Friday, August 28, 2009

Ch…Ch…Ch…Changes

There are lots of changes happening at Umit Baby House. They are not only getting a re-vamped heating system (thank goodness the heating pipes no longer run parallel to the hallway walls along the floor and crossing doorways, and even crossing over in the hallway itself ---very dangerous for the children) but also receiving new plumbing along with new commodes, walls, window sills, and trim are being repainted in the playrooms, bedrooms, and hallways, and new vertical blinds are going up in all the hallway windows. This is what I can see happening. I’m sure there are other things happening as well. I’m glad. It was not in bad shape when I arrived but it did need some upkeep. I hope they can refurbish the outside as well. There is an older woman who is extremely nice who has been working on all the flower beds since I’ve been visiting Alina. Her job seems to never end but she has the beds looking beautiful. I think the director of the baby house is really doing a good job and I sure this re-vamp is because of her. I now know why I never saw her at the beginning of my trip. She’s either in court with other adoptive parents, in meetings, or trying to get money to help the kids. As I’ve said before, she may have a serious look on her face all the time but I really think she is working hard for the kids at Umit. Her job can’t be easy. God bless her!!!
As I walked out to wait on my chariot this morning, I found Janette sitting on one of the yellow hotel benches. She must have been dropped off by her husband because I did not see the usual black and silver minivan that takes me to see Alina. I saw her and asked how she was, in Kazakh, and she answered good, in Kazakh. I think she’s really impressed that I am learning the Kazakh language. She even told the Judge and, as I said in my other post, made a copy of my dictionary so it could be included in my paperwork at the court house. She’s also told me that since I know some Kazakh, it will be easier to communicate with Alina and know what she needs and wants until she learns English. I totally agree and that’s why I started learning it before I traveled. Shirin has helped me tremendously with my Kazakh. I can ask her how to say anything that would pertain to Alina and she will tell me and help me write it phonetically for my dictionary. I want to take this dictionary and post in the Taraz adoption yahoo group files. I think if someone is adopting an older child, it could really come in handy. Anyway, Janette motions for me to take a seat beside her so I do. Obviously, we are waiting for a ride. A red car pulls up and Janette starts walking toward it and I tag along. It’s a new driver. He is obviously Russian with his blonde hair and blue eyes. He is an older man, probably late 50’s or so, and apparently Janette knows him well. I get in the back seat and he says good morning to me in English. Surprised, I answer him back in English. Janette gets in on the passenger side and the two of them immediately start talking. It’s really strange to be the only one in the car who has no idea what is being said. I should be used to it by now. We pick up Shirin and head toward Umit. I pay Janette the rest of the visitation fee that I owe her for this week. I also had Shirin talk to Janette about Mom and Dad. They will be arriving on September 6th at 12:35 a.m. in Almaty (THAT’S NEXT SUNDAY!!! Can you tell I’m excited!!!). I would like Janette to speak to Yurnur, the guy who drove me from Almaty to Taraz, about driving Mom and Dad. Janette said not to worry (her usual response to everything and you know what, I don’t worry anymore because I know she will take care of it) and she will make all the arrangements. Can I take Janette home with me? Wouldn’t it be grand if we all had someone who arranged our daily lives for us and we just had to live it? I know I’ve complained about her in the past but she really has taken good care of me. At the time I was upset with her, I just didn’t realize how things worked in the adoption game here. Now I know a little more about the game and I realize that she was only looking out for my best interest and working as hard as she could for me. I know for a fact she works very hard and she deserves to be compensated for it. Now that I know what I know and I trust her, she deserves every penny of my money. I called her my Kazakh Mama a couple of weeks ago and again on Friday and she laughed and said she was honored.
We arrive at the baby house and Alina is nowhere to be found. Her group is not outside because Shirin and I walked all the way around the orphanage. She had to be in the playroom with her other playmates. We go up the brightly painted orange, yellow, and blue stairs to the room. I walk in the door and I see no little shoes lined up against the wall. That’s the first sign that no one is there. I look at Shirin and at the same time we are thinking they are back in their old room on the other end of the orphanage. Back down the colorfully painted stairs, turn left, walk down the long hallway past the kitchen to the other end of the orphanage, and walk up the other colorfully painted set of steps toward Alina’s old room. Halfway up the steps, we are met by the entire troupe. They were just getting ready to go outside. My arrival is loudly announced when they see me on the landing of the stairs. It’s really so precious when they do that!!!! It always makes me smile. I see Alina rush through the doorway at the top of the stairs. She has a big smile on her face and starts hurrying down the steps as fast as those little legs of hers can carry her. She gets to the third step from the bottom and I grab her up. She gives me a hug and as the others are parading down the steps, she claims me as her mama by saying, “Mein Mama” to all her playmates. The other kids in her group tell me hello in English as they proceed down the stairs and into the hallway. They find a partner, grab his/her hand, and down the hall and out the door they go. Shirin, Alina, and I are close behind.
