Hello again! We hope everyone is enjoying the long holiday weekend back home. We didn't quite get to enjoy the usual festivities surrounding the 4th of July out here in Kazakhstan, but we did hit a major milestone in our process; our 14-day bonding period with Michael has now been completed! As mentioned before, normally the next step would be to file for a court hearing today, but since today and tomorrow are holidays our coordinator won't be able to file that for us until Wednesday, at the earliest. Who knows - maybe we'll even get to find out when we get to go to the pre-court hearing and/or when the date of actual court will be.
So we continue to bond with Michael, which is going well. He definitely recognizes all three of us when we come in to see him and gives us plenty of smiles and laughs for us. It also almost seems like Michael is starting to recognize his name. Of course, every time we hold up a spoonful of food when we feed him we say "Michael" and he turns to look at us. Yeah, we've got the Pavlov's conditioning thing going on. He does have a nickname here at the Baby House, so something else we've been doing is say his nickname and immediately say "Michael" afterwards. Eventually, we'll drop the nickname and just call him Michael. The fact that he now recognizes us makes me think about the time we will have to leave him after we go to court and before we return to come pick him up for good (about 3 to 4 weeks long). Will he think we abandoned him? Will he remember us when we return? At least the one thing I do know is that he will be well-cared for at the Baby House. They've taken care of him since he was 17 days old, so knowing that does give me some comfort. Anyway, I try not to think about it too much, since I know I'll probably be an emo mess when it's time to leave.
Unfortunately, we weren't able to get together for our pot-luck yesterday at the Kaplans. Jadyn was not feeling well, not to mention Sean is still dealing with his residual throat pain, which is still pretty severe, even though he hasn't had a fever in a few days (my throat pain finally went away a couple of days ago). James is still well, though! So, since yesterday was a Sunday, meaning only a morning visit to the Baby House, we just went back to the apartment and ate leftovers and napped. Later that afternoon, we walked over to City Mall where we met up with the Chinns. We roamed the mall for a bit then ended up back at Assorti on the third floor for dinner. As we were coming in, we saw the Deb and Jeremy, the Canadian couple whose son, Lucas, is also in Group 4, along with a Canadian single mom and a French single mom, each also adopting from Botakoz Baby House; they were just finishing up their afternoon snack.
As we were walking to City Mall yesterday, we ran into the Belgian couple with their twins from Group 4. They said the transition after taking custody was a bit tough the first 24 hours. We saw them again today when we went to lunch at the Cosmonaut Hotel and they said the next 24 hours were better. They were actually finishing up lunch when we saw them, and were about to be picked up to head to the airport for Almaty and then home in a few more days. One thing I do remember about coming home with James is that it was a TOUGH trip coming home with an infant. Those last few days before leaving for America were so hectic, plus we stayed in different apartments so there was never really any time for James to adjust, not to mention the flight home from Frankfurt to Houston was just so long and a killer since the flight was westbound (never got any shut-eye since it never got dark). You really just kind of deal with it and roll with the punches until you make it home. I fully anticipate that the trip home with Michael will be just as tough, if not more so. I am glad, though, that it will be both me and Sean returning to pick up Michael in August (both parents are not required to be here to bring the baby home). So, that should really help a lot.
I will say that the weather has been pretty warm lately, reminding me of 4th of July-type weather. Today's weather was sunny and a bit humid with a high temperature of 90 degrees (F). Remember, there's no air conditioning at the Baby House or in our apartment, and unfortunately no breeze today, either. Yikes!
And with that, we'll close out today's post. Hope y'all had lots of BBQ burgers and hot dogs this weekend for us!
In addition to playing with his toys and watching DVDs, James has been working on his worksheets that his teacher sent with us. He actually enjoys working on them and asks to do them! We hang up his worksheets and pictures that he colors up on our refrigerator, just like we do at home. He is really handling this trip and the role of big brother very well, and we couldn't be more proud of him.
Molodyetz, James! Daddy and Mama love you very much!
Paka paka and love to all!
