Finally Here

Greetings from Kazkhstan!!After several horrendous days of travel, we finally made it to Karaganda. On Wednesday, we rented a car and drove four hrs. to JFK airport in NY to catch our flight to Frankfurt, Germany. The trip to NYC was great. We didn't encounter much traffic and arrived at the airport in plenty of time. This was a good thing since there was confusion about the changes made in our flight schedule. I think that the M.O. of any ticket agent who doesn't know what to do with you is to send you to another line. At some point, some sucker has to get to the bottom of things because there is no line you haven't already tried. We thought all troubles would end once we got a boarding pass for the flight, but this was clearly not the case. The flight to Frankfurt took off about 2 hours late so we and nearly eveyone else on board missed our connecting flights. Fortunately, we booked all of our flights through the same carrier, so the ticket agents at Frankfurt were aware of this. They had already rebooked us on another flight path to get us to Almaty. The reroute took us an hour back in the direction from which we just came, but it was still an acceptable option...and hey, who wouldn't like a little excursion to the Netherlands. As our luck continued, the flight to Amsterdam was late, so we figured we would again miss our connecting flight to Almaty. However, the ticket agent in Amsterdam said that the flight to Almaty was running 1.5 hours behind schedule. We thought our luck was finally about to change. However, we never anticipated it could get worse. The 1.5 hour delay turned into a 7 hour delay. The plane was experiencing "technical difficulties" and repair parts had to be ordered and flown in from France! Security actually had to come with the messenger who announced the last delay. A few passengers were really ticked. It's amazing how so many nationalities have mastered every, and I mean every, word of the English language!We finally got to Almaty, but again missed our connecting flight to Karaganda. What sticklers for time. We were only seven hours late for crying out loud. To make matters worse, all flights to Karaganda were booked for several days, as was the train. So, we were flown to Astana, and a driver took us by car to Karaganda. This took three hours.In Karaganda, we met our first translator, Olga. She is a really sweet person. She and a second translator, Marina, took us to the baby house right away. We met our coordinator, Zulfia, and the baby house pediatrician, Dr. Love. (This is her Americanized name since we cannout begin to pronounce or spell it.) I recognized her right away from all the blogs I have read. She is as wonderful as everyone said. She placed us in a room and went to get the baby they thought was a good match for our family. In a few minutes, Dr. Love returned with a beautiful baby gir named Maritzka. We fell in love with her the second we saw her. Dr. Love said it must have been destiny for her to be placed with our family since she did not cry when I held her. {The babies have grown to know and love their caregivers, and typically cry when held by strangers.) Of course, I cried when I held her, but this should come as no suprise to anyone who knows me :}The baby, who we think we are going to call Marissa, is beautiftiul. As LM would say would say, she is "so stinking cute I can't stand it"! She is nine months old and her date of birth is 9-12-06. I'm sure she will steal my dad's birthday thunder as his is on the 11th. She seems to be exceptionally bright and alert. She notices and grabs everything. She was a little tentative with Micah since she, like most of the babies have never been exposed to men. {No wonder that baby house is spotless! } However, he gained popularity since he was wearing a pocket shirt that had all kinds of goodies in it. She decided it was worth the risk of letting him hold her so that she could get a chance to taste those glasses, paper, and ink pen. She sits and crawls and goes to town in the baby walker. They said that she is their most active baby. I guess she will fit right in with Noah and Anthony. She also likes to be held. She lets you know that she doesn't appreciate it when her butt hits the floor. In fact, she was the only baby screaming her head off when we had to lay her down for naptime...I felt awful leaving her cry herself ton sleep. Of course, this will come to a screeching halt when she gets home with us. Not that I think it's terrible parenting to let babies cry themselves to sleep, it's just I'm a softy and can't do it! She responds very well to others. She looks to her caregivers for comfort when in distress and smiles when they talk with her. She did cry when I tried to feed her. She is used to eating really fast and I fed her too slow. The caregivers were able to calm her. I did make her smile/laugh a couple times with a game of peek-a-boo. These are all very good signs from a bonding perspective.I do really miss Noah, but he appears to be doing just fine without me. When I talked with him he asked me if I was in Kazakhstan and did I get a baby. I told him we would be bringing home a little sister for him. He was a little disgusted because he said he wanted both a brother and a sister. He's such a sweetie.Well, we will post more tomorrow after our visits. I miss everyone!Love,Linda (and Micah)