We walk to our regular playing ground, the gazebo, and start our visit. I brought new shoes for Alina today. They were given to me by my friends Eva and Vicente. They had bought them for their daughter, Maria, but they were to big so they offered them to me. I offered to pay for them but they wouldn’t have it. I still owe everyone a blog post about these guys. They are a hoot and I’m so glad they are here. There adoption experience, I’m sorry to say, has not been as smooth as mine. But, that’s for a later posting. The shoes fit perfectly. I had to fight to get them on her but Mama won with the help of Shirin who distracted her with her cell phone. We took our puzzles out and played with them. She really likes the puzzles. She also took out the My Little Pony collection that our friend Rachel sent us. It’s in a zip Gladlock bag. Alina unzips the bag, pulls one pony out, puts it back in, and zips and unzips the bag 10 times. Yeah…that’s my girl!!! Alina finds Shirin’s phone lying on the bench in the gazebo. I told Alina not to play with it but Shirin said it was ok. She loved playing with Shirin’s phone. She would pretend to call Shirin. She asked her how she was doing and then she would hang it. It was the cutest thing in the world. Once I realized I had a phone in my purse that Kara Docter left me, I gave my phone to Alina. She, again, pretended to call Shirin and Shirin pretended to be talking to her on her phone. It was hilarious to say the least and I posted a photo of them talking to each other in today’s blog (see above).
Also today, I needed to take some passport photos of Alina. I’ve been waiting for this step for weeks because it means we are close to getting Alina’s passport thus we are getting close to traveling to Almaty. I remember when Liam, Christian and Natalie’s son, had his taken and I thought I can’t wait for that day because it means the end is near. Shirin and I have been talking about this for a week now. How in the world are we going to get Alina to stand still long enough to take a proper passport photo? I think both of us were dreading it. It’s 10:50 and I told Shirin we better try to take the passport pictures. I was thinking it was going to be a 30 minute battle. We load all the goodies back in the bag and gather up our stuff. We start searching for a good place to take the photos. We needed a white background so we both thought the hallway wall in the orphanage would be perfect. I brush Alina’s hair with the My Little Pony brush, the only one I had on me, wipe her face, and fix her shirt. I sit down on the floor and tell Alina to sit down across from me. The hallway wall is only half a wall because the other half is window. She sits down without protest and with a smile on her face. She sits to close to me so I ask her to scoot back against the wall. No problem. She has her legs stretched out in front of her and she is sitting on her hands. I get the camera ready, point it at her, and say, “ka-ra (roll the r)” which means look in Kazakh. She does so, smiles, and viola…perfect passport picture! I couldn’t believe it!! I take about nine more pics and she is smiling and sitting still for every single one of them. I think I have a little ham on my hands here. It took all of 10 minutes. Whew! Glad that was easy. I’ll take some more so the passport place will have plenty to choose from now that I know Alina likes her picture taken. Hopefully it wasn’t a one time deal. We’ll see. Since this was so easy, we’ve got 30 more minutes of visit left so we head back to the gazebo for more playing and finishing of the snacks and juice.
It’s 11:30 and time to take Alina back to her group. This used to be the worst part of my day and I still don’t like it but now I know that she will be mine forever in only 10 more days. I carry her to the doors of the orphanage and then set her down. We take a right, walk down the hall, and up the colorfully painted stairs to her room. She walks to the doorway of the room, turns around, waves and says bye bye and she’s gone. I turn around and head back out to the gazebo. Shirin and I wait a few minutes until Janette and the driver show up. Then, as usual, Shirin and I get dropped off at our usual spots. I cannot wait until this routine is over and done with. Only three more visits, 10 more days and Alina will be with me forever. Lord, give me the strength to last 10 more days…amen.
I have to write about my Thursday. The Miller clan, all seven of them, Christian, Natalie, and Liam, me, and Ken, who works with Interlink, went to the park yesterday. The park is located down the street from my hotel and it has small amusement park rides in it. We arrived about 10:00 am and left at 3:00 p.m. Everyone had a great time and I’m thinking that Mom, Dad, Alina, and I will go there when Alina is with us. There’s a Ferris wheel, a small roller coaster, flying swings, bumper cars and a lot more. You buys tickets and each ride costs one, two, or three tickets. One tickets costs 30 cents maybe. It’s a nice place and they also have benches you can sit on, a small playground, and lots of little places to eat. We had lunch in the park as well. I was the official picture taker of the day. But, the way some of the pictures turned out, maybe that wasn’t such a good idea. I did get some good ones though. It was a great time and I was totally exhausted by the time I got back to the room.
Some of you have asked that I post about the Hotel Zhambyl. I’ve been asked to take pics of my room and of the hotel and talk a little bit about my living experience here. It’s been really great and the people here are just wonderful. I’ll try to post something next week.

Until Monday….

Cheers,
Kim and Alina