Oct 31- Happy Halloween! 1:00 pm Friday... hi everyone - not much of an update, we're doing great and settling into more of a routine. Angelique is an amazing child - she's affectionate and happy, she rolls well with all the changes and has lots of fun in her new surroundings. We're beyond thrilled being with her!

I thought I'd take this opportunity to post a few new photos from trip #2- The war memorial in Panfilov park:

And here's our apartment:

We'll put more pics up another time, including some since we've been home!

take care and have a spooooooooky Halloween!

N&P&A

Oct 20- one month custody, 2 weeks at home........ahhh

Oct 20- Monday 2:30 pm - hi everyone! It's unbelievable to me that this is the one-month anniversary that we've had Angelique with us full-time. It seems both like it just happened yesterday, and also that she's been with us forever, it just feels so right!

We've had a fantastic first 2 weeks at home - ok well the 2nd week was fantastic, but the first week was very good too- we were so preoccupied with getting a sleeping and eating routine going that we didn't notice much else going on (LOL). Once that got settled (it took a full 8-9 days to get over the jetlag), then all has been great! Angelique is doing wonderful and seems to enjoy and have fun with all the new things to see, do, smell, eat etc.

She LOVES seeing the family, which is such an amazing feeling. We had thanksgiving dinners with both families and she was happy, playful and friendly with everyone! We've also had visits with a couple of neighbours with young kids and that has been fun. We'll start to see more friends and their families in the next while, now that we're feeling more settled.

Hope everyone's doing well and enjoying the fall weather!
take care
N&P&A

Oct 9 - home sweet home!

Oct 9 Thurs 11:00 pm Winnipeg time (yay!) Hi everyone! Well we made it home safe and sound! Angelique did great on the planes, sleeping a bit on each flight. She was restless during the Frankfurt to Toronto leg but we walked (ok she ran) up and down the aisles and it helped pass some of the time. She and Paul both fell asleep in Toronto airport (on the floor), and she barely woke up being carried onto the plane. She was completely out again before takeoff and we even had to wake her when we landed in Wpg.

Even being sleepy and disoriented, she did great with the wonderful welcoming party who greeted us at the airport, complete with signs and toys for her - thank you to everyone, we were very touched! Angelique continues to amaze us with how well she takes in all the changes - she looked at everyone in the face and smiled - we're so proud of her!

At home, Angelique looked around at everything and was talking a mile a minute as soon as everyone left - she wasn't sure about Farley at first but got over it pretty quickly and now wants to pet him all the time, saying 'Masack?' (cat?). He's doing better with her than expected, letting her pat him and not running away. We got her to sleep in our bed just after midnight and she got a good few hours, waking us at 4:30.

The last few days have been wonderful and sooo full - A sleeps in her own bed already, but only for a few hours at a time (which means so do we) and her schedule is still upside down from the jetlag (she wants to nap at night and have a long sleep during the day), but we're working on it and know it will take some time to get her caught up.

We've had lovely visits with small groups of our family at a time, and she recognizes everyone from the photos we brought with us on the trip, it's so cute! We pull out the photo album and she points to each person's picture, says their name then looks at them in person as if saying 'oh it's you, I get it now!'

Well that's all for now - off to bed........ have a great weekend, we know we have lots to be thankful for as we celebrate Thanksgiving!

take care
N&P&A

Oct 5 - one more before we leave for HOME!!!!!

Oct 5 – Sunday 2:30 pm – Still rainy and cool last few days – seems somehow fitting, feels like we’ve gone through almost every season during our 2 trips to KZ – I wouldn’t be surprised if it snowed today, just to complete the circle!

Hi everyone – we are ¾ packed and almost ready to go HOME!!! We’ll throw the last few things into the bags after Angelique goes to sleep tonight, before we’re picked up around 10 pm to go to the airport. Can’t TELL you how excited we are!!! Even Angelique is pointing to things with maple leafs on them and saying CA-NA-DA, like she knows she’s heading home too!

Too funny that you ran into Jen and Bert in Frankfurt, Kevin – we were so hoping to see you there ourselves and it sounds like we would have if we’d gotten onto the same flights they did. Oh well – next time we’re all world travelers (ya right, like I’m ever leaving home again)…..

Well as I type this Paul and Angelique are both sleeping – I’m too wound up to nap. Poor Paul was up most of the night keeping the power going (we’ll be very glad to be away from having one fuse for the whole place, and having that fuse be 100 years old). When everyone’s up we’ll go for a walk, and hope to meet up with a couple of newly arrived families from Winnipeg, for a quick hello/goodbye.

Thanks again for the comments emails and calls, they’ve really meant so much and helped us to stay strong. We are so lucky to have the family and friends that we do!

See you soon!
Take care
Lots of love
N&P&A

Oct 2 - seriously, is it really October already???

