Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Keep your arms and legs inside the ride at all times...

Hi everyone. Happy New Year!
We had a wonderful Christmas. Just too hectic. Our daughter was home, my Wyoming brother came out of the mountains and my two sisters were all here. So Grammie got to have her kids all in one place and all grand kids as well.
We have had some crazy events but to summarize, we will be leaving next week for Kazakhstan. Yes, I wrote next week!
The judge that is hearing our case will need to attend to some personal issues and is cleaning out her court dates. We cannot go later, it is now or nyet!
A lot of scrambling with excellent direction and assistance from our agency and we will be leaving next Wed. or Thurs.
We are excited of course to think this could all be completed sooner than we'd thought.
Another sign this is meant to be:
A woman at our church sees a posting on a web site from a woman that has a lot of candles to donate to someone for fundraising. The woman from our church sends in a letter about Dias. Her letter was picked from hundreds of letters. She tells the church and people start buying the candles left and right. We did not know about any of this.... We were just presented with a very sizable donation from these church members. Then others start saying they want to help. An artist offers a painting for auction and others are offering other items. We don't even hardly ever go to church, and are not good members. But that was not the point for all those lovely people. They want to help this boy get a family. They are a small church with building fund needs etc., but they chose to do this.
We are continually blessed by the miracle of adoption. Of course, Shawn blesses us everyday just by being himself. But to see this kind of out-pouring is so touching.
And even in our unhappiness when things fell apart last summer, we have been blessed because that time in space allowed us to be in touch with a family that had lost hope about their child in Kazakhstan and we were given the blessing of opening the door a little for them via our adoption of Dias.
My stomach is in knots but I can't beleive I will get to hug that love bug and hear "privyet" in about a week.
Many wishes for all you want, need and hope for in 2009.
We are so hopeful for ourselves, other families and the children.
Hugs,
Susan

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Home Sweet Home


We arrived safely into Houston Friday night. Regina told us and was right, customs in Memphis was a breeze! Then a short jet to Houston and we grabbed our luggage and bought 3000 ml of caffeine and hit the road to home. Arrived in Tyler around 2 a.m., took showers and slept till 10:00 on Sat. Then headed to Grandma and Grandpa's to pick up the sweetest boy in the world. It was quite an emotional reunion. Then we hung out with the grands and looked over a few of the 100,000 photographs we took. It is now Sunday and we are off to brunch with the rest of the family and then unpack etc.
Shawn crawling into our bed this a.m. was the best! We miss Dias, something is missing at our home but we will look to the prize and not worry about the race.
Back to the real world and all the demands it has on us.
Back to work and school and the demands of life. Except for all the exceptions, (too many to list), we kinda liked our simpler life in Taldy Korgan! We had a wonderful trip.
Thanks to everyone that wrote and kept us feeling connected, thanks to everyone for their thoughts and prayers and support. We are almost there.
With love and wishes for a blessed and joyous holiday season,
Susan and Mike

Friday, December 12, 2008

Tulips and tears

We are in Holland and I have been looking at Tulips. Then I think, Dias won't be home till they start to bloom! We had hoped for Christmas of course......We are not worried, he is in capable hands and has a wonderful group of caregivers. But we are sad. Leaving was hard of course. For him and us. Now we hear it will be March before we are done and of course 1/4 off our dossier will start to expire...Gripes I know, and no, we have not forgotten we even are having the chance to complain, and we are of course not forgetting the other parents who still wait for news and dates. it is just hard. This whole ordeal was compared earlier to a complicated pregnancy by me and I still go to that analogy in my mind. It steals some of your joy. But we are well, Dias is well and the court accepted our petition we were told. We were told not to expect anything sooner than the middle of Feb.
The KLM club is worth every minute if you fly economy. We are writing this, drinking wine and having a snack. Getting to ready to board for Memphis soon. Can't wait to see my boy.
Dias kept a photo for a horse and one of Shawn. That was all he wanted besides his Lion.
He is is our hearts and prayers every moment.
Will post a few more pics when I get a moment.
xoxo
Susan

