She's ours!!!!!

The internet has not been working the past 3 days. Court went great! She's ours!!! Internet is cutting in and out, so we'll post later. Leaving for home 2;45 AM on Friday

A Kazakh,Spaniard, and American enter a bar.......

(Suzanne) Today our Spanish friends went to court and were granted custody of their daughter. They will go home tomorrow and return in 3 weeks to take her home (There is a mandatory waiting period following court. )
Later this evening as we were eating dinner, we met a Kazakh man who was here for business. Turns out he works for Proctor an Gamble distributing Mars candy bars in Kakakhstan (did you read that, Eric?) He knew only a few words of English and, like a lot of people around here, was very interested in talking to Americans. He, Dave and Nikolai went to another table to talk so I could do some work on our borrowed laptop. After a few minutes, Jaime came in and sat down with Dave, Nikolai, and our new Kazakh friend “Bek”. The scene that ensued was hilarious. One of the things I love most about Dave is his talent in communicating and making ANYBODY laugh, regardless of age, culture, or language barrier. Well, the next two hours confirmed my observations. I sat back and watched as 3 1/2 men (a Kazakh, a Spaniard, an American, and a 6 year old Russian) pantomimed, spoke in one word sentences, laughed loudly, and enjoyed each other's company for the next 2 hours. They acted as if they were long lost friends who didnt want the night to end. The night concluded when Jaime insisted we all had a shot of vodka to celebrate friendship. We all participated, even Nikolai with his apple juice. It was a night I know we'll talk about for a long time. Anna, Jaime's wife, came down to say goodbye. I always thought it was sweet how Europeans hug and then do the kiss on each side of the cheek. I hated to see them leave, especially since we were stuck here another week. I felt my eyes well up with tears . I was surprised to see Jaime and Anna well up with tears too, after all, they were going home, and I knew they were as homesick as we were! It made me realize that even with my whining about being homesick, I actually will MISS Kazakhstan. I thought about our debacle in Vienna, our daily pantomine antics, and the reason we all were here. I realized how much I have learned on this trip....that despite our different languages, kooky cultural customs, and different weird things we eat, some things are universal....kindness, laughter,a great love for our children, and friendship.

A day in the life...

(Suzanne) We thought we would let you in on our typical day. We wake up and go downstairs where we order breakfast. Most of the waitresses don’t speak English, so this is always an adventure. We have learned enough Russian to order food. Nikolai is terrific at learning Russian. We ask our translator how to say things, but then Dave and I usually forget how to say it by the time we need it. Not Nikolai, he can hear how to say something once, then he remembers how to use the word 4 days later. I’m not sure it’s because of his amazing memory or if he actually remembers Russian for the first 14 months of his life.
After breakfast, one of us goes to the baby home for the morning while the other stays with Nikolai for “school”. Nikolai has terrific first grade teachers at his private school, Palmerdale United Methodist church, who have put together lesson plans (Thanks Laura and Jill!). I have always thought they did an amazing job, but now I respect them more than ever! Nikolai has been a great student despite his two substitute teachers this month. Nikolai is really missing school. His teachers and classmates gave him special notes to read every day while we’re gone. I cry every time we read one of them. Our room is decorated with ALL of them! It has really helped with the homesickness which seems to grow worse the longer we are here. We love Nikolai’s school and are so lucky to have all the wonderful people who work and go to school there. We love all of you.
The short ride to the baby home is a lot of fun. We ride with a driver who only speaks Russian, a wonderful couple from Spain named Jaime (pronounced HI-MEE) and Anna who only speak Spanish, and a translator named Irena who speaks Russian, Spanish and some English. We have really enjoyed our time with Jaime and Anna. Somehow, I can’t say how, we understand each other and seem to have the same silly sense of humor. When we visit our baby, we share a playroom with them when they visit their 4 year old daughter. I never expected to learn Spanish while in Kazakhstan, but I have learned a good deal! We are always laughing with Jaime and Anna. One afternoon Nikolai went to a railroad museum with them-an afternoon with no English !
Around lunchtime we usually go out to eat somewhere and run errands like going to the grocery store, buying baby clothes, etc. or we’ll go for walks. We share our primary translator Valentina with a couple from Cape Cod, named Tom and Kristin. Tom and Kristin are adopting boy and girl bio siblings age 2 and 4.
We eat always eat supper at our hotel. The Russian food is VERY good .Then we check e-mails, play UNO with others, and find some way to pass the time. After getting the hotel bill for laundry, we decided we could wash our own clothes in the sink and hang them on the heat registers.
While most people here don’t speak English, they appreciate it and help us along when we attempt to speak Russian. Nikolai has become the mascot for the hotel, and the pretty young women who work here are always bringing him gifts. He may have trouble getting back into the real world when we get home!

