Queen's Day

Today is Queen's Day in The Netherlands and yet again, we are missing it (but for a good reason). In Amsterdam, it is a big celebration where everyone wears orange (the national color) to celebrate the Queen's birthday (an excuse to party, I think). We only get 1 visit today (because it's Sunday), from 10-noon. We made the most of it though! Hannah was in full form and a lot of fun to play with. Every day she’s getting a little better at sitting up and just loves all of the attention she’s getting from her mommy and daddy. And as usual, she was dressed as cute as can be (only not in orange).

We found out that she usually eats breakfast at 930 and since we don’t get there until about 1015, she is already done. Our translator talked to the caregivers for us and they will wait to let us feed her. And we will be getting there by 10, which means more time for us with Hannah! By the end of our visit, she was getting sleepy again. She cuddled with her daddy, but fought sleep as much as she could. It was too cute listening to her babbling to herself.

We’re off to the circus this afternoon with all of the other families that use our translator. There will be 17 of us in total. Do you think we’ll stand out? We might be the “circus act” in the beginning. We’d rather see Hannah, but the circus should be fun too. Our entertainment options are limited, so we make the best of it!

Day 5

We think we found a pattern. Hannah starts off our morning visit full of smiles and is easily entertained.

By around 11am, she starts getting fussy. She no longer wants to play. We took turns walking around the room with her. She really likes looking out the window. Unfortunately, the weather is cooler today and is drizzling so we can’t take her outside for a walk. Finally she calmed down and cuddled with me. By 1130a she was fast asleep. I handed her off to Daddy for a while. She woke up (from the noise) right when we were getting ready to take her back to her room. And there were the smiles again. Funny thing, this morning, we had to give Olga Hannah’s official name. Turns out we spelled her birth name wrong, It is Alina, not Ailina. It was all such a blur in the beginning. So officially she will be Hannah Alina Molon.

Lunch at home and grocery shopping again today during our break. But before the grocery store we bartered with our neighbors. We got sugar and pepper from them and gave them some balsamic vinegar and rice in return. It works out well living next door to other Americans.

Last night, I tried my hand at laundry. Someone had written the cycles in English above the Russian so that was helpful. The loads are VERY small. Coming from Amsterdam, I thought I was used to small loads but our washer could only fit about 10 items per load. We also found out why people don’t wear white here. Our load of whites turned into our load of peach-ish clothes. We do get rusty cold water from time to time because the water was completely turned off the other day. Thinking ahead, I used the hot water setting. 3 hours later and the laundry still going, I turned off the machine but because it was front loading, I couldn’t open it. Another “rapid” cycle and we were done for the night. I tried Vanish (like OxyClean) today but I fear they will never be “white” again.

While we were thinking we found a pattern in Hannah, we are now thinking she might be getting sick. Again this afternoon, smiles in the beginning, but by the end of the first hour she was fast asleep. One of the other babies is sick and ended up going into “quarantine” (she couldn’t be in the play room with everyone else and had to stay in her room) but not before she possibly spread it around. It helps that our friend, “the pediatrician”, is nearby and watching over little Hannah. She thinks she might be coming down with something since she’s sleeping so much. She also gave us some tips to help with Hannah’s development. She actually sat up on her own today, which was a big step, but could only do it for a minute or two. We need to help her strengthen her muscles (which is where the pediatrician comes in handy). Either way, she’s sleeping and we’re getting in lots of good cuddle time! We even heard her snoring softly today (and of course took some video to share with future dates).


After our afternoon visit, we had our driver drop us off at Johnnie Walker Pub for dinner with our neighbors and another mom here. We had a fun time and a nice walk home afterwards.

Day 4

Another typical day. We didn’t get to feed our girl this morning (or this afternoon) but Hannah was all smiles again when we got to her room. Unfortunately the smiles didn’t last our whole 2 hours. Our “giggle girl” turned into a fussy girl. You feel like you are being watched like a hawk, either the translators or the other families. We think she was probably hungry. We ended up taking a walk outside and found that she liked being slumped over your arm.

During our lunch break, we again ate at home. Joe had our typical lunch of a Kazakh dish, a type of pancake with meat and rice inside and I had leftover pasta. After lunch, it was off for a walk in the park. The park had a large lake that we walked around as well as carnival type rides. We couldn’t tell if they are no longer in use or just shut down until summer. They weren’t falling apart but they didn’t look that great either. The weather is cooling down a bit so it was really nice.