Oct 2 – Thurs 2:30 pm. Rainy and cool last couple of days but the sun just came out in the last hour. Hi everyone – we’re still here and doing great. Angelique is getting more and more comfortable with us but certainly getting bored with the lack of space and variety. We’ve picked up a couple of new things for her for the plane ride home, which will hopefully help keep her entertained- thanks for the suggestions, please keep them coming if you know of something that works!

Speaking of plane rides, we’ve confirmed that we’ll be home on Monday Oct 6 – yaaaaaaaaaaaay!!! We leave here in the middle of the night (2:00 am) and after a couple of long layovers, we’ll arrive home Monday evening.

Our friends Carole/Bernard/Sasha and Jen/Bert/Ruslan all leave for Canada tonight/early tomorrow morning – we wish you safe and smooth flights guys, we’ll miss you! We definitely hope to keep in touch with the friends we’ve made here; there’s something indescribable about the bond that happens when you experience together something as life changing as what we’ve all done this summer.

Our daily routine has remained the same –Angelique wakes us up at such ungodly hours as 6-6:30 (it’s still dark!), then we play, have breakfast, have a bath, more playing, then a nap around 11:30-1:30. Then we have lunch, play some more, go for a walk, come back and play, have dinner, more play then go to bed – Paul and I have sometimes crashed right after A does! Living in a one-room apartment (with a separate bedroom, thank goodness) has given a whole new meaning to ‘togetherness’, and we can’t wait to see what Angelique does with the space in our house! Wow! Look – another room! :-)

A couple of times we’ve mixed it up and walked in the morning instead of /as well as the afternoon, but mostly this is how our day looks. It’s been working OK so we don’t want to mess with it too much! I’m nervous about the plane rides as it will throw such a wrench into this plan, and we’ll be travelling for approx 33 hours total, but we know she’s a trooper and we’ll all start a new plan when we’re home – ahhhhhhhhh home!

That’s all for now – hope you’re having a good week! Thanks for the comments and emails, we sooo appreciate it!
Take care, lotsa love
N&P&A

P.S. Kathryn – yes please book us for a pedicure ASAP!! My toes have held up pretty well but will certainly need attention soon!

Sept 30 - still going and going.....

Sept 30 – Tues 9:30 pm – it has been cool but comfortable, rained overnight and during some of the day today. Hi everyone – we’re doing well and still having fun with Angelique, but we’re certainly looking forward to coming home! The days are getting repetitive and the poor little one is getting bored with the limited number of things we have for her to do. We’re seeing more and more of her personality as she gets more comfortable with us by the day.

We’ve discovered a few foods that she likes fairly consistently – perogies, eggs, sandwich meat and chicken always work, and she has bread after every meal which is part of her babyhouse routine – we’ve tried putting cheese or meat on the bread to make it more like a sandwich but she doesn’t like it that way. A little bit of butter is OK, or some jam, but eating it dry and walking around with it is still the preference….ummm ok!

Baths are also now a fave thing to do – such a change from last week! Unfortunately we discovered that plugging the drain to fill the bottom of the shower stall causes water to rain down into the apartment below us – oops! So we’re back to letting the water run from the tap and letting her play in that with some toys, cups, plastic bottles etc - she seems to like it just as much ... We’ll try again with a filled tub once we’re home.

A new game also started with us drawing pictures that she points to in a book – she can continue this game for hours, and it’s happened enough now that Paul and I have discovered that neither of us can draw AT ALL! Lol… We’re always trying to think of things to do to occupy her on the plane, and this could be a good one – we’ll pick up lots more paper….

We went to the local zoo a couple of days ago, at Central/ Gorky park. Just like at home, I like the idea of a zoo more than the reality – once I see the animals I just find it sad. They have some interesting ones here like giraffes, rhinos, elephants plus the regular lions, tigers and bears (oh my!). We pointed out the monkeys to Angelique and perhaps because of our game where she calls us ‘monkey’, she thought they were pretty funny. The park is very pretty, lots of open greenspace, beautiful flower gardens and statues.

Paul’s been working on changing our flights – it looks like we can't leave until the 6th, but we're still working on it - stay tuned. We’re looking forward to seeing y’all!

Take care
N&P&A

Sept 28 - the good times just keep comin'...

Sept 28 Sunday 12 noon – it was back to being beautiful out yesterday but cloudy so far today – yesterday we got to high 20’s, then it rained overnight. Hi everyone! Just a quick note to say we’re doing great – Angelique is enjoying more new things, and keeping us very entertained!

She especially loves music, which is awesome as we have music playing all the time both here and at home. She’s figured out how to stop and start my Ipod (as only a 3 year old can), and bops her head or full-body dances (swings her arms over her head) to everything from Green Day to Brian Setzer, and always follows the beat, which is a hoot. We still sing along to Bob the Builder and she knows more of the words each day – the ‘Yes We Can’ is now ‘Yep wit ka’, said with much enthusiasm!

One new thing that started yesterday (Sat) is that Angelique really started enjoying a bath, even asking to go in! Up until now she has been scared of it, and was only letting us wash her from a basin of water. So this is very exciting! She also loves brushing her teeth, and asks to do this a few times each day.

