IT'S OFFICIAL! HE'S FINALLY OURS!

(Maureen's Post)
Today was another big milestone day. The fifteen day waiting period expired at midnight last night, so today we were able to go to the city registrar's office and get James' official birth certificate and adoption decree naming us as his parents. It's such an amazing feeling knowing that he's all ours and officially part of our family. We still plan to do a readoption once we get home, though. We want to readopt for a couple of reasons. One is to get a state-issued birth certificate (in English) showing that he was born in Kazakhstan. This will come in handy when it's time for him to start school. Secondly, we want to protect his inheritance rights.

We didn't get to hold James' birth certificate for very long, as it needed to be sent to Astana (the capital city) along with some paperwork to get James' Kazakhstani passport. He is still considered to be a citizen of Kazakhstan until the age of 18. Of course, once our plane touches down on U.S. soil when we return home he also automatically becomes a U.S. citizen. So, he will have dual citizenship with both countries until he turns 18. There is a new procedure now where some of the paperwork has to be completed in Kokshetau before being sent to Astana, and we are one of the first families to do this. It was no big deal though, just involved some more waiting in the same office.

After the paperwork was done we went to an Armenian restaurant and had a wonderful leisurely lunch. This was a combination celebration for us families and an appreciation lunch to Inna and Oleg for all they did for us. The food was very tasty, and we and the Kurtz's were in agreement that this was probably the most flavorful meal we've had in Kokshetau. We had a great lunch and were even treated by the manager to a very large, fancy, sword-shaped bottle of Armenian cognac, which was very good. The manager was so nice for doing that, and he even came to our table to join us for a drink. Combine the cognac with the vodka that we were already drinking, and you've got some pretty tipsy folks leaving the restaurant. That is, except for Oleg. He refuses to drink any alcohol when he's driving families around.

After leaving the restaurant we went to a baby store to stock up on formula and rice cereal, enough to last until we are able to fully transition James to formula and cereal at home. We also went to the bigger Skif Trade pick-up store to stock up on diapers and wipes to last us until we return home, too. To celebrate the end of the waiting period we bought James a singing Cheburashka doll, which is an imaginary furry animal. About 3 weeks ago we were watching one of our working TV channels on a Saturday morning while some children's shows were playing. One of the shows is about the Cheburashka and his crocodile friend, Gena, and an old lady, Shapoklyak, who keeps getting into mishaps. The movies were obviously made many years ago. It wasn't animated, but more like clay-mation (think of those Frosty the Snowman or Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer Christmas specials on TV). I asked Rada about it when we were at Joan's get-together last month and she told me what that the animal was called Cheburashka. Inna came with us to buy the doll today, and she told us that the story is no one really knows where he came from, but he was found in a truck in a crate of oranges, and someone just arbitrarily named him Cheburashka. The doll sings about being friendly to all, including dogs which offer him their paws in greeting. James was quite entranced with the singing doll, and we've been using it to distract him to keep him still while we're trying to change his diaper so he doesn't roll over. We think we'll probably wear out the built-in batteries. We're taking bets to see if the Cheburashka is still singing by the time we return home.

As previously promised, I've also included some pics around town that we took on our city tour a couple of weeks ago.

Until next time, paka and love to all!