Our afternoon visit once again found our girl full of smiles! And spit up again. Joe was the winner and was the first to be spit up on! We knew it was going to happen sooner or later. She must like him best! : ) Towards the end of our visits, we can tell it is definitely almost nap time for her. Today I even got her to cuddle with me. It was so adorable; she had my hair (alternating with my shirt) in her hand and was sucking on her thumb.

Now, dinner again in our apt. Hopefully it will turn out better than last night’s!

First Typical day

Today was our first typical day, the way we will spend most of the next 20 days with Hannah. We got to Malutka at about 1015a and went to pick up Hannah from her room (#9). Right when I picked her up, all smiles! Can’t get enough of those! Again, we fed her, this time Joe tried. Apparently I pushed him into it a little too early and so I took over mid way. Not that either of us really knew what we were doing. Yesterday’s feeding went much better. Today it seemed like as much was coming out as was going in, but she wouldn’t let you slow her down (she’s got a good grip!). Her clothes being completely soaked through, we changed her. Again, we’re learning. In the amount of time the 2 of us changed Hannah, the caregivers could have changed at least 5 babies. Still no diaper changes yet! : ) The caregivers are great and really let you do everything yourself. In her room, there is a large main sitting room with the play pen, walkers, toys, changing table and dressers with clothes and then there is another room with the cribs. It also looks like they have a room with a washer and refrigerator. We have yet to see the other rooms but hope to get to take pictures before we leave. As we were leaving, the caregiver wanted me to get something out of the dresser for Hannah. She kept pointing (she was in the middle of feeding another baby) and finally I got to the hats. OK. I thought it would be rude to look through to find a cute hat to match her outfit (which I of course wanted to do) so grabbed the first one. Blue and white stripes. This was not acceptable to the caregiver, I pulled out another. Still no good. Finally, she got up and picked out the cutest hat that totally matched her outfit! Apparently, Hannah has stylish caregivers!

The rest of the morning was spent mostly in the play room with the other families. Our next door neighbor was in there with her new little girl. We also took a walk around the grounds at Malutka. It was nice to get some fresh air and some quiet time with our girl! She was amazed by the trees and wanted to touch everything. She held on so tight to a bush that she took off the leaves when we pulled her away. We’ll teach her about ecology later. While we were walking we ran into a few groups of the toddlers. So adorable! One group ran right up to us and most said hello in English. Hannah started to get sleepy outside (maybe too much stimulation for one morning) so we went back inside. We were able to talk to our next door neighbor (a pediatrician from Chicago) about Hannah’s eye. It looked to us like it was a little lazy. She thinks she has a “pseudo” lazy eye. It looks like it but isn’t, something about extra skin around the eye. One less worry!

We left at noon and came home to eat lunch. After lunch, and chatting on the phone with a family we met at the airport (only I would still manage to get my phone time in while we’re in Kazakhstan), we walked to the grocery store to stock up some more. We might try cooking….(there’s a pizza place nearby if it doesn’t work out). A little time for rest and then back to Hannah.

We were back at Malutka at 4p and spent another 2 hours with Hannah. When we got there she was just waking up and then we fed her. The afternoon went a lot better than this morning. We slowed her down a little and had a lot less spit up (not even a change of clothes after).

After feeding, we took a walk outside again. We should mention, they dress these babies warm! The babies usually have 2 outfits on (usually 2 sleepers). As we were going out they even gave us a blanket to take with. Did we mention it was 30 degrees Celsius out? Very warm! We can already see a difference in her. She’s been babbling and giggling even more! She even cuddled a little bit today! A great day!

INTRODUCING..........Hannah Ailina

After almost a year…here she is…our new daughter, Hannah Ailina! And this is our first family photo!


We started out the day at about 945am playing with the 3 girls from yesterday. Our translator left to go pick up another family from the airport and said she’d be back at noon to pick us up. We thought this meant we’d spend the morning with all 3 girls and then decide when Olga came back. Well, not so. At about 1045am who we think was the orphanage director and another lady (we hadn’t met either previously) came in and said “Choose One”. Those words were almost the only English they knew. We were completely caught off guard. We had discussed the 3 girls in detail and did some research. We even called a pediatrician I knew in Amsterdam to help. All 3 girls were behind developmentally, which we expected. One little girl melted our hearts, but she was a lot more under-developed than all of the other babies. It was heartbreaking to decide and we didn’t have much time. When the pressure was really on, Joe panicked and could give no sane advice, so I looked down and saw Ailina full of smiles and giggles. Our choice was made! Anyone says this is easy is crazy.

