Two Blogs for the Price of One


Normally we blog the prior day’s events right before we leave for our 4 pm orphanage visit, but today we had an early visit, so I will get to tell you about two days’ worth of activities. We have had two wonderful days with our child. Yesterday when we arrived at the orphanage, we went with our coordinator to the social worker’s office first. She has already prepared all of the necessary documents for the adoption, much quicker than anticipated. It appears that the orphanage is very much in favor of this adoption, and they are happy that we are there – phew! When we were going through the paperwork with our coordinator, we were surprised to find out that our daughter is half German, half Russian – she really IS a Werkmeister!! When we went into her group room to start our visit, we were greeted with the biggest smile we have ever seen, followed by the quickest run to us and a hug that nearly knocked me over – from a child that weighs less than Jacob! She had the pink rubber bands in her hand that I had used to put her hair up in little pigtails the day before. She handed me the rubber bands and the brush that we had brought for her, and asked me to put her hair up for her again. She really likes to have her hair brushed and I think it made her feel like a princess to have someone actually put her hair up. I was more than happy to oblige! Once we finished her hair, I asked her if she would like to go outside and play (in English). She shook her head “yes” with the cute little “I Dream of Jeanie” nod that she has perfected. I told her to go get her shoes (again in English) and she ran to her locker and put her shoes on. She definitely understands a lot more English than we originally thought she did.

Once we got outside, we had the luxury of the whole play yard to ourselves. Normally, there are children all around, but we got lucky this time. She started out asking for the camera and took picture after picture. After a while, though, an amazing thing happened. The little girl that has been attached to my side since we got here decided to branch out and initiated a “chase” game with Jacob. To see the two of them running and squealing was fantastic. They shared all the snacks we brought, too. Our child would go to the backpack and pick out 4 gummy worms. Then she would run over to Jacob and give one to him, followed by one for daddy and mommy. She and Jacob found a piece of play equipment that they could climb up. Jacob was the first to yell to Daddy to catch him while he jumped down. That was all it took for our child to want to do that, too. She figured out immediately that Daddy is the fun one in the family, and we spent the next hour and a half watching the two kids run up the equipment and wait to jump into Daddy’s arms. We decided to use this opportunity to bribe her to speak a little more, since she had done it the day before during play time with Daddy. Before Jeff would let each child jump, he would say “Say Papa”, or “Say Mama”. She would do it every time and then laugh as she jumped down. We would tell Jacob to practice Russian words, which is pretty cute, too! Once she got the hang of the easy words, we decided to make it a little harder. “Say Babushska”, “Say Diedushka” (grandma and grandpa) – she said those easily. Okay, let’s see what else we can come up with. “Say sestra” (say sister) – guess what she said then? She said “Sestra – Amber”, with a rolling “r” at the end of Amber. She knows her siblings names by heart already! We followed it with “Say brat” (say brother) – she said “Brat Mitchell” and “Brat Jacob”. Wow!!! Then she wanted to look at the family pictures in Daddy’s wallet again to go over her family again. We decided to try something even harder. “Say Werkmeister”. Guess who can say that perfectly, too? What a perfect day. To think, I was actually worried that this child would have such a hard time attaching to us that she wouldn’t talk to us for the entire bonding period. It turns out God is bigger than my fears, and had a plan for this all along. J At the end of the visiting time, something else happened. Our child normally kind of shuts down as soon as she sees that it is time for us to go. We are used to that now, and know that actually that is a good sign for bonding and attachment. On this day, though, Jacob actually started crying when it was time to go. He has developed a bond with his new sister already, and did not want to leave her. Very hard, but also very healthy.