Yesterday we did a bit more grocery shopping and this time we brought home a doll, which A really enjoys – she even wanted to come straight home to play with it instead of stopping at the playground! So the rest of the evening (other than the bath), part of the night and all this morning has been devoted to playing with her ‘bebe’. Too cute!

Today we tried an earlier naptime, then this afternoon we’re headed to the big park in the city (called Gorky park, like the movie), which apparently has a zoo, indoor/outdoor waterpark and lots of stuff to see. Yay we get to be touristy again!

Thanks for all the comments talking about the strange behaviours of other 3 year olds –makes us feel a lot better!

Hope you’re having a great weekend!
Take care, lots of love
P&N&A

Sept 26 - sorry for the delay......

Sept 26 Friday 8 pm – a little warmer than it has been, maybe low 20’s in the afternoon but still very cool at night, enough that we’re turning on the portable heater. Hi everyone! Sorry for the delay between posts- it’s hard to find time to write one up- but we’re doing great and Angelique is wonderful. She talks and sings and dances all the time, and is generally a cheerful, smart and happy girl.

We’re still working on getting some consistency with her food, as one day she’ll eat something but the next day she announces it’s now ‘yucky’ – ya we’re so happy she learned that word!

Sleeping has also been a bit more challenging than it was the first few days – we’re still learning her signals for when she’s gone past the time for sleep (both for her nap and at night), so we’ve left it a bit too long some days and get rewarded with tears/ resistance to sleeping. We stay with her and sing/talk and she always drifts off.

Her fave toys are still her hair accessories (putting them on herself and on us), a musical book, sticker books and puzzles. She also loves looking at the photo albums and saying everyone’s names. Lately she has been carrying around a tube of hand cream and/or a chapstick, which is very cute. She is also now a little camera hog, posing for pictures then running over to see them on the digital camera. All the photographers in our families will have a field day with her!

Wed and Thursday we did our regular afternoon walks – once again to the Silk Way City grocery store and Thurs back to Panfilov park – both went really well and we always stop at a play structure which A really enjoys. Today (Fri) we mixed it up and did a morning walk with Bernard, Carole and Sasha – they found a nice walkway along a small creek in their neighbourhood, so we joined them and enjoyed a stroll away from the traffic noise. When we came back we had a quick lunch and put Angelique down for a nap (no resistance this time). Unfortunately this nap was interrupted 30 minutes later by our pickup to go to the notary (more paperwork). So when we got home we had an early dinner and put her into bed early, so she can get caught up on her sleep.

We may potentially have good news about when we’re coming home – we’ll know more in the next couple of days – stay tuned!

Thanks again for the comments, emails and calls- we can’t wait to get home and see everyone!

Take care
Love N&P&A

Sept 23 - hi from 'us 3' !

Tues Sept 23 8:30 pm - it's been very cool last few days - down to barely above freezing at night, and up to around 12-16 C during the day. Brrrr! Hi everyone - well we're still doing great and Angelique is wonderful! She's very smart, and certainly knows her own mind! She is speaking more and more, and her understanding of our blend of half-English half-Kazakh is impressive!

Monday we had a quiet morning then went for a HUGE 2-hour walk after A woke up from her nap - we finally got to Panfilov park which is only a few blocks away. Beautiful grounds, a play structure and one of those air-filled bouncy things for kids - very fun! They have a beautiful Soviet-style church that they say is the last remaining building in the world that is 100% made of wood, even the nails! We saw their beautiful war memorial - gorgeous is an understatement. There is an eternal flame, a tribute wall for both WWI and WWII, and an enormous sculpture of soldiers and horses - has to be 80 feet tall and just as wide! So of course we did the touristy thing and took photos....

Today we had a quieter day as Angelique is a little more stuffed up with her cold, and/or she is starting to release some of her anxiety about all the changes in her little world. She had a much longer nap today (2+ hours), plus a couple of upset times - just out of sorts from her regular self. We're hoping for an early night so she can have a big sleep and feel better tomorrow.

We weren't as adventurous today for our walk - we went to the Mothercare store (dept store) and bought Angelique a wind-breaker type long jacket, in fire-engine red! She looks mighty adorable, and I think she likes it as she didn't take it off all evening! Then we walked back and stopped at a small play structure where A played on the swings and on the slide.

We bumped into our friends Bernard and Carole on our walk, who also took custody of their daughter Sasha late last week - it feels odd to not see them every day at our visits, we miss them!

Tonight we had some dinner and played a bit, watched more Bob the Builder (now it's 'Yeop wit ka!'), and we just put her into bed. We'll see if it lasts.... she really needs a big sleep.

So now we'll flake out on the couch, not sure if I even have the energy for Tony Soprano....... have a great day!

take care- lots of love
N&P&A

Sept 21 - day 2 of the fun.....

Sept 21 Sunday 9:30 pm. Hi everyone! Wow – we can’t believe the number of blog comments and emails we received yesterday – on a weekend even – thank you sooo much!!! We are touched and humbled to think of you all cheering for us.

