Saturday, July 11, 2009

Have I really been gone from the US for one week already? It sure does not feel like it. I hope the other 11 weeks go by just as fast as this one!
Arrived at Umit at our scheduled visitation time 10 am. Went on the hunt for my gal and found her with her group at their shelter. She sees me through the shrubs that surround the shed and runs to meet me on the paved path outside. Big smile, big laugh, big hug for Mama. She is so happy to see me every day. I am so happy to see her every day. I just hope our relationship can keep growing as it has in the very short time we have known each other.
We head off to our gazebo. Today, I have a juice box and some cookies for treats. I also bring the photo album I’ve made Alina which consists of photos of Grandma and Grandpa, our house, her room, and Emmy and Nikki, our cats. I wasn’t going to show her this until much later but I reconsidered. It was a big hit. She loves to flip the pages. Janine and I were trying to get her to say Ata -grandpa and Aje - grandma. She would say them and point to their picture. I kept asking her over and over who is this (bul-crum) and I would point to either Mom or Dad’s picture. She would say their names…ata or aje (ah-jzee-a). At one point when she had had enough of me asking her, she told me that she knew who they were. Basically, Mama, stop asking me that stupid question!!! Ok…ok. I never asked her again that day.
I brought a juice box instead of tea today for a treat along with some crickets. No…I’m not feeding my child bugs! Crickets what the Kazaks call cookies that are the equivalent to Danish butter cookies but not as sweet. So, it’s a cookie NOT a bug…hehe. The cookies are met with a great big smile. Alina grabs one which is about 1 ½” wide by 2” long and stuffs the entire cookie in her mouth! After that, Mama broke the cookie up into smaller sizes instead of giving her the entire cookie. Lesson learned. After the cookie was devoured, I pulled out an apple juice box complete with straw. As I showed it to Alina, she instantly took it out of my hands. It was hers now. I could barely get the straw off of it before it was pulled out of my hands. I unwrap the straw and try to put it in the little hole on top of the box. Alina decides to help me and we both get it in it’s proper place. Now, I’m thinking, ok baby, drink away! Drink that juice through the straw. Every kid knows how to drink from a straw, right? Not my baby. She has never used a straw in her life. Again, something we take for granted everyday and this tiny little thing has never experienced it. She’s not quite sure what to do so I show her by sucking on the straw and drinking some juice (which was very good by the way and much less sugary than ours) out of the box. She puts the straw to her tiny lips, starts to suck, but doesn’t close her mouth around the straw. So, basically, she sucking air and there’s nothing coming up the straw because her lips are not around the straw. She realizes that this isn’t working and Janine and I cannot get her to understand how to work the straw. Alina just takes the straw out of the juice box, licks the end that was down in the box, and then proceeds to drink the juice from the little hole in the box. It was very industrious of her I thought and I let her celebrate her victory by drinking her juice the way she wanted to. We tried the straw many more times today. She even put the straw back into the box, put the straw in her mouth and I would squeeze the box so juice would come up through the straw. That was ok but drinking it through the little hole was much more fun and she could do it all by herself. So, that’s how we drank our juice today.
Again today Alina seems to be wanting to be held by me. I was sitting on the floor of the gazebo and she actually came over and sat on my thigh. I bounced her up and down and she laughed. She put her hand over her mouth to cough at one point while I was bouncing her and realized what kind of sound she could make. She did it first and then she wanted me to do it. It was great fun and she had a blast. That all lasted for about a minute then it was off to do something else. But, I’ll relish any one on one time she wants to give me. Eye contact has been great today and she has even been playing closer to me and including me in her play. More trust points were awarded to me today by Miss Alina Jean.
As I mentioned yesterday, I bought a ball for Alina at the Bazaar. I brought that along to play with. It wasn’t a big hit but we had fun rolling it back and forth to each other. It is smaller than the beach ball so it is easier for her to handle but she still seems not to be to interested in playing with it. No matter. She will initiate play sometimes but she would rather play with her crayons or flip through her photo albums.
I have ushered my baby into the 21st Century!! During our visit yesterday, a woman was visiting her cousins children (the most adorable, pudgy cheek twin cherubs you have ever seen named Ameena and Alina). They had temporarily placed the children in the baby house. This is due mostly due to financial problems. This woman had a cell phone that played music. She turned the music on for the twins and Alina was instantly drawn to the music. I brought my Ipod Shuffle with me to Kaz along with a cheap set of speakers that would plug into it as well as my computer. I clipped the Ipod on to Alina’s blouse, gave her the two speakers, and turned the music on. I think she enjoyed it. She would just sit there and listen to the music, look back and forth from one speaker to the next, look up at me and smile. She never danced around or anything but I think she was pretty fascinated by them. It wasn’t a hit but it certainly was interesting to her.
