No Halloween Treats Yet

Well, we aren't getting the Halloween treat we wanted this year, but we will be celebrating for Veteran's Day. I always send special treats to Jeff at work on Veteran's Day because I am so proud of him for serving his country during the first Persian Gulf war. This year it looks like he will be getting something better than a basket of chocolate chip cookies - our new daughter! Though she is coming home later than we anticipated (and really, how could we have fooled ourselves into thinking that this last part of the journey would go any quicker than the first part), we are anxiously awaiting her arrival. Right at this moment, Dasha is with our coordinator, Vera, in the city of Almaty getting the final medical exams and picking up her visa from the U.S. Embassy. Vera got to pick her up from the Saramoldaev Detsky Dom (orphanage) and took a trip on the infamous Soviet night train from Taraz to Almaty. They will spend a few days there and then return to Taraz so that Dasha can say good-bye to her group mates and have a few days of normalcy before her entire life changes.

Vera has been able to visit her at the orphanage a couple of times since we left Kazakhstan. She reported to us that Dasha is still wearing the key to our house around her neck, tucked deep down into her shirt so that no one can get to it. Very sweet. She is still not really talking. She smiles and laughs and nods her head emphatically "yes" when asked if she is excited to go to her new home. I am sure that she is so very scared and nervous about all of this. (Actually, I am, too, but I know that God is bigger than my fears!)

I just can't wait to watch her see her new home with fresh eyes. Her princess room is almost complete, and she already has some clothes waiting for her in her new closet. When Dasha leaves Kazakhstan, she will still be a Kazakh citizen. At the moment she steps foot on the ground at LAX, though, she will be the newest little American citizen. This moment feels like it has taken a lifetime to get to, but I know that it will be here soon. Keep tuning in - we will definitely be posting again, once she is home!

Our Hazel-Eyed Girl......

Do you think these two have bonded yet?

Well, we have been home for two full days now, and things have pretty much gotten back to normal already. We returned home Tuesday afternoon, and Jeff was back at work on Wednesday morning. I spent that day doing more laundry than I ever care to do in my life and trying to get the house back in order after unpacking - still not there yet! I went back to work yesterday and had a ton of things waiting for me. We are still not used to the time change, so we have been waking up very early (3 am for me today) and falling asleep very early - I am pretty much comatose by 8 pm. I know that part will get better in a few days. For now, it gives me some extra time in the mornings to do the little things, like make a good hot breakfast for my kids before school and still have time to do Amber's hair in curls.

The moment I saw Amber and Mitchell at the airport when we exited the terminal will forever be one of my favorite moments in my life. Even Mitchell, my 10 year old who is usually too embarrassed to have me even kiss him good night when no one is watching came running to me and gave ME a kiss! I must have hugged and kissed Amber and Mitchell a hundred times. I could not stop getting tears of joy in my eyes. Jacob was ecstatic to finally be home with his siblings. During the ride home from the airport, Jacob and Mitchell shared the very back third row seat, and I heard laughter like I have not heard since we left. Jacob thinks Mitchell is a super hero, so he was in heaven!

When we got home, my mom and Amber showed us that they had completely stocked our refridgerator, and Jeff's mom had made a huge spread of fantastic food. I don't think we realized how hungry we were, because we devoured every last bite of it!

We got an e-mail from our coordinator who told us that she was going to see Dasha at the orphanage yesterday, and she was going to bring a letter that I had e-mailed. It is so nice that she will be visiting for us so often. Hopefully, it will help Dasha to know that we are waiting for her and are spending this time getting our house ready for her. Dasha will most likely be coming home around the 1st of November. Hopefully the time will pass quickly so we can get on with this great new chapter of our lives. If I have learned anything through this process, it is that God is totally in control, and things are going to happen as they are supposed to happen. I had thought during other times in my life that I knew how to trust God completely, but I don't think I ever really knew what that meant until this experience. I am not worried about the future. I know that we are going to have a rough go of it for a while, but that is okay. It is all part of becoming a family and working through all that God has planned for us.

We will continue to update occasionally with more pictures until Dasha comes home, and we will definitely update when we know exactly when that will be. Please pray that the time passes quickly, but that more importantly, that Dasha would be encouraged and know that she is coming home to us soon. Thank you so much for all of your support. You have no idea how much it has meant to us throughout this process!