Well the rest of the day yesterday was filled but fun – we had pasta and meat sauce for dinner – silly me mixed in some veggies, which Angelique promptly picked out with her fingers and put in my bowl – so I guess we have some work to do with the veggies!

We played some more, then Angelique went to bed – it was an exhausting day for her! She has no idea all the changes to come of course, but all the changes she’s had so far have been pretty darn huge. Actually going to sleep was another story, mind you – after a couple of false starts and getting up for cuddles, she was asleep at 10 pm and woke up around 7 am. Not bad at all!!

Today (Sunday) has been wonderful – breakfast, play, lunch, play, nap, walk, dinner and more play – really how bad can it be?!? We’re all tired but having a blast. Paul is wondering if it’s normal that 36 hours into parenthood he has the ‘Bob the Builder’ song stuck in his head?? Angelique has been singing along too which is a scream to hear…. We always love hearing our nephews sing that song with their French accents – now we get to hear it from someone who only speaks Kazakh!
Angelique has been saying more english words, and we can get her to repeat names and words after us now which is great. She's also getting used to 'showing us' what she means if she says something we don't understand - she's so smart!

Hope you’re having a fantastic weekend – we know we are!
Take care
N&P&A :-)

Sept 20 – GOTCHA DAY!!!

Sept 20 - Saturday 6 pm. Cooler again today – jeans and a sweater weather.

Hi everyone – so we received a call late yesterday evening saying ‘yes you can pick up your daughter tomorrow morning’! WOOHOOOOOOOO! So we frantically cleaned up and put things out of a 3 year old’s reach, made some extra food and attempted (in vain) to get some sleep. We’re very excited!!!

This morning we were up early and paced the apartment waiting for 9:30. Ainuir picked us up, we bought a fancy cake as a gift for the caregivers, then we arrived at the babyhouse. The director met with us and we chatted a bit, then they brought Angelique in wearing the outfit we’d provided – tooooooo cute! We gave the cake and the rest of our gifts, posed for a couple of photos with the director and high-tailed it out of there!

Angelique was again quiet in the car, but not nearly as upset as she’d been on trip 1. Thankfully it was a short ride as there’s much less traffic on the weekends, so it took less than 15 minutes to get back.

We got into the apartment and she saw the toys we’d laid out for her (all the same things we’d been bringing to our visits, hoping they’d feel familiar), and she went right away to play with them. After approx 20 minutes she seemed very comfortable with those and some of the new toys too, then ate some lunch (chicken soup, bread, ½ an orange and some yogurt), played for a while and then had a nap.
After Angelique woke up we walked around the neighbourhood – she loves the stroller! Thanks Gretchen! Right now we’re playing with crayons and paper (from Auntie Lise), wearing multiple necklaces, bracelets and rings plus a headband, ponytails AND clips in her hair. She’s quite the fashionista -wearing a dress and jeans and tights (oops now she's in a nightgown, skirt and pj bottoms) ... She is carrying the purple backpack everywhere (from Tante Suzette), even on our walk, as well as the puppy purse from Memere. She is certainly overstimulated, but it’s worth it as we’re having so much fun just being with her and watching her! To say we’re thrilled is a HUGE understatement!!! We’re still nervous and more than a bit anxious, but over the moon happy…..

Thank you so much for your good wishes, notes and calls, especially over the last few days!

Take care, we send our love
Paul, Nicole and Angelique (finally we get to add her name!)

Sept 19 - hmmm... TGIF...!?!

Sept 19 Friday 2:30 pm - Cooler yesterday and today, low/mid-20’s. The forecast says it will stay cool for the next few days…

Hi everyone – Wednesday afternoon we went to the notary to sign some paperwork, and then walked around our neighbourhood. We found the little crafts store, which has beautiful tapestries, jewelry and paintings. We bought a couple of souvenirs, then on the walk back we discovered a few cafes close by us, and found a very cute little playpark with swings etc – this will be great to take Angelique, away from the traffic. There’s also a larger park a block away to go walking around, and the central ‘Gorky’ park is only a few blocks past that. We then had a quiet evening with Tony Soprano…

Thursday we hung out here, tidied up and did laundry, then got to see our beautiful girl! We were again visiting with Vlad and Laurel, but not Bernard and Carole this time. Angelique was quieter – we played with the musical instruments on the shelves and the bubbles, and looked through the photo albums. It was wonderful of course, and very calm … she was quite the Daddy’s girl for the first hour or so, wanting only to hang on/ sit with Paul. Awww…Then we grabbed a quick bite at home (pasta and meat sauce – yum) and went out for drinks with Bernard and Carole.

Today (Friday) we’re doing more laundry (each load takes forever), and hope to find out what’s going on with our paperwork. We’re having some delays, but still hope to get custody in the next few days – we can’t wait to bust her out of there and bring her home, at least to our temporary home. What we’re REALLY looking forward to is bringing Angelique ‘home home’ to Canada, to meet the wonderful welcoming party and for you all to meet her!

