Andrei

At the end of each day’s visit with Andrei, I like to seize just a moment before we part to give him a reassuring look in the eye and a good, deliberate hug followed by a kiss on the cheek. From the beginning, Andrei has been receptive to this, but slow to return the embrace as I don’t think he has had many hugs before. More and more, though, he has been hugging me back and today, he took it a step further. After I gave him his kiss, he pressed his mouth to my cheek, then gave me a delayed puckered smack, as if this was something experimental, something he had not done before. Becky, witnessing this, called for her turn and took little Andrei into her arms. Andrei promptly gave her the same treatment, this time more deftly.

Andrei’s caregivers are truly remarkable and I have a great deal of praise for the job that they do. But with so many children and such a range of needs, it is a sad fact of orphanage life that there is only so much that the caregivers can provide, particularly in the emotional realm. To witness the kids that are undergoing the adoptive process--some of whom are understandably withdrawn--surrender themselves to the affection of the new parents is very much a spectacle in transformation. Becky and I are immensely happy to see Andrei coming around.

Charles and Becky



Attention:
Becky and I may have neglected to address some of the obvious questions that are sure to arise as we post our web-log entries. If there are any such questions, please feel free to leave a comment at the tail-end of our posts. Becky and I will make sure to address them.
Coming up is a better detail of the daily routine for Andrei, Becky and I, and also some more story time about Karaganda.

Declassified Photographs

The Top Ten Things We Have Learned in Kazakhstan

A Super Brief History:

Kazakhstan is a vast area of northern latitude ‘steppe’, or grassland, and is much the same landscape commonly associated with neighboring Mongolia. In fact, the native peoples of Kazakhstan are of close kinship with the Mongolians thanks to the virility of Ghengis Khan and the many other passing hordes of Mongolian hell-raisers. The large swath of steppe that encompasses Kazakhstan is believed by historians to be the scene of the original domestication of the horse. Horseback riding is a national pastime in Kazakhstan and the horse is also part of the traditional cuisine.
As history progressed into the 1800s, and Russia pushed the frontiers of its expanding empire into Central Asia, Kazakhstan gradually succumbed to its sovereignty. During the interim between the World Wars, Stalinist Russia engaged in an abrupt transformation and the Iron Curtain fell over Kazakhstan. The USSR collapsed in 1991, freeing many of the non-indigenous citizens to leave, and Kazakhstan struggling to rediscover its own identity. Still, however, the Russian influence is huge.


Without further ado, Charles and Becky's observations and musings:

1) Your chauffeur is the perfect victim for testing your pigeon Russian: you have him right where you want him and he knows no English to bail you out. (Poor Vladimir, our driver, must cringe as he rear-view-mirrors us flipping feverishly through our Russian dictionary.)
















2) White Kazakh anyone? It’s the new Ryon-house specialty! Warning: Even vodka and coffee liqueur cannot rectify the potent off-color taste of horse milk.

3) The Clean Air Act is our friend. The apparent lack of automobile and industrial emission standards in Karaganda blankets the area in a thick haze and gives even the snow a greyish hue.












4) The animal has to stand still for the meat to be tender. This may help to explain why the galloping horse hasn’t won over the cow for your rib-eye steak. I (Charles) bought some deli-sliced horse meat at the supermarket, and it was chewy enough for the first bite to last through an entire episode of The Brady Bunch (dubbed in Russian).

5) Being able the to read the cooking directions is not necessary for making good food. The nightmare strings of Russian Cyrillic characters of the back of food packages didn’t keep us from inventing a new dish every night.

















6) A jacuzzi without warm water just isn’t the same. Have you ever heard the saying that you can’t warm a cup of cold coffee with a teaspoon of hot water? Becky and I could not produce enough pots of stove heated water to make this thing worth while.











7) Don’t take your high speed internet for granted. I did manage, however, to produce at least a few pots of water while my email pages loaded.

8) Don’t judge a glass of water by its color (or maybe you should). While it is true that we had to boil the tap water for drinking, we weren’t aware of its true color (brown) until we produced enough of it for a luke-warm bath.

9) Beer is part of the shared human experience. Even our driver, Vladimir, who only knows the English words ‘hello’ and ‘goodbye’, made sure to point out the local Karaganda brewery for what it was (in English).

