Glamour Girls
Daddy;s Little Girl

Princessa' Dasha

Siblings!

The Long and Winding Road…Home

We’re sitting on the plane with only three hours to go until we land at LAX (Los Angeles International Airport). We’ve been traveling for 33 hours straight. There is so much to write about, and as we are sleep deprived and generally smelly, we may miss a few items.

After our court hearing Monday, we packed up and loaded our luggage into Jultas (our driver) car. By Kazakhstan standards, he has a pretty decent car. It’s an early 1990’s Audi. It has four doors, and about 200 thousand miles. As we loaded our four large suitcases, two backpacks and one carry-on bag, it became clear that the seating arrangement would be challenging. We were able to stuff two of the suitcases, and the two backpacks in the trunk. We had two suitcases and a carry-on in the back seat. I would like to say at this point how much I love my wife. She insisted that she and Jacob ride in the back seat next to the luggage and carry-on. Kim and Jacob basically shared one seat all the way to Almaty. Not a terrible ride, unless you think 7 ½ hours on a barely paved two lane road as terrible. No one in Kazakhstan seems to use their air conditioning. When we left it was about 85 degrees outside, so we rode with the windows down, it was like cruising Pacific Coast Highway, with the wind blowing in our hair, except for the nauseating burning smells, the dust everywhere and crazy Kazakhstan traffic.

Jultas is one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet. Unfortunately he speaks less English than I do Russian. I think I’m proficient with about six words in Russian. This resulted in some attempted awkward communication. We made a few stops, we couldn’t get Jacob to pee on the road side. I think he was a little nervous. The landscape was pretty much like the plains of Nebraska, it did look like great farm land. We saw horses, donkeys, sheep and goats all over the place. I think Jacob may have had some stage fright due to the animals, the winds and oh yeah we where in a strange country, where he couldn’t understand anyone, and some of the locals looked a little scary.

The traffic was funny, we would pass large trucks, pulling multiple trailers that looked like they were going to fall over. We also zoomed by the old Soviet cars as I don’t think they can go faster then 40 MPH. We were passed by Mercedes. It’s an interesting culture, and social system. There is money in Kazakhstan, as they have found huge oil reserves. Unfortunately, only about 5% of the population has access to that money. Well, this five percent were out on this crazy “highway” blowing by us at 100 MPH.
At one point we passed two wild fires, where the fields were blazing. No one seemed to mind. My guess is that the fires are still burning as there were miles and miles of fields.

The road we took included a long mountain pass, that lasted for about three or four hours of our ride. This incline is referred to as the Steps, again it looked like good soil for farming. I don’t know the elevation, but I know we climbed steady at a 10 to 12% grade, and going down was pretty scary. On our way down it was getting dark, Jultas was getting tired and the crazy procession of Mercedes, trucks and Soviet cars made for quite a ride. Jacob had slept the first two hours of the trip. As the ride progressed, the poor little four year old slowly lost his ability to sit still, stop talking and became very effective at driving us crazy. Kim and I were short on patience but we made it without any major incidents.

We finally made it to Almaty. Jultas got us to the airport in one piece. Unfortunately, we parked on the wrong level. So we got to carry the luggage up to next level. Jultas helped, and offered to stay with us. We thanked him and told him it was unnecessary so traded contact information. We then began the next leg of our journey.

Our flight was scheduled to leave Almaty at 3:20 am for Frankfurt Germany. We arrived at the airport around 9:30 pm. We had to leave Taraz early to make sure we got there on time. We also wanted to drive the Steps in daylight if possible. Every airport has a different system for boarding, checking-in and security. Almaty is very different. We couldn’t check in until two hours before the flight. Fortunately there was a café inside the airport. No one spoke English, but there was an English menu. Half the items weren’t available. Kim and Jacob ended up with some nasty bread with terrible cheese melted on it. I ordered eggs and bacon. I like my eggs a little runny, but these would have made Rocky proud in his training days.

