DAY 3

Once again we were up at four in the morning. We have not completely adjusted to the time change. When we are actually sleeping we are sleeping very sound, just not long enough. The temperature here has been on the cold side, and really all that we packed was light weight clothes. Today was 18 degrees Celsius, 64 degrees to Americans. It should be warming up here in a couple of days.
We were able to visit our little man today. Our driver picked us up at 9:15 and took us to the Baby House. The caretakers let us feed him a bowl of porridge and a bottle of hand squeezed fruit juice. Mama fed him his breakfast and he was a little messy. We would like to add that he is a good eater. I’m pretty sure that he eats just as much as his Mama. We were very excited that he let out an enormously loud burp. He will fit right in.
After we finished feeding him, Papa changed his first diaper. It wasn’t a messy one. We then played with him in a room where we met another person who was adopting a beautiful little girl named Molly. We were glad to meet another American and if that wasn’t enough Maryanne is a Chicago Native. Sean is going to have a Kazakh friend twenty minutes away from his house. What a small world. Before we knew it our first visit with Sean from 10am – noon was over.
Our translator took us to the mall to purchase new diapers. The caretakers told us the wrong size and he was swimming in them. We also went and picked out a few outfits for him. We ate a quick lunch and back to Sean for our second visit from 2pm-4pm.
This time it was Papas turn to feed him. The main course consisted of a zesty blend of meat, potatoes, and carrots blended together, and a side of juice. Papa did a really good job until the battle began. Sean grabbed the spoon out of Papas hands not once but twice. The spoon and the food spread so nicely into the floor, chair, and Papas face. Did I forget to mention that Sean is really strong? We are amazed at the amount of food that these babies eat.
Papa- 0 Sean-2
It was Mama’s turn to change the diaper and Papa was hoping that it was a dirty stinky one. False Alarm. O.K. so I think that we should start a pool and everyone can place their bets to see who is going to get the DIRTY DIAPER first.
We got to play with Sean after we fed him. He is so inquisitive, very good natured, and cute. We are not at all biased. We are working on strengthening his legs. The babies don’t get a lot of 1on1 attention and activity that they would with parents. With a little love and affection and Mama’s dance classes, Sean will be crawling much better and walking before we know it.
We almost forgot to mention that we read the comments on the blog, and we appreciate the support, love, and communication that we are receiving from our friends and family while we are halfway across the world.



DAY 4

We are finally sleeping better, but still not 100%. We got to the Baby House really early this morning and the caregiver was nice enough to let us come up early. So we got an extra half hour with him. So we picked up our little pumpkin and started to feed him. He was a little fussy this morning. He is starting to teeth. The caregiver gave him some cherry flavored children’s Orajel, and then took his temperature. He was normal and after the ointment was feeling much better. A little sleepy though. He fell asleep in Papa’s arms, and then Mama’s. When he woke up he was ready to start getting his daily exercise in.
Sean’s favorite doctor came in to give us all of his medical information. Sean was born on January 4, 2006. He was dropped off at the maternity ward after only six days. The doctor was very thorough and gave us all of his measurements for every month since he was born. He has been very health with the exception of a couple of colds. We are going to have to try to convince her to come home with us. She is so wonderful with all of the children and we personally think that Sean is her favorite.
We took our first family photo that needed to be developed right away so that it can be distributed to the Ministries and court. We also captured a few cute pictures of Sean and his new best buddy, Molly. Photographs are courtesy of Maryanne. She gave us a converter and adaptor so that we could get our computer up and running again. What a savior that was, because our battery on our camera was just about ready to die, along with our laptop. So hopefully, if all goes well, updates will be more regular and we will post more photos. Oh, did I mention that instead of watching Russian T.V. for a few hours a night we will be able to watch English speaking movies.
During our second visit we met a couple that just finished the adoption of their gorgeous little boy. They had been in Karaganda for almost 2 months. Tom & Kathy are from Phoenix and they were so happy that Sean was being adopted. He was one of their favorites and their sons. When their eyes met , the two of them were smiling at each other. It was just precious. We will be going out to dinner with Maryanne, Tom & Kathy tomorrow night.
It was finally nice out today. It got up to 75 degrees. The caregivers let us take the children outside. The catch is though, that you have to bundle them up as if it were 50 degrees. They need jackets, warm shoes and a winter cap on. While in Rome, do as the Romans do. That is what your philosophy has to be because of the many different cultural differences. Hey, who are we to criticize anyway. These women are phenomenal. We keep joking that they probably think that we are idiots because by the time we finish feeding Sean they have each fed three babies. They have their routines down pat.