Kokshetau, KZ

Kokshetau Airport

We took a flight from Almaty to Kokshetau this morning. The plane was a late 1960s vintage Yak-40! We carried all our own luggage on board and stacked it in the back of the plane. We sat in odd seats that looked like those found in an old Volkswagon bug (no neck support). The flight was a little bumpy but not as scary as I expected. In fact, they served better food than on most American flights these days! We got apple juice and some kind of yummy coconut cakes.

From the air, this region looks a lot like Wyoming, really. On the ground, its not so much like Wyoming: block after block, Soviet-style apartments line the roads. There are also huge, above-ground heating pipes snaking between them, and lots of old military trucks. The people on the sidewalks don't look like folks from Wyoming either! (pics to come)

The place where we're staying (called "the cottage") is a nice two family flat with plenty of space (2 levels: 2 bed rooms, 2 bathrooms, a study, a living room, and an eat-in kitchen). Most importantly, the place has a good wireless connection. Many blog entries with nice color pics to come! The cottage is really conveniently located. We have several food stores within a few blocks and have already been out to buy our favorite meal in a pinch: bread, cheese and beer. We'll have to come up with some healthier food options tomorrow when we're less jet-lagged. There is another american family here that we're sharing the place with. It's been nice to have them here to show us the ropes.
All in all the accomodations are terrific! We couldn't ask for better.

So far, the only thing that is slightly less than optimal is that we still have a two-day wait (till Thursday) before we meet the babies. First, we have to have a meeting with the local official who oversees these kinds of things, but we can't do that till Thursday. This gives us plenty of time to get settled and rested, however, so it's no big deal. And meanwhile, the babies are now only a few blocks away rather than half a world!

Our first day in KZ (by Brent)

View from our apartment

We woke up to a very pleasant morning in Almaty, Kazakhstan. After a relaxing breakfast of Cliff Bars and instant coffee (mmmmmm), our driver Gulnara, picked us up and took us to the agency office downtown where we did preliminary paperwork and reviewed the process from here on out.

Lunch at a Kaz food court.
(Yes, that is an iceskating rink
 in the background!)

Afterwards, before we came back to the apartment we did some grocery shopping in a mall nearby and ate at a Greek place in the food court. Now we’re back at a little internet café near our apartment building, making a few entries on the blog and checking email before we fall asleep on our feet (not quite adjusted to the 11 hour difference here on the other side of the world).

Although we are doing surprisingly familiar things like eating at food courts and emailing at internet cafes, there is really no question that we are not in Missouri anymore. Food items cost hundreds of the local denomination (Tenge), which takes getting used to; people mostly expect Russian to come out of our mouths when we speak; and there are onion shaped domes atop some of the apartment buildings. 

I pulled out a map when we were landing here and reminded myself, too, that I am now staying in a place which is far closer to Kabul, Afghanistan than St. Louis is to New York City. It really is the other side of the world. So far, a very good adventure.

And the adventure has just begun: at our meeting this morning the agency informed us that we will be hopping on a plane to Kokshetau, KZ bright and early tomorrow morning. This is the city where we will spend most of our time, and where the facility we will be visiting daily is located. After a meeting with the doctor in charge of the children and another with the local governing body that oversees child welfare, we will be able to start spending time with our children!

Next stop, Kokshetau. See you there.

Alive in Almaty!

We’ve arrived in Kazakhstan! 

We had a really nice, really comfortable trip from Frankfurt to Almaty. This time we were on Lufthansa and could feel the difference immediately. Warm cloths for our hands as soon as we were seated followed by a scotch and soda for Brent, Coke “light” for me. Very nice flight crew. Hot tortellini for dinner. Danke schön!

We were going to try to stay awake the whole of the flight so that we’d be ready to sleep by the time we got to Almaty (about midnight Kaz time, but 1pm in the afternoon at home). No way that was going to happen. So, we revised that plan and allowed ourselves a couple of hours of shut-eye, but still managed to stay awake the majority of the time.