Have a great day/ weekend!
Take care
Love N&P

Sept 17 - a catchup, and a treasure hunt!

Sept 17 - Wednesday 1 pm. Weather looks nice – warm and sunny, very little wind…. Hi everyone! Well, later in the day Monday we went for an early dinner with Bernard and Carole to Bombolo’s (that place in the pedestrian mall with the misting fans). We all ordered thin-crust pizzas and they were pretty good! B&C had had a big walking and shopping day so it was nice to look at their souvenirs and catch up.

Yesterday (Tuesday) we did a bit more grocery shopping (nice to do it in little bits, for something to do), then got ready for our visit. We shared our visit room with another Canadian couple Vlad and Laurel and their little guy Mirek, as well as Bernard Carole and Sasha. Angelique was a bit shy with the new people there, but it was still a nice visit. We gave her a cut-up orange this time – she was curious about it at first (not sure if she’s had one before) but then seemed to like it which is great.

For dinner we made burgers and fries – oh we now have a new light fixture in the kitchen – Paul and Sergei got it fixed and put in the new light - yay! The burgers turned out great, I’d brought spices from home, we found a good BBQ sauce here and fried up some onions and mushrooms for the burgers. Nice to make a ‘home’ type of meal…. The meat at the Silk Way City supermarket has been very good – the deli and meat counters are very clean, you can see the butchers through the window and all the meats are kept cold, very much like at home. This makes us much more comfortable eating meat here this trip, compared to our first trip.

Wed – we’re not allowed to visit again today, we think it’s again due to the review/ audit of the babyhouse, but who knows... So we’ll have a quiet day, maybe walk around the park or look for souvenirs for ourselves. We've learned of a new store with great local crafts, which is kind of hidden in our neighbourhood. OK -now it's a treasure hunt! The days are long when we don’t get to visit, so anything new to pass the time is welcome!

Please keep those positive thoughts coming; we can feel them and we really appreciate it!!!

Hope you’re having a good day!
Take care, love N&P

Sept 15 - no visit today... again...

Sept 15 Monday 12 noon... looks like another nice day - sunny and warm. Hi everyone! We had a great day yesterday - we each had GLORIOUSLY long hot showers (more information than you wanted, I’m sure – but hugely significant to us after waiting 2 weeks). This was wonderful – and made us feel much more human…….

We had a quiet day yesterday leading up to our visit – we blew a light fixture in the kitchen a couple of days ago, which isn’t a big deal except in the evening when it’s dark and we’re trying to make dinner. Sergei (the building owner) has come over a few times now to try and fix it, but nothing’s working so far. We feel better at least that it wasn’t something we did to break it! So Sergei came by a couple of times Sunday in the afternoon – he speaks some English but it’s slow going….but he seems very nice. He’s told us he’s a retired geologist, and that he rents the apartments in our building only to foreigners, as he doesn’t trust the locals – too funny! We’ve met his daughter Anna (mid/late 20’s) who also speaks a little English, as well as his wife Irina who speaks ZERO English but insists on speaking rapid-fire Russian to us...

Then we had our visit later in the afternoon – the kids had just gotten up from their nap so Angelique was a bit sleepy and cuddly to start with (which is lovely), but then she got back into it after a few minutes and we spent the rest of the visit playing and running around. The bubbles are still a big hit, and the Itsy bitsy spider book is still a fave so I get to embarrass myself by singing the song and doing the hand motions over and over…... :-)

Angelique said a couple of English words yesterday which is very exciting – she asked for the water bottle by saying ‘water’, and pointed to the jar of bubbles and said ‘bubbles’. Funny how excited we get by such simple words!!! We’re talking to her completely in English, but we’ve learned some Kazakh words by asking our translator to ask the caregivers, and using our Kaz dictionary. At our daughter’s age (3 ½), we feel we need to know the Kazakh words for some everyday things in case we’re not able to understand each other once she’s with us... So we’ve learned words to do with eating, sleeping and bathing routines, which is interesting in itself – hopefully they will be helpful!

Angelique has mostly to this point referred to each of us as ‘Mama’, but yesterday she broke out with ‘Papa’ pretty consistently, which of course turned Paul into a big puddle of goo…

After our visit we made some dinner (chicken thighs, alfredo pasta and pan-fried peppers- yum), and Paul tried again with Sergei to fix the light in the kitchen (still no go). One of the translators Anel came over at 10:45 pm for us to sign some papers - some to get Angelique’s passport and birth certificate started and some official ‘yes we are requesting to adopt this child’ papers. Then we crashed and had a good long sleep. Is it possible to bank sleep hours now, to use after we have a toddler in the house ??!

Today (Monday) we’re not able to visit, this time the story is that the prosecutor from court is inspecting the orphanage to make sure no children are being released before the 15 day waiting period is up. So I guess that means no early custody for sure. Grrrrr…. So hopefully we’ll get back to our visits on Tuesday, and (again) hopefully we’ll be able to whisk her away by the end of the week. We can’t wait! Trying to be patient………. which is not easy…. but we’re trying……..