(Nikolai) i have 5 rubels (Russian money !!!!!) and 250 TENGE (Kazakh money)

(Suzanne) Nikolai earned 250 tenge from helping me with the laundry (thats about 2 dollars). He received the 5 rubles (about 15 cents) as a gift from the lady at the front desk.

Visit to the hospital

Today we were allowed to visit our baby at the hospital. They took us to an office and brought her in. We didnt get to go to her room. I could tell she hadn't been feeling well because she wasnt her usual playful self. She still had a cough, but it sounded loose. If she were in the states, she wouldnt be in the hospital. I think they are keeping her primarily to keep her away from the other sick babies. I dont' think she knew who we were, as it has been over a week since we've seen her. She will stay in the hospital until at least next Tuesday, so we may not get to see her before we leave. That's sad for us, but even worse for her. She'll have a stranger bring her all the way around the world to her new parents who are strangers to her and who talk funny!

When we went into the hospital, we had to check in our coats. When we returned for our coats, we noticed there were 4-5 women peeking through the window at us. Our interpreter said it was, again, because they had never seen an American. Its funny to us, because with the exception of some of the Kazakh people who are Asian, we look just like the Russians who live here! We just waved, said "Dasveedanya", and went on our way!

That evening, we heard the wind howling all night. When we woke up we had TEN new inches of snow! This morning the roads are closed (although there was no visible rush to the grocery store to buy milk and bread).

some good news and some bad news

We didnt hear anything about our baby today, other than she was improving. On a good note, our court date is 2/25 and then we can come home. The bad news is that we'll have to wait until 2/28 before we can leave, because there are flights out of here only on Wednesdays. The good news that we signed power of attorney paperwork so that an escort can bring the baby to us, so I wont have to come all the way back here to pick her up! She'll be home around 3/21, so she should be here by Easter! There was nothing to take a picture of today, so I'm just posting a cute one from a few weeks ago. I like how she's checking out Nikolai.

Not a good day

(Suzanne) Today I went to visit our baby. When I didnt see her in her room, I noticed our translator had a shocked look on her face. My heart sank to my knees and I felt sick. The translator told me she had been taken to the hospital because she couldnt breathe well and had a high fever. I started asking a lot of questions, none of which anyone knew the answer. They gave me a phone number and told me to go back to the hotel and have our other translator call the Dr. and find out what was going on. I went back to the hotel and had to tell Dave and Nikolai the news. We didnt have our translator's phone number and somehow asked the front desk to call her (Dave has a talent for communicating English to persons who dont speak it! ) Our translator told me she would call and find out some info for me. We didnt hear anything for 6 hours until we were picked up to go and talk to the baby home Dr. In that 6 hours I was going crazy. My mind was spinning and coming up with every conceivable serious or critical illness that could be wrong. When we finally met with the baby home Dr., we found our baby was improving and never even needed oxygen. They took her to the hospital as a precaution since she would soon be going on a long plane trip. We were so relieved! They are trying to get permission for us to visit her in the hospital, but we havent heard anything yet.

Whenever I have some difficulty, I try and think about what I can learn from it. Immediately I thought of those hispanic famiies back at Children's hospital at home. We get in a hurry and get aggravated when we have to wait on an interpreter before we speak to the family. It slows down our work. Today, I was in the same shoes they are in every day: feeling scared, vulnerable, and helpless with my precious child and not knowing anything about their illness . I will rember this experience next time I work with a family who doesnt speak English. It has been quite a lesson

So I can end the post on humorous note, I'm posting a picture of our new friend Tom. It was taken the day he ordered horse meat out of curiosity. Nikolai gobbled it down and asks for it every day! Posted is a picture of what it looks like.

Stir Crazy

(Suzanne) On Sundays we don’t have a driver our translator so we’re on our own. We decided to be Catholic for a month since it is the only church within walking distance. We don’t understand a word they say (except maybe “Christo”), so we just stand when every one else does and kneel when everyone else does. Sounds goofy, we just like being there, and no one seems to mind.
Other than that, we stayed inside all day. We were sort of tired after being kept awake all night by a lot of Russian men with big hats and cigars who had a wee bit too much vodka. We met some of them in the restaurant earlier, and they were VERY friendly (a little TOO friendly!)
We are really getting bored and stir crazy. I have read all but one of my books (and I want to save that one for the long plane ride home!), and watched almost all our DVD’s (I’m trying to ration them). We went down to the restaurant (the Russian men are either gone now or too hungover to come out of their rooms) and played UNO all afternoon with our new friends from Cape Cod. We were later joined by the other American couple here from Park City Utah. It’s really nice to be around people from home. We didnt take any pictures today, so I am posting a picture the couple from Utah gave us. It is of their baby and ours (ours is in the pink).

