very fashionable, but easy for him to garshok himself, whereas overalls tend to be a little harder to get off! Speaking of garshok, I’ve been told that Dub and Lena’s Aunt Cici is going to name her new Siamese cat Garshok (which is translated “potty”). We love the name and now that it’s on the internet, it has to stay. You know everything you read on the internet is true!

In a family full of girls, we love to shop! I remember as a teenager, going shopping with mom and my sisters and we’d come home and give Daddy a fashion show to show him what we got! So today we had a little fashion show to see what we had, what fit and what we still needed to get. We stripped off the colorblind clothes of the day, and let D&L try on everything we brought.

This is one of my favorites. It really seems real now that they have footie jammies and a blankie and their sippie cups. Up till now, they’ve seemed so much older, but this one touched my heart!

This one was so cute. When you shop at the bazaar, you don’t know what country you are getting clothes from and what size they are going to be. Each country’s sizes are so different. So I had to pick these pants (thought they were long pants, not ‘hood pants) without having Dub there to measure. They’ll be hemmed on Monday! Thanks to the Barnetts for the tee shirt and the saddle oxfords.

Contrary to the look on Lena’s face, she loved this dress. (So did Dub if you look back at the post from a few weeks ago!) Thanks to the Miller family for this cute dress. Yes, it has Rudolph on it, but Lena won’t care!

Thanks again to the Barnetts for these cute construction overalls. We’ll have to see if we can find a patch for Lena’s to cover the construction truck. Dub kept pointing at the bulldozer on his clothes and saying, "machina!"

I can dress myself! Go away!

You talking to me?

Let’s see what trouble I can get into now!

Oh yes, they call her the streak!

Adam and Eve??? Did we mention Lena has a REAL outie belly button? What is Dr. Lesson’s phone number?

But...but...but...but...but...

And this has nothing to do with Taraz, but a friend from Denver sent this to me and I had to share it. Turn your head to the left and look at the image! God is Awesome!

We finished the evening with dinner at Bosfor, our favorite restaurant and asked Vera and Mit to join us. Several dark Russian beers and 3 courses later, we are just rolling home. Mit was laughing at Kevin’s full belly. The Kazakhs would say, “Why are you so skinny and have a belly like a homeless goat?” We all had a good laugh at that. Especially when you see a picture of Mit and he might weigh 120 lbs. soaking wet!

We had a nice stroll through the square where we saw a new attraction in addition to the rollerblades, bull riding, moonwalks and air hockey. It is a tractor pulling little swans on wheels- children ride inside the swans (like a paddleboat) and the tractor pulls them around the square. Can’t wait until next weekend to let Dub and Lena ride in the swans! I can’t believe that this time next week, we’ll have real honest-to-God children! Praise God! Halleluiah!

Thanks for the prayers and the comments. Please leave your name on the comment or it comes out as anonymous and we don't know who sent it!

Love,
The Sandlin Family

Sippy cup...DA!

2005-06-10T19:23:00.000-04:00

This morning, we decided to be persistent with Dub on the sippy cup issue, and it paid off. It was like he's been doing this all his life. It just clicked. Dub sucked all the apple juice from his sippy cup! Wish we would have been a little more persistent 3 weeks ago. (Note to self...) Boy was it hot. Then Angel went to bazaar with Vera to shop for clothes and toys for the monkeys.

Afternoon visit was great. Dub sucked down a sippy cup of AJ in about 3 minutes. Day 10 of 15 in the books. Only 4 more days of visitation left till we break them out!

After this photo, our camera battery went dead. However, Vera found a bunch of old pictures of Dub & Lena on her computer and gave them to us. Some are from early 2004, and some from early this year. There is one from the New Year's Pageant at Umit that shows Dub & Lena holding hands, all dressed up in their costumes. Who would have known they'd be brother and sister in just a few months? God knew. What an awesome plan He has.

Here's Dub & Lena holding hands at the "Father Freeze" party in December. We have a video of this night that we watched before we ever left Atlanta. When she was watching it, Angel remarked how cute the little girl in the white dress was. Little did we know, she would be our daughter!

This one makes Lena look like just a little baby!

This is the original photo that gave Dub the monicker "St. Petersburg Criminal", after the local Soap Opera show here in Kazkahstan.

Here is a group photo of Lena's group from earlier this year. The lady in the middle is the orphanage director, aka "Dragon Lady". She is very strict and stern, but always has the best interests of the children in mind.

Here's one of the early shots that really proves Dub is a ham. He was about to slide down, when they told him he was being photographed, so he stopped and gave a big grin.

Here's Lena about to take her turn on the slide in the playroom.

The Sandlins, Morins, and Vera & Mit at our celebratory dinner after our court dates.

Vera and Mit last autumn on a lake in Uzbekistan.

Thank you all for your continued encouraging emails and comments to this blog. The days are counting down, and we are very excited (and not just a little scared!) to finally have our kids with us all the time. Please pray for safe and simple travel to Almaty and then home!

Blessings,
Kevin, Angel, Lena & Dub

Plof

2005-06-09T09:15:00.000-04:00

The morning visit was fun. Lena was very angry when I came around to her group's hut to pick her up. She was playing with lots of toys and was upset that I would dare interrupt her fun. Took her a couple of minutes, but she came around. We discovered that Lena and Dub LOVE playing tent game, in which they sit real close together, and I toss a small blanket over them so they can only see eachother. This little phenomenon generated many shrieks of laughter. No pouting at all today.

This afternoon, we brought out the sippy cups again, for the singular purpose of trying to train Dub to use them. It is our (completely untrained) opinion that Dub has never learned to suck his thump, a pacifier, a sippy cup, or anything else. Why would we think this? Because his facial and mouth muscles don't seem to be developed well, causing him to struggle with certain sounds and/or words, like "please". He barely opens his mouth, and it comes out more like "pphhhhheeezzhhhe". We asked Anne Morin (NICU Nurse) about this, and she heartily agreed. So, out came the sippy cups. Lena didn't like it at first, but she sucked down her entire cup of apple juice in a hurry. Dub got a little frustrated, and kind of kept trying, but didn't end up getting more than a few sips of juice. We'll try again today.

Tonite, we all - American couples here along with our coordinators - gathered at the Morin's apartment to learn how to make some local dishes, mainly "Plof", or, in Kazakh, Palao. This is a rice-based dish with lots of meat, onions, carrotts, and whole cumin. Very delicious! We added to the Ploff some Manty which are made by wrapping a spicy meat concoction in fresh pasta, cooking, then dipping them into a ketchup-mayo sauce. Also quite good. We were up and out late (oooh! 1130!), so no "24", and that's why I'm just posting this morning.

Now, TGIF!! Five more visiting days to go, then we get these wonderful kids, and they have to put up with our English, bossiness, constant hugs, kisses, and "wuv woos" 24/7. Yes, "wuv woo" is their version of "Love you!" Every day when Mit and Vera come to take D&L back to their playgroups, they walk out the door, then turn and say "bye bye! see you! wuv woo!" and blow kisses to us, then trot on their merry way to lunch or dinner.

We would love nothing more than to be able to see what goes on in their heads when we bring them back to the hotel for dinner, bedtime, wakeup, playtime in Taraz square, lunch, naptime, on and on and on! What are they gonna think?!?

As for travel, we leave for Almaty on the 18th, and we are currently scheduled to leave from Moscow to Atlanta on July 5th. Our wonderful agent at Delta (Thank you, Marlene!!) has us waitlisted on every SVO-ATL flight from Friday July 1 through Tuesday July 5, so it will all depend on when we leave Almaty for Moscow as to when we get home. Laura, who we dined with last week as she came and went with daughter Rebekah, took 5 days for Passport and 4 days for exit visa. That's 9 business days, and that's what we have to measure by. So we might, just might, be able to leave Almaty on July 1. Then we'll have to see if God wants us to spend a few days in Moscow, or if we can just travel all day Friday and get home that evening. We'll see!

Blessings,
Kevin, Angel, Dub and Lena (aka, KADL)

Who’s the Boss?

2005-06-08T19:44:00.000-04:00

Apparently, it has not been established yet that Kev and I are the bosses here. Both kids are still pushing the envelope to see what they can get away with, and when we scold them or punish them, they pout like their world is ending. This morning started off great. When we get there the kids are usually outside with their groups in one of the little sheds. We walk the perimeter looking for them, and today when we walked up to the shed, we heard in 5 part harmony “KAAAAA-LEEEEEM-KAAAAAZ!” The kids were all calling her name to let her know Mama and Papa were here. The joy on her face is just radient. She runs as fast as her worn out little sandals can carry her and jump into our arms. Then the trouble started. Lena started it with grabbing a blanket out of Dub’s hands. When we spanked her hand and said “Jok!” she started pouting and kicking and throwing off her hat. So I picked her up and took her to the other side of the room and sat her on the ground facing away from us and all the toys. Then the sobs really took off. They don’t throw fits like normal kids. They just sit and hang their heads and weep. But this time, she sat with her legs straight out in front of her and was doubled over nearly in half just sobbing. After a few minutes, I went over and patted her on the back and said it was OK and I still love her, but she must behave. She looked up at me with that look that breaks your heart and I scooped her up and rocked her until she calmed down.

Meanwhile, for some unknown reason, Dub was in a cross mood and didn’t want anything to do with anyone and just laid down on the floor and just looked at us with his blank expression he gets.

We finally got them playing again and Lena spread out the blanket we brought and spread out all the toys. She kept rearranging them into little sections. She lined the crayons end–to-end all along the perimeter of the blanket, then brought in the blocks, then arranged the crayons on top of the blocks. She is so funny about her “things”

We have been asked about their clothing. The nannies dress all the kids alike. All the boys wear one outfit and all the girls another. (Sometimes the boys are wearing girls outfits and vice versa. Maybe there’s not enough of one sex outfits to go around) They both wear sandals. Dub’s are too small and tomorrow we’ll take him a new pair. He has bad blisters on the backs of his heels. And boy are they smelly. Sing along with us: “Smelly feet, Smelly feet Why aren’t they bathing you? Smelly feet, smelly feet it’s just your shoes!” Vera says it’s because they are made in China. Chinese shoes make your feet stink. And we’re not just talking a little stinky. It’s full blown yucky. Lena’s are just pitiful.

But they fit and they’re comfy. I don’t want to take her girly girl sandals, because they play out in the dirt and they’ll get all messy. I’m sure she can’t wait to get Madeline’s hand me down galoshes! The hats, well, they belive that the children will get cold or catch a cold if their heads are uncovered. Dub could care less about his hat, but Lena gets very distraught if hers is off for more than a few minutes. They also believe that the Miller’s baby, Danielle, got a high fever and was very sick because she had been exposed to sunlight. Go figure. If that’s the case, Florida is not for her!

Dub had another nekkid day. He went to the garshok a total of 5 times today by himself with out us having to ask him.
Of course, when he does, like George Costanza, he likes to take off ALL his clothes. No encumbrances!

And the rest of the day was just playing and eating goldfish.
(Glad I brought the Sam’s economy size!!!)

Hey! Can you do this?

We ALL have them!

7 more days and a wake-up until we get custody. Then the real fun starts. We break them out of "jail" on the 16th and we leave Taraz on the 18th. From here we go to Almaty where it takes 2 weeks to get passports and exit visas and the Embassy exit interview. They say we should be able to leave around July 3rd or so. But I’m not holding my breath.

Thanks for looking and PEEEESHE leave us comments. We’d love to hear from home.

Love,
K, A, L, Ds

N-E-K-K-I-D

2005-06-07T20:23:00.000-04:00

It was a very hot morning with kiddos. Dub walked around a lot in mama's shoes. Lena played in the dirt box. Victoria Miller spent the morning with us because the Millers were in court, which went fine and they were approved. We had excellent, volunteer garshoking, and good sharing of the water bottle between brother and sister. Victoria let them both into Mit's van at 11:15, causing lots of fun: They both sat in the back of the van looking out the back window at me repeatedly shouting PAAAAPAAAA!!! To which I have to very loudly respond LEEEENAAAA!!! DUUUUUUBBB!!!! But when Mama went to take them out of the car because it was time for them to go off to lunch, they both threw a fit, and nearly drove Mama to madness in the blistering heat. Dub went off to his group without a sound, but Lena kicked and screamed all the way home.

Second visit was mostly inside, and lots of fun. Dub decided he'd get nekkid, which, for those of you who don't know, is pronounced "N-E-double-K-by-God-I-D, NEKKID!" Thank you, Lewis Grizzard. For no reason at all, he just took off all his clothes, ran all around the music room and ended up on the garshok. Then he just got dressed again like it was just the thing to do. Unfortunately, all the pictures we tried to get of this little escapade were too blurry to be of any use.

So, 8 days and a wake up until "the day of possession". It now seems like a really short time, only a week, until this 15 day waiting period is over. It is such a blessing that it is going by so fast. All is well, and we even seem to be getting used to the heat. That will come in handy when we return to Atlanta in July. OY!

Now for the pictures from today.

Double trouble, eatin in double time.

Dub is learning, slowly, to take very small spoonfuls of yogurt. Wait till he gets his first Dairy Queen Blizzard!!

Hey there, brother! Hey there, sister!

I tried to put my hat on straight, but I don't have a mirror!

Dub, those are MAMA'S shoes!!

Yipes! She can be a little scary!

Oh! I see, I see! That makes a lot of sense, sure, ok.

Daddy! You're bein silly!

MA! You knocked me down on the sosa!

We were very surprised when we gave them a bottle of water to share, both that they could easily drink from a bottle like this, and that they just took a drink and then gave the bottle to the other.

There's a Coke commercial in here somewhere.

This is Lena with Victoria Miller. Victoria is 10, and lives on a farm outside of St. Pete Florida.

Don't bother me. I'm thirsty. It's very hot here.

There's a big toothy grin!

Not even sure what this face means.

Badges? We don't need...

2005-06-06T19:42:00.000-04:00

...no stinking badges!

On the way home from our second visit with the kiddos, Mit got pulled over for speeding, along with a handfull of other cars. Nobody was going more than 30-40 mph. The way the police officer pulled us over was to step out into the road, blow a whistle, and point Mit over to the side. We asked what was going on, and Vera said "Mit has been pulled over for speeding." She laughed, and handed Mit 200 Tenghe. That's about $1.50, and that's not a typo: a dollar fifty! Even worse, that buck-fifty goes straight into the policeman's pocket. Vera said, "He needs some money, so his boss gave him the radar" (pronounced "reDAAR" here).

So, on that note, I've decided to share our observations on the pedestrian and driving etiquitte of Taraz.

First, driving etiquette: There are some interesting street signs that are very common. A picture of a bugle with a red diagonal line across it does not mean "no bugling," but rather no honking your horns. A picture of a pair of sunglasses is the Kazakh method of letting the traffic know that there is a blind resident in the area. Stop lights are optional, as are balk lines. Anyone can do any kind of turns anywhere, and it's very common to just drive on the wrong side of the road for a short stint if it's more convenient. Also, there is no such thing as a mean honk of your car horn. If you want to let someone know they're a bad driver, you pull up beside them - as you pass in the oncoming lane - and yell at them. And they don't seem to mind!

Second, pedestrian street etiquette: It is one big ole game of chicken. Nobody will stay to the right when walking, which means anyone walks on any side of the sidewalk anytime. If you are in their way, that's just too bad. Anyone will just shove anyone else out of their way. "Excuse me" is only used to get someone's attention, not necessarily to make any sort of apology for being in someone's way or moving someone out of your way. The funny thing about it is that it doesn't bother anyone. In America, we would think any of these things quite rude.

Also, you never let anyone go in front of you, or hold open a door for anyone else. If you don't shove and push, you'll be left in the dust.

Also, a few more local quirks:

When we say "ya ni pinimayo pa russkyie", which means "I dont understand Russian", the typical response is that they start speaking really slowly and loudly...in Russian. And, unfortunately, I have become so accustomed to saying this phrase that someone even told me that they did not believe me, that I must be trying to trick them, and they laughed and went on and on in Russian.