We got a call this morning that we need those copies of our passports NOW (!), so we ran out and got the copies done, just 2 blocks away - nice thing about being downtown this time, there are all sorts of businesses very close by! This afternoon I'll do a bit more shopping, and maybe meet up with some other families for an early dinner.

Have a great day!
Take care- love N&P

Wooooooohoooooooooooo! Hot water!!!!!!

Sept 14 – Sunday 8:30 am – so far it's a bit cloudy but otherwise should be a nice day…. Hi everyone – well as you can tell by the title, we’re ESTATIC to tell you we now have hot water – glorious, beautiful, wonderful (there aren’t enough adjectives) hot water! It came back on Saturday afternoon, so we’re happy to say we’re staying in this apartment – yay!

After this bit of good news, we went to our visit with Angelique, so it was a double-great afternoon! It always takes a minute to get our visit going when we’ve missed a day, but then she was back into it and we had a fun time. We brought a book (Itsy bitsy spider) and she loved it – we’d brought books on trip 1 and she wasn’t interested, but this time she wouldn’t put it down – another yay! We also brought a couple of hair clips, and she spent a lot of time putting them in and taking them out of her hair – so I guess there is some girly-girl in her!

Speaking of girly stuff, we’ve (OK I’ve) finally decided what her outfit will be for ‘gotcha day’ later this week – it may not seem like it would be a big deal, but this will be the first time ever that we get to pick out something for her to wear, and it’s the beginning of our new life together, so I want it to be extra special. There will be lots of pictures taken, I’m sure!!! (Which we will share later, we promise)

Earlier yesterday we bought some fancy coffee from Tea and Coffee Garden – it’s a beautiful little store, reminded me of something you’d see on Academy or Osborne in Winnipeg. Old building, beautiful architecture with lots of nooks and crannies, and it smelled heavenly with dozens of types of coffee on one wall, and dozens of loose-leaf teas in tins on the counter. We picked up some Dominican and some African beans, both of which smelled lovely. I’m sipping the Dominican right now as I type this, and it’s gooooood.

After the visit we chatted with a couple of people then crashed on the couch with a movie. We picked up a pizza from the grocery store for dinner – very interesting to see what an Asian country does with Italian food – no sauce but pieces of tomatoes scattered in, no pepperoni but something like cut up hotdogs, some cubed meat chunks and shredded cheese. Oh and there were corn niblets under the meat!

We do get to visit today (Sunday) which is unusual, but we were told it’s only because we cannot go tomorrow, not sure why. So we look forward to our visit today!

Hope everyone is well at home – thanks again for the calls, emails and comments – we love to hear from you!

Have a great weekend – take care
Love N&P

Sept 13 - on a coffee hunt....

Sept 13 Saturday- 8:45 am. Weather has been very nice - sunny and warm, probably gets to 30 C every day, then cools at night. Perfect, actually! (sorry to everyone in Canada who are NOT having a nice September)...

Hi everyone! Hope you're having a good start to the weekend! Yesterday (Friday) we were not allowed to visit Angelique, not sure why - we were told it was because they were filming another documentary at the orphange, but another couple was told it was because there was an inspection at the orphange, so we're not sure which, if either is true. But it sucked to not see her!

Still no decision on the apartment- as of this morning there is still no hot water - we have another apartment tentatively lined up for Monday, only a few blocks away, but we're still hoping that somehow the water comes back before then. We'd really rather stay here- moving would be a pain and we're now used to the location and comfortable in this place. The electrical issues (power outages etc) seem to be tied up with the construction behind the building, same as the water issues. According to 'the city contact' (?) that our coordinator called, it should only be 1-2 more days, but they've been saying that since last Monday. Hmmm...

On Friday we walked around the Green market (tons of small booths with everything under the sun), and both napped in the afternoon/early evening. Long day when we don't have a visit..... we're trying to be patient - a few more days then she's ours ours OURS!!

Today we'll get ready for our visit this afternoon, and we have to get copies of our passports so we'll look for a place to do that - we think there's one close by. We also want to pick up some coffee - there are 2 fancy places on our street (one called Coffeedelia, other called Tea and Coffee Garden), so we'll check those out. We brought some Starbucks from home but we're going through it faster than we did last trip, probably because it's not as hot here now.
Kazakhstan isn't a big coffee country, like most Asian countries they mostly drink tea here. But we've read in the books that westerners have been introducing 'fancy coffee' to KZ in the last few years and it's starting to catch on, especially in the bigger cities like Almaty - so we'll check it out and let you know!

Have a great weekend!
take care
P&N

Sept 11 - a quick catchup...

Sept 11 – Thursday 8:30 pm – Hi everyone – it was a beautiful day here today, sunny and warm. Maybe the cool spell is over?!?