Alina seemed to be getting rather bored by the end of our visit today. When it was time to go, one of her nanny’s came out of the orphanage and led her away by her tiny hand. No crying for Mama, no goodbye for Mama, only a little wave of the hand and off she went to have her lunch. What’s going on here? Why isn’t she pining for me like she has the last week? Why aren’t there crocodile tears streaming down her face all the while pleading for her Mama to come and get her? Oh the drama of it all!!! I am not going to lie…I was a little upset that all of this did not happen (well, not all of it but maybe a little tear and one cry for Mama). My mind goes into overload thinking that she’s already tired of me…I’ve done something wrong….she doesn’t like me anymore….she doesn’t want to be my daughter….what have I done? I want this sooo bad that I’m only thinking the worst of the situation. After telling my Mom about it, she assured me that it was nothing that I did and that it was a good thing. Alina knows that I’ll be coming back the next day to see her so why should she be upset? Well, duh I thought. I am so over thinking every little thing because I want it to go just right so I can bring this little beauty home with me. Mom helped me realize that I need to just relax about everything and just let things happen the way they are going to happen. I’ve told myself that so many times but with the emotional state I’m in right now, I need someone else re-assuring me to let things happen and stop stressing about every little thing. Aren’t Mom’s the best! So in essence…..Ding…Ding…trust point scored for me!
As we are closing the door on the van to head out of the baby house, Janette tells Janine that she is taking me to a grocery store so we can buy treats for Alina and her roommates for her birthday tomorrow. She tells me that this store is much cheaper than Gros and much bigger. After another harrowing 10 minutes drive on the streets of Taraz, we arrive at S’Mall, the grocery store. It is a huge grocery store…think Sam’s without having to buy in bulk. They are selling everything from clothing to food to liquor. Janette and Janine help me pick out two kinds of cookies for the kids. Janine and I go on our own to find some fruit (very small apples) and some candy (chocolate covered with an orange jelly bean type center). I also buy some juice (mixed fruit) and pick up a few items for myself…water, shampoo/conditioner (YES!!! … they have Garnier over here..that makes me very happy…hey…I’m 7000 miles from home…don’t judge =) ), soda, some food, and milk along with various other things. Janette is also doing some shopping for herself. I finish first and Janine and I head back out to the taxi which is waiting for us. Yes…taxi’s wait on you here! Janette comes out about 10 minutes later and we are headed back to my abode. She thanks me for letting her do some shopping as she has been very busy the last couple of days. I tell her no problem and thank her for taking me there to get the goodies for my baby’s party.
We arrive an the hotel and I am moving today to a smaller room. Janette negotiates a good price for me and the desk clerk hands me my new key to room 217. Janette, Janine, and the driver help me carry my groceries up to my new room. The cleaning staff is cleaning it but they are almost finished. My old room, 220, is just across the hall so when the cleaning crew finish, they will knock on my door to let me know. While they finish cleaning 217, I clean up 220. I hadn’t unpacked yet because I knew I was going to move to a smaller room. Plus, what I had unpacked, I re-packed this morning before we went to Umit. In about 15 minutes, the crew was done and I start moving in. I move all the suitcases first then I start moving the food that I had bought. After I brought in the first suitcase, I noticed how hot it was in the room so I go to turn on the air conditioner. To my surprise, there is no air conditioner in the room. I had agreed to stay in the room and just assumed since there was an air conditioner in room 220 that there would be AC in 217. WRONG!! I’m thinking how in the hell am I going to survive this heat without AC? I’m an American and I need AC! But, for $17 cheaper a night, I’ll deal with it…somehow. Luckily, it was later in the afternoon, around 4:30, and the heat of the day was dying off. I was finally unpacking all my stuff and arranging what is to become my new living quarters for the next three months. It really is a nice room…nothing like you would expect in the US though. But, I love this old world feel about the room with the fabric on the walls, wood paneling and baseboard, old light switches on the wall, and not to mention the huge windows in the sitting room and bedroom that actually open. Around 7:30, I opened those windows and a nice cool breeze was blowing in. It was nice for a change to get to have open windows not to mention a cool breeze coming through them.
Enough for today. Birthday Party details tomorrow! Love to all!