At the GrosMarket, they make you check purse at the front desk and they have 4-5 police officers in the store making sure there is no chance of any shoplifting. Also at Gros, they have several grocery clerks going up and down each aisle cleaning and restocking every can and jar on the shelf. This store is really, really clean and organized!

But enough about all that. Today was a fun and interesting day with the kiddos. This morning, Dub was a little strange and emotional, and would NOT garshok for anything. This afternoon, all was well. He garshok'd all by himself, which is to say that we did not have to ask him "garshok?" He just went all by himself. Joksy bella!! That's Kazakh for "good boy."

So, day 6 of 9 is now in the books. They count Sundays even though we don't visit the kiddos. We're down to single digits for our waiting period!

Hello Lena.

This is one of the 'huts' that are around the campus at Umit where we flop down for our visitation periods, and where the kids' groups have their playtimes.

Lena climbs Stalin's rocket ship!

Mama and her boy.

AAAAHHHHHGGGGGG!!!

Havin fun in the sand-, er, uh, DIRT box.

Day 4 of 15 in the books

2005-06-04T22:58:00.000-04:00

Today was pretty much a groundhog day, except that we got to meet Laura (of Steve & Laura) who is here to pick up her Rebecca. So, there's our proof: people DO actually leave here with their kids from Umit! Laura is here with her friend Betty for 2 days, then a few days in Almaty. Her time in Almaty is shorter than ours because all their paperwork has been done while she's been home in the states. Rebecca is precious, and we wish them a safe and happy journey home.

We had lots of fun with L&D (it was D&L yesterday, so today we switch) today, then all the Americans who are here - Sandlins, Millers, Morins, and Laura & Betty - all went out to Bosfor for dinner. Those poor waitresses! All these Americanetz! Food was good, and we enjoyed a night out, then spent a few minutes on the Taraz square. The square is a happenin place after dark, especially on the weekends: roller blades, air hockey, karaoke, and all the ice cream you can eat.

A fun Saturday. Sunday shall be a day of rest (we don't get enough naps during the week). We've been taking notes on the local food and traffic customs. Perhaps we can post our findings tomorrow. We'll see.

For now, a few pictures from today.

The kids are voracious readers already. So what if both books are upside down?

Lena loves her doodle pad. It's also very handy for negotiating at the bazaar.

What a ham. Dub seems to know he's being photographed, and acts accordingly.

No way! Get out! You did not?!?

We trapped her and tried to force her to smile. Didn't work.

When she's not being emotional, Lena is a very funny little girl.

Hey! How'd you get like that? Daddy, you got some WHITE legs.

PEEEEEEEZHE!!

What a sweet girl!

If you had to wear this ridiculous getup every single day, you'd have this look on your face too! And, no, I do NOT have my Daddy's legs!!

And, this seals it: no political aspirations for either Sandlin child.

ICE CREAM!!!

2005-06-03T19:03:00.000-04:00

Oh boy, what a day! First, some administrative housekeeping. There was a bit of miscommunication between Vera and Mit, and hence, between Vera and us. She thought, and told us, that we had tickets for the Spanish train to Almaty for the night of the 16th. However, Mit told her that was not so, and that we had just purchased tickets for the "regular train" for that night. Today, we went back and got actual tickets for the Spanish train, but these are for Saturday night/Sunday morning, so we will have 2 full days in Taraz with the kiddos. We are still investigating whether we'll be able to leave for Atlanta on July 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5. Probably won't know until a couple of days before. At that point, we'll just be seeking the shortest distance between the two points.

We were asked via private email about why we would want - and THANK GOD for - the Spanish train as opposed to the regular train to Almaty. Here is my response to that question: the "Spanish Train" is called that because the actual, physical train was imported from Spain. It's nice, clean, and each compartment has it's own bathroom, complete with toilet, sink, and shower (where we stored our luggage!). The "other" train is typical old world Soviet style train. Old, dirty, smelly; each compartment does NOT have any bathroom facilities, and the facilities that you have to use are pretty much public domain. What that means is that they are uninhabitable, hideously smelly, and not someplace you'd take a child at all for any reason ever. To that end, passengers regularly hold their small children out the windows to let them "go" while the train is stopped, or even while it's running. For those who dare to brave the actual bathrooms, these toilets flush directly out the bottom of the train. And that's just the bathrooms. Smoking and drinking are fully allowed in any and all compartments on the train. The Morin family took this train from Almaty to Taraz, and Mr. Morin (a US Army Ranger, he's seen some nasty places) was appalled at the conditions.

So, we leave for Almaty on Saturday night, June 18th around midnight, and arrive around 9am the following morning. So the first night we ever spend with DnL will actually be in a hotel, not on a train. We will treasure those 2 days in Taraz with DnL, actually having the opportunity to show them where they've lived for the past 3 years. We confirmed with Vera that they might have left Umit 2-3 times per year for doctor visits, immunizations, etc.

But, today was a BIG day!! We got to dress the kiddos up and take them "off campus", officially to get their passport pictures taken, unofficially as a fun field trip for everyone and a break from the monotony of doing laps around Umit. What a grand time we had! First, we dressed them up in their newest clothes (Lena's courtesy of the Miller family):

Then we took them for a ride in Vera and Mit's van:

We drove across town to the train station to get new tickets for the trip to Almaty, so they got to see their first train station and train, and 2 little boys go "garshok" right in the middle of the outside of the train station. Just dropped trou right there on the sidewalk. Vera assured us that this was not normal. And, actually, one of the boys garshok'd ON the railroad tracks. OY!

Both Dub & Lena were pretty silent for most of the car ride and the time at the station. They were mesmerized, and just acting like little sponges, soaking it all in. They both kept saying "sheena", which is short for the Kaz word for "car", or "machina". When Mit honked at some other crazy Kazakh driver, they both said "beep! beep!" imitating the horn. Very cute. What was so different for this experience for us was that we got to hold them in our laps. You see, there are some aspects of the former Soviet Union Republics that are far more "free" than the US of A, namely that seatbelts are not only not required, but completely ignored. And, baby seats are virtually non-existent. Remember when you could pack up the wagon and let the kids sleep in the back, curled up in blankets and pillows all comfortable? That's still the norm here, so we got to hold them in our laps and show them all kinds of neat stuff. Please, no lectures about safety here. We're just following local customs. When in Rome...

After we got their very cute passport pictures taken, we got to give them their very first ice cream of their young lives. Crazy, huh? The Kazakh people believe that giving a child anything cold to eat or drink will make them sick, so these kids have never had ice cream until today. The same belief applies sitting (anyone, not just kids) on any cold surface. We got yelled at this morning for that cultural faux pas even though it was 85 degrees and the iron stairstep was maybe 70 degrees.

Well, we didn't get to see their first steps or hear their first words, but we got to see them do this for the first time:

The funniest thing was their reaction to putting something frozen in their mouths for the first time. Dub almost cried, but couldn't because it tasted so good! Lena just had that sick look on her face the whole time, while she yelled "PEEZE! DONGO!" and opened her mouth as wide as possible so Mama could shove another bit of ice cream in her face. Dub did the same thing, but after about 4 bites, he decided he did not like the cold. He would open his mouth really wide, then at the last minute, turn his head away. This caused several face-to-ice-cream collisions. Good thing for the handy-wipes. The cold may hurt their little teeth, because they have never ever brushed their teeth. (When in Rome...)

What a fun field trip! We cannot wait to have these little mongrels full time, so we can enjoy all the new things they will experience. Thank you again for all the encouraging notes and prayers. We are surely blessed in this our greatest adventure (so far).

Blessings,
Kevin, Angel, Lena & Dub

PS - a couple other pictures from the morning session for your viewing pleasure.

Milestones and disturbing images

2005-06-02T19:32:00.000-04:00

The Millers, who are now bonding with a new infant girl instead of a toddler girl, gave us 3 little outfits they had gotten for Valerie. We tried them on Lena, and she looked very cute in all of them. In Angel's family, the rule is that "if you have a tally-wacker, you can't go" or you can't do this or that. Not understanding this rule, Dub wanted to try on one of Lena's dresses, so he did. See frightening picture below. If perhaps you are thinking we should let him get in touch with his "feminine side", sorry, not happenin' here. When we made him take the dress off, he cried real tears and was very, very upset that Lena got 3 new things to wear and he got nada. We had planned for 2 boys, so we already have a bunch of stuff for him!

The disturbing image. Sometimes he likes to wear Mommy's shoes.

Lena was in very good spirits all day today. No pouting at all. Who knows what's going on in their little heads.

Lena in her new romper.

The dress of the day, since there have been no "Stockings of the day" all week!

Today - and allow me to mention here that the weather was simply beautiful today and please forgive our incessant whining over the hot weather - Vera and Mit took us to see several "historical places", mostly muslim mausoleums, including the mausoleum built for the 11th century bride (Aisha-Bibi) who died of a snakebite on the way to her wedding. The Khan was so overcome with grief that he built a wonderful mausoleum on the grave of his beloved and also one for his nursemaid. That's the ancient legend here in Taraz, but the mausoleums are real. These were discovered half-destroyed, and reconstructed this past spring. Outside the mausoleum, all over the 2-3 acre property, are roses, roses, roses, and more roses. The Kazakh people, not to mention the climate, are very, very good for roses. When we first arrived, we thought that most of the "gardens" around the city and at Umit were a bit run down and overgrown. Now that they have embraced the arrival of Spring/Summer, everything is simply beautiful. If they knew they could sell roses for $50/dozen to Americans, a few people here would be very wealthy from the sale of roses.

Just one of thousands of huge roses.

This picture does not do justice to the mass of roses around this property and all over Taraz.

The mausoleum of Aisha-Bibi.

Mausoleum for Aisha-Bibi's groom's nursemaid.

The Taraz city gate.

The Talaz river. Taraz used to be named "Talas" after the river.

As for our latest milestone, we will leave Taraz two weeks from today, on June 16, to spend another 2 weeks in Almaty. We got our tickets from Taraz to Almaty for the June 16-17 overnight Spanish Train ride. THANK YOU GOD!! On June 16, we'll get custody of Lena & Dub, spend a few hours at the hotel and in downtown Taraz, and leave for Almaty at midnight. No telling what the kids will do on their very first train ride: be scared, be excited, sleep...who knows?

It's very strange to wrap your mind around the fact that, other than maybe a visit or two to a doctor, these kids have never seen anything outside the grounds of Umit Baby Home! EVERYTHING they see will be completely new to them - car ride, hotel, ice cream in Taraz Town Square, train ride, Almaty, apartment, McDONALD'S in Almaty, an airplane ride, and airport...the list goes on and on. We think sometimes we're on an adventure, but these kids are about to embark on something so totally new to their little minds!!

Second visit with D&L was lots of fun in the "sand box" and "Stalin's Slide". The "sand box" is really 4 planks around a pile of dirt...hard dirt. They still enjoy poking at it with a stick, except when one flung dirt into the other's eyes, which happened several times. Stalin's slide is just a ladder up to nothing, with no slide. So Daddy made due and did "READEEEEEEEE?!?!? JUMP!!!" and caught Lena & Dub as they "jumped" off Stalin's plank. OK, so I picked them up real fast, tossed them about 3 inches over my head, and brought them down, then sent them around to do it again. It truly is the little things that make kids excited.

Dub was imitating Daddy from across the "playground".

Stalin's slide, aka the ladder to the short plank.

That's our Dub, bein' the little boy that he is.

The dirt box. Even little girly-girl Lena likes it.

So, after a short break with Seinfeld and "The Incredibles", it's time to start Season 3 of "24". Woo hoo! Day 2 of 15 is in the books. We leave 2 weeks from today. We can see the light at the end of the tunnel, and it IS a train...the Spanish Train!

Blessings,
Kevin, Angel, Dub & Lena

The heat...my God, the heat!

2005-06-01T19:45:00.000-04:00

And they say it will get worse! Yes, Lisie, this is the weather for you. Actually, it's hot, but not boiling. It's in the high 80s - low 90s and very sunny, with relatively low humidity, much like Denver. However, despite the fact that most buildings have A/C units, or at least nice big windows, they simply do not use them at all. In the car, we pile in, and the front windows are open, but they don't use the A/C, or even the fan for that matter. So, while we soft Americans are accustomed to some heat, we are also simply used to air conditioning or at least a nice breeze through an open window. Each session with the kids ends with our clothes soaked in sweat, so we're on double laundry duty.

We're still trying to get our arms around the travel time frame. We *can* leave Taraz for Almaty on June 16, the day after our 15 day waiting period ends. However, the papers for registration, passports, exit visas, etc., won't be processed until the following Monday, so we have a 4 day window to leave Taraz. We'll make sure we can take the "Spanish Train" rather than the Siberian Express. We still have not confirmed whether we have to spend 1 or 2 weeks in Almaty. Vera says it's definitely 2 weeks, which means we may just stick with our current airline tickets to leave on July 5th. We SOOOO want to be home by July 4th.

Great fun day with the kids, though Lena continues her very emotional ways, pouting at the slightest denial of anything, mostly when she demands to be picked up and carried around Umit. It's just too hot to carry a sweaty little girl around on your hip when she is perfectly capable of walking. We have to balance that with the fact that these wonderful kids that God has blessed us with have never had one-on-one attention, and we only get them 3 1/2 hours a day. Should be very interesting when we bring them back to the hotel, then the train, then the apartment, then the planes, then home. Being with us 24/7 will be a whole new world for them, not to mention us.

So today, Day 1 of 15 days in the waiting period, is in the books. 14 to go.

Please pray that our travel plans will be made clear, and that God will take care of all the details. Also, please pray that God will give us patience, endurance, and somehow enable us to beat this heat. He has provided a wonderful hotel with cold A/C, so that is our respite for now.

Blessings,
Kevin & Angel

Here's our emotional pouty Lena.

Did we mention that she's a little emotional?

But she sure looks cute in her USA clothes!

We found some sticks in one of the huts. They learned quickly!

Lena's a fancy girl!

Dub, please don't get used to being behind bars!

Now how could you resist that face?

These are all the very cute kids from Lena's play group. They always stop and yell "HELLO!!!!" at Lena and Dub. Today they showed us their treats - a cookie and a piece of candy. I said "WOW!" and every one of them started yelling "WOW! WOW! WOW!"

Sweet Fancy Moses!

2005-05-31T22:23:00.000-04:00

It’s (somewhat) official. We were approved by the court today to adopt William Roscoe Sandlin and Miriam Helena Sandlin, hereafter known as Lena ‘n’ Dub. We got to court just before our scheduled appointment of 10am. It was a small room with a desk for the judge, and a table on either side- one for the prosecutor and one for the Guardian Council Representative and for the Director of Umit Baby Home. We sat on benches between the two. There is no air conditioning at all, they never open windows here, and we were all dressed up – Kev in a dress shirt and coat and me in a dress and short jacket. We were both just dripping sweat – Kevin’s face was purple from the heat and he had to keep mopping his brow. We killed some time chatting with the Morin family. Then they were told to go outside and wait in the hallway. Then we waited some more. And then after we were done waiting, we waited some more. Around 11:15am the judge finally comes in and we start the proceedings. He asked the usual questions of both of us – name, DOB, birthplace, workplace. Then he questioned us individually. He asked Kevin the big questions like “Why are you adopting?” “Why 2 kids?” “Why Kazakhstan?”

Then the BIG question: “Have you ever been arrested?” *Gulp* “Yes.” “Please explain.” So we spent 10 minutes on why Kevin was arrested at age 18 (their records said he was 16) for possession of alcohol by a minor. They wanted to know why it didn’t show up on our background checks – because the records were expunged after 6 years. “Why isn’t there a record the record being expunged?” In our dossier we included a notarized letter from Conyers Police Dept. stating that the record was expunged. I guess something got lost in the translation.

