Linda, Micah, Noah & Marissa

Everyone is Home

2007-09-19T22:51:00.000-04:00

Here's a short post to let you all know we're all home and doing well. We've had Marissa at home for a little over two weeks. She's adjusting very well. Noah loves being a big brother. Here is a pic of him feeding Marissa a bottle.

Well, I have to go get some sleep.

Last Day in Kazakhstan

2007-09-01T08:14:00.000-04:00

It's Marissa's last day in Kazakhstan and we went out for a walk with our new friends Amy and Gailen and their two kids. We checked out some of the parks and fountains around the old city center. It was hot, but I'm glad we got out of the hotel and experienced a little more of the city on our last day here. We stopped at the grocery store and stocked up on supplies for our long flight home.

We also stopped at the Tsum (the central mall) and bought some gifts and trinkets to help us remember Kazakhstan. We bought some traditional Kazakh hats for Noah and Marissa. She looks like a little princess in her silvery beads.

It's almost dinner time and after that we'll pack up and get to bed early. Hopefully, the next time I make a post, we'll all be back in the USA.

Thank God, Almaty

2007-08-31T12:03:00.000-04:00

My mom and I got into Almaty on Monday and slept the whole day, which was okay since Marissa wouldn't get into town until Tuesday morning. We picked her up at the train station at around 9:00AM and we've been cruising ever since. On Tuesday afternoon, we went for her doctor's appointment at the international clinic. She checked out just fine, but we had to wait for her stamped passport to arrive so we could have our final appointment with U.S. consulate.

We met with the agent at the consulate for our interview on Wednesday afternoon, although Marissa's passport had not yet arrived from Astana. Our coordinator told us that it would be arriving by 6:00PM and that we should plead with the agent to stay late so that they could apply her visa to the passport and issue the immigration packet. Well, all of our prayers were answered and the plan worked. At 6:45PM, we had all of the paperwork necessary to bring Marissa back to the states. Thank you to everyone.

The big rush was required because the government offices were closed on Thursday and Friday for Constitution Day (sort of like Kazakhstan's 4th of July). The US consulate is also closed on Monday due to Labor Day. Therefore, if we didn't get the papers on Wednesday, we wouldn't have been able to get the papers until next Tuesday. We were very lucky to have everyone pulling for us.

Since Wednesday, we've just been spending time at the hotel, eating, sleeping, and playing. We also went to see some of the outdoor concerts that are being held for Constitution Day celebrations. It's been a great trip. I wish Linda could be here. Our earlier trips had a lot of hardship and we weren't able to get out to see things in Karaganda. She would enjoy being here in the big city of Almaty and seeing the more "metropolitan" side of Kazakhstan and spending time with Marissa. I guess it's okay since Linda will get her big pay-off on Sunday when Marissa finally gets home.

See you all soon.

Back to Karaganda

2007-07-19T17:06:00.000-04:00

We've just finished plans for our return trip to Kazakhstan. We will be there next week to visit with Marissa and appear in court. Let's hope that our travel is easier this time.

We'll post more updates (and pictures!) when we get there.

Thanks for all of the support and prayers.

Later,
Micah

Back Home...For a Little While

2007-07-10T09:56:00.000-04:00

Just in case you guys haven't heard, we're back in the USA for a little while. We got back Saturday night, July 7th. We're missing Marissa, but we know that she'll be fine until we get back to Kazakhstan.

Noah has grown about 18 inches since we left. It seems like that to us, anyhow. We're having fun playing with him, getting caught up on work, and preparing for another trip back to Kaz.

Later,
Micah

Micah: Cultural Learnings of Kazakhstan for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of USA

2007-07-03T11:40:00.000-04:00

Hey Everybody,

This is Micah. I'll be submitting today's dispatch from a distant land. Not a lot of news here today. I think that I've managed to upload a video for all of you. Just click on the bottom picture and wait for the video to buffer up.

I just lost the last post I had written due to the connection getting dropped again. It wasn't as funny as Linda's normal messages, but I did have a funny explanation of our eating patterns. It went something like this:

"We ate at the Armenian restaurant again today. I think that they are starting to remember us and we are becoming "regulars". They almost always bring us the English menu straight-away. Of course, they brought us the English menu the first time we visited, too. I think we stick-out as Americans. Anyhow, the food is always good there. Who would have thought that Linda would like Armenian food? I'm not really sure if I've discovered that Linda likes Armenian food, but more likely found that she really hates the Kazakhstani cuisine."

My favorite beer is still Karaganda TEMHOE (that means dark in Russian). I've quit sampling all of the different beers in the stores and I'm sticking with what I like. I had something last Friday caused me to give up on trying all of the brews here. I had something that tasted like a mix of fizzy turpentine and toilet water. It's not a great idea to drink things out of cans that you can't read.

Well, I gotta get going. I hope to see you all soon.

