Day 1 of visitation

Hello all! We're behind in posting today...Don't know where the time goes exactly.

Our day started out a bit crazily because we found out at the last minute that we had to meet the Minister of Education for a brief interview before the visitation period could officially begin. We had only a few minutes notice so had to gather our thoughts quickly.

It was an interesting meeting. Needless to say, we were nervous. He was a very serious, no-nonsense guy, but at bottom he was friendly. He asked (via interpreter) all kinds of questions ranging from, what do we do for a living, to why we want to adopt, to the price of beef in the US, to whether our part of the country is much like the terrain in Kokshetau. In the end, I have to say, I rather enjoyed this meeting. It seems clear to me that he is very concerned about the welfare of these children and so interested in trying to get a sense for the people (and the their lifestyle) who come to adopt. It's neat that he meets one-on-one with every single family that comes here to adopt.

Today was, then, the first day of our 14 day visitation period. We were taken to the room that we'll use for the rest of our time here (I think). Evelyn was brought first again. A quiet, calm presence again, but more engaged and while she was not 'smiley', she seemed to be happy to see us (ask me how I know this if she didn't smile or coo? I dunno, I could just tell...). About five minutes later we could hear Jess coming from down the hall, nurse laughing Jess laughing. That little guy was pretty wound up by the time he got in there! I wasn't sure the nurse would hand him over!

Here are some snapshots from the visit. You know, it's kind of hard to get lots of good, carefully thought out pictures when each of us are holding a baby! This is what we managed:

Jess gets a massage!

Chubby Lunkins!

Sleeping Beauties.











This was supposed to be a family shot, but you can't see Evelyn!