After switching rooms, we spent the remainder of the morning with Hannah Ailina until noon. During our 4 hour break, we had lunch at our apt. and then went to a mall nearby. We bought Hannah some bibs since she seems to like to spit up and her outfit was smelly (guess we should get used to that). Then we bought us some shower shoes, really necessary. I said our apt. was great but the shower was less than desirable (and I’m a somewhat of a clean freak). After a short nap, it was back to the orphanage.

We got to Malutka at 4 and picked up Hannah from her room and gave her her first bottle (well, not really her first but our first). She’s definitely an eater and drank it within minutes. We spent the rest of the time (until 6pm) playing in the sports room. We had a lot of fun and got even more giggles out of her…I should mention, the room now has 4 other families in it with their little ones, mostly babies. It’s a bit chaotic already and we’re told there will be many more families coming this week. Because of all the delays, it seems like everyone is now traveling.
After Malutka, we went out to dinner with our new neighbors, 2 Americans also adopting from Malutka at a restaurant nearby and now sleep…being parents is exhausting. : )

Now for some statistics…Hannah is 7 ½ months old, born on September 4, 2005. She currently weighs 6.4 kg and is 65 cm. She has strawberry blond hair and hazel eyes (or as Joe thinks, brown). She was premature (born in the 36-38 week) but is growing fine. We don’t know anything about her birth mother but this afternoon Olga gave us a little piece of paper from the maternity ward where she was born and had her birth information.

Safe and Sound

We arrived safe and sound in Karaganda at about 1130am today. Our flights were uneventful and we both got a little sleep on each of our 2 flights. We were greeted in Almaty airport by another American family adopting in Karaganda. We flew with them the rest of the way and they are staying at an apartment nearby.

We were met in Karaganda by Olga, our translator. Before we even got to the apt. she asked us if we wanted to go to the orphanage today. Very surprising! But of course, we said "yes''. We also found out right away that it is not possible to adopt 2 children at the same time. We were OK either way (although I definitely did want 2), but more importantly we wanted to know right away. Our driver and Olga dropped us off at our apt. and we unpacked (by we, I mean me). Our apartment is great. We have everything we need, including a living room, full kitchen, and bedroom. We also have a washer and a drying rack. Anyway, we were able to get in a good 2 hour nap and then shower with time to spare before we had to go to the orphanage at 4pm.

The orphanage was very overwhelming. We went into the music room with our translator and met the assistant director. From then, it was a literal baby parade. Ten babies were brought in by their caregivers and left with us, pretty much all at once. We were basically left alone in the room with our translator while we played with the babies. Now do you see the overwhelming part? How can we possibly decide? All of the babies were adorable!!! Joe was the funniest. It took him a while to warm up to the babies (and most of the babies to him) but it gave Olga and I a good laugh. We slowly had to narrow down the number of children. We had to have it down to 3 before we could go over medical charts with the doctors. Somehow, we managed to do it. It was the hardest thing I've ever had to do (well, that is before we actually have to decide which one is our new baby). We went over medical charts and then spent more time with the babies by ourselves (which proved to be challenging when one particular baby would cry every time you put her down). We were there a total of 2 hours. We will spend some more time with the babies tomorrow before we make our final decision. One thing we do know....IT'S A GIRL!!!

After the orphanage we went to the grocery store (bigger than our neighborhood one in Amsterdam, much bigger). We came back to the apt. about 7 and then waited for our internet to be hooked up. We ended up just eating some bread and cheese for dinner. We are too tired to do much anything else.

Final Countdown

Just finishing up all the last minute packing. Then it's off to drop Charlie off at our friends' house with all his stuff and pick Joe up from work. More last minute packing and we're off. Our flight leaves at 630 tonight. Joe and I have a bet whether I'll get any sleep on the flight. Obviously, he doesn't think I will as I'm so excited. My theory is that my motion sleepiness will play in my favor and hope to get at least a few hours on the 7 hour flight. We'll be in our apt. by tomorrow afternoon. We hope to get internet access as soon as possible but there might be a day or two delay while it is all figured out.

In the meantime, here are some links if you want to read about Kazakhstan or our agency...

www.adoptachild.us (Reaching Out Thru International Adoption Agency)
www.kazakhadoptivefamilies.com (A great resource for links to everything you wanted to know about Kazakhstan)

Thank you to everyone for your well wishes, thoughts, and prayers!

1 Day to Go

Twenty four hours from now we will be heading to the airport for our trip. To say we are excited is an understatement.