Then he grilled me on why I can’t have a baby (medically unknown reasons). “Are you sure you can raise 2 kids?” (heck, no I’m not sure- but of course I didn’t tell HIM that!) “Perhaps it would be better if you adopted only one child.” My heart stopped. If he were to tell me I could only have one and I had to choose, I would have lost it. My future life passed in front of my eyes- would I throw myself on the floor kicking and screaming? Would I lunge at him to attack and get arrested never to see Lena ‘n Dub or USA ever again? Can I strangle with my bare hands? Could I do a proper Jack Bauer imitation?!? What would I be willing to do to get him to give me both kids? Blessedly, that question was sufficed with “Yes, we are sure we want to adopt these 2 children!”

Then the director gave her schpeel and then the guardian council representative gave hers. The judge spent about 20 minutes reading something out loud, and then we were told to wait outside. Everyone cleared the room so he could consider the case (or was he really doing shots of vodka and having a smoke?). Either way, he called us back in and read for another 20 min then it was declared that we were approved.

We were never given the chance to even ask for the 15 days to be waived. Just congrats and goodbye. So tomorrow starts the 15 day wait.

Had a fun afternoon with Lena & Dub. They are really learning very quickly. Now when I ask, "What do you say?" as I hold out a goldfish cracker to them, they say "what do you say?" instead of "PEEEEZHE!!" So I have to say "Please!" and of course, when I say "Thank you!" to prompt them to say it, I get the usual "DONGO!!"

Lena decided to be very disobedient and climb up a chair to try and reach a balloon on the wall. Well, the chair flipped over backwards between "LENA!" and "NO!" and she wacked her head on the iron heat radiator. Angel wishes to interject here that she was not present during this debacle. Anyway, Daddy was quickly there to comfort the little girl, and put a nice cold cloth on her forehead. Once she saw the bottle of fresh cold water, we figured out that she was much more scared than hurt, but she does have a nice radiator-shaped pattern on her forehead.

Then we had a celebratory dinner with Very, Mit, and the Morin family. In the Russian tradition, we were held accountable to celebrate with very cold Vodka. OY!

So, more good news for today: It's CLEAN SHEET DAY at Hotel Gazovic! Woo hoo! Yes, we have Ward and June Cleaver (Or Frank & Estelle, depending on your view of things) room arrangements. :-)

But then, shortly thereafter, we got more disappointing news: it won't be 1 week (or less) in Almaty, it will be 2 weeks. Doesn't look like we're going to be back in Atlanta for July 4th, but there is an outside chance. Please pray that we can get flights out as soon as all the paperwork is done. Also, please pray for our patience and perserverance. It seems like every time we think we're getting close to a milestone, the next milestone is moved further away, and it is very, very hot here. We were told "no shorts" because it's not the norm in this part of the world. BUBKAS!!! We're melting over here! Thank you God for a great hotel, and the occasional cloudy day here.

We'll survive. We're just spoiled Americans! This week we are very safe because there is a contingency of Americans from the American Embassy in Uzbekistan staying at Gazovic. There are armed guards at the doors!

Blessings,
Kevin & Angel

Girly- Girl

2005-05-30T19:40:00.000-04:00

Two visits in a row we got to see Lena in a dress! Now if we can get them to quit cutting their hair! The first thing this morning when we got there, they were having music class in the music room where we usually bond. When Lena came out with the director, she was a little storm cloud and had real tears rolling down her cheeks. It seems when they cracked open the door to peek in and see if they were almost done, Lena saw Kevin and she was told she couldn't leave until class was over. Apparently that didn't go over real well with the little princess.

Had a great visit this morning. As usual, Monday mornings are very clingy. It is so bloody hot, we went outside to try to use one of the little sheds they have for playing and were all settled in for a nice visit in the shade with a breeze blowing, and up walks a nanny with babes in arms and blankets and toys and just takes over the shed. Not a "Sorry" or even a "Leave please" they just swooped in and took over. Considering there are usually about 10 babies per 2 workers, I guess they needed the space more than we did.

Came home absolutely drenched in sweat and stripped down to our skivvies and lay prostrate on the nice cold sheets in the 18 degree Celsius room. (We told Vera our room was 18 and she almost fell off of her chair. "Like a refrigerator!" she said.) If we could’ve gotten it down to 10, we would have been very happy.

The afternoon visit was a bit more promising with dark storm clouds (not the children- real clouds!) moving in to cool things down a bit. But after the rain, there was zero breeze and hotter than the morning. So we stayed in the room and suffered. We've tried opening a few windows- there is an entire bank of windows along one wall- but they are single pane windows in 1x1 frames and very flimsy. The wood is all swollen, and if you tug too hard, you break both the window and the frame. We haven't done that yet, but I can feel it coming.

Just kind of an ordinary Groundhog Day.

Court tomorrow (Tuesday) at 10am (12 midnight EST) then the countdown- 15 days of waiting then at least 1 day to gather our papers. Then off to Almaty for about a week. Our wonderful agent at Delta- Marlene- looked around and found 4 business class (we’re NOT going back to steerage!!!) seats on June 21 and again on July 4. If we HAVE to go as cargo, we could get out on June 24. But that is of course if the timing works out. PLEASE PRAY!!!

Sorry about yesterday’s post. We were VERY busy. We had this very important nap that lasted for a few hours then we had an appointment with Jack Bauer and 24. It lasted from 6pm-11pm. After that, we were too exhausted to post. Next Sunday we’ll fill you in on the bazaar-from-hell and the strange food and driving habits.

Blessing to all!
Angel and Kevin

Isn't she looking like a girly-girl? Ballet classes to start soon!

Her American Indian name will be "Runs like a girl"

Two dresses in ONE day!

It's easy bein me!

What the heck are you doing???

Ain't I cute???

Trying to teach them how to blow Dandelions

Gimme Gimme Gimme

I WANT those cookies NOW!

PMS

2005-05-28T19:56:00.000-04:00

One of the Sandlin women is going through PMS today, and it’s NOT Mama. One of their grandmothers (we’ve yet to decide which one to call Baba Yaga) always said girls were born with it and let it out a little at a time. Lena was very pouty today. This morning especially. Nothing would please her. She’d ask to be held, and then whine to get down, then stand in the corner and pout. Granted it was about 115 F degrees (the F is NOT for my favorite word, but for Fahrenheit, but feel free to use either here. I’m sure I did!) OK so it was only about 85 but man the sun is strong here. The morning session is only 90 minutes, and they go by pretty quickly. Bribe the kids with food for awhile and play a little rough and tumble and before you know it, the 90 min is up. So most of this morning was Lena standing in a corner pouting.

It was the afternoon session that we realized she was probably feeling sick. Her forehead was a little hot, but then again, it WAS 115 F degrees. But they both have had very yucky noses the last few days and she was just out of sorts. So this afternoon, she climbed up in Mama’s lap and I sang to her for awhile, until Papa brought out the yogurt. Suddenly all the ailments were gone and she was feeling better.

While Dub on the other hand, was SOOOOO happy this afternoon. We went to get him from outside where his group was playing, and lo and behold the stockings of the day:

NO STOCKINGS!!! It’s a miracle. We actually got to see his fat pudgy little feet for the first time. Maybe he tee-teed in all his others and they were still in the wash. (or should I say on the line- they don’t uses dryers here- just lay the wet clothes out on the row of hedges.) Actually, he has not had an accident in about 4 days. We think we figured out how to make him “garshok.” If you try to undress him while he’s standing up, he screams bloody murder. But if you toss him on the ground, tickle a little, and pull his clothes off, he’s on the pot before he realizes what you’ve done! Then give him a little reading material (Gee- can you get him a phone hook up and a reading lamp for his potty???) and he is good to go.

Today Kev finally got a haircut. I begged him not to, but Ronald (as in McDonald) said he was going with our without my permission. It actually looks pretty good. Except the guy blew it dry. Very 80s. But it was VERY expensive. He paid 700 tenge including the tip. Outrageous! And I am expected to pay that tomorrow for my manicure and pedicure. Plus I’ll have to add another 100 tenge for a tip. This will bring the total for a mani-pedi + tip to a total of $6.15 USD. Wow. At that price, I may go get a pedicure every day. Even Lena is scared of my feet now!

We tried to explain Seinfeld to Vera today. Not sure how it translated. But since we brought the first 3 seasons (yes, I know season 4 came out while we’ve been here- I expect it sitting on my TV when I get home) with us, we’ll try to ensconce her in Seinfeld, not unlike George being ensconced in velvet. She loves Benny Hill but has never heard of Monty Python. And you know what they always say “No one ever expects the Spanish Inquisition.” We also brought the Holy Grail, so we’ll loan it to her see how that goes over. She may think our sense of humor is very odd. Shocking!

Well, off to bed and watch 24. Tomorrow, being a day off, we’ll fill you in on a little of the excellent (?) food here and the angel-style driving.

Thanks for the updates and the prayers.
And congrats to our niece Jessica (who grad-i-ated from our alma-mater HHS today- you know- 20 years AFTER we grad-i-ated) Way to go Jessica!

Love,
Angel and Kevin and
Lena‘nDub

Schedule

2005-05-27T19:01:00.000-04:00

Now that we know our court date, we can predict fairly accurately what the rest of our schedule will look like. Court date is Tuesday May 31. The 15 day waiting period starts the following day, June 1. We will get custody of the munchkins on June 16, and leave for Almaty either that day or the following day, whenever the "Spanish Train" goes to Almaty. We will spend approximately 1 week in Almaty, which time is completely dependent on how long it takes to get all the other paperwork, exit interviews, medical reviews, etc., finished. That means we should leave Almaty on either the 24th or the 25th, and it will take us 1 day to get home, due to the time difference and assuming we have a decent layover. We will most likely be going through from Almaty to Moscow to Atlanta. We'll have to buy 4 tickets from Almaty to Moscow, then our skymiles tickets will take us home directly from Moscow. So, 4 weeks from today, we should be on our way home. Whew.

Today was a really fun day with the kids. They are really starting to get to know us, and know that when we say "no" that means to stop whatever they are doing. Dub smacked his head for the 74th time today, and for the first time, it brought real tears. Then again, he did fall down directly on cement, so it's understandable. Daddy held him and told him it was ok, and after a few minutes, he was all Dub again. Today, though Dub had on his usual 3 layers top and bottom, Lena was in a pretty little skirt and t-shirt (Tom & Jerry for third day in a row), and just socks. No stockings! Mama has already purchased Lena some frilly little flowery pretty girly girl undies to replace the droopy drawer shorts they call underwear here. She's already Mama's little princess.

We have officially got the Morin family hooked on "24". They watched 8 straight episodes of season one yesterday alone!

Also, congratulations to my niece Jessica Fields for her graduation from my alma mater, Heritage High School! Go class of '05! Woo Hoo!

We've been asked for a health update: we're ok, despite occaisional bouts of Stalin's revenge. Lena's shoulder is as if it never happened. Dub's head has been conked more times than we can count, and, as mentioned earlier, tears have come only once, that being today.

Please pray that our travel details will be very smooth coming home. And, thank you for the continued influx of encouraging notes and catchup details of what's happening on the home front. We really do enjoy them.

Blessings,
Kevin & Angel

Kazakhstan or Colorado?

2005-05-26T18:52:00.000-04:00

Today we did not visit with Dub & Lena for the morning session. Instead, Mit drove us an hour east to the village where Valeryi Fatkulin was born 3 years ago, Kulan.

The drive was quiet as far as conversation goes, since Mit speaks very little English. However, the drive was simply magnificent. This drive is very much like the trip from Denver to Colorado Springs down I-25. It takes about an hour, is nothing but beautiful country, and the mountains stand tall and grand on your right the entire trip there.

Mit demonstrated the Kazakh method of driving for us once again, on what started out as a 4 lane highway, then went to 2 lane road, then just a wide strip of pavement, the just a wide strip of very, very old asphalt. I had just started to wonder when it would turn to dirt when we arrived. Along the way, it was quite common to see huge flocks of sheep both in the pastures and right alongside the road. We also saw many working donkey carts actually traveling the road, not to mention horses, cows, and goats grazing all along the road. It was like being taken back in time about 50 years to the western US. Incredible scenery, and a much slower pace of life.

But we were in the car, going 125 km/h, avoiding livestock and potholes and people along the way. The business in Kulan, which was just to get an original copy of Dub's birth certificate, took only about 15 minutes, and then we were back on the road. Mit stopped and let us take a few pictures of the maternity hospital where Dub was born.

Then, we stopped on the way out of Kulan to take more pictures at the "Welcome Center" of Kulan.

Finally, about 15 minutes outside Kulan, there is a grand statue of some kind of deer, elk, or other similar plain-grazing animal. Mit stopped along the side of the road, and in his broken English told us to follow him up the 50 foot shoulder of the highway up to the statue. The results of his efforts are below.

When we arrived at Umit for our afternoon visit, we were told that Dub & Lena saw Vera arrive in the morning with the Morin family. Both Dub & Lena expected to see us, and both broke down crying when we were not there. Yes, they know the schedule, they know the drill, and they knew we were supposed to be there and we were not. They were very happy to see us when we arrived at 4pm.

Vera delivered the bad news that our court date is NOT going to be Friday, but next Tuesday instead. Apparently, we were going to get a substitute judge, who was willing to make room in his schedule for us. But the big boss judge got word of this while he was attending a seminar in Almaty, and said the he and he only handles all international adoptions. Our court date is Tuesday. He will not waive the 15 day waiting period, so we expect to leave Taraz for Almaty on the 17th of June.

Yes, we were a little disappointed. However, we have just recently heard of 2 couples - one here already and the other still waiting in the US - who are both having great trouble with their referrals. We don't yet know their outcomes yet. So, we are thankful to be here and bonding with Dub & Lena, and we'll take whatever court date and time frame God wants us to have. God is good, and His plan is perfect.

Blessings,
Kevin & Angel

Another day in paradise

2005-05-25T23:15:00.000-04:00

Today was very much a groundhog day: wake up, have breakfast at the hotel, go see the kids, have lunch, nap, go see the kids, go to Kazakh history class, have dinner, watch "Meet the Fockers", go to bed.

Ho hum. However, we do have a few fun pictures to share.

Yes, Lena, you can have the banana.

Sorry, Dub, but this was irresistable. Perhaps the financial pages next...

Who wants a gummy bear? I do! I do! We've taught them "please" and "thank you", but they're still learning English, so it comes out "PEEEEEZE!! Dongo!!"

Like brother, like sister.

Pay attention, children. Mommy will show you exactly what to do.

Yes, again, Mini Me.

A new Yurta being constructed near the Taraz square. Not sure what it will be, but Vera says probably a restaurant or something like that.

We have learned that our court date might be this Friday, which is great, since that is when our 15 day waiting period will start. Vera says she already knows that the judge is not going to waive our 15 day waiting period. Thank you for your prayers for that. God is good. God answers our specific prayers in one of three ways: yes, no, or wait. In this case, we got a "no" and a "wait" 15 days. In His grand plan, 15 days is the blink of an eye. We will treasure these days as we have them solely to bond with our children. It's a gift of time, something we busy Americans don't often get these days. God is good.

Thursday we will go with Mit to the village of Valeryi's birth to obtain his original birth certificate. No idea what to expect, but this "village" is 2 hours outside of Taraz, so it's probably more like an actual village.

Tonite in Kazakh history class, we learned some traditions. When a Kazakh girl gets engaged, she is presented with traditional silver earings from the family of the groom. When a boy reaches a certain age of maturity, he is given a gun, or a traditional Kazakh whip of horse hair, or perhaps a traditional Kazakh sword. The earings are no problem for Lena. We'll be looking for the whip and/or sword. Not sure how that will come through customs...