You cant take the southern out of the boy

We didn’t get to visit our baby today (Saturday 2/16). She has an upper respiratory infection and fever, so the director says she needed to rest and be away from germs the “foreigners” bring in. The baby home doesn’t receive visitors on Sunday, so we’ll have to wait till Monday until we can see her. Today we went to lunch at a pizza place, then visited a Russian Orthodox Church that dates back to the 17th century, according to our translator. It was very beautiful and ornate. The women had to cover their head to enter, and the men had to take off their hats. Their tradition is to light a candle for someone you are praying for, then the priest and church pray for all the people represented by the candles. We lit a candle for our baby and Nikolai said a prayer for her to get well and for us to all have a safe trip home. I wandered around the church for a long time admiring the artwork of the saints. Our interpreter asked me “where’s David? I looked around and couldn’t find him or Nikolai, so we opened the door to go outside. As soon as we did, we heard a loud “wooo-hooo!”. It was Dave sliding down a large snow/ice hill built by the neighborhood children. Dave said he was helping Nikolai up the slippery ice stairs, then once at the top was too scared to go back down the stairs, so he was “forced” to go down the slide!
Around the church are some brightly painted houses. They have also been there since the 17th century. They have no central heat or running water. We saw people carrying large jugs on sleds. They went to the well, filled their jugs, and took them back to their houses. I can’t imagine how cold that water must have been!

Baby Home Tour

(Suzanne) February 15th, we were invited to a tour of the baby home by the Director.When we toured the Kazakh museum last week, we noticed she received a presidential award for her work in the baby home. At the baby home, I was amazed at what services they are able to provide with such limited resources. The walls of the very old building are brightly colored with hand painted animals and cartoon characters. The director states the workers spent their off days painting, and individuals in the community paid for the paint. When foreigners come to adopt from the baby home, their donations go directly to the baby home. The money collected from the 3 couples here now paid for carpeting of a new playroom. The director states "most children will grow up here and never be adopted, so we want to make it nice". She states improvements from donating adoptive families continued for years until they finally received government assistance. When they received the government assistance, they built a sauna and indoor swimming pool for the children. The children get to swim, go in the sauna, and get massages three times weekly. Every child, including the infants, receives individual speech therapy from a licensed therapist at least once weekly. They also go to group music lessons weekly. The children receive all vaccinations at the baby home and are treated for minor illnesses there. I expected a dreary place and was pleasantly surprised.

Eyelashes to die for....

Amerikanskiy! Amerikanskiy!

(Dave) Thursday afternoon, 2/14, we took a sightseeing trip to the Petropavlovsk Botanical Gardens. Being winter, our tour was restricted to the greenhouses. The grounds outside appeared to be much larger, but covered with snow, most of the flowers and other plants they probably have in the summer were long gone and out of sight under a foot or so of snow! We'd gone about halfway through the first greenhouse when one of the ladies working there said to me in a strong accent, "Espanya"? (Spain) I said, "USA". She got very excited yelling, Amerikanskiy! Amerikanskiy! She told our interpreter she had never seen an American before. She was very excited to meet us. She informed us they had the American national symbol there! We were pointed to a really large Palmetto Palm tree and told it was the symbol of Amerika. Another lady explained that once in the past some Peace Corps workers had visited and all gathered under the palm and sung the National Anthem!! She asked if we wanted to sing too and I just started singing, "Sweet Home, Alabama". We didn't have the heart to tell them the palm tree wasn't the national symbol. Well, who knows? It could be, I really don't know! She asked us if it was any different in Petropavlovsk from America. Suzanne told her the food here was better! Anyway, we all had a good time. Some pictures are attached.
This morning (Friday, 2/15), I want to the baby home to visit Yulia. She has gotten really congested and was running a fever, so I didn't get to visit with her too much 'cause the doctor wanted to examine her. She was congested when we first got here two (or is it three now) weeks ago, then got better, now has it again. It seems to be going around the baby home. There is a new American couple here now from Utah, Linda and Phil and their daughter is Katya (Katherine), who is 6 months old. They are staying at the Lina and visit the baby home at the same time we do. Katya is in the same group with Yulia.
COURT DATE: We found out our court date will be on Monday, February 25th. We also found out that we will need to return via Almaty and the next available flight out of Petropavlovsk to Almaty will be on that Wednesday, the 27th. Once in Almaty, we will have to go by the American Embassy to sign some papers. The reason being that we could have Yulia escorted to the U.S. where we would meet them in Washington or somewhere else. Either way, the American Embassy requires at least one of us to be there in person. Then, we could all fly back on Thursday, 2/28, direct from Almaty. I suppose we'd arrive back in Birmingham sometime around the evening of the 28th. Of course, none of this is written in stone and could all change at any time!! If we can get back any sooner we'll try. We sure do miss home!!