But right now, we are in the hell that is packing. I included pictures to show what we are taking! A LOT of stuff. The second picture is our stuff, not too much. Although we are there for almost 4 weeks, we only packed about 5 days worth of clothes, plus our outfit for court and workout gear. We are told we will have a washer in our apt in Karaganda. The first picture is all of the donations I've received through the American Women's Club of Amsterdam. At the beginning of the month, I sent out a few emails requesting donations and was amazed at the response. As you can see, we received an overwhelming amount of clothes (ages 0-5), medicines, lotions, baby powder, etc. Hence, the hell of packing, but for such a great reason!!! I am vacuum packing most of it and what we can not take on this trip will go with us on the next! We've also raised almost $300 to donate (through items bought in Kazakhstan) to Malutka. Thank you so much to everyone who donated! We truly appreciate your kindness and generosity!

3 Days to Go

We're almost done getting the critical pieces together to travel. We booked our flights on Tuesday night. We leave Amsterdam on the 24th at 630pm and arrive in Almaty at 515am on the 25th. Luckily there is a 730 flight to Karaganda. Taking the advice of our coordinator in country (begrudgingly as we'd rather save the money), we booked VIP Service to get us through customs. We didn't think there'd be a ton of people at the airport at 515 in the morning, but better safe than sorry.

Yesterday, I picked up our visas at the Kazakh Embassy in the Hague. Another 2 1/2 hours in the car. I've done more driving this past week than I've done in the last year and a half. Joe usually drives on trips, I sleep. Oh and I failed to mention that Joe's bike (our usual mode of transportation) has a flat tire so I've had to take him to and from work every day too since I've needed our 1 car.

Our last critical piece is original documents that we need to take with us. Reaching Out shipped them to us via FedEx on Tuesday. By yesterday afternoon, I started getting worried and finally tracked the package (novel idea). It was in NL and of course they tried to deliver it when I was picking up our visas. Oddly, there was a note that said "incorrect address." I called Don at RO and verified they sent it to our correct address. This morning, I "patiently" waited at home, still no package. I called FedEx customer service and found out it had been delivered to Vondelstraat 132 (not our address, but my friend Jill's) and someone named Spey signed for it. How did that happen, you ask? Well, yesterday I was supposed to host a coffee for the American Woman's Club but couldn't because I had to get our visas. I left a note on our front door stating "AWCA Coffee has been moved to....". Well, when FedEx came, he thought we moved??? Maybe a language barrier, the note was in English? I quickly called my friend Jill on her cell and home, no answers. When I finally talked to her (really only about 15 minutes later but my anxiety attack from earlier in the week was quickly coming back), she said she was on her way home and she'd check. To make matters worse, none of her neighbors are named Spey. Hmmm.... Luckily, the package was there when she got home and we met for lunch so I could get it.

That's all for now! Moving on to packing!

Good news!!

We have a travel date! We leave this coming Monday, April 24th!!

It's been a whirlwind week and it's only half over!! We were walking in the door from our weekend getaway on Monday night (we get Good Friday and Easter Monday off in NL so we went to the Champagne region of France for 4 days) when we received the call from our agency telling us we got our Letter of Invitation (approval) from Kazakhstan. They weren't able to give us our travel date at the time but told us to get our visas. I went to the Embassy in The Hague yesterday and dropped off our applications. The guy told me to call back to check if he could process it. As usual (it seems) there was a problem. We were only approved for a single entry visa and we need a double entry visa as we have to make 2 trips to Kazakhstan for the adoption. After talking with Reaching Out, they've never had this problem before (not what you want to hear) and the Approval being in Russian, we were all at a loss. We decided to get the single entry visa so that we aren't delayed and we'll get a tourist visa for our 2nd trip.

Anyway, back to the GOOD NEWS....we got the call last night that we are to arrive in Almaty on April 25th. From there, we'll fly to Karaganda that same day and go to the orphanage on Wednesday, April 26th. One week from today!!!! If all goes as planned, we'll find our child(ren) and spend 3 weeks with them, 2 visits a day, to get to know them before going to court on May 16th to finalize the adoption. We still aren't sure whether we are adopting 1 or 2 children. We are approved by our social worker and US Immigration to adopt 2 children and really wanted to, but found out last week that the officials in Kazakhstan may not approve the adoption of 2 children at the same time. They've allowed it in the past but as we've seen before, there are new officials in Parliament and they are making changes. Unfortunately, we don't know what the changes are until they affect us so we will wait and see.