Blessings,
Kevin & Angel

Groundhog Day

2005-05-24T20:15:00.000-04:00

Remember the 1993 movie with Andie McDowell and Bill Murray called Groundhog Day? Bill is a weatherman on location to cover the big groundhog/shadow story. Except it's the worst day of his life and when he wakes up the next morning it's the EXACT SAME DAY! He has to repeat it all over again. And again and again and again. That's what we feel like. And we just got an email from a family- the Wazzzzup! Baby family- the Keilins who said the exact same thing. We wake up, eat breakfast at the hotel, drive to Umit, visit with the kids, drive back to hotel, lunch, nap, drive back to Umit, visit, drive back to hotel, eat, watch 24 and go to bed. EVERY SINGLE DAY! The only variable is where we eat lunch and dinner. Then its’ the big decision between samsas and shishlik. We haven’t ventured out too far beyond those favorites. I’m beginning to feel like this "day" will never end! But we have hope. The official bonding time is over and from here on out it's just waiting and court. Speaking of court, we have to give the judge a gift. How about an all expense paid 4 week cruise on the QE2? And then if he doesn't grant our waiver, we can always give him a trip to the Bermuda Triangle.

Thought I'd give some insights on the kid's personalities. What should you expect from these little darlings?

Dub is 3- he'll be 4 Oct. 3, but he's really more on the 2 year old level. At least for now. His clothes (as far as we can tell) are around a 2T. He talks just fine when he wants to in a strange combination of Russian and Kazakh and now English. He'll repeat EVERYTHING you say (man do I need to change my favorite word!!!!) He is extremely ticklish. He will jump into ANYONE’S arms who holds them open for him. He loves to eat, and he eats with enthusiasm. It's a challenge that must be tackled as quickly and messily as possible. Mostly obedient. If you have to discipline him, he doesn't cry and scream, he just stands there like this little storm cloud. He has NO interest in cleaning up his toys. He loves to run as fast as he can, and that means if he's outside, that means at least 6 "face plants" between him and us. And he never sheds a tear. He can also smash his head o the carpet, or table corner or the side of a piano and doesn't even flinch. Like his father, his pain threshold is very high. I don't know if it's the shoes or the 4 layers of clothes or just developmentally that makes him a little unsteady when he runs. But if he wants you to go a certain direction when you're walking, he's stronger than you, and you WILL go his direction.

Lena is also 3- she'll be 4 on Nov 24 (guess who will be having Thanksgiving at their house this year???) She, too, is more on the 2 year old level. Her clothes are a 2T but is rapidly outgrowing that. She talks a LOT and will also repeat after you. She is very smart as we've seen with blocks and puzzles. She is VERY possessive of her things. Like her mother, she is going to love BAGS and loves to put things in her bags. I'll be buying her a little backpack this week. She LOVES to clean up. Favorite thing. (which is either going to be a blessing or a curse to me!) She is extremely independent and wants to do things for herself. But at the same time, if we go outside for a walk, she wants to be held all the time. She is EXTERMLY disobedient. And if you say no or spank her hand, (also like her mother...) she just laughs and laughs. As with Dub, if she doesn't get her way, she doesn't cry and scream, she just stands there and pouts (see yesterday's photos). She knows she's cute and knows how to use it. She understands English pretty well. She is showing some athletic promise to Mama Dear’s chagrin. Loves the soccer ball. She (also again like her mother) is very headstrong but can be very generous and loving.

All in all they are great kids and we have bonded so quickly and so closely it's hard to imagine they are not our bio kids. Epically since they are so much like US!!!

Dub in his stormcloud mood.

Trying to teach "Please" but it comes out "Pweezesh"

Dub littlelips

Lena and all her worldly poessions. I need a bag, mom!

Oh boy! My favorite!

I do! I do!

Finally put her in a dress, but are they colorblind?

Dub, Lena and the MOrin Family- Chelsea, Alek and little Diana

Day 14 of the 14 day Bonding Period

2005-05-23T10:13:00.000-04:00

Good Monday morning! Dobray Utra! Today is day 14 of the "14 day bonding period." For those of you reading this blog in anticipation of your own trip to Taraz to adopt, the unfortunate reality is that the "14 day" bonding period is really at least 21 days, thanks to NOT being able to file for court appearance until after the 14 days and then the fact that it takes at least 5 days to schedule the court appearance. Sorry for the discouraging news. It's reality. We learned today that the judge is not going on vacation. We will still pray, and God is still good.

Both kids were rotten this morning, and only wanted to be held and would not walk. Later Anne Morin reminded us that it's Monday, and they missed us on Sunday, so, yes, they just wanted to be held. Our not holding them had disastrous results as both L&D threw fits. Evidence of Lena's malcontent below.

Neither one knows how to share with one another yet. One box of crayons, if not for the moderation of K&A, could have started a fist fight, if not just some nasty wimpering. The evidence is not apparent in the pictures below. And, this is somewhat out of character, since both of them sometimes go out of their way to bring the other a toy or give them a gummy bear or something.

Used pull-ups for Dub today. No accidents, but when (we think) he had to go, he started trying to take off his pants (and stockings and shorts and boxers...OY!!) to go garshok. He would not accept my help. I took a look, and everything was dry, so we're again confused.

Great time with kiddos this afternoon...yogurt, sprite, soccer, coloring, lots of fun. Lena continues her reign as the only 3-year-old Sandlin in this family never to have spilled a drop of yogurt. Dub is more like the Tazmanian Devil going after the yogurt container. In the end, the container is empty, but most of the yogurt is on him, the floor, his clothes, us, his hair, and all over his face. Like father like son, or, for those of you familiar with the Austin Powers movie series: Mini Me.

Outside, both kids said they had to Garshok! So Daddy got his first experience helping a 3-year-old girl go potty outside...without squatting...with 3 layers of clothes...and overalls...in high grass! We were successful, and there was much rejoicing. Dub saw this apparent success and decided that he would voluntarily try to garshok, so we took off his sweatshirt (did I mention it was 80 degrees today?), his overalls, his turtleneck, his stockings (of the day), his boxers, and finally his pullups. He didn't have to go. Maybe next time.

Lena showed off something her Mama-Dear (Helen, Angel's mom) will NOT approve of: she LOVES to play "that ol' ball!" Alek Morin got a soccer ball at the bazaar on Sunday, and Lena couldn't get enough kicking and throwing it back and forth with Alek. Dub couldn't have cared less.

So, tomorrow Vera files our paperwork to apply for the court date, which should take place either next Monday or Tuesday, God willing. Vera laughed today when I said that we would still continue to pray that somehow God would change the judge's heart, and he would see fit to waive our 15-day waiting period. Not very encouraging, but nevertheless, we will perservere. If God wants to send us home in early June, great! If not, we'll have sheshlek, samsas, and local brew for a few more weeks. We would love to bring the kiddos home sooner, so please, please pray that God would intervene and somehow cause the judge to waive our waiting period.

And, finally, the look that will soon sweep London, Paris, and New York...the Stockings o' the Day!

More random pictures below. Please, please pray that God will change the heart of the judge, so our 15 day waiting period would be waived.

Blessings,
Kevin & Angel

History of Taraz

2005-05-22T18:51:00.000-04:00

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We had a day off today and went to the bazaar. If I were the shopper-from-hell, it would be fine, but as much as I LOVE to shop, I do better at TJ Maxx and Tuesday Morning than at the world's largest outdoor bazaar.

Thought today I'd give you a little background on Taraz. We learned in a history class we are taking from Inter-Lingua that the bazaar sits on the many remains of the 2000 year old city of Taraz. It was destroyed completely the first time by Genghis Khan then was destroyed several more times over the years. Ancient Taraz sat along the Great Silk Road bridging China and Europe. The people here were nomads and lived in a tee-pee like structure called a Yurta (imagine a round dome shaped tee-pee) The insides were very lavish- decorated with the popular Kazakhstan rugs- hanging from the ceiling as well as covering the dirt floor. The outsides were made of wood slats forming a circle and them the whole thing was covered not with leather as you'd expect but wool! Dub has a replica of a yurta (1/2 of one- like a cross section) in the corner of his group that is kind of an awning for them to play under. I'd love to have one like this, but can't seem to find it at the bazaar. Our Inter-Lingua teacher said there is a section at the bazaar for "national" items- real souvenirs like flags, and historical elements. We have yet to find this elusive "national" section.

We've included a few photos of the bazaar today. Imagine about 5 acres packed with little booths selling everything from bras to wedding gowns to sheep heads to linoleum and ugly plastic crap. The "streets" between the rows are basically sewers if not raw sewage then streams of some sort of liquid forming little rivers. There is also a "flea market" section that people just spread out a towel and sell whatever they have. We passed such things as a Bic disposable razor (maybe used- maybe not???) a rusty screw (Bill Ballenger would be proud, no?) a dented burned frying pan- they'll sell anything!

Back to the history- After the city and subsequently the silk road was destroyed by Khan, the city was basically gone for centuries. The nomadic people (mostly Turk immigrants) still lived in the beautiful land of steppes and hills and mountains with their herds of sheep, cattle and horses. Around 1850, a new city was finally built, but the name Taraz was lost to history. In Russian times, it was named Zhambyl after a great Kazakh poet who lived 99 years. When the country became independent in 1991, the government wanted to change it’s name back to Taraz to recapture the heritage that had lain dormant for so long. You’ll still find Zhambyl listed on maps, but the new name is Taraz.

So there is your history lesson for the day! Now don’t you feel smart? You can drop that in conversation- “Wow that Taraz has some history, doesn’t it?”

Mine's broken!

2005-05-21T21:27:00.000-04:00

Lena's shoulder, Dub's tally-whacker, our hearts...broken. OK, well, not broken, but certainly malfunctioning today, breaking our hearts.

First Lena. They didn't report Angel to Taraz DFACS, but they did determine that Lena had a dislocated shoulder. Most of the pictures today are of Dub, since Lena and Angel went to the "hospital" (Soviet style..."hospital" in name only) to take care of the shoulder while Kev & Dub had some male bonding time.

Angel felt the first real manifestation of motherhood. "It was all I could do not to bust through that door and tear my little girl away!" This statement from Angel after they took Lena into "the room" behind cold steel doors and re-set her dislocated shoulder, and Lena let out an agonizing, blood-curdling cry of pain. She should be 100% in a couple of days. No permanent damage, except to Angel's heart.

Dub's heart, and Kevin's, may take a little longer to heal. Dub had 2 potty accidents today, and boy did he hear about it from Brune Hilda. We confirmed with Vera today that, indeed, Brune Hilda IS telling Dub that if he doesn't stop going in his pants, they're going to cut IT off. I expressed my strong objection to this kind of potty training humiliation upon deaf ears. I'm no psychologist, but it cannot be good for a little boy to hear that he's going to lose his equipment if he doesn't behave properly. Probably appropriate for many adult males these days, but Dub's not quite there yet.

We finished off the first season of "24" last night...WHEW!! Taking a break before we join Jack Bauer for season 2. Been meaning to report a few oddities seen in and around Taraz: a heard of sheep seemingly roaming the city by themselves; a woman grazing a cow in the city park right outside our hotel; a traffic accident involving a donkey cart; crazy driving...we're working on a crude Quentin Tarantino-esque production of "Cops: LIVE from Taraz!" to demonstrate the, uh, freedom with which they drive over here. Very enlightening, scary. We Americans with our lanes, balk lines, traffic lights, all those rules...HA!

And, we have submitted their names for passports, official birth certificates, visas, etc.:

William Roscoe Sandlin
Miriam Helena Sandlin

And, finally, for those of you who just read this blog for the pictures...

Gotcha!

One of just a few smiles on a rough day for the Dubinator.

This is what little boys do...only they dress different.

Fair is fair. Dub's potty photo was just a few days ago.

No way this thing's empty! We did NOT eat them all!?!

Darn sippy cup child safety bottle top thingy!

I can never find anything in here!

Just bein' Lena.

Is there DFACS in Taraz?

2005-05-20T19:30:00.000-04:00

If so, I'm in trouble.

We had a great day today. SOMEBODY woke up GRUMPY. Doesn't he KNOW he's supposed to let Grumpy sleep??? I guess it was the gloomy overcast sky and too much sleep! Anyway, by the time we got to Umit, the gloom had passed. When we got there, Dub and
Lena's groups were both outside playing together (very unusual.) Vera told us to go ahead and find the kids and go get them (usually you have to have a doctor go to the group and get the child and bring them to you- very orderly) They were in one of the little sheds that are on the ground for the kids to play in (they have these giant playpens made out of wood- see a picture below) and there are high shrubs surrounding each shed. But somehow Lena looked out just in time to see us walking by and her little eyes lit up and she came running toward us. We thought it was just her group and started walking away after we scooped her up, but then we heard FATKULIN! (Dub's last name) and realized his group was out there too. He saw us and started toddling toward us (Lena is a little more stable on her feet than Dub is) with his arms outstretched running to jump into Papa's arms!

After the morning session, we came home, had a lunch of 3 samsas each (for a whopping total of 120 tg- a dollar is 130 tg!) and napped. This is starting to become a very bad (or is it a good???) habit- this afternoon napping. I guess if we can coordinate with their schedule- when they sleep- we sleep!

We went back at 4 for our afternoon visit, and once again, Dub's group was outside. When he saw us, he was very distressed and we couldn't figure out why. The other family here, the Morins, arrived in their car first and they said Dub was there
looking at the car expectantly and when we didn't get out of it, he was very upset. We pulled up about 3 minutes later and he once again jumped into papa's arms. Somehow he knew that we come and go in cars even though he's never seen us leave or arrive before. They brought Lena in and we decided to go outside for bubbles. When they tired of bubbles, we just started swinging around and playing. They love to do the airplane- swinging by the arms around in a circle. I have always been very careful to do it by their armpits and not by their arms so as not to dislocate their shoulder. Here come the DFACS part- one time I picked Lena up by her arms and swung her around and when I put her down I heard a pop and she started crying. The first time in 11 days that we've seen tears, so we knew it was real. I scooped her up and went inside to take off the FOUR layers of clothing so I could examine her arm (and to give her a gummy bear which made it all better) It was obviously hurting still, so I went off in search of Vera and found the nice doctor (avoid the male doctor at all costs!!!) and told her "Kalamkaz" and pointed to my shoulder. She came with me and determined it was, indeed, her shoulder and another doctor came back with some gauze to make a temporary sling. She was very brave, but cried a few more times while they tried to take her layers off. Kevin gave her a gummy bear and although we could see her wincing in pain, the gummy seemed to have some sort of medical (OK so it was emotional) affect on her and she calmed down. The whole time Dub just stood in front of her very concerned. So I'm afraid that tomorrow I'll be called into the director's office and have some sort of chopping motion that may mean "you're a bad mommy and we're going to cut you off" We'll keep you posted. I feel just awful that I "broke" my little girl. I'm sure it's not permanent, but it still broke my heart that I inflicted this pain. When she rejoined her group, everyone wanted to know what happened and Vera said she had this very Scarlett-esque look on her face- she was very proud of the injury and the attention. Did I mention that she's going to be a handful???

And of course there's Dub- who fights us every time we try to put him on the training potty. I was afraid after the chopping lecture (twice!!) that he's going to have this bathroom complex, so we don't want to push him, but at the same time, we don't want him to have an accident and get the chopping lecture again from Brunehilda. So glad I brought some Pull-ups! I just hope I can but a potty here so I can schlep it across 3 continents. Speaking of which, still no word on how we're getting home. Guessing we're going thru Moscow- probably we'll have to buy 4 tickets Almaty to Moscow and then we can use the Delta skymile portion Moscow to Atlanta. Please continue praying!

Here's a few photos-
Keep the comments coming- we really covet them. And long emails from home too- we are feeling a bit disjointed- thanks Happy for keeping us in the loop!

OH- and thanks to Miss Robin who gave us these wonderful magnet doodle pads. We were going to save them for the plane, but they just LOVE them. See pics below!

Love,
Angel and Kevin

Obviously before the damage suffered by mother!

Kev says: "We know it's time to stop when someone gets hurt!" How NOT to play with your toddler!

They LOVE their bubbles!

Peanut Butter

2005-05-19T21:25:00.000-04:00

We slept late this morning, then had the usual breakfast at Gazovic, then Umit from 10-1130. We had a very nice visit today. Both Dub & Lena were on their best behavior, except when we asked Dub to garshok. He threw a little fit, at least for him what is a little fit, which means he pouted and turned around. We did this twice, then just sat him on the potty the third time, and after a few minutes, he went...a lot.