(Almaty airport from plane)

We touched down in Almaty right on time. (Almaty, by the way, means roughly, “apple-ness”—‘Alma’ means ‘apple’—this region is the origin of the apple). We, along with Lisa and Todd, proceeded through immigration and baggage claim without hitch. All our bags arrived (yay!) and our contact person—Gulnara—was right there to meet us. It turns out that Gulnara studied English for a short time at the University of Arizona in Tucson (my alma mater)--small world eh? Anyhow, she took us to our apartment, which is quite nice. We’ll be staying for the next two days before we head off to Kokshetau.

We were able to fall asleep right away and slept through the night. I slept soundly, but I think Brent was a bit more restless. Anyhow ,we’re safe, sound, happy, and comfortable in Almaty

Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers. Almost there!

Halfway there...

So.... that wasn't pleasant.

Just got off the plane here at Frankfurt and are now waiting for the leg to Almaty. Glad to be off that plane!

(Same outfit different day, different country. Blogging in Frankfurt.)

Although we're flying Lufthansa, we were on a United plane for that first part of the trip. Let's just say that United is NOT Lufthansa. Uggggghhhh. We were on an old old United 747. It's not at all clear to me that plane should still be in the fleet. We were packed in like a herd of human cattle--very small amount of space for such a long flight! Not only that but Brent and I landed middle seats in the second to back row (61). And the flight was packed! Not an empty seat in the place. In order to make a little more room for myself I took the magazines out of the seat pocket in front of me and was glad for the 1/2 inch that afforded me.

The plane, which was scheduled to leave at 6:30pm, left nearer to 8pm. Dinner reached the back rows of the plane at about 10:45pm. They ran out of hot dinners so handed me a stone-cold plate of pasta. I'm guessing they thought maybe I wouldn't notice. When I reported that my meal was cold I was informed that I could wait 30 minutes while they heated it up or I could just eat it cold. 

I waited.

The guy next to me took a dose and a half of sedative (he showed it to me proudly right before he took it on the runway). He was out cold for the entire trip. Not necessarily a bad thing except the medication seemed to induce some kind of muscle spasms in the guy. He flopped around like a fish about once every 45 seconds the entire time. He seemed to be trying to rub his nose with his elbow... It was weird and not a little disconcerting. There were several points at which I was even tempted to tell the flight attendants that he had OD'ed.

The *single* screen on which the movie was projected was at row 40 (some twenty rows ahead of us) and seemed to be broken--out of focus and in black and white. Ah well. I wasn't interested in watching National Treasure II anyhow.

At about 11:30, after being served a barely warm pasta, we tried to sleep. Aside from being awakened by the occasional kick from the flopping fish next to me I managed to stay asleep for the remaining 4 hours of the flight.

The upside of all this is that we're halfway now. And what's even more cool is that as we were getting off the plane we heard the couple sitting right in front of us explain to their seat mate that they were going to Kazakstan to adopt a child! So we've made some new friends--Lisa and Todd from Kentucky! We're sitting with them here at the airport in Frankfurt chatting with them and waiting for our flight to Almaty, which will be about a 6 hour flight.

Here we go....

So, here we are hanging out at the Chicago O'Hare Airport waiting for our flight to Frankfurt.

(See me in the picture over there--next to the red bag--writing this very post?)

It's been a wild and crazy week trying to get everything together. In the end we fit everything into three checked bags (each weighing 44 lbs) plus carry-ons. We feel pretty proud of ourselves since technically we're allowed four checked bags of 50 lbs). Now, we won't have to pay any baggage fees even when we get to Kazakhstan! (The weight limit in Europe and Asia is 44lbs per bag.) Even so, I'm pretty sure we packed more than we need!

Here we are with our beautiful array of bags (looking a tad bedraggled).



Oh! Oh! Gotta go, they're calling us to board!

YeeeeHawwww!

A Lovely Send-Off

On Sunday, our community at St. John's gave us a really lovely sending-off. In addition to prayers and blessings for our travel, the Church hosted a luncheon and shower. Brent's mom (Linda) and sis (Lisa) were in town this weekend (for Brent's graduation). How wonderful to have them with us!

Here are a few snapshots from the shower.