Last night we finally got to live out Jacob’s Kazakhstan dream. After dinner we went out to the town square and joined the “bounce house party”. We hadn’t made it out late enough yet before this, and Jacob was so excited. Of course, there was no one around that spoke English, so we communicated with our hands mostly to negotiate getting Jacob into the bounce house slide. Jeff held out his hand full of different denominations of tenge coins and just asked “how much”. The woman picked out a few coins and off Jacob went. That kind of fun is the same in any language. The whole square is kind of like a country fair each night. Not only do they have the bounce houses, but there are also rows of motorized mini cars for the kids, skate rentals and booths that are decorated brightly for taking pictures. We went to the giant Shrek stand and Jacob was lifted up and placed in the crook of Shrek’s arm. We have a pretty funny picture that makes Jacob look like he is only about 4 inches long.
Today we got to have our visiting time much earlier than normal. The orphanage was hosting a huge junior boxing event for the whole country. They had been working very hard the day before to get everything cleaned up for what was to be hundreds of people visiting from all regions of the country and even neighboring country Uzebekistan. Boxing is very big in Kazakhstan, and many people do not know that the famous “Klitchko” brothers in the world of professional boxing were actually born in Kazakhstan when it was part of the former Soviet Republic. The boxing competition was for children that appeared to be ages 5-16. They were all so very proud of their regions. The orphanage was renting space to the boxers in order to make money and get some recognition. As a result, we got to go earlier than normal. We arrived at the orphanage just before our child returned from school. It was so fun to see the surprise on her face when she walked up in her school uniform, hair still up in the pink rubber bands. She ran into the room and gave us huge hugs again. She had to be coaxed by her caregiver to return to the dining room to eat lunch and change her clothes. There is no way that a bite of food crossed her lips in the amount of time she was gone! Luckily, she knows we bring food and juice for her every day, so no big loss! We went outside and watched some of the boxing – a little difficult to watch small boys hitting each other, and then start crying when they realized they had lost the match, but fascinating all the same. Many of the visiting children were fascinated by the “Americanskis”. They kept asking our coordinator to explain what we were doing there. They asked, “Did they come all the way from America just to watch the boxing?” No, she explained, they are here to adopt. They all just doted over Jacob, each one so surprised to find out that he is only 4. They all thought he was at least 6. Children just are not very big here, it turns out. They also said that this was the first time they had ever seen real live Americans in person. A big group of them followed us around everywhere, just to hear us talk. Jeff gave them some American coins, probably around 20 cents total. They were so excited and ran around the other children shouting, “American tenge”. Kind of humbling. We had a much longer visit than normal today, which was great for us, bad for Jeff’s back, as we continued the jump and catch game. I’m sure he doesn’t really mind. Our roles have definitely been defined, just the way they already were for Amber, Mitchell and Jacob. Jeff is the fun one, and I am the comforter. When the Kazakh children started bothering our child, she ran to my side and clung to me. When they were gone, she just wanted to play with Daddy. At the end of our time today, the caregiver came to get our child to tell her it was time to do her homework – bummer. We expected the usual shut down, but did not expect the huge, heaving sobs that followed. Poor little thing. I know that it is a good sign, but it is heartbreaking to leave her every day. Of course, Jacob cried, too, and today so did Mommy. All we want is to get her out of there. We did get good news that it looks like we may be able to get a quick court date. Nothing is for sure, but we could really use prayer for this. As much as we enjoy our time here with her each day, my heart just aches to be home with Amber and Mitchell. The quicker we get to court, the quicker we get home and the quicker the clock starts ticking for when she will come home, too.

A lot of people have asked us through e-mail and in the comments section how they can help out the orphanage. There is not an easy way to do that here, as there is no guarantee that money donated or even toys would actually get to the kids. Many people have told us to just spend a certain amount of money on the kids and they will pay us for it when we return. Instead of that, there is an organization that was started by the children's pastor and his wife from our church that is dedicated to helping to fund adoptions for families that would otherwise not be able to adopt, as well as assisting orphanages with much-needed projects. Just last month, they traveled to Kazakhstan to build a playground and assist one of the orphanages. They were actually invited to the orphanage that we are at in the hopes of assisting them, too. All of this requires funding. If you would like to help orphans in Kazakhstan in a way that would most definitely get to the children, please visit www.Hadassahshope.org. Hadassah's Hope is the name of the organization, and on Friday November 3 they are having their first annual benefit dinner, complete with a comedian, silent auction and dinner. Tickets are $100 a couple, and can be purchased through the website. I can't find the exact link to tickets, but if you hit the "contact us" link and send an e-mail to Elizabeth, I am sure she will hook you up with tickets. Who knows? You may even get to meet our wonderful coordinator Vera at the event!