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

The poster

One strange and cosmic event today, the poster about adoption that Shawn is on is posted here a few photos down. Look closely to my right hip and there is a group of kids ...Dias is in that group. He and Shawn are both on the poster! That made the hair on my arms stand up. Inessa noticed it and Dias verified it. He is in blue. That was a sign that Dias were together once and will be again.
Some of you may not know Dias was at the baby house when we adopted Shawn.
xo

Paka and Das vedanya

We will be leaving tomorrow for Almaty. Dias has had some bad moments, sad and mad and acted up a little today. Not his normal self. We did all we could to reassure and explain. The representative from the Minister of Education seemed pleased. One more photo for the judge. We have some last minute things to do in the morning for official paperwork, then we will have our normal visit with Dias and leave after that. We have to keep thinking about the final results and not this momentary pain.....Shawn has a PJ party at school today and they will watch Polar Express. He has new Wall E PJ's and is very excited. we bought him some toys today.
Gulnara's daughter had to have an appendectomy this eve. and Gulnara is here and here daughter is in Almaty, 4 hrs. away. We are thinking all positive thoughts and she is in our prayers. Gulnara will meet with the judge in the AM and discuss our case again and show all the photographs of our visit and of Shawn. We will not be able to return sooner than 8 weeks because of end of the year business and courts not open for holidays etc....We already knew so we are o.k. Mike signed his name 183 times this morning. Only the man had to.....I kinda like that!
Inessa and I have become good friends and I will miss her. She is a very amazing young woman and I am so proud to know her and now so happy to love her and call her friend.
So we will clean a little, unhook all this compute stuff and finish last minute packing and off we go.
I will write a little while we wait to go back.
Love to all family and friends.
And Susan Cotten, thank you, thank you,thank you. You and Regina are wonderful coordinators that keep us all glued together.

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

2-3 year olds out for a walk


We will start our last full day here of visits and start to pack and prepare Dias for our leaving. Everyone at the baby house is worried, Mike and I aren't. With Shawn, no one at the baby house worried and we worried. Mike and I both agree, Dias understands. The next trip may be harder because we will have to tell him again, we are leaving but will be back.
We had a good visit with Gulnara last eve. discussing adoption-ours and others. We will sign a stack of papers today and the Minister of Education representative will visit again. We will stay in a flat tomorrow night in Almaty which we appreciate Gulnara arranging because Hotel Kazakhstan was $$$$$$$.
We buy educational toys for the groupa and Dias knocks 'em out. He is so smart. he says "good boy" and continues to tell Inessa she does not need to translate, he understands. We think he really does. He has the cutest grin!
We talked to Shawn yesterday and he told his grandpa he wanted to tell him mom he loved he before school. Made my day and we miss him so much. It ha taken 5 attempts to write this one entry. Think I will end this one now. More later....We have wonderful memories of our bonding time and will miss our new friends. And of course, the kiddos......
xoxo

Count down to Houston





We are starting to think about leaving and getting thins in order. We feel sad about Dias not being with us but we feel very comfortable leaving him after having spent all this time with his caregivers and knowing him a little better now. We made him a photograph album and a blankie. They will continue to tell him about us and he knows we are coming back and soon he will leave with us on a plane. Mike loved his visit in a real yurt. The poster is all about adoption, how many etc. and guess who that is in the upper left hand corner? None other than Shawn Adilet Collins! He is on their poster for adoption! How special for us! Aida Criner is also and I can't wait to show them. The lady in blue took care of Shawn while he was in isolation (2 1/2 years of his life) and we both look terrible because of all the crying that went on. I still can't quite get my mind around that experience. Other lady in white is the doctor for Dias and she gave us a wonderful history and really nothing bad, just the hip issue. She is very happy he will have it fixed and recover in the USA w/ a lot of 1:1 attention. She is also the one that told us more about Shawn than we knew before.
More photo-developing, walking around and ate lunch at our favorite little cafeteria. Gulnara will be here some time today. Tatyana has called and emailed and kept up with us. As I have written, everyone has been wonderful. Mike watches all the goings on with binoculars from our 7th floor apt. Never a dull moment.....Off to see little man soon and home to eat and sleep and then really start to pack and wrap up details for this trip. I know the next two will be rush-rush so we have tried to do it all this one.