Lena continues to learn how to say very adamantly, "Please!" for treats. Dub kind of mumbles it, but means it, just doesn't articulate as well yet. Lena knows everyone's name: mama, papa, dub, lena, without hints. Dub knows Mama, Papa, and if you point at her, Lena, but he doesn't quite get his own nickname yet, Dub.

After lunch and a short nap, at 230 we went to the Taraz historical Museum - very interesting, with English speaking guide. Taraz used to be a major stop on the "the great silk road" of ancient times.

- Afternoon visit with D&L was great. Here are several family photos of the other adopting families that are here with us, the Morins from Virginia (via Italy) and the Millers from Florida. We introduced peanut butter to Dub & Lena by way of simple packaged peanut butter crackers. They loved them. Lena, as we would expect because she is JUST like her mommy, spent 15 minutes licking the peanut butter off of the cracker before she would eat the cracker. Dub crunched his down in no time at all.

Lots of pictures below. Please pray for the judge to waive the 15 day waiting period, and for smooth transitions for the flights home.

Blessings,
Angel & Kevin

This is the Miller family, from Florida. Valerie is their soon-to-be adopted daughter. She's in Dub's play group.

This is the Morin family, currently in transition from Italy to Virginia, with Asim (Diana), their new 10 month old daughter.

Wednesday, May 18, 2005

2005-05-18T09:20:00.000-04:00

First, a couple of prayer requests:

1. Just found out from our new friend at Delta that there has been an embargo on skymiles award travel from Jun01/05-Aug31/05 on KLM and Air France. What this means is that any current ticketed itineraries will be honored and no changes are
permitted. Also, name changes are not permitted on tickets. What's this mean to us? Well, we are adopting Miriam Helena, not Jonathan Timmons, whose name is on the ticket. She also said that we may be able to fly nonstop Moscow to Atlanta, if we can get to Moscow. Moscow is about halfway between Almaty and Amsterdam, which was about a 5 1/2 hour flight, so coach to Moscow might not be too bad, assuming we don't have to fly Aeroflot! Please pray that God would just enable us to get home, and take care of the details.

2. Please pray that the judge will waive our 15-day waiting period. His decision will also factor in greatly in prayer request #1 above, considering the timing.

OK, now for the update. Sorry we couldn't post earlier (i.e., last night), but the hotel's phone lines were on the fritz.

Wednesday was a usual morning, but we got moving too late for our walk and it was raining just a bit. The afternoon was a great overcast cool day.

Lena was horrid this morning: would not obey at all. We have much to learn as parents. Dub did "garshok" (potty) several times, and had no accidents all day. We played in a new room because the music room was getting nice new french doors installed. This other room is upstairs in the phys ed. room with lots of places to play and new toys.

We weren't even tired after the morning session or so we thought, but Angel crashed at lunchtime, Kevin read for a couple of hours.

When we started our afternoon session, we went out to one of the little play areas that have a kind of a shed for the kids to use, and we began playing. There was no sign that said, "WET PAINT", but there should have been. Kevin ruined a good pair of shorts, and we had to scrub a bunch of paint off Dub's hands. We moved to another outdoor play area and continued our bonding time by giving the kids their first taste of Whoppers, specifically, "Easter egg" whoppers. Dub crunched his immediately, Lena savored, sucked, chewed, nursed hers for at least 10 minutes.

Lena was very subdued all afternoon. She laid her head on papa's shoulder, very quietly, almost sleepy. Dub was lots of fun. Both Lena and Dub climbed up monkey bars inside the new room. They were both very quick to go up, but didn't know how to come down. With one instruction, they learned very fast. Great climbers. Liked the little swing and very small slide. Can't wait to get them back to a real big play park.

Note to self: Give Lena a clean up job, and she's focused until it's done.

Both Dub & Lena are quickly learning "please" for treats. Lena much more aggressive with "PLEASE" when she saw the treats. Dub just takes it as it comes. "Oh, yeah, sure. Please."

We attended a class from Inter Lingua (part of Interlink Resources) about Kazakh culture, learned about certain traditions, like the circumcision party, with a goat sacrifice (don't know who they are sacrificing it to???) including the "game" of riding horses trying to dump the headless goat into a pit. Very dangerous and very hard because the goat is heavy you have to be strong to hold onto it and your legs have to be strong to keep on the horse with no hands while you're holding the goat and riding at full speed with a bunch of Kazakh brothers trying to steal the goat from you!! This game is still played today! Imagine polo with a goat carcass instead of a ball and a club. It's called Kokpar, and this whole party occurs when the young boy is 4-6 years of age.

We ate an incredible dinner at Sarkotvela, a Georgian (Russian) Restaurant with EXCELLENT shishklas (similar to shish-kebobs) but we forgot to check to see if we had enough Tenghe to eat. We had 2000 Tenghe, but the meal was 2,600 Tenghe. Thats what we get for being stupid American beer drinkers. Without the beer, we could have swung it! We gave the waiter the 2000 Tenghe plus a $20 bill (about $15 extra I just happened to have a $20 in my purse.) He was running around trying to make change for us (and we didn't know this because we don't speak RUSSIAN), but when he brought us back some tenge change, we told him to keep it all for his trouble. He was shocked, and happily escorted us to the door as we got up to leave, while we pleaded izvenichye (I'm sorry) and , spaseeba (Thank you) , over and over. He was very happy in the end, and we were so stuffed we waddled home. The shasklik is very popular here - I guess it goes back to their nomad backtground. Kill the meat, make a fire, skewer it and cook. Comes a la carte but you don't need anything else. The spices are so fabulous!

Our visitation hours have been changed from 3-5 in the afternoon to 4-6pm, so the kids will have time to wake up from their afternoon nap and have a snack before we see them.

Thank you all again for your incredibly kind emails and blog comments. They are very encouraging to us, and we look forward to reading them each day.

Blessings,
Angel & Kevin

What a HANDFUL!!

2005-05-17T18:20:00.000-04:00

Boy did we learn a lot about our little Lena today! Lena is very devious: laughs when told "Jok!" (Kaz for "no") and goes right back to what she was told not to do. She's very, very smart, goes after what she wants, doesn't take no for an answer, and laughs when she's caught. She is going to be very strong-willed, so we will have to focus that strength of hers into the right directions.

Dub is just Dub. All little boy. Rolls with the punches.

We brought them some new kazakh alphabet blocks. Just good old square blocks with letters on them. They don't care about the letters, but both of them got very creative in making shapes and things with the blocks. Lena is very smart at blocks. She woud arrange them in certain shapes and knew exact symmetry - which block goes where and how they fit together. Dub would just build a tall tower and then knock it down. Good boy, or, in Kaz, "Joksi Balla". "Good girl" in Kaz is "Joksi Kz". (not a typo, just "kz").

After the morning session, we went shopping and found a Russian version of some Bugs Bunny cartoons as well as a Baba Yaga video. Then, Vera showed us a really close place to get "Samsa", a triangle shaped pastry of filo dough filled with cheese, chicken, or beef. YUMMMMMMMMYY! The best part is that each one, which is about the size of slice of NY Pizza but about 2 inches thick, is just 20 Tenge, or 15 cents.

Here's some interesting stuff: Lena and Dub will both need a little cosmetic surgery when we get home. Lena has a tally-wacker shaped belly button caused by (we think) a herniated navel, and Dub has not been circumcised! Put that on top of the fact that Dub had another accident - 5 minutes after we sat him on the potty (gashok) for 5 minutes - when we took him to his group to get changed, his caretaker (who loves him a lot) said something in Kaz and stuck out her index finger and made a chopping motion that looked like "stop having accidents or we'll cut it off!" And now we have to have him circumcised! What's the poor fella gonna think he did wrong?!? I'll try to get Vera to clarify what she said tomorrow.

We had several battles of will with Lena today. You tell her "NO!" and she just laughs in your face. This is partly because she does not yet recognize that we are her new authority figures, and partly her getting comfortable enough with us to try just about anything. Both are good and bad. But we are already exhausted of playing this game. I can see now why parents get beaten down after awhile. Oh, so much to learn...

Now for all the pictures!

You can see how she could use such expressions to manipulate her new parents.

And here are the stockings of the day! Imagine that: bland beige. Oh well.

We mentioned earlier that Lena is a very neat eater. It's true. Today with yogurt, not a drop was spilt. But then there's Dub, aka, I must eat it all in one bite or someone will take it from me!

It won't be long and I won't be able to do this anymore. Gotta hit those free weights!

Above is a picture of all the kids in Lena's play group. They are all very sweet kids, and they always talk to us when we're on our laps around Umit with Dub & Lena.

This is very typical of how one or two caretakers handle 6-10 infants at a time!

Finally, some more shots of the beautiful gardens around the orphanage. The roses are just about to explode, and these are some early bloomers.

We met a new family today, from St. Pete Florida. They are adopting a little girl from Dub's play group. Nice folks, and they are joining us in praying that our 15-day waiting period is waived. Please continue to pray that the judge will waive this requirement.

Blessings,
Angel & Kevin

PS - thank you for all the encouraging emails and comments on this blog. We're a long way from home, and it means so much to hear from our friends and family. Thank you again.

Just a bunch of pictures

2005-05-16T13:30:00.000-04:00

We only have one visiting session today, and that was this morning. We have our "Guardianship Council" meeting today at 4pm. Vera has told us that this is a more casual version of what we'll see in court. We're to bring family photos, and answer a few questions about why we're adopting, why from Kazakhstan, are we stable at home financially, is our home big enough, etc., etc. Should be interesting, and Vera has told us not to worry.

So, we'll post about that later today. In the meantime, enjoy these pics. The flowers are all from just the front garden area of Umit Baby Home. It's spring time here, and everything is blooming.

Dub

Chillin

Can you resist this face?

wrapped around my finger

Did I mention the love of goldfish crackers?

I mean she REALLY loves them

Mama loves her babies

Papa loves his kids

Main entrance to Umit building

Music Room where we play every day

tree in courtyard

flowers in courtyard

More Monday...

2005-05-16T09:50:00.000-04:00

The kids are so funny- the orphaage does things a little different. For one, they don't use diapers. AT ALL. They just use little cotton pants and I guess do a lot of wash. But they start potty training at 6 mos. And there are no "props"- no pacis, no sippie cups, they use utencils to eat and real cups to drink. Today we got a real taste of their personalities. We were trying to teach them to drink from a sippie cup (it would make things so much easier on mom! and on the airplane and carseats!) Lena caught on after a few tries, but Dub just sat and looked at it and handed it to Kevin to open. Kevin handed it back and told him to watch Lena and he just sat looking at it and tried a few times and it looked like he got it. Then he just brought it down from his mouth and this little scowl came across his face and he just flat refused to drink it.

We attended the "Guardian Council" hearing today. This is a requirement before going before the actual judge in court to gain custody of the kids. It was a little intimidating: 5 Kazakh women asking lots of questions and our interpreter, Vera, handing them off to us. In the end, they saw the picture of Kevin at 18 months or so with the Heineken bottle in his hands, and laughed at how much it looks like Valeryi. They wished us all the best, and hoped that our dream of a family would be fufilled.

We ate lunch - chicken kebobs - at the Bosfor restaurant, just a short walk away. Delicious! For dinner, we walked the 20 minutes or so to the Gros Market and bought a BUNCH of food, cokes, water for about $15. A very fun and full day. Back to the regular schedule of 10-11:30 and 3-5pm visits with Dub & Lena tomorrow.

Please continue to pray that God would somehow allow the Judge to waive our 15 day waiting period. It appears as if our court date will be on May 30 or 31. We'll know that next Tuesday or Wednesday.

Blessings,
Kevin & Angel

Stockings of the Day

2005-05-14T08:54:00.000-04:00

Whew, what a day! Finally, both Angel and I got a good, full night's sleep. Up at 7, breakfast at the hotel, and a beautiful walk in the Colorado-like weather. Sunny and 50 degrees this morning! Another visit this morning with the kids that just flew by. We took a video towards the end that we are trying to find a way to get uploaded to some server somewhere so everyone can see it. It's a classic. Sorry for the teaser, but it's irresistable.

Now for the "stockings of the day!" Dub (Valeryi) is always dressed - as all the kids are - in 3 or 4 layers of clothing, even on hot days. But under all that are a different set of stockings each day. These are the equivalent of our "long johns" with feet. See below for exactly what I mean. These are never anything like low-key beige, blue, or other quiet color. They are always loud, and different every day.

Lena continues to show her smarts, her ability and intention to wrap her daddy around her little finger, and her pouty side. One thing that we must note is that these kids have the equivalent of 3 years of Army training for babies. They are drilled in routine, routine, routine. What a blessings for these totally inexperienced parents of theirs! Like Dub did yesterday when I took away his apple juice, Lena stuck out her lip, turned around and pouted when we said "boldi" (enough) to the gummy bears. After about 30 seconds of pouting, she came back to the fun.

We commented on this behavior and their 3 years of training to Vera. Her reply was, "Yes, and if you read their instruction manual and follow the directions, they will remain well trained. However, since we don't give you the instruction manual, you will spoil them forever."

Vera took us to the bazaar at lunchtime. Imagine 2 Georgia Domes FULL of vendors of everything from bras to pig heads. Vera wore us out speed-shopping through this massive market. No visits to Umit on Sunday. We'll miss Lena & Dub. I'm coming down with a sore throat, so we'll be taking the day off.

Please continue to pray that we will draw the substitute judge for our custody hearing and that this judge would waive the 15 day waiting period.

Open wide!!!

2005-05-13T09:04:00.000-04:00

We got up very early, but had a very good sleep. Our body clocks are on Kaz time now.

Both Dub & Lena were in very good spirits, and each has grown accustomed to the daily routine of twice a day sessions with their new Mama and Papa. We played, read books, made bubbles, and did a couple laps around Umit. The morning sessions are only 90 minutes really fly by. Lena figured out where the animal crackers were and how to get one of her own. Lena & Dub held hands on one of our walks.

Went to souvenir shop with Vera afterwards. Came home for lunch, read our books, and Angel slept hard for two hours. Maybe her body clock is on some other time.

Great afternoon session with kids. Orphanage was doing something like a health inspection so we had to stay outside the whole time. That's GOOD, because it was very nice a cool today.

Learning a little about Dub & Lena's personalities. Dub was drinking his apple juice a little too fast, and I asked him to give me the cup and then take a deep breath. His version of a little tantrum was to stick his lower lip WAY out, and turn around with his back to me and hang his head. That lasted about 30 seconds, then he came back for the rest of his juice. Tried the sippy cup again, and it really throws them for a loop. They do just fine with a regular cup.

Lena looks to be more and more like her new mommy every day. She bites the heads, ears, arms and legs off gummy bears while she eats them, is very protective of her "possessions" (teddy bear, book, balloon), and is bound and determined to get 2 puzzle pieces to fit together, especially when they don't fit at all.

This picture should sum up our wonderful day today. These kids are so precious!

Vera took us to a larger market, and then showed us where the local Georgian restaurant is. Turns out it's within walking distance from the hotel.

There is a chance that the normal family court judge will go on vacation at the time that we are due in court, which is around May 31. If this happens, the "substitute" judge is very likely to waive the 15 day waiting period, because, as Vera put it, "he is not so ambitious". Please pray that the judge takes his vacation the last week in May, and that the other judge chooses to waive the 15 day waiting period and we can come home with Dub and Lena in mid-June. Pray, pray, pray, pray, pray, pray, pray, pray, pray, pray, pray, pray!!!!!!

The BIG News

2005-05-12T18:35:00.000-04:00

Warning: This is a very long post.

Today has been an emotionally and physically exhausting day, and this email will go into detail as to why. Have a tissue handy.