Later,
Micah

2007-07-01T09:20:00.000-04:00

Well bloggers, it's another exciting day here in the big K. It's 3:34 p.m. so I only have another five or six hours to try to entertain myself before I can go to bed. Hopefully, I will still be sane by then. (I have to admit, it doesn't look promising).
I was told by a lovely attorney friend in Carlisle that my blog was less than adequate. I was given several assignments and told to report back. Sonya, I did find those 15 people. Unfortunately, I have very little to report since my conversation in russian is limited to ones involving the words: Hi, good morning, how are ya?, beautiful, apple, boy, girl, good afternoon, I don't understand, good evening, see ya later, thank you and I love you. Satisfied now?
On a brighter note, I am being a little more adventerous. Yesterday, I decided to try a new flavor of yogurt. I can't read the labels on the Dannon cans here, but I can usually figure out the flavors. Because of my highly superior intelligence, it took me no time at all to realize the yogurt with the cherry pictures on them are cherry flavored, those with blueberry pictures on them are blueberry flavored, and so on. (Yep, no stinkin wonder I was Pitt's Valleydicktoryin.) Anyway, back to my adventure. There was one can with a picture of a peach and another unidentifiable fruit. Maybe it was a mango, maybe a papaya. Who knows? Being the risk taker that I am, I thought "what the hey?" and I gave it a whirl. It was pretty good. For those of you who are curious, it tasted like peach and some other unidentifiable fruit.
Hmmm, let's see, what else can I use to punish you? Surely there is more that I can make you read before you get to see pictures of Marissa. Oh, I know. Everyone keeps telling me to relax and have fun. So, I'm gonna tell you what we do for fun. To occupy our time, Micah and I have come up with a few good games. One of our favorites is the "Do we have cold water?" game. Granted I know this probably doesn't sound like a fun game when you first hear it. But that is only because you guys typically have cold 99.9% of the time that you turn on the spigot. If you reduce those odds to say 40-50% of the time, it can be really exciting. During our first week here, we had no cold water for two days. When we asked other families about this, they said it is fairly common. (We now know this to be true.) We started checking to see if we had cold water each time we came home from the babyhouse. Hence, the game evolved. Since we've had to stay longer than we anticipated, we have expanded the "Do we have cold water?" game so the experienced player can still be challenged. We now have the "Will the Toilet Flush After I've Peed?" game and the "Can I Shower Without Scalding Myself?" game. I don't recommend you try this one if you're a beginner. So, I'm definitely taking all of your advice to heart and having all kinds of fun, fun fun. (We also have the "Will the Electrical Outlets Sizzle and Throw Sparks At Us if We Try to Use Them?" game, but I'll save that for a later blog. I've learned that I need to space out my fun.
Speaking of spacing out the fun, there is no multi-tasking going on here. Today Micah suggested we watch a movie while we eat. I said that we should eat first and then watch a movie. Two separate activities give us more to do. I also try to drink a lot of water so I can pee several times a day. I only use this keep-me-busy strategey at home because they do not have toilet paper in public restrooms here.
We had our meeting with the social worker who is to represent Marissa in court. It was not fun. They really gave us a hard time about our age and the fact that we have a biological son. They basically told us that we should go back home and try to have more biological children because we will probably love them more. Ultimatley, they gave us a "positive decision" which means that when we go to court, they will argue that it is in Marissa's best interest to be adopted by us. I don't know if the whole thing was some sort of test since they knew about Noah and our ages before sending us a letter of invitation to adopt.
Marissa is starting to become a bit of a show off. She really thinks she is big stuff since she can pull herself into a standing position.
We have been applauding every time she does this, so now she expects it. Yesterday, she pulled herself up and turned around to make sure we were watching. We clapped and she smiled and yelled baby babble and flapped her arms. You could just see that she was pretty thrilled with herself. Even the caregivers are starting to call her the princess.
Everyone, please pray that court comes quickly for us and that we get a positive outcome. Hopefully, we will know the court date tomorrow. Thanks!
Take care.
Love,
Linda