Mamma's got a brand new...hat

(Suzanne)All the women here have beautiful coats and fur hats. The Wal Mart coat wasnt exactly made for sub zero weather, and I didnt have a hat, so I decided I would like to go shopping. After spending 30 minutes layering up , we set out on the town. We had a wonderful walk. When we got cold, we went into cafe's and had hot tea. People were very friendly. A lot of them would say "USA?", we would say "Da" and converse somehow in our broken Russian and their broken English.

When we walk around , there is a lot of ice. Since we are not used to it. we walk like little old ladies while the women fly around us in beautiful 6 inch heeled boots. The steps up to the stores and shopping malls are MARBLE! Can you imagine trying to walk on marble steps that are covered with ice?

We made it to a shopping mall where I bought a pretty green coat with fur. Then I went to another store for a fur hat. There must have been 200 different hats to chose from. Nikolai, Dave, and I had fun trying them on. We had about 3 people helping us who were patient with us and we were all laughing . Let me say thiss...a traditional Russian hat is not at all flattering on a round faced person! I finally settled on a beret style fur hat. It was a fun adventure!

By the time we got back to our hotel, it was snowing hard. We noticed we could see individual snowflakes. They looked just like the ones we cut out of paper when we were kids. They were so pretty!

More Pictures

(Dave, Sunday morning 11:15am)
It's a 12 hour time change from US central time, so it's still Saturday night there. Suzanne still hasn't fully adjusted to the time change yet. Nikolai and I have adjusted ok though. Friday was Suzanne's day to visit Yulia and I went on Saturday. Yulia is doing great. She was real congested last week, but it has cleared up now. She's ready to start crawling, but just gets up on her knees and hands and rocks. She'll figure out the mobile part soon though. Friday afternoon, we went shopping for a few gifts and out to lunch at the 'Doner Cafe'. It has an indoor play area for kids and Nikolai loves it there. Friday, there were lots of other kids and he didn't let a little thing like a language barrier get in his way of playing with them. He liked just being around other kids for a while. I know it was hard on him though not talking! Saturday afternoon we ate at a new Italian Restaurant and went to the History Museum in Petropavlovsk. I wish I could have read what most of the stuff was though. There is a tremendous history in this part of the world that we tend to overlook in our history books in America. Kazakhstan sits in the middle of three different kinds of peoples. The Kazaks are asian in appearence, of course the Russians settled here in the 18th century are european and to the west and south is the Turkish and Arab influence. Petropavlovsk is an incredible city. It amazes me how much the people are out walking around every day in temps in the single digits (fehrenheit)! I get tired of staying inside, so I understand. It's something they are just more accustomed to than me! We're hoping our court date will be the 21st or 22nd, so we can leave for home around the 23rd. If court isn't until the next week on the 25th, we'll just get home a few days later. Here are some new pictures of Yulia, Nikolai, and Petro.

(Dave)
Today, Thursday, 2/7, I got an early start. At least it seems that way since the sun doesn't come up here during winter until something like 9am. The sun never really gets high in the sky either. At noon, the sun looks like 4pm in Alabama. It seems like it one big long morning, then a big long afternoon! On the way to the baby home, it was snowing this morning. The first time I've seen the big snowflakes here. It's snow before, but a real fine, small and light snow. We only got another inch or so of fresh snow. I got to feed Yulia today and took some good video of it for us to all enjoy later on when she's older. She is such a pleasant and happy baby. She usually gets a little sleepy around 11am or so. On Tuesday she went to sleep on my shoulder for about 20 minutes and it was nice. She's teething now too, so she does have fussy moments when she's tired. She already has two bottom teeth and likes chewing on her finger. She doesn't seem to know what to do with the plastic teething, noise making toys yet. Other than her finger, she prefers to chew on a tie string or label. It sure is going to be hard to leave here in a couple of weeks and not take her with us! We'll have to wait another couple of weeks after the court date before she'll be ok'd for travel. We're hoping the court date will be around the 21st. If prediction holds true, maybe she'll be in Sweet Home Alabama by the middle or March or at least before Easter this year. This afternoon I spend about 2 hours at the National Bank (Kazak) trying to cash some American Express Travelers checks!! They have those little signs everywhere saying they accept them. Yea, they do ..... sorta! Only after they call all around the world to check the serial numbers to make sure they're real and not stolen. If I had chosen to use a credit card for a cash advance though, I bet there would have been no questions asked and they wouldn't have cared if it was a stolen credit card! Yea, go figure! Tomorrow is Suzanne's day. More later.

when I was a kid I walked a mile in the snow......