For the first two days, we instantly and strongly bonded with Valeryi (Dub). We knew it from the start, and it was unmistakable. Unfortunately, it was not so with Ahat (Jack). We tried to play, talk, hold, and otherwise bond with Ahat, but it was a struggle, and he did not respond to Angel or myself during the 2 days that we interacted with him. We were warned that he was a fussy child, but he screamed incessantly and shook his head back and forth when we would try to interact with him. Angel and I spent most of Wednesday night crying and praying and asking God why the boy He chose for us was not bonding with us. We called Vera and asked her to come over earlier than usual on Thursday morning so we could discuss it.

Before we spoke with Vera, we prayed for God to guide our hearts, our words, and Vera's knowledge, and to lead us to what He ultimately wants for us, and for the children.

This morning, it was obvious that God had already prepared Vera's heart and shown her much the same things that we were experiencing. There were more tears this morning, but Vera is so wonderful at her job. She explained to us all of our options, but ultimately helped us come to the decision that we would not continue the bonding with Ahat. I think that may have been the hardest decision we have ever made as a married couple.

One of the original reasons that we chose to adopt 2 children was so that they could have a familiar playmate from the orphanage to ease the transition into our lives. So, we told Vera that we still wanted to seek another child to adopt from Umit. She said she would ask the Director if there were any more children available from Valeryi's class (age group), and she would also inquire at other local orphanages.

So, with heavy hearts, we went to continue the bonding with Dub, who once again was just as lovey and fun as he can be. About half way through our 90 minute time this morning, Medet came outside to find us (we do laps around the orphanage with Dub) to tell us that the Director needed to speak with us immediately. She wanted us to tell her in person, officially, that we no longer would continue bonding with Ahat. That was the extent of our statement, but she and Vera continued talking in Russian the entire time. Then, out of nowhere, Medet appears with a little girl named Kalamkaz. Kalamkaz is the little girl who was 'mistakenly available' just before we arrived. As it turns out, she was promised to another agency, not another family. The director called that agency and asked if they had a family ready for her. They did not, so she has made Kalamkaz available to us to adopt.

We only had about 20 minutes with Kalamkaz this morning, but, as with Dub, the attachment was very clear from the very start. Vera said when she took her away for lunch, she got halfway up the stairs and stopped still and refused to walk. Then she started crying. I don't know if it was us she missed already or the gummy bears Angel had just given her. (we assumed the latter) Then, when she arrived at her group, she announced, "My mommy has arrived!" Insert tears here.

So now Madeline and Jessica are not the only princesses anymore! Kalamkaz looks a little like a boy right now, (When Medet brought her in, Kevin said who is this little boy? Vera said "Actually she's a girl.") but we'll get her in a girly girl dress and let her hair grow (they keep hair short at Umit for sanitary reasons) and she'll be precious! We think her name will be Miriam Helena Sandlin, or "Lena". So now we are back to Lena and Dub!

We spent 2 hours with Dub and Kalamkaz (hereafter referred to as "Lena") this afternoon. Lena called Angel "Mama", and after a while - when Angel finally let her come over and play with me - she called me "Papa". Lena is 3, and will turn 4 in August, so she's just a few months older than Dub. She is extremely smart, and ticklish, and just loves to pick up all her toys! Perhaps she'll teach Mama a thing or two about picking up all her toys. We signed the papers this afternoon.

Dub & Lena, welcome to our family. Thank you God for answering our prayers specifically and perfectly and so far beyond anything we could imagine. Angel really would have loved a girl, but when told we'd have 2 boys, she was very pleased. Who could have known that The God of Wonders would give her the desire of her heart and teach us a few things along the way? Please pray that God would bring Ahat's adoptive parents to Umit very soon, and that they would know, as we did with Dub & Lena, that Ahat is their child.

Blessings,
Kevin & Angel

Day 2 in Taraz

2005-05-11T09:03:00.000-04:00

Kevin didn't sleep through the night, but those first 6 hours were wonderful. Angel has a bit of Stalin's revenge, so we are the prototypical "Americans who retreat to their hotel room and eat crackers" until Angel's stomach is better.

We went to Umit at 10am, with the Morin family (Mom, Dad, 2 tweenagers) from Italy (soon to be in Virginia). Jack was very fussy the entire time, unless held or pushed in stroller. Dub was as lovey as ever, learned to take pictures, and waived bye-bye to Papa at lunchtime at the prompting of the lady who evidently runs the meals at Umit. "Fatkulin!", she yelled like a Russian general. "Wave good bye to Papa!" (in Russian), and he did, and said "Bye bye Papa" in his native toungue.

Back to Umit at 3pm, went straight outside because inside Umit is so hot and stuffy. Jack was still very fussy. We tried a walker outside but he screamed. Finally got a tricycle with a push handle and that seemed to appease him. We made several walks around the building. Dub tried to ride a tricycle (it was a very shaky little tricycle) but Kev had to push most of the time. Along the way, we meet several of Dub's fans. Everyone wants to stop and talk to him, and he loves and responds to everyone he meets. We went in about 415 to have crackers and that was fine, until they were gone. Jack was not happy at all about that. Dub offered Jack crackers while he fished them out of the container like Pooh digging honey out of his "hunny pot".

We just let Jack sit there and scream his crocodile tears until he got tired, and he finally was interested in what we were doing and started to play. By that time it was time to go. When Dub left, Mit told him to wave bye to papa and he did. Kevin said "see you later" and Dub said "see you" He'll catch on really quick!

New knowledge: these kids have no idea what a "sippy cup" is! They are all potty trained from 6 months, and trained on real cups. The sippy cups really frustrated them until Vera told us they drink from real cups! Also, Vera said, "they don't eat any food that tastes very good", which explains their overwhelming desire for animal crackers and goldfish.

Vera said we looked exhausted. We were. The heat inside the orphanage building and the playing that we're not used to is tiring. But we'll get used to it soon enough. Angel tried to babysit her sister's litle angels (three under age 5) before we left Atlanta to try to get her stamina up. Didn't work. Vera said Angel was pale when we left. Partly due to dehydration!

Angel's tummy was still upset, so we went back to the hotel to the nice clean COLD sheets and lay down for awhile. We read until dark and watched 2 episodes of 24 then crashed. Our body-clocks might finally be on local time.

Thank you all again for your encouraging responses. We miss you very much!

Blessings,
Kevin & Angel

"Papa"

2005-05-10T22:12:00.000-04:00

So, yesterday was the big day. Kevin's birthday, and meeting the boys for the first time. Whew.

We were up very early this morning because we slept from 4-midnight on Monday afternoon. Today was our day to force ourselves not to nap, and go to bed a something like a normal time and sleep all night. We got up at 6 and had a great morning walk in the cool air of Taraz, and then another nice (free) breakfast at Hotel Gazovic.

We haven't posted this yet, because we were very nervous about the possible outcome: Vera asked us on Monday if we would consider adopting a 3-year-old girl instead of one of our boys. She only asked because we had originally - back in July of 2004 - stated on our application that or "first pick" would be 2 infant girls (yes, we're nuts). We told Vera that this was a very, very hard question to answer on such short notice, but that we would agree to at least meet this little girl. We immediately prayed and asked God to show us exactly what we should do, because we did not want to have to make such a decision. Well, as always, God answered our prayer directly and specifically. The first piece of information we learned upon meeting the orphanage director was that the girl had already been referred through another agency. Thank you God for relieving us of such a decision.

The Umit Orphanage is very nice. You'd be amazed at the intricate ornate plaster work on every wall and ceiling. The caretakers are very nice. It is also very warm inside. There are A/C units in most rooms, but they are not used.

We were very nervous sitting in the Music Room awaiting our boys. They informed us that, since the director was in something of a hurry this morning, we would not have to meet other babies, just our boys. Both boys took to us very quickly, although we learned this afternoon that Valeryi (aka Dub, the older of the two) would hug a rock if the rock could smile and open its arms. ;-) He loves everyone. He is all little boy, and we are told he is a favorite in his class/age group. He LOVES Medet!!

Ahat (aka Jack) started off very quiet and nice. His physical development is delayed. He can walk with mama or daddy's help, and he likes to do so. He's very small. Later in the afternoon he got really fussy when we stopped the flow of animal crackers and goldfish crackers.

To top off our visit, Valeryi's first word to us, as Kevin held him up, was "Papa". Yes, this is the order to cry.

So two very good first visits today. From now on, we'll see the boys from 10-1130 and 3-5 each day for the next 2 weeks, which is the "bonding period".

Vera and Medet took us to the Gros Market (imagine the cleanest, most organized grocery store you have EVER seen) to get some basic groceries, and then we came home, pondered a nap, but did not give in. We read a little, then had "american pizza" at Cafe Istanbul down the street. Episode 6 of season 1 of "24" and then we crashed at 9. Kevin woke up at 4, but Angel slept until nearly 7 (imagine that!).

Whew. What a "first" day. Seems like we've been here a while, and we're just getting settled in and into our routine. Today should be educational, both sides of the adoption having slept on this new bundle of information.

Monday May 9 2005 - Taraz!

2005-05-10T05:48:00.000-04:00

The "Spanish Train" (So named because the actual train was imported from Spain) from Almaty to Taraz was very nice. We had our own 2-sleeper cabin complete with it's own full bathroom. We had big plans of watching another episode of "24" after reading a little bit, but once we started reading, we each got lulled to sleep by the constant swaying and clack-a-clack-a-clack of the train tracks. Comfortable beds, and no disturbances.

A couple of things for those of you who are reading this in anticipation of your own trip to Taraz: First, they will try to not let you bring aboard your oversized luggage. Marina was a gem in "negotiating" with them to let us just put the 2 monster suitcases in the shower, where they went completely unnoticed. Then, second, about an hour into the ride, the attendant - a very nice lady who spoke no English - came by and nicely demanded 200 Tenge (pron. "TEN-geh", equal to .76 US pennies) from each of us. The lowest bill I had was 1000 T. She said she'd bring us back change, but she never did.

Vera and Medet, our Taraz coordinators met us promptly when the train arrived, and brought us to the Hotel Gazovic, a very nice hotel near what seems to be the square or main strip in Taraz. We had a terrific breakfast in the hotel restaurant (free while you are staying in the hotel), and then ventured out and took in the Victory Day parade. It seems like a Kazakh parade is more like a huge, street-sized re-enactment of the actual thing, in this case the Soviet defeat of Germany in 1945. We took many pictures, and will try to post them later.

So, as usual (for this trip so far...) we came back to the hotel and napped. Not sure when this will stop, but for now, we're enjoying the last few naps we'll get for a long, long time. Vera came over at 3 to take care of some paperwork and payments, and show us where a few important things are located near Hotel Gazovic, like the bank, grocery store, and pizza place.

Did I mention our internal clocks are still somewhere over the Atlantic? After meeting with Vera, we came back to the hotel and just plain crashed...until MIDNIGHT! Angel managed to get back to sleep after 2 episodes of "24" (Jack Bauer is in DEEP...imagine that!) but I stayed up, read "The Bourne Supremacy" for several hours and here I am at 530am answering emails and posting to our blog.

So, today is a very big day: it's my 38th birthday, I get to meet my kids for the first time, and then we will forceably stay awake until 9 or 10PM so we can get on a normal sleep schedule.

Including all this, all is well, and God is surely blessing us on this journey.

Blessings,
Kevin

PS - we've received a few comments so far, but blogger doesn't automatically show who made the comments, so please sign your name so we know who you are! And, thank you for responding! The encouragement is so wonderful.

Our first family picture!

2005-05-10T03:17:00.000-04:00

We just got back from our first meeting with our boys. Lots to tell later, but we wanted to post this picture right away. We know we're a little out of sorts, because we completely forgot to charge the camera battery last night, and after 2 pictures, it was toast. I'd taken some video on it, and well over 100 pictures since we've been here. At least Vera was able to take one good one this morning. We go back to begin regular visitation today at 3pm. God is so good to have chosen these boys for us.

Blessings,
Kevin

Sunday May 8, 2005 - Almaty

2005-05-08T19:04:00.000-04:00

Body clock is still not accustomed to Kaz time, so I was up at 5am this morning. Read a little bit, then we had a really good breakfast here at the hotel. Came back and packed for the train ride tonite, and napped from 10-12. Forgot to mention that yesterday, after we spent the day seeing Almaty, we napped from 5-7!

This morning, after breakfast, it was a small celebration, but today we were able to celebrate Mother's day for the first time. A few tears, and a solid realization that, yes, this really is going to happen! Our boys are going to have a great Mama in Angel.

To all the mommies who are reading this: Happy Mother's Day!!

Marina and Sam picked us up at 1pm, and we went to the Kazakhstan Historical Museum, which covers the region from Paleolithic time up to the present. Very interesting, even though every sign for every item in the museum is in Russian and Kazakh. You can still figure out what's going on. The ancient nomadic culture of the Kazakhs is very interesting, and not unlike Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses, or even the native American Indian tribes. The Kazakhs lived in slighly larger, circular structures that were totally decorated with the beautiful Kazakh rugs that you see here.

Also, much preparation for Victory Day 60th Anniversary, so there was a huge WWII display, as well as many displays for current day cultures and influences.

After that, Marina took us to what we have learned is the best Chinese restaurant in the world, well, at least according to those who have eaten there. Now that includes us. It's going to be very hard to order Chinese delivery after eating there.

So we're all packed and ready for the train ride. Marina picks us up at 8. We leave at 840, and arrive in Taraz at 4am. Angel couldn't fight off her nap, so we'll see how well we sleep on the train tonite.

Blessings,
Kevin

May 7 2005 - Almaty

2005-05-07T08:54:00.000-04:00

Yesterday now seems like a very, very long day. After arriving to our nice hotel around 3am, we took an hour or so to get settled in, then slept really hard until only about 8am. We woke up very refreshed, took a great hot shower and then fell right back to sleep! Still adjusting to 10 hour time difference I guess.

Marina and Sam (driver, speaks 7 languages) picked us up for a day on the town of Almaty. We ate at nice Russian restaurant. Had what they called pancakes, but what we would call crepes. VERY good, with honey and fresh strawberry jam. Then we went to a local park, which houses a 200 year old Russian Orthodox church. Trivia: this church was built with NO nails. The architect designed it that way, and it was the only building in Almaty to survive the huge earthquake that happened around 1900. We saw a huge beautiful WWII memorial, and lots of decorations in preparation for the upcoming Victory Day holiday. Then on to the "Green Market". Lots of fresh vegetables, kind of like what we call our "Farmers Markets" in GA. But then we got to the meat department. No refridgerators or freezers or containers for that matter. Just lots of raw meat: beef, pork, chicken, horse. Not really too surprising, but we weren't told about the smiling pig heads.

After that, we went off to the mountains, which are maybe 20 minutes from downtown Almaty. Very much like Breckenridge or other Colorado mountain towns. Great skiing in the winter, but hardly used in the summer.

There we saw many examples of a great Kazakh tradition for marriage. The engaged couple gets married - the formal ceremony - first. Then, there are 15 locations around the city at which the wedding reception gathers to celebrate, take pictures, embibe, etc. Basically, 15 small parties throughout the day, with wedding invitees following the couple the whole time, meeting them at each spot for another party. This happens for every traditional Kazakh wedding, and there are weddings every weekend!

We got bottled water and an i-card, now being used to connect via 28.8 dialup to the net, at the Ramstop Mall up the street. Just like any other American mall, only busier.

For dinner, Sam and Marina took us to eat on the other side of the mountain range, to a place famous for its garden dining atmosphere and it's shish-ka-bobs. I had chicken, and we shared a wonderful fresh salad of tomatoes, cucumbers, and white cheese. Delicious. Angel decided on the lamb shish-ka-bob after making sure she heard the word "sheep" correctly. Sam speaks great English, but with many accents, so Angel had to say "baaa baaa sheep?" Both meals were very, very good, especially in the mountain garden dining area of this restaurant.

Home by 1030, and we're now up to episode 6 of season 1 of "24". Only 66 more to go to catch up!

To Taraz via train tonite.

Blessings,
Kevin

MAY 7 2005 - We're here!