2007-06-26T11:16:00.000-04:00

I have been getting some complaints regarding the activity (or lack thereof) on the blog. Therefore, I decided to post an entry so the Carlisle crew refrains from harassing me about my "blogless blog".
I'm having the time of my life here in Kazakhstan. We are only allowed at the baby house to visit Marissa for four hours during the day (Mon-Sat), so we have a good 20 hours a day to content ourselves. During our free time, we party with the locals, dine in the finest restaurants, frequent the theater, and the like. Yeah right! This is definintely more of a business trip than a vacation. Our contact with other human beings is limited to the five other adoptive couples/singles and our translators. It wouldn't be bad if we could read or speak thee language, but this just isn't the case.
Thus, the theater is ruled out.
Our dining consists of the one or two restaurants that have an English menu. There is actually a really nice Armenian restaurant within walking distance of the baby house. Since they have an English menu, we go there fairly often. There is also a hotel restaurant, The Cosmonaut, which has an English menu as well. Micah is a little more adventurous regarding what types of food he will try. (Not me. There is no way I'm eating horse. Just to be on the safe side, I've decided to avoid meat altogether.) Our typical day is as follows: We get up at 7:30-8:00. We check emails or make phone calls. We then get dressed and wait for our driver, Vladimir, to pick us up at 9:30. We nod and smile (the extent of our communication) and drive to pick up Marie. Marie is a single from France. She is adopting a toddler boy named Victor. Marie does speak English, so we chat until we arrive at the baby house.
We spend from 10:00-12:00 at the baby house. We get Marissa out of her crib, feed her, change her and play with her. At noon, we have to take her back to her crib for a nap. (She recently decided that napping, um, s*cks, so she screams her head off when we put her down.) We have "free time" until 2:00 when she wakes up. During this time, we go to lunch or run errands. Our translator is available to come with us if we need her. At 2:00, we go back to the baby house, get Marissa out of her crib, change her, feed her, and play with her again. At 4:00 we have to take her back to her crib for another nap. We are allowed no visits after this.
Our driver picks us up at 4:00 and takes us back to our apartment. I try to read, do crosswords, email/call, watch russian MTV, and eat dinner. For the most part, I eat yogurt. I know it doesn't contain horse, and I like the taste.
At 8:00, I get ready for bed and watch Lost. I am almost through season one. Lisa, I think that you would like this show. You are welcome to borrow it if you'd like. Tammy, I can't believe you're afraid of the Polar Express, but you're just fine with a mysterious jungle wind that chops people into bits and blows their body parts in the trees. Yeah, you're normal.

Marissa is doing really well. Her crawling has improved from last week. she definitely recognizes us and is happy to see us. We still rank below Dr. Love, the pediatrician. She is absolutely wonderful with the kids. Aside from the fact that Marissa has known her longer, they know the same language. Marissa likes to spend time with us, but doesn't understand what we are saying to her. She seems to understand Dr. Love and the caregivers.
Marissa is really aggressive and very determined. Everyone notices its. She may be the smallest baby in her room, but she will tackle ones twice her size if they have a toy she wants. It will be funny to see how she and Noah interact. Today, she took on the 20 lb Canadian because he had a pretzel teether she wanted. We took her away from him two or three times and each time she would crawl right back to get it. At one point, he was laying on it and she wormed and clawed her way underneath him to find it. It was like we were watching the baby WWF. The parents found it entertaining.
Well, I guess I will go for today. Enjoy the pictures; I know that is all you are really interested in anyway:). Miss you guys and hope to see you soon.
Love,Linda

2007-06-22T22:35:00.001-04:00

Hello everyone!

Everything is going well here in Karaganda. I love the time I spend with Marissa at the baby house, but miss everyone back home. (I especially miss my son, Noah, but he appears to be doing just fine without me.) Marissa is really precious. I have no doubt that she is bonding with us...she seems very happy when we are with her.

Today we went to the Mickey House to buy her some baby clothes. We only got two little outfits and a hat. (They are very particular about the babies being fully clothed including a hat when outside.) They have absolutely beautiful baby things here, but I'm afraid to buy too much yet...I don't want to jinx anything.

Well, I'm going to go for now. I will try to post more over the weekend. Miss you guys!

-Linda

Hey Everybody,

This is Micah. We've been getting acclimated to life in Karaganda, Kazakhstan. The weather is getting very warm (~95 degrees), but thank goodness our apartment stays pretty cool. The highlight of our day is the time we spend at the babyhouse. Marissa seems to be bonding with us and enjoys our visits, too. She's small, but very active.

We've been eating out at lunch. Linda and I have been enjoying a fancy Armenian restaurant that is down the street from the babyhouse. I've tried a few local beers. My favorite so far is Karaganda Temhoe. It's a locally brewed dark beer.

That's about all the news I have today. Keep checking back. We'll have a lot of free time tomorrow (Sunday).

Later,
Micah

Finally Here

2007-06-18T19:49:00.000-04:00

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)

Departing State College-first attempt

2007-06-12T21:54:00.000-04:00

ok memes, your stalking is finally going to pay off! here's our first post:

my friend, lara dropped us off at the airport at 6:30. we checked our luggage and said our goodbyes. of course, this was an emotional event for me and marked the hundreth time i've cried today. after we checked our luggage, i ran up my cell phone bill calling all my friends and family to tell them we were on our way to kazakhstan! an hour later, i called them back and attempted to scrounge a ride home. lara and amy came to our rescue. we arrived safely at 216 hunter wood way on tuesday evening at 9:30. our flight from state college to dulles was cancelled due to electrical storms on the east coast. rebooking was miserable because there are tons of people trying to reroute on fewer available flights. our best option at this point is to rent a car, drive to JFK airport tomorrow and catch a plane to frankfurt in the evening. bummer! our first setback. wish us better luck tomorrow.

julie-thanks for the neck pouch. it is great for carrying my passport and plane tickets.
debbie and lisa-don't let tammy flood the office
tammy-don't flood the office... :)
sherri-no hard pretzels

thanks to everyone for all of your help and support! have a great day.

Welcome

2007-06-11T14:29:00.000-04:00

Welcome to our web journal. We're leaving for Kazakhstan soon and I wanted to put up a post so everyone knows where I'll be posting news on our progress.