Let’s see where did I leave off? Tuesday afternoon (9th) we ended up just vegging on the couch before going to the babyhouse. We had a great visit, except that the first 30 minutes we had nowhere to go, as another group was having a music lesson in the big room. We’re not allowed to take Angelique outside or anywhere else in the babyhouse, so we played quietly in the hallway until the group was done. Then the rest of the visit was great, lots of running and playing. Wow we’re beat after our visits! We made hotdogs (that’s almost meat, right?) and fries for dinner then again crashed early.

Wednesday we picked up some groceries at the Silk Way City grocery store – trying to think ahead to have meals ready for next week when we have Angelique with us – we’re sooo excited! We don’t want to have to fuss thinking of things to cook, so we’re trying to make sure we have some options ready.
Then we had another good visit – we again had to play in the hall for 30 minutes, but at least this time it wasn’t a surprise. Actually it was Angelique’s group having the music lesson – we asked her (mostly with gestures) if she’d like to join her group or if she’d rather stay with us, and she burrowed deeper into my lap, so I guess she wanted to stay – yay! That was really sweet.

Each day we’ve brought yogurt and crackers, or banana and a cookie and she seems to like it all which is great. OK so we’ve got a good handle on snacks – we’ll see next week how we do with actual meals! The fave toys still seem to be the beachball, the photo album, and we’ve introduced a hand-held mirror which seems to be a hit – too funny! We brought new toys to play with at the apartment, but we don’t want to introduce them yet – save them as a treat to break in the new place!

After our visit Wed we went for dinner with Bernard and Carole in our ‘old neighbourhood’ by the Ramstore. We had hoped to go to Kristina’s where we’d had great meals on trip 1, but it was closed (not sure why). So we went to a Japanese place in the mall, and had a nice meal. Took a cab home, chatted with another Canadian couple for a while then again crashed early.

Today (Thurs) we walked around Silk Way City mall and the Mothercare store (a European chain with all things baby/toddler – clothes, toys, etc), then had a quick visit with Gretchen. She’s given us a stroller that isn’t working for her daughter, and she’s bought another one. We’re not sure yet if Angelique will like the stroller (umbrella style) or not but we’ll give it a whirl. If it turns out she won’t use it then we’ll leave it as a donation to the orphanage.

Late this afternoon we had another visit, and again it was great - we spent the first half hour in another room today, instead of in the hallway - lots of fun! We’re counting down the days until we have custody, hopefully by mid-next-week. Less than a week away! It’s exciting and scary and thrilling and terrifying all at the same time!

Oh the apartment – we’re still here, they’ve asked us to give it a couple more days. If no water by the weekend then we’ll move for sure.

Hope you’re all having a good week! Thanks again for the comments, emails and calls!
Take care-love N&P

Sept 9 - a little of this and that...

Sept 9 - Tuesday 8:30 am - Hi everyone! It's been cooler here the last few days - nice and sunny mid-afternoon but before and after that it's probably around 23 C, and in the evening/night it drops to around 12 C, which is very nice! Better than the surface-of-the-sun we had on trip 1 !

We still haven't made a decision about the apartment. We still have no hot water, and we've also just learned that our power converter is messing with the electricity in our place - whenever we have anything 'North American' plugged in the lights start to flicker and buzz. And yesterday evening we lost power a bunch of times - we knew it wasn't the building as the light in the hallway outside our door stayed on. The building owner came and showed us where the fuse is (hidden behind a wall hanging in the living room) so we can turn it back on, but it's definitely adding to my unease about staying here. So we'll see what happens later today.

Sunday eve we went to the Chinese restaurant called Printessa, with Bernard and Carole - it was very busy and had great food!
Then yesterday (Monday) I visited with Pam and Gretchen over lunchtime- it's a 5 block walk from the apartment to their place, on the same street as us - so that's officially the furthest I have ventured by myself! Had some lunch, chatted and played with their daughters- it was very nice! Paul had a quiet afternoon with a movie on the couch...... ahhh tis the life!

Then we got ready for our visit with Angelique at 4:00 - we miss seeing her on Sundays so we try to make Mondays extra special. Her group was in the middle of a 'music class' when we arrived, singing and playing little instruments like maracas and tambourines - very very cute! We tried to hide, but the kids saw us and started shouting 'Anjela Mama Papa!' so I guess they knew we were there... haha. After the class packed up we had the rest of our visit time - they have the kids bundled up in many layers of clothing lately, because the caregivers think it's too cold out for summer clothes and the slightest exposure to cooler air will make the child ill. Angelique had on a tshirt and a long-sleeved sweater, plus heavy tights and jeans. Meanwhile we're in tank tops and shorts because it's so hot in there!

We stripped off the sweater and let her run around, and we had a good visit. She ate yogurt and crackers this time - she seems to like anything we bring, which is great. She wasn't very interested in the toys - she didn't want to wear the sunglasses or headbands or anything, she more wanted to be held to see what's on the top shelves, and to be swung around.
It's getting a lot harder to leave her at the end of our visits - we just want to bust her out of there and take her home with us!