2005-05-07T04:27:00.000-04:00

We got in early this morning (1am Saturday morning) to Almaty after a 7 hour layover in Amsterdam. We have been blessed beyond anything we could imagine. Neither of us travel internationally much, so were in for a real surprise. I knew that flying Business Class would be bigger and roomier seats but I forgot all about the white cloth service, the champagne waiting for you at your seat, the full reclining seats and the hot cloths to freshen up. It made the long trip very very comfortable. That and the first 4 episodes of 24. We need to ration them to last the next 8 weeks! I knew all the thousands of dollars on my Delta Amex spent at Tuesday Morning and TJ Maxx would add up! Who says spending is a bad thing? I'm sure Dub and Jack will thank their benefactor for their upgrade. I was surprised that the plane was almost empty, though.

Also, Kevin has 3 words for anyone traveling on a long flight: noise cancelling headphones. You can get the Bose version ($300), or you can get the RadioShack version like we did for a 10th of the Bose cost. One of the main reasons you feel so beat up and weary after a long plane trip is because of the ever present and overwhelming noise of the engines. One AAA battery in these headphones takes care of that in a hurry. And the aforementioned episodes of "24" were much more enjoyable because we could hear every little nuance in the low-talking drama.

And for our 7 hour layover when we were so tired, we got into the KLM Crown Room to sit in leather seats and have a place to plug in our laptop (airline seats did NOT have power supply) and drink unlimited Coke Light and nap. Another great blessing. We never would have thought of this, but there were signs everywhere, so we just asked if we could use the lounge. Wow. Made the hardest part of this trip enjoyable.

The only glitch was when we arrived in Almaty. We were a bit nervous after being warned how Immigration was run by the military, and we went to the wrong document counter. The first round table, with signage of "Declarations", to the left when you enter the passport control area downstairs is the MIGRATION card. Even says so right on the form. We didn't see that and thought it was a customs form then we couldn't find the migration card. DIdn't know we already had it. Passport control was easy, baggage was very quick to come out. Then we got confused. We went the customs (a tiny little room) and they were just finished going through someone's bag. I told them I had american money to claim and told her how much. She just waived me away. I tried again and she said "What for? Adoption?" and I said yes and she waived me away again. Oh well. No form to claim our money and didn't have to count or anything. Scares me a little becuase if you leave with more USD than when you arrived, they can take it all but $1500. So we went through the glass walls separating the waiting area from the international gates (they need to match up your luggage tickets- haven't done that in USA in years) and it took us a second to figure out what they were asking for. We looked all around for our contact, Marina, who we told would be waiting with a sign for us. The exit was so crowded with people waiting for their loved ones, that it was like going through a spanking machine just to get out the door. We didn't see her so we figured maybe she was just a little late and moved to the side to wait. The very agressive taxi drivers would NOT leave us alone. Kept harassing us to drive us but we kept saying no, our ride will come. So we went and sat and waited for about an hour and she never showed up. I knew I had her cell number and went to find a phone. Then realized I had to change some dollars into Tenge, then realized the phone required a phone card- not cash. Thank God, one of the harassing taxi drivers came to help me buy a card and use the phone. I called Marina, though I was a bit flustered to call at 2am. What if her roomate or husband or mom answered I couldn't speak Russian? So she answered and I said Marina? and she said "no" and so I used whatlittle Russian I learned: "Do you understand English" came out and we were able to talk. There was just a mis-communication and she thought we were coming in on Saturday night (Sunday am at 1:00am). She was very apologetic and said she'd be there in 20 min and she was. We were taken to our hotel, the hotel Tien-Shan which is very nice, very roomy and a nice big hot shower.

The funny thing is that Thursday morning (we left at 5pm EDT Thursday) we got a call from our agency. They were asking if we had left yet, because our driver was about to go pick us up. We said, "no, we don't leave until tonite." The agency had been confused and told them we got in on Friday at 1am instead of Saturday at 1am. Then turns out that when they called her back to tell her not to go to the airport right then, that we got in Sunday at 1am. That turned out to be the miscommiunication.

No worries. We are here and somewhat rested and have a few free days. We leave by train tomorrow (Sunday) night for Taraz and then Monday is a holiday, Victory Day, the 60th anniversary of the Soviet victory over fascist Germany WWII. So as we suspected, Kevin is going to get a great birthday present- to meet our new sons. It is very nice to be able to be here and not be rushed. We get to enjoy a day in Almaty and a day in Taraz to explore.

Thank you all for your support and prayers. God has certainly cleared our path to adopt the boys He chose for us.

Blessings,
Angel and Kevin

Morbidly obese friends...

2005-05-05T05:15:00.000-04:00

We have finally finished packing. It's only 2:15am on Thursday May 5. Hey...we leave today! Hey! That's 05/05/05. We're tired. If "666" is the number of the Antichrist, what's "555"?

Anyway, our two morbidly obese friends have eaten WAY too many gifts and clothes. Their belts are far too tight, and they are bulging at their seams. Perhaps we'll all be a bit thinner on the return trip. We're talking about our suitcases here, just in case you hadn't caught on yet. Sorry...2am humor. Yes, we fly from Atlanta to Amsterdam to Almaty, arriving at 1am local time. After that, it's on to Taraz by train or car. We'll meet our boys on Monday, we hope.

For those of you who have arrived here at blogger from angelsandlin.com or kevinsandlin.com, we've reached a compromise on a site to blog our adventure in adoption: Kevin & Angel's fifty-six days of fun!

Thank you for all your prayers and support. Please check back here regularly and share your thoughts and comments with us. We will have pictures of the boys as soon as we are able.

Blessings,
Angel & Kevin Sandlin

MAY 4, 2005 - Visa update

2005-05-04T09:00:00.000-04:00

Visas arrived safe and sound at 930 this morning. They even have the correct dates!

MAY 3, 2005 - Visa update

2005-05-03T08:59:00.001-04:00

Further update: the fedex package is on its way, and should be here by 1030am on Wed May 4..."because it absolutely, positively had to be here tomorrow." Hooray for FedEx.

A few more errands and things to do on Wednesday and we'll be ready to fly.

MAY 3, 2005 - Visa update

2005-05-03T08:59:00.000-04:00

Update to the visa situation: I spoke with the Kazakhstan Consulate in NY this morning. I told him our last name, and he said, "Yes, this one was urgent for adoption, no?" Yes! Urgent! We leave in 2 days! He said the visas were done, and they would send out the FedEx package this afternoon.

God is gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooood! All the time.

I think we're fresh out of obstacles! Now we just gotta make our flight!

APRIL 29 2005 - Travel visas

2005-04-29T08:58:00.000-04:00

Our travel plans have been made. Thank you God for sending such generosity our way from our incredible friends. Words cannot describe our gratitude for God's provision of enough SkyMiles for our entire trip to and from Kazakhstan with our boys!!

Now we have some funny math to pray for: we have to go through the Kaz consulate in NY to get our travel visas. We did that today, via FedEx. They say that visas normally take 2-5 days. Well, the consulate will receive our applications on Monday. Our flight leaves on Thursday. Please pray that God will put our visa applications in the hands of a very conscientious and expedient person in the Kazakhstan Consulate in NY, and that we will receive the return FedEx package before Thursday at noon, when we leave for the airport.

Back to packing, shopping, packing, planning....

APRIL 27 2005 - The Letter of Invitation has arrived!!!

2005-04-27T08:55:00.000-04:00

We just got the call from our adoption agency, and our letter of invitation has finally arrived! We have to be in Kazakhstan on May 9th, the day after Mother's day, and the day before my birthday. We've just found out, so there are many more details to come in the FedEx package that will arrive at our home tomorrow.

Please pray for God to handle all the details of our travel: visas, passports, tickets, travel safety...and please pray that God would begin to prepare Dub & Jack's hearts to meet us.

God's time, not ours, and God's time is now!!

Update - got the FedEx package. All is in order. Europe is PACKED for the summer, so it was very hard to get seats through Europe both ways. We're sure our return tickets will change, but we leave next Thursday May 5th!

Now, it's crunch time. Much to do: visas, money, packing, last minute preparations, etc.

Please pray that God will take care of ALL the details!

APRIL 15 2005 - God's time, not ours

2005-04-15T08:55:00.000-04:00

Apparently there is quite the backlog at the Kazakhstan Ministry of Education. A couple we know of is over there now and had to wait almost 2 weeks to get exit visas for their newly adopted kids. That should have taken a couple of days.

So, we're still waiting for "the letter".

This is a lesson for all of us about setting expectations. Originally, many months ago, we were told that when we got to this stage, getting the Letter of Invitation would take 7-10 days. When the time actually came, we were notified that it would take "up to a month". We'll, it's been nine weeks.

I don't think the socialist government of Kazakhstan is up to speed on the old customer service mantra, "under promise, and over deliver."

That's ok. The weather over there keeps getting better and better. God has His reasons for His timing. God mentions the word "grumble" 8 times:

Exodus 16:7
Numbers 14:27
Numbers 14:36
Numbers 16:11
Matthew 20:11
John 6:41
1 Corinthians 10:10
James 5:9

None of these references has "grumbling" in any sort of positive light, especially the 1 Corinthians passage. So, we are not going to grumble, but rather continue to pray that God would feed, love, protect, grow, love, nourish, and prepare our boys to meet us, whenever He decides we should go.

March 23 2004 - UPDATE!

2005-03-23T08:54:00.000-05:00

We got a call today from our adoption agency, FCVN, to inform us that there is a big backlog of adoption applications at the Kazakhstan Ministry of Education, which accounts for the delay in getting our Letter of Invitation. They were informed that they should expect our application to be cleared by the end of next week, April 1.

What that means is that we will receive our LOI on or about that day, and at the same time, our travel dates! This is big news! It means we will leave 2-3 weeks after April 1.

Please pray for our boys, that God would grow, strengthen, and protect them in the remaining weeks until we can take them into our home. And pray that God will cover all the gozillion details in between now and when we bring our boys home.

Blessings,
Kevin

February 26 2005 - small world

2005-02-26T08:54:00.000-05:00

We are now communicating via email with several other families who either are just home from adopting from Kazakhstan or are waiting to leave as we are. One of the families who just recently got back from adopting a little girl from the same baby-home we'll be visiting compiled a daily weblog of their journey, including pictures.

One of the days was the equivalent of a Kazakh Christmas celebration, but they call Santa Claus "Father Freeze". All the kids get dressed up in cultural costumes and perform a skit. This couple got some pictures from this skit with many of the kids in the pictures. Whaddya know? There's our little Dub! Now we know the origin of that yellow outfit and hat!

http://www.kellercafe.com/taraz29.html

******Note here from AFTER the entire adoption process: when you click the link above, make sure you look REAL close at the picture. Dub is right in the middle, in the crazy yellow outfit, but look just left of Dub. That's right: it's LENA! We also got the actual video from this same night, and were able to digitally pull a clip of Lena and Dub holding hands. Who but God could have possibly known that they would be brother and sister!******

The rest of their diary of their trip is also very interesting. We expect our trip to be very similar, except for the weather, which should be quite pleasant in April and May.

February 14 2005 - travel time frame

2005-02-14T08:53:00.000-05:00

Happy Valentine's Day!

We have just today officially accepted the referral of Dub and Jack as our soon-to-be adopted children. These are the children that God has chosen for us, whatever medical issues they may have. The doctor from the University of Minnesota Int'l Adoption Clinic has said that he thinks Dub may have FAS (fetal alcohol syndrome) based on some of his facial features as well as his small stature. Though we find his evaluation troubling, we take encouragement from the first hand reports from the orphanage that Dub is, at age 40 months, potty trained, very social, running, climbing stairs, speaking lots of words, and communicates well with adults and other children.

We do have the option to decline this referral based on medical evaulations, but we believe that God has chosen these children for us for a reason, and we will be obedient to His plan for these kids, not our dream of "the perfect children".

Our view of the boys' physical and medical conditions is this: if Angel were giving birth to them, this would be like getting a little early information so we'd be prepared for what to do when we got them home. Now we are prepared for what we may or may not need to do when we get Dub and Jack home.

Please pray for the health and development of both our boys.

Now that we've accepted, our acceptance will be wired to Kazakhstan, and the Kazakhstan government will issue us an adoption invitation. We had thought, up until today, that this invitation would take 7-10 days to come through. We just learned this morning that it will take more like a month! God's time.

So, while we're sad that our boys will not get to come home for another few weeks, we are very happy that God is so good to send us to Kazakhstan in the SPRING rather than the middle of winter!! Have you seen the weather there?!?

http://weather.yahoo.com/forecast/KZXX0052_f.html brrrrrrrr!!! t-t-t-t-t-t-teeth ch-ch-ch-chat-t-t-t-er-er-er-ing

So, we are planning for an April 1 departure, give or take. Please pray for Dub and Jack's health and physical development, and for the many details that we must address before our departure.

February 11 2005 - medical evaluations

2005-02-11T08:51:00.000-05:00

We received the medical evaluations for Dub and Jack from Dr. Dana Johnson at the University of Minnesota International Adoption Clinic.

Jack (Ahat) just had inguinoscrotal hernia surgery late last fall. Yes, it's as painful as it sounds. Google that term, and you'll see some frightening images. Jack's ambulatory development was slowed because of this hernia, but since it has been corrected, he has continued normal development. Turns out that I had the same thing when I was less than a year old, but I did not have surgery. Somehow my condition seemed to correct itself.

Dub (Valeryi) is behind in physical development (height & weight), and has some other medical issues. I don't care to share all the details here until we know a little more. We know nothing about his parents, so we cannot make any definitive judgements until we see and hold and interract with the little fella.

They are both smaller than "normal american" 2- and 3-year olds, mainly because they have both been in an orphanage from the first month of their lives, but also because kids in that part of the world are generally smaller than us big, fat, overeating Americans. I mean that in the nicest of ways

Please pray that both Dub and Jack are both healthy, that God would bless them both with strength, health, growth, love and increased physical development. Pray for wisdom and discernment for Angel and me.

February 8 2005 - destination known

2005-02-08T08:51:00.000-05:00

We now know where we're going! We'll fly into Almaty, stay for a day or so, then we'll go to the Taraz region, specifically Zhambyl. We think Zhambyl is about 4-5 hours due west of Almaty. Mapquest doesn't quite cover the highways in Kazakhstan.

Our friends from Denver, the Bishops, stayed in the same place when they adopted their daughter, Ollie, and adopted Ollie from the same orphanage. Talk about a small world. Karla (adoption agent) has already told us some very good things about the accomodations in Zhambyl, so we are very excited about our trip!

The weather in Zhambyl is a little chilly right now , but not too bad in March and April...
http://weather.yahoo.com/forecast/KZXX0052_f.html

Here's a really good map of Kazakhstan (see link below). You can see Almaty in the southeastern corner, and Zhambyl is about 300 miles due west of Almaty, right on the Kyrgyzstan border.
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/atlas/kazakh/kazakh-dl.gif

Social/medical background info is on its way to the doctors now for evaluation.

For everyone who has sent us emails and phone calls of encouragement, thank you so much. You have no idea of the impact you are making in our daily lives. Thank you.

February 7 2005 - more info on the boys

2005-02-07T08:49:00.000-05:00

Met with our social worker today to "officially" receive the referral, which is a bunch of paperwork and more pictures. Both boys are in good health, according to the medical overview we received today. We're told that we will find out much, much more about their social backgrounds when we're at the orphanage in Kazakhstan.

Next step is what we're doing now: prepping all this new info to send to the doctor at the University of Minnesota for evaluation. We'll try to get that info out to them today, and they say their evaluation will take 2-3 days.

Will make more pics available shortly...Dub is really Russian looking in these new pictures. Jack seems to look much younger than 2 in some pictures, and much older than 2 in others. Funny how Dub has many of my features (light skin, blue eyes, blond hair) and Jack has many of Angel's features (olive skin, dark hair, brown eyes). They're gonna fit right in!

February 4 2005 - ok, more info, time to focus...