Poor Jacob was going stir crazy, poor Kim and I were at our wits end. Finally, at 1 am, were allowed into the check-in area. As we passed the security, Kim and Jacob were walking ahead of me as we still had our luggage, and I was trying to navigate the luggage cart through the horde of people. One important side note, in Kazakhstan, no one has learned how to use lines. This applies at stores, restaurants and airports. It’s very annoying, I almost threw down with this old Kazakh woman at one store, but that’s another story for another time. I’m pretty sure I could have taken her, but she had a snaggle tooth that was pretty intimidating. Anyway, Kim had the tickets and passports, all of the sudden two police men, with their ridiculously large hats pulled me to the side. I yelled for Kim, as she has the passports and tickets. She claims to not have heard me, I think she was hoping for a strip search and a beating in the back room….okay that’s a joke, and I haven’t really slept in 33 hours. Kim finally, came, and the policemen said something in Russian, and pointed to the customs office, we started to walk to the office and then when the police men looked away we made a B-Line for the Lufthansa check-in desk. I’ve seen Midnight Crossing or Midnight Express (my brain is fried), and that’s not the life for me.

The check-in was going well until they weighed the bags. Two of our check-in items were over the weight limit. We had to pay twice for each bag as we had two flights, that’s $25 a piece times two, dang $100. Actually, I would have paid $500 for someone to take the luggage off our hands. I even thought what’s in the luggage that I can’t live without? We were able to check in the luggage.

We then entered the gate area, going through security, passport check and no line, just the horde. We did meet a nice family from Seattle who were returning with their newly adopted baby girl. The plane had three or four families in the adoption process. It was nice to share experiences, laugh about living in the land of Kazh and speak English. We even got to talk about football! Not Soccer (stupid Euro CNN).

We got on the plane, and Jacob and I slept a good chunk of the flight. We had decent seats, and flight staff were warm and friendly. They fed us, and it tasted great. About 6 ½ hours later we landed in Frankfurt, Germany. We decided that since we were a Kazakhstan flight, our flight wasn’t given a gate, so we had to exit on the runway, and take buses to the terminal. No problem, except it was pouring rain outside. We had about three hours before our next flight. That’s when we found a little piece of heaven. McDonalds! It was 6:15 am, but they served it all. Jacob got his fries and chicken nuggets, Kim had a cheese burger and fries, and I had a glorious Big Mac! No horse meat there! We sat with the Seattle family had a nice time. There was even a small play area that Jacob thoroughly enjoyed. I will always love that airport, as it may have saved my sanity.

We had to go through security next. Germany has very strict security. The security staff was very pleasant, but we all got patted down including Jacob. He laughed as he thought he was being tickled. They even felt our socked feet. By that time my feet must’ve been ripe, and I’m sure that guy didn’t get paid enough for that job.

The gate areas are fenced in and randomly open, but once the staff comes to the gate they throw everyone out, and have you re-enter with your ticket. It’s a strange system. While we waited, Jacob decided he didn’t want to play anymore, and had a melt down. It didn’t help that Kim and I were exhausted. It wasn’t our best moment, but we did make it on the plane. Boarding went a little smoother as Germany has embraced the concept of lines. Once on the plane, everything started smoothly, Jacob feel asleep. We got a little shut-eye, only to wake to some food. We ordered Jacob kids meals, we had to call from Kazakhstan as the original request never made it. He was so excited about these meals. On both flights he woke to his own personalized kid’s meal. He was so happy. I’m so impressed with how well my little four year old has done. Even though right now he is driving us crazy, but understand he’s been traveling for 33 hours, sitting on a plain for nine hours, it’s really okay. Kim and I are beyond tired and can’t wait to land. I think we’re beyond the point of exhaustion. We’ve had a few hiccups, like the DVD player got switched on during the car ride and has no power now. So much for The Little Einstein’s helping out.

I think our supper is coming, and then we should land. We’ll finish the update and post it in a few hours.

Well, I’m sitting on my bed, after a good shave and shower. After we landed at LAX, we went through a passport check at the gate, customs and then waited for luggage. After waiting for what seemed to be a long time, our luggage came down the shoot. We then had one more passport check. All this security, it’s sad and a pain.