Monday, December 8, 2008

National holiday and Dias' b-day






We have seen sheep being slaughtered several times today all around town. it is a holiday for Muslim people and you serve lamb and everyone comes to visit and eats and takes some home. The amazing thing is that a black lamb which is the best can cost 500-1000$!!!!!! We watched our neighbors skin and gut and quarter one and then watched a woman wash every piece clean, and all the "inners", I guess it is all used. You use a butane torch to cook the head for some reason. We also finally ate sheshalik (shish kabob) on aluminium wires (like from a construction site) and cooked over open fire. You sprinkle some water w/ onions in it from a used soda pop bottle and go to town! Served w/ bread and sliced fresh onions and GOOD! The holdiay is something about when Abraham slaughtered a lamb in thanks. Like our thanksgiving sort of. People brought food (lamb) and toys several times to the baby house. Really touched us and made us both tear up. They are celebrating and take the time to bring things to those who have less. Don't ever criticize Muslims to Mike or I. I try and not generalize but actually the Muslim people we have met are #1, just people like us, but #2, extremely friendly and generous. From the Imams welcoming us in the Mosque to just meeting regualr folks.
Dias had a WONDERFUL birthday. The baby house mama's put on a play and gave him a tigger stuffed toy. He was beaming. We have wonderful video. Dias seemed to know it was special and about him. But we gave gifts to all the kids and lots of balloons. It was SO fun. The baby house mama's cried and said how happy they were the children were so happy..then we all cried. This place will break your heart. With joy and sadness. Like life. We are really ready to come home but are savoring every minute. I was playing with Dias and heard some kids and looked through a gate and there was one of my boyfriends. I got some awesome photographs of him. We are hoping a family that had been told his adoption was not possible has a turn in fate.......
Love to all. Muslim, Christian, or whatever, we all have much to be thankful for.
Love,
Mike and Susan

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Here we are, we hope....





Somehow I was ale to sign on today. I have no idea how and usually it comes up in Russian or the characters change mid-sentence.....Dias is such a great kid. He is sweet, and loving, and funny and ALL boy. The hip/leg prolems only seem to show up with fatigue and going up and down stairs at times. We have been visiting 2x's a day everyday and he tells his mama's at the babyhouse if we are late. He tells everyone he meets "E mama E papa" and smiles that precious smile. The pee and poo thing is too cute in their buckets, each numbered for each child and they all know which is theirs. Same with their towel, toothbrush etc. The clothes are another story and they all are quite colorful some days but always warm and clean. The other children are warming up to us and you cannot help get attached to certain ones. Others, well, we are pretty sure they will be seen on kazakhs most wanted one day........We sleep well, we love the steam radiator heat in the apts. and then you just open the windows if you get too warm. There are so many things we love about it here, truly, but home is of course, always best. we have thoroughly enjoyed our translators time with us and her view of history...USSR... etc. Very interesting and also very sad for many people when it broke up. Dias is Kazakh so he is welcome and they really want him to stay here of course. He is a national resource, truly.The Russian kids are a different story. Not mistreated but segregated and the hope for the future is Kazakh only.

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

In between visits




I am so sorry I have not been able to blog everyday and especially sorry I have not been able to share photographs. I am glad there are no families right behind us or I would feel like I let them down and those of you that have been here, I am sorry I have not been able to show you more.For some strange reason the print characters change mid-sentence frequently. This problem plus Firefox, firewalls, Yahoo, Russian server, wrong cable line for this modem etc., etc.....BUT, we are all well. Here and home. Shawn is doing wonderful. We continue to enjoy our trip. Certainly much more than last time. Partially the weather was so dreadful in '05 and I am loving the cool weather. Everyone thinks I am crazy because I am not all wrapped up.
The children has a huge lunch (dinner) of beet salad, meat and vegetable soup with bread, then meat and masked potatoes with gravy and a fruit drink drunk warm. That little Dias can put away the food! We had to quit giving him snacks because he told his Mama Looba " no thanks (dinner), I will wait for my momma and poppa and my food with them". He cracks us up everyday. The words that most describe him are cute, sweet, smart, tender but can be tough and independent. We love our time as well in between visits, walking, shopping, sight seeing and I arrange photographs. All is well. My Russian improves everyday.