   

 
These are quilts that Linda made for the babies. She really had to hustle to make a second quilt after the announcement that there would be a grandson too!

Needless to say, we're grateful for everyone at St. John's. We'll miss you these next few months!

Countdown

days till we leave...


To be honest, it seems unreal. Get this: in a week's time we get on a plane, fly halfway around the world to meet these two little people who will join our lives for the rest of our lives. So, we leave St. Louis and it's just us two; we return a family of four. How wild is that?!? It's exciting and terrifying all at once.

It feels a little like stepping off a cliff...but in a good way.  

News on Travel

We've got travel dates, people!!!!  

We're to arrive in Almaty, Kazakhstan on May 25th! Less than 4 weeks from today.  So excited!  So much to do...

It's a girl! ... And it's a boy!

It's Twins!!!!!


(Maybe this explains why the wait was longer than anticipated...)

More news to come. Stay tuned!

Baby Shower Pics

I wanted to post a few pics from the shower Doug and Debbie threw for us. Thanks to Deb for taking these! (Brent and I forgot to bring a camera to both of the two baby showers ... we're going to have to get better about remembering to bring our camera with us.)

The food Doug and Debbie made was amazing...

And after the food, there were gifts and gabbing.

Lucy explains how she made this picture frame--so sweet!

Ellie keeping notes for us on the gifts and gift givers. 
(Can you believe how mature this girl is getting?)

What could Janice have been saying to me?

No News on the BT Baby

It's the third week of March and not only are we clearly not going to be traveling before April as we were initially expecting, it is beginning to look unlikely that we'll travel in April either. Bummer.

Even so, things are good. Because we were told (in January) to be ready to travel by March, there has been a flurry of activity around the B-T household. Brent defended his dissertation by the end of January, thereby finishing up his PhD (Yay Brent!). I taught my grad seminar in 8 weeks (rather than the usual 15). We've both been working our tails off turning our guest room into a baby room; we've updated several documents for our dossier; we've been getting everything in place for travel (including purchasing gifts, finding an adoption doctor to advise us, getting travel immunizations, putting finances in order, and I've even been working on learning a little Russian). In addition to all this, we've had a visit from family (Jeff, Janice, and the girls) and we've had two baby showers given for us! All this in 8 weeks time! These have been among the busiest weeks in my life! So, we've been almost too busy to feel the disappointment of having our anticipated travel dates quietly pass by. I must admit, though, now that my class is finished (finished just last Friday) and now that everything is pretty much in place for travel and bringing home the BT baby, I am beginning to feel my impatience a bit more keenly...


Still, I now have time to get some research and writing done--work that needs doing and which has been on the back burner since January. Brent and I are also using the momentum we've built these last few weeks to get things done around the house that have been on the 'to-do list' for years now (me: re-painting kitchen, hallways, ceilings; Brent: hanging crown molding everywhere--the man is a maniac). We've had contractors at work in the house too: we had some new closets put in, and we are currently getting some insulation put in the attic room (we need a new guest room after all...). Also, I'm trying to learn how to use the camera (a digital SLR) that we got for Christmas. So, really, there's plenty to keep us busy while we wait.


Here are some pics of projects underway at the B-T house.

Below you can see the progress we've made on the baby room. First, we had "Handy Jack" (our contractor) put in a small closet (there wasn't one in this room before!). Then the work of priming, painting, and putting up crown molding began...

As you can see, Brent even built window sills! Isn't he handy?!? Geneticist, Cook, Beer-Brewer, and now Carpenter! 

Next, you'll find a before and after shot of the attic (the first is before the insulation, you can still see the rafter, the second is after insulation was blown in and the ceiling closed off.) Too bad I didn't get a picture of the in-between phase just after they sprayed the foam insulation into the rafters but before they covered it. It was very cool, but also very stinky! Clearly, we still have painting to do up there...

                                     

And here are some pictures of the closet Handy Jack built in the Master bedroom. 

                                             

Finally, a picture of Tess, who is not enjoying the racket, the smells, or the commotion of the work going on in the house--and who also does not like being chased around and made to hold still while I practice taking pictures with our new camera. Poor ol' Tess, she's getting old.