We had a welcome surprise as we walked up from the Customs/baggage claim area Amber, Mithcell, Rick, Pam and Barbara (my mom) were there waiting for us. It must’ve been dusty in that darn airport, as my eyes were misty again. It was a great homecoming, Mithcell gave each a big hug, Amber made cookies, Rick and Pam had stocked the kitchen, Barb made us a dinner. We’re tired and wondering what would happen if the children fall asleep before we do?

I’m going to try and post some pictures as well. I can't tell you how happy we are to be home, now we can't wait for Dasha to come home. We showed some videos today, and there were a few tears. I can't imagine what our little girl is thinking. The sooner she is here the better.

Drumroll, Please……..Introducing The Newest Member of Our Family

DASHA KATHRYN WERKMEISTER

...Okay, there was supposed to be a picture here, however the dial up connection is unable to download. I guess you'll have to wait until we return home on Tuesday. I promise we'll post a lot, we have some great pictures.

Sorry we haven’t written in a couple of days, but the last two days have been both very hard and very full. Of course, the most important part is our court hearing, so I will start there! We got up early today after a late dinner last night with our coordinators, Vera and Medet, at their wonderful house. At first we had wanted to just stay home, but we really had such a nice time at their house enjoying our last night with our new friends. This morning we were waiting outside the hotel bright and early. I think the three of us were just about as nervous as ever. Our coordinators picked us up and headed over to one of the government buildings by our hotel to pick us the head of the guardianship council to go to court with us. She was running late, and we waited in the car for a half hour, getting more and more nervous as we waited. The last thing we wanted was to show up late for court. We managed to get there on time, and went inside to wait in the lobby along with multiple other people waiting for other court appearances. This courthouse hears cases for all legal proceedings, so who knows what everyone was there for. We waited and waited in the lobby for the prosecutor to arrive, even though our court session was supposed to start at 10. Apparently, the young prosecutor was running late and received a little tongue lashing from the judge at the beginning of the court proceeding. This was good for us, because the role of the prosecutor in the adoption proceeding is to find ways to work against us adopting a child. He was definitely not going to open his mouth to object to anything, so our court hearing was quick and totally painless.

First, Jeff was asked to stand and address the court to tell why we were there and why we wanted to adopt Dasha. Jeff thanked the judge for giving us the opportunity to be there and to respectfully request the privilege of bringing Dasha home to our family. Vera translated for him and then kept saying, “Okay, what else?”, like Jeff was supposed to say more. I couldn’t think of anything else to say and I know he was sweating. I know he said some other things, but it was such a blur that I can’t even remember. Then they asked me to stand and address the judge. I thought Jeff had covered it, but apparently not. I told the court that we would like to adopt Dasha and that we could provide a stable, loving home for her. Then I was asked to sit down. After that, the social worker for the orphanage, who is an old Kazakh woman who always dresses traditionally with a scarf over her head, got up to talk. Her nickname at the Saramoldaev Detsky Dom (orphanage) is “Kerchief”. I don’t know what she said, since it was all in Russian, but the jist of it was that the orphanage was very much in favor of the Werkmeister family adopting Dasha, and that Dasha was happy to be adopted by us. The guardian council woman also got up and recited the findings from the guardian council hearing last week that had a favorable opinion of us, too. After that, there was a little banter back in forth, also in Russian, about the whereabouts of Dasha’s biological parents. The judge seemed satisfied with the responses and then he left the courtroom to consider his decision while we waited in the court. A few minutes later, he returned and said that he was giving a favorable finding to us and that after the 15 day waiting period, the paperwork would be done and she could come home. That was it. No fireworks, no hard questions that we had prepped for, not much of anything. Vera told us afterward that she had never seen a court hearing go so well. She had never had a family that didn’t have to answer any questions from the prosecutor or judge. Basically, it went as well as it possible could have! Yay!