(Suzanne) How many times have you heard this from a parent or grandparent? Well.....now I can say I walked a mile in the snow to a grocery store (except I wasnt barefoot!)
After eating at a Uzbekistan restaurant (it was very pretty...looked like Aladdin should be eating there), we decided to walk to the grocery store. After spending 30 minutes layering with long johns and 18 sweaters and a coat and hat and scarf and snowboots, we set out. Nikolai looked like Randy in The Christmas Story (...."I cant put my arms down!!!!!!). It was a great long walk through a pretty little forest.
Today we had to give the coordinator the name we chose for our baby. You may have noticed we havent referred to her as anything yet )
We have beautiful and sweet waitress at our hotel restaurant. She goes out on her own and buys Nikolai food she thinks he will like. She speaks impressive English and is so very kind. Her name is Yulia (sounds like "Julia " with a "Y"). My grandmother's name was Eula Allison, and she was about the most wonderful person I have ever known, or will ever know. "Eula " is derrived from "Yulia". So our daughter's name will be "Yulia Allison Cantley" after my grandmother.

attention family and friends!!!!

Our home e-mail is not working (of all times for it to malfunction)
please e-mail us at Suzanne's work e-mail

suzanne.cantley@chsys.org

Day 5

(Suzanne) The baby home doesnt allow visits on Sunday, so we didnt do much but play uno and eat. It was surprising how much we all missed her.

Today was my turn to visit her. The caregivers had put a tiny pink bow in her hair. I was allowed to feed her. The baby home makes their own baby food. They brought out what smelled like pureed apples, yougurt, and juice from a coffee cup. In all my years babysitting in high school, working with babies at a daycare in college, and working as a pediatric nurse for I wont say how long, I had an experience I have never had. I gave juice to a 7 month old in a coffee cup-no bottle. It scared me to death! I just knew I would cause her to aspirate, but she took it like she had been drinking from a cup since birth. After a lunch at the hotel, Valentina and Oleg (our intepreter and driver) took us to a Kazakh and a Russian craft shop. We went to the grocery store and ate ramen noodles for supper (the hotel food is terrific, but its getting pricey!) Tomorrow will be Dave's turn to visit.

Nikolai meets baby sister

(Nikolai) i ate horse meat for lunch today. we went to see baby sister and she was cute . we went to a birch forrest. we played in the snow

(Suzanne) When she first saw Nikolai, she grinned ear to ear, as if to say "Im glad youre finally here". She watched and studied everything he did and her eyes followed him everywhere!

.......and yes, Nikolai DID eat horsemeat. It is a common Kazakh dish. We had lunch with a wonderful American couple ,Tom and Kristen. Tom just had to try it. We all had a tiny taste but just couldnt get past what it was. Nikolai gobbled up almost the whole platter while we all were gagging! I told Nikolai not to tell his aunt Lauren about his lunch, since she lives in Louisville where horses are sacred.

our second visit

(Suzanne)We are now on day two of the required 14 day bonding period. Nikolai is only allowed to go to the baby home on Saturdays because it is flu season, so he hasn't been able to meet his sister yet. On most days, Dave and I will have to take turns visiting the baby home while the other stays with Nikolai to do schoolwork.I went to see her today and was able toplay with her for 1 1/2 hours. There was a nice couple from Spain who are adopting a 3 year old girl. We played with our children in the same room. The playroom is amazing. It is brightly colored with lots of physical therapy mats, a large wall mirror and equipment She has a very pleasant and sweet personality and smiles often and laughs out loud. She is very tiny-only 6kg (about 13 pounds). She can get into a crawling position from her tummy all by herself and rocks back and forth like she's ready to crawl.
We have been eating at the hotel restaurant where the food is terrific. I think I have eaten borscht (beets and vegetable soup)about every meal! The people at the hotel are very accomodating and nice. Most dont know English, but we get by. We get free wireless internet in the restaurant and I finally learned how to set it up. That was an adventure. One waitress knew how to get it set up, but didnt speak English. The waitress that spoke English didnt know how to set it it up. The man from Spain , who only spoke Spanish, also offered help. Between 3 languages, lots of translation and laughs, I finally got it tot work!