Visiting Continues

There's not been much new to report lately, hence no updates - no reason you all should be as bored as we are.

We continue to have Hope visit us at the apartment everyday. Either Mike or I, sometimes with Tim, goes to the baby house to pick her up every day around 10 and we bring her back around 5:30. Since we can't take her out yet we are all housebound. As you can see, laundry and cleaning have acquired serious entertainment value for the kids. Really, Matt and Hope are fascinated by the washing machine and if we bring out the vacuum Tim rushes to help. Overall, our visits are going well. We have managed without the translator for all but the first few days of her home visits and most of the time manage to communicate well enough. Hope is really trying hard to learn English and I am trying to learn a little more Kazakh. She walks around naming the colors of things, counting different items in the house, picking up different water bottles and saying light and heavy, opening cabinets and drawers and practicing full and empty. She sat for about 15 minutes one day looking at a comb, brush and mirror set we had given her trying to put the correct word with each item. She just kept doing it over and over (long after I was ready to stop) till she got it right several times in a row. She also seems fairly interested in an ABC puzzle and a writing activity that we brought. She has been practicing writing some of her letters and her motor skills in this area have improved tremendously since we first met her.

Hope seems to be adjusting to family life pretty well although by the end of the day she does still ask to go back to her group at the baby house and the slightest suggestion that she should sleep her brings on instant tears. We have given up the napping idea and have just tried to do more playing and helping to change Matt in the bedroom to get her used to it. She is definitely more fearful of new people and experiences than either of the boys. We had her passport photos taken a couple of days ago and following the photographer up the stairs precipitated the I'm-going-to-cry-any-second face. The caretakers and doctors at the baby house have been talking to her every day about going to live with her family. Two days ago the mother of one of the boys in her group returned to take him home (a rare and very happy event for everyone). Last night someone asked her if she was going to leave too like this boy and if she was going to live with her family. She actually said "Yes, I am leaving. I will go on an airplane to my house." Now, I'm sure she's just parroting what she's been told, but it is a huge step in the right direction. Normally she would avoid answering a question like that with something like "Look at my nails. Aren't they beautiful. I painted them today." On Thursday we are going to start having her stay through dinner and bring her back around 7:30. Hopefully she will be able to stay her with us all the time by the end of next week if we get some of the necessary paperwork. The final adoption decree will be signed next Tuesday so we're hopeful that we can get a copy of that and her updated birth certificate by the end of the week so that she can stay with us and we will be able to leave the apartment with her. We're hoping that she might get comfortable enough being with us all the time by the time we leave Astana that there won't be as much screaming and crying at night in the hotel in Almaty and at home.

The only other news is that yesterday afternoon we discovered that both Hope and Matt had fevers. We didn't think they'd let her visit us at the apartment today, but they gave her a cold-reliever of some sort and sent her on her way this morning. By the end of the day today, both kids still had fevers, but we're hoping that tomorrow they will be much improved.

It was a bit warmer today so after we came back from the baby house tonight Tim and I went for a walk to try to buy the gift for the orphanage donation. Hope's caretakers want educational things for the kids and art supplies so we headed out to our favorite school supply store to buy a bunch of things and get more stained glass windows for Hope and Tim to make, but by the time we got there they had closed. It turns out that they are one of only 2 stores we have come across here that closes before 8 or 10 PM. Nevertheless, we had a very nice walk. There are many more lights up around town now. The President has decreed that all business should be lit up for New Years. Here are some pictures of the lights on Republic Street. The tall skinny Christmas tree reminded Tim of the Who's tree from The Grinch so we took his picture there even though the lights weren't on yet. It's really nice driving or walking around town. There is a much more festive atmosphere here now that more businesses are putting their lights up.