2005-02-04T08:48:00.000-05:00

Ok, we're coming back down to earth just a little bit. Found out today the schedule works like this: we have to have the medical information for Dub and Jack reviewed by the adoption experts at U of Minnesota. They'll give us the full skinny, and that'll take a couple of days, maybe a week, depending on when we get it to them and how we get it to them. Assuming we accept Dub and Jack (and, yes, there is always a chance that, for medical reasons, we might decline), we will officially accept to our adoption agency. They in turn will then relay that acceptance to Kazakhstan. 7-10 days later, we'll get our adoption invitation, which enables us to get our visas. Once we have the invitation, we'll leave 2-3 weeks (probably more like 2) after that. So, today's the 4th...we'll probably leave sometime in the first week of March.

February 2 2005 - TWO BOYS!!!!!

2005-02-02T08:48:00.000-05:00

Just 2 short weeks after we got the call that God had ramrodded our dossier through the Kazakhstan embassy in New York, we got "THE CALL". Yes, it's finally here. After 8 months of hurry up and wait, we got THE CALL. Angel and I are (and legally speaking, will be) the proud parents of 2 little boys whom we've never seen before!

- Valeryi Fatkhulin (aka "Dub") was born October 3rd of 2001.

- Ahat Daurenovich Burbekov (aka "Jack"), was born February 4, 2003.

Coincidentally, Feb 4 is also the birthdate of Dub and Jack's new cousins, William and Madeline Barnett, who will turn 4 this Friday! We will know much more - like what they look like and some medical history - perhaps Friday, when we receive the full packet from our social worker.

So, it looks like we will leave for Kazakhstan within the next 3 weeks or so, and be there for approximately 7-8 weeks.

Please pray for our boys, that they would get the best of care at the orphanage until we bring them home. Please pray for Angel and me, that God would take care of the gozillion details that lie between now and our departure date.

God is so good to bless us with these boys, and to allow us the privelage of bringing up these 2 orphaned boys.

January 19 2005 - WOW! God's FAST! When you pray for rain...

2005-01-19T08:46:00.000-05:00

When you pray for rain, make real sure you bring an umbrella. We have prayed for a long time that, when our dossier arrived in the Kazakhstan embassy in New York, whoever was in charge of processing our adoption application would work quickly and efficiently. As usual, but always to our amazement, God answered that prayer in a BIG way. What was supposed to take "4-6 weeks" took less than two weeks. Kazakhstan has officially approved our request to adopt two children. What does that mean? Good question. It means that "the call" is now imminent. Anytime within the next two weeks to two months we will be receiving a phone call from our adoption agency telling us that we have received our official adoption invitation from Kazakhstan, so we can immediately go and get our travel visas. At or about that same time, we will also receive the "picture and paragraph" for our two children. So, as we move forward, we ask that God give us patience and preparedness for this amazing adventure! There is much to do.

January 10 2005 - finally, dossier is translated and in NY

2005-01-10T08:46:00.000-05:00

No idea why the translation of our dossier into Russian took so long...God's timing. But we have received confirmation that our dossier is now in processing at the Kazakhstan embassy in New York. The outlook for that process is 4-6 weeks, so we'll plan on at least 8 weeks. That puts us at the end of March-ish. What happens after that is our adoption agent, Karla, finds us kids, and then we get our 'referral'...maybe. There is a possibility that we will not actually get the "picture and paragraph" until we get to Kazakhstan. We would be much more comfortable knowing about our kids before we go, but that may not be what God has in mind for us. We'll see. Either way, we should head to Kazakhstan about 3 weeks after we are officially approved (see above, 4-6-8 weeks from now).

So, we're in the 7th inning. The 8th will be total chaos, since that's when we'll be doing the final 2-3 weeks of planning - getting visas, buying clothing, cribs/beds, etc. - for a very long trip to the other side of the world! God's timing, God's provision, God's grace...God's plan. We're just along for the ride.

December 21 2004 - bureaucratic red tape type stuff

2004-12-21T08:46:00.000-05:00

Today we learned that our dossier is STILL being translated, and that we made out the cashier's check incorrectly to "embassy" rather than "consolate". Gotta dot those "T"s and cross those "I"s. God's time.

December 8 2004 - we prayed for a clear answer...

2004-12-08T08:45:00.000-05:00

Angel is in Florida, finishing the renovations on our rental house in Ocala. This morning, Joanne (the CASA worker) called Angel, and told her that the Grandmother of these two girls in Gainesville GA had decided to choose another family to adopt Brook & Mandy. She said she did not want her grandkids raised in the city, but rather on a farm in the country. We're a bit numb at the moment, since we weren't given the opportunity to even meet with the grandmother. We have lots of questions, but the decision has been made, and we have to now accept this as God's plan. It still hurts, even though this whole idea came and went in less than 4 weeks.

God is still good: we prayed that God would provide a very clear direction concerning this opportunity, and He has done just that.

If you haven't already, please read the Dec 6 update, James 4:13-17 and Proverbs 16:9. Truly, Angel and I had come to think that we very well might adopt 7 year-old Mandy and 11-year old Brook, even looked forward to it. How hard is it to NOT come to want something like children when an opportunity so close to home comes your way? I've written it several times in this blog, and will write it again: we have absolutely no control whatsoever over this whole process. It is 100% in God's hands, and God is good. Doesn't make it any easier to just say "ok" and move on.

December 6 2004 - trust and obey

2004-12-06T08:45:00.000-05:00

James 4:13-17 - Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." 14Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 15Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that." 16As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil. 17Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins.

Proverbs 16:9 - In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps.

November 12 2004

2004-11-12T08:44:00.000-05:00

Very interesting week. First, our adoption agency has requested that we seek a formal, legal name change for Angel. Angel's birth name is Giselle Angel Ballenger. When we got married, she dropped "Giselle" from the beginning, and added "Sandlin" to the end, to get Angel Ballenger Sandlin. Her driver's license, passport, marriage license, and social security card all have "Angel Ballenger Sandlin". The agency believes it would be the safer route to have the legal paperwork in hand in case any one questions her actual name while we're in Kazakhstan.

Then, today, we get a call from Angel's sister, Angela, telling us that her business partner is a CASA representative and one of her cases has 2 daughters, ages 7 and 11, up for adoption.

"God, what would you like us to do?"

That is the question, and prayer, of the week. We'll find out more about these two girls shortly, and ask God for wisdom, discernment, and direction on what exactly we are supposed to do with this new information, if anything.

Meanwhile, our paperwork was delayed slightly because the agency (FCVN) director got stuck in India. The dossier has now been sent to Texas for the apostille (anyone know what that word means??), and should be sent to the translation service to be translated into Russian next week. That is supposed to take 2 weeks.

It looks more and more like it will be at least mid-January before we have our referral. We so wanted to have our children home at Christmas. Then we so wanted to be travling by Christmas. Now...well, we are reminded again that it's all in God's hands, His plan is perfect, and there is not a thing we can do to change it. So, just like Angel's original prayer (Psalm 40:1 - I waited patiently for the LORD; He turned to me and heard my cry.") we wait patiently for God to work His great plan.

November 19 2004 UPDATE:

No more info on the two tween-agers who are currently residing in Gainesville, GA. Update on Kazakhstan is that our dossier was, for unknown reasons, delayed at our agency, FCVN. Just this week, the apostille was completed and the dossier has been sent to the translation agency for translation into Russian. This process normally takes about 2 weeks, but next week is Thanksgiving, so we can expect it to take more like 3 weeks. All in God's perfect time.

October 26 2004 - slight delays

2004-10-26T08:44:00.000-04:00

Just got word today that our dossier has not yet been sent to Texas for the apostille. FCVN's director was stuck in India on an adoption trip week before last, so that has something to do with the delay. It's looking more and more like Christmas when we will get our referral and see a picture of our kids. That means we will leave sometime in mid-January, and be gone till sometime in early - mid March (~ 6-8 weeks) It's all in God's hands. I was just sharing over this past weekend that, because we have absolutely no control whatsoever over this whole process, it has forced us to wait patiently on God's perfect timing. Despite the fact that we firmly believe that being home with our kids by Christmas would have been just peachy, God's timing is always, always better than our simple wants.

October 13 2004 - all the paperwork has been sent...whew!

2004-10-13T08:43:00.000-04:00

We sent off the equivalent of a college biology book worth of paperwork today to Denver. This 1.5" thick stack will now be known as our "dossier". Always wanted to have a dossier. It was an administrative ordeal putting this whole thing together, an event that causes me to again thank Jehovah Jire for providing me with a wife whose natural gifts are complementary to mine. That's another way of saying that Angel basically did this whole thing because I am incapable of properly doing paperwork. It's on it's way via FedEx to Denver for approval, then translation, etc., etc.

October 12 2004 - changes to Kaz adoption program

2004-10-12T08:42:00.001-04:00

Wow, what a hectic last couple of days. We got immigration approval, and are preparing to send a boatload of documents to our adoption agency in Denver. Then the agency calls and says they have to send us a bunch of new changes to the Kaz adoption program. Just spent over an hour on the phone with Karla, our adoption agent, going over all these new changes. Basically, only God knows the following:

- when we will go to Kazakhstan
- if we will be able to adopt 2 kids
- if we will know ANYTHING about our kids before we go, or if we'll have to meet our potential adopted child(ren) on the spot in the orphanage
- how long we'll have to stay in country (the "10-day waiting period" is now 15 days. It used to be waived some of the time, but now it most likely will not be waived, so we have to plan on 6-8 weeks in Kazakhstan as opposed to the 3-5 weeks that we originally planned for.)

So, again, it's ALL in God's hands. We're along for the ride, and the paperwork. We'll be FedEx-ing a large dossier to Denver. Denver will approve it, send it to be translated into Russian. That may take "2-6 weeks" (but again, only God knows). Then it goes to the Kazakhstan embassy in NY for final review and approval. That takes "4-8 weeks", but again, only God knows. Karla said today that the embassy has been much taking about 1 month or less, which is good.

We may leave around Christmas, or we may leave around Valentine's Day, or we may leave sometime in between. Who knows! :-) God knows.

Karla, if you're reading this: THANK YOU!! You are a tireless individual with the patience of Job to put up with the likes of us. We thank God for you every day.

Please pray that God will enable the FCVN Director to get home from India soon so she can approve our final paperwork. Also for the Kazakhstan Embassy representative who gets our case to be conscientious, efficient, and to have a great desire to get our file in and out before the holidays. God knows, and He can work miracles.

October 8 2004 - immigration approval!!

2004-10-08T08:42:00.000-04:00

Today, I sent a fax over to immigration to politely check to see whether they had actually received and processed the papers that we dropped off last week. Just like last time, someone called right back, this time to Angel's cell phone. So Angel calls me right away to give me the news:

Angel: "You know how I've had this feeling that this whole adoption thing just isn't going to happen?"
Kevin: "Yes."
Angel: "I just got a call from immigration."
Kevin: "AND??"
Angel: "We're approved!"

God is good. So, based on the schedule that has been communicated to us from our adoption agency in Colorado, approximately two months from now, we should get our referral. That means we'll have 2-3 weeks from getting the referral to when we have to be in Kazakhstan. Do that math: that means we'll be leaving for Kazakhstan on or about Christmas. Ahh, Christmas in Kazakhstan.

Please pray that the person who gets assigned to our case in the Kazakhstan embassy in New York has a special motivation for processing our file quickly.

OCTOBER 7, 2004 - immigration red tape...

2004-10-07T08:38:00.000-04:00

We got back the same information we sent to Immigration on Setp 22 with a note from Immigration asking for our "file number" or "alien registration number." Having no idea what that was we tried to contact Immigration here in Atlanta. Their web site offers only their fax number, so that's what I did. I sent a very cordial fax begging for help. To our great surprise, I got a call back the next day, explaining that we had no file number or alien registration number, but that we should just write "Adoption / A600" in that space. So Angel braved the deepest parts of downtown Atlanta to take the paperwork back down to them, only to find out that the only way into that office is with an appointment. Angel called me from her cell phone, and I went to uscis.gov to setup an appointment for that day. Nope, earliest appointment day was like October 12 or something. But God is good, and He provided a very helpful and nice man at the front desk who walked Angel right up to the proper office and told her where to leave the information.

This whole process is in God's capable hands. Everyday, we see something else that we have absolutely no control over, and yet God provides a solution. We can't wait to see how He provides for our kids' clothes, toys, books, beds, and all the other things that we can't yet shop for because we don't know anything about our kids! What a walk of faith.

Please pray that God would send wonderful caregivers to the orphanage(s) where our children are living today, and that our children would be warm, well fed, well-loved, and taken care of with the gentlest of hands. All these things are in the hands of our great God.

September 22 2004 - Beginning the adoption process

2004-09-22T08:37:00.001-04:00

Hi Folks! This web page is our not-so-frilly diary of our progress towards obedience to God's calling for us to adopt children. If you're reading this, then you already know the basics, but here they are again.

We've not been able to conceive naturally, or through modern drugs or IVF. So, with God's blessing, we are proceeding with the international adoption process to adopt 2 children from Kazakhstan. We don't know anything about our children, except that they will be somewhere between 6 months and 3 years old when we adopt them.

Below is a log of sorts which documents our adventure to date, starting in May 2004.

Earlier this year (2004), we contacted a friend of a friend of Angel's from her Bible study (BSF) in Denver. This friend, Karla, works for "Friends of Children of Various Nations, Inc." (FCVN, for short), which is an international adoption agency, and Karla specializes in the adoption programs of Russia and Kazakhstan.

We made the decision to go forward in early May, and God confirmed this decision many times between then and Father's day, which this year was June 20. We have avoided Mother's Day church celebrations for the past few years beause it was simply too painful. We didn't think anything about Father's Day at Church of The Apostles, but that's when God made it very clear that we no longer had to avoid such celebrations.

"Somewhere in Kazakhstan there are kids of some age waiting for their mom and dad to come get them. We don't know who they are, how old they are, or where they are, or where they are from, but I am their Daddy and Angel is their Mommy. We must now wait for God's appointed time until we meet them, but we already love them."

Since then we have prayed simply for God to love, protect, and provide for our children.

We started the Home Study the next day, and were approved for the adoption of 2 children on July 2, 2004. We now have an enourmous folder (well organized by Angel) full of paperwork for various governmental agencies, who now know more about us than we really want them to know.

We also had to conduct some trickery, since we didn't want to tell certain family members over the phone, but rather in person. Angel had to tell a little white lie to get my Congolese birth certificate from my mom. Well, we ARE going to put together a serious family album! We finally visited Midge & Roscoe in Lenox, MA on the weekend of our 11th wedding anniversary, and dropped the news on them over dinner the first night. Though they've been grandparents for twenty years, they took the news very well.

We tried to use similar trickery to get in front of Caroline, but we may have gone too far there. The conversation went, "Caroline, I just stayed with our parents for three days...and we REALLY need to talk!" Well, she didn't sleep much for a couple of days, and I couldn't be the source of more stress for her, so we did tell her on the phone. Now she is very excited to be Auntie C-Line!!

We submitted our full application to "Immigration" (formely INS, now DHS, CIS) in early August. Last week, Sept 15, we got a letter from Immigration. My youthful indiscretions have finally come back to haunt me. The first thing they ask when you start the adoption process is, "Have you ever been arrested?" You can say no, but if they find out otherwise, your adoption application stops right there. So, I 'fessed up, and completely documented my arrest for Possession of Alcohol by a minor in the fall of 1985 in Conyers, GA, at a high school football game.

Interestingly, the state of GA, from whom we had to collect a criminal background check three different times, shows no arrests at all. Even more interestingly, the City of Conyers, where the offense took place, purges their records every six years. Since my idiocy occured 19 years ago, there is no record of it at all. So, when Immigration demands a "Certified Court Disposition" for the arrest, we thought we were stuck. God provided an old friend and neighbor in the Conyers records department, and we were able to get a notarized document that affirms the official lack of record of my arrest. That letter was sent to Immigration on Sept 22, so we expect a slight delay in the processing of our adoption application.

As of today, Sept 22, we expect to receive our "referral" from Karla around the end of November, depending mostly on when Immigration approves our application. We will spend 4-6 weeks in Kazakhstan, and come home with our two children.