We made a meat sauce and pasta for dinner - (meat, yum), then relaxed and went to bed early. Today (Tues) we'll do a bit of shopping - I forgot to bring a hat for Angelique, and the other families have said they get chided by the locals if they're out with their child without a hat, because it's so 'cold' outside - so we'll grab something for her to avoid that happening.

Oh - because we're downtown this time we have a longer drive to the babyhouse - now it takes anywhere from 15 to 45 minutes, depending on traffic. And the traffic! Wow these drivers are insane! Often there are 5 cars stretched across 3 lanes, and the one in the middle might be trying to turn onto a side street. They come within an inch of the car beside them, and because there is both right-side-drive and left-side-drive cars here, we find sometimes we're one inch away from a person in the car beside us - wild!

And they honk their horns constantly, it's like a language here. The small street we look at from our balcony has provided much entertainment - we're close to many office buildings so cars are parked everywhere all day. On this little street people park on both sides, leaving one lane open in between for 2 way traffic. So often a car will come one from each direction, meeting nose to nose on this street where there is nowhere for either of them to go, and they'll sit there for many minutes honking at each other - toooo funny!

Thanks again so much for your comments, emails and calls - they're really keeping us going! Oh and to respond to Cindy's last comment - thanks for the congrats - Angelique is actually 38 pounds, not 28 - so ya that was an intense delivery to say the least, but I'm feeling great! :-)

We heard the Bombers gave it a good first half on Sunday, but then they went to sleep..... what's that about ??!

Have a great day!
take care, lotsa love
N&P

Sept 7 - anniversaries and a non-visit day...

Sept 7 – Sunday 8:00 am – hi everyone! First off I want to remember to say Happy Anniversary to a bunch of couples in our family – today (7th) is Nic’s parents Pat and Gil’s 51st anniversary – congrats Mom and Dad! Also this week, Paul’s sisters and their hubbies Monique and Dave celebrate their 10th, and Joanne/ Marc-Eric their 8th – happy anniversary guys! And next week Nic’s sister Lise and hubby Russ celebrate their 25th – wow! Thinking of you all, we miss you!

We had a great day yesterday – it was cool and cloudy all day, which our translators say is unusual this early in September, but we’ll enjoy it while it lasts! Early in the day we met Bernard at the Silk Way City mall (short walk for us, long walk for him – good deal!), then came back, had lunch and hung out in the apartment. We visited with Angelique late in the afternoon – this seems to be our regular visit time now – it was a great visit, lots of fun! Tonight we’re just resting and hope to crash early.

And – we came back to the apartment after our visit to find it had been thoroughly cleaned – OMG!!! Our landlord had stopped us in the hallway earlier to say they were going to clean the bedding today- which was surprising enough- but we had no idea they would clean the whole place- bathroom, kitchen, floors, even the balcony! Woohoo – what a treat! Can I bring them home with us???

We’re still waiting for the hot water to come back in our building – if it’s not on by mid-next-week we’ll have to move to a new place. We’re torn about it as it’s a nice apartment (with a cleaning service!), and we’re feeling comfortable getting around in the neighbourhood, but the lack of hot water is becoming more inconvenient by the day and will be more than we want to deal with once we have custody. So we’ll see what happens next week.

On Sundays we’re not allowed to visit with Angelique, same as last trip. Because we also missed our Thursday visit, it feels like it’s been really interrupted, but hopefully this coming week we’ll have many visit days in a row!
So today we’ll hang out for a while then go out for dinner – there’s a Chinese restaurant we have heard is wonderful, so we’ll check that out!

Hope you’re all having a good weekend!
Take care,
N&P

Sept 6 - dialup connection - yay!

Sept 6 - Saturday 8:00 am - cool and cloudy so far today - Hi everyone I'll make this short as we (ya ya it's still all Paul) managed to connect to the internet at the apartment, and we're not sure how long it will last.... but yay! I've really missed making our updates sitting on the couch in my pyjamas.... :-)

After yesterday's post (which I just added now), we had a wonderful visit with Angelique - she was happy and playful the whole time! She ate another yogurt, we're so happy she likes it! All we've given her to drink so far is water, from a plastic Aquafina bottle - she still thinks it's funny to drink from the bottle, and laughs every time! I'm just happy she likes drinking water and we don't have to add juice or sugar to it.

We then went for dinner with Jen and Bert - we tried a place called Yakorb, with an outdoor patio right on Jeltoksan (our street) with no English at all on the menu, and only one server who spoke the barest minimum of english. It was hilarious - we all ended up getting shashlyk (shishkabobs), in chicken, beef and mutton. So we've finally had some meat this week!

We're so relieved that court is over with and that it was successful, but we're still not ready to completely relax until the 15 day waiting period is complete. Then we'll bring Angelique into our custody 24/7, and the real fun begins! We can't believe we're sooooooo close to this dream!

We'll go for another visit this afternoon, and other than that we'll just relax. We've finally slept through the night - yay again!

take care,
N&P