Going back to the last couple of days, though, we have had such a bittersweet time. We have really gotten to know the other six adoptive families that are all here adopting from the Baby House. All of these families are made up of single women, to whom I give such credit. Having spent 4 years as a single mother myself, I really think these women are heroes of the bravest variety. I am sure that I would never have been brave enough to travel to a foreign country and live there for a month in order to complete an adoption. These women have become our family here in Kazakhstan, especially Marcia and her daughter Sara, and Sherrie from Canada. Each night at our hotel, there is a standing dinner time at 6:30 where we all meet and discuss our day to decompress. Over the past couple of weeks, as the other women have come into town, the word has gotten out that the Gasovik hotel restaurant is the place to be for dinner, and we sometimes have 9 or 10 people at the ever-expanding table. It has been kind of fun to become the “experts” at the table, able to help the others out when they first arrive and feel that nauseating-sick feeling of sleeplessness, jet lag, fear and the overwhelming smell of smoke that permeates the city. All of these families will forever be part of our family, as we (okay not Jeff) have cried with them, consoled them, strategized with them, and had fun with them.

Saturday night was our last “family” dinner here, so there was an exceptionally large group for dinner. Jacob and Sara had their wish come true, as after dinner we all went out to the Bounce House Party, which conveniently had added a new section of bounce house. The kids were so excited and had such a great time. We all needed to see them happy, because the day had been kind of hard. During our afternoon visit at the orphanage, we had decided to give our daughter the key to our house that we had mentioned before. I had tied a long purple ribbon around it so that she could wear it around her neck like a necklace. Vera explained to her what we were doing and what the key meant. She was very sad immediately, as she thought we were going home right then. Vera explained to her that we were not leaving that day, but she was still scared. I had brought a little necklace and earrings for her, since she had pierced ears but I had not seen earrings in them during our trip. I had asked her earlier if she had earrings, and she said that she did. I had also asked her if she wanted new earrings, and she had definitely said yes. When I went to put the earrings in her ears, though, the holes had closed up on the back, so they wouldn’t go in. We asked her how long it had been since she had worn earrings, and that is when her caregiver told us that when she had been returned by the Kazakh family last year, that the “mother” had returned to the orphanage a few weeks later and taken the earrings back. This made me both furious and sad at the same time. Seriously, what kind of people were this couple??? What good would a $5 pair of earrings do for this woman, and why would she want to continue causing pain to the sweet child like this? I will never know, but I thank God that He led us to this child, as she is definitely our daughter and was meant to be in our family.

Once we finished with the formalities of giving gifts to Dasha, our coordinator left and we got to go outside to play again. Dasha opened up again and her laugh came back as she and Jacob held hands and ran through the playground. It is really sweet to see the two of them becoming closer as siblings. I know that once she meets Amber and Mitchell, she is going to be just so thrilled. They will be such great older siblings for her! After our visit, we went to the store for a couple of items, and Jacob got yet another cheap Kazakhstan toy. I think we have mentioned before that the toys here are very cheap, but are also the worst-made toys you have ever seen. The little car that Jacob got came in its original packaging, so we thought that it might last a little longer than the other toys we have tried. As Jeff was opening the package for Jacob, I said to him, “Should we bet on the timeline for breakage for this toy?” I told Jeff that I gave this toy around 4 minutes before it broke. Well, as it came out of the package, it broke immediately. We have come to the conclusion that the toys here are toys that were rejected by the Western countries for shipment there, and they just come here instead. Kind of sad!

Yesterday was a very hard visit. We knew that it was going to be our last visit with Dasha before we left the country. Vera explained to her again that we were leaving, but that she would be coming home to us soon. After everything that she has been through, she has every right to be suspicious that this will actually happen. She pretty much shut down as we were saying good-bye, and we kissed her and hugged her, and promised her that we are her mama and papa forever, saying, “Ya tvoy mama, vseech da” and “Ya tvoy papa, vseech da” over and over again. When we left, I broke down completely and could not stop sobbing. I just hurt for her, since she is so scared that it is not really going to happen. We have been trying to console ourselves by saying that when she really does come home, she will be so happy and everything will be okay. She was still wearing our house key around her neck, and I have a feeling that it will not come off until she is home.

Now we are almost finished packing, and just waiting for our driver to take us the long trip to Almaty. We will leave at 2 pm our time, which is 1 am California time. We will drive for about 7 hours to Almaty and then have a few hours to kill in the airport before our 3 am flight to first Frankfurt, and then finally home to LAX. Amber and Mitchell – I can’t wait to see you!!!!! I love you so much and will be giving you the biggest hugs you have ever had!!!!!