10) Kids are astonishingly resilient. Witnessing the inner workings of an orphanage can be trying on anybody’s heart, but amazingly the children are still smiling, playing, and acting like children should. Even if adoptive parents are only able to provide a home for one child at a time, they are helping to support a process that will continue to find new homes for the others.














Charles and Becky

Declassified Photographs

The frontside of Andrei's "ryebyonak dom" (babyhouse)


Becky getting Andrei dressed for a new day of monkeying.


For some reason, Andrei's tongue serves as an "excite-o-meter."

The Bomb Drop

Well, Becky and I made it to Karaganda, if not without some hitches, and by this point in the story we have already determined our new little boy. Andrei will be two on February 22 and as you can see from the photos, is of a pure Russian stock. Andrei is a super playful and busy little guy and is super responsive to interactions with those around him. The girl in the photos, Anya, whom we have dubbed the ‘bulldozer’ for her particularly strong will, is Andrei’s playtime partner and you should hear these guys protest to one another in jibber-jabber-Russian. (Anya has been adopted by Greek lady from Philadelphia who also happens to have a strong will.)
The funny thing about Andrei is that he is not at all what Becky and I expected. We were of a belief that we would bring home a little Kazakh/Mongolian battle-axe, but when Andrei set about casting his magic, he effectively changed our minds for us; we had no say in the matter. Becky and I couldn’t be more happy. Edward cannot imagine what we are bringing home.
We will continue to visit Andrei twice daily as we remain in Karaganda. Karaganda is an immensely interesting place and we will try to share some of its details in future posts.

Charles

The Lowdown

While Becky and I wait for our grand departure on Saturday, January 19, 2008, I will attempt to layout what we expect to happen:

Operation Kazakhstan will begin with a flight from Salt Lake City to Minneapolis to Amsterdam to Almaty, Kazakhstan in one fell swoop, requiring a little in excess of 24 hours for the complete trip. The orphanage, however, is not in Almaty but much further north in Karaganda, requiring yet another leg for the trip. We have a coordinated greeter that will meet us at the airport in Almaty to oversee our Karaganda connection and otherwise help to set us on a good foot in this foreign land. Due to a quirky itinerary, we will actually arrive in Almaty the night before our Karaganda flight, so Becky and I will get a hotel room and hopefully get some rest. Upon arrival in Karaganda, we will be greeted again, chauffeured to a small apartment that will be our temporary home, and will make our first visit to the orphanage the following day.
Now, as far as our to-be-adopted child is concerned, we do not have a "post-card" child that has already been determined for us. On our first day at the orphanage--to the best of my understanding--the orphans will be trooped out to greet the prospective parents, and the parents will then set about selecting which child they will claim as their own. The decision must be made on the first day. For all of those that I have explained this selection process too, I have had one of two responses: 1) "This sounds awful! I don't see how you could possibly bear to choose among..." 2) "Zen will take over and a child will emerge without you having to anguish." I think I have taken membership with the second camp. This is good enough for me and I have chosen not to worry further until the time comes.
In the wake of the selection process, we will continue to visit the orphanage daily for the following 2-weeks. Our visitations are in shifts, 2 visits per day (one in the morning and another after a European-long lunch break). I understand that in fair weather, parents are allowed to take their child back to the apartment or the market or wherever, but in the thick of January with the Siberian border just overhead to the north, I am not expecting too much gallivanting. The purpose of the visitations, of course, is to bond with the child and to meld the transition to a new home for the little one. Then comes the dreaded waiting period: the month long period needed to satisfy our mandatory court appearances in Kazakhstan.
Following the 15-day period of daily visits, we will not see our child again until we are able to bring him/her home. Two court dates are required to make official the adoption and make way for us to leave the country with the child. As you might imagine, herein lies the drudgery of bureaucracy. I am hoping that the actual appearances are not too arduous, but simply getting the court dates in a timely manner is what makes me anxious. Actually, the whole deal makes me anxious, but I guess that's what we signed up for.
During the lag between court dates--the first should occur not long after our visitation period concludes--Becky will return to the States and I will continue to wait in Europe, rested and ready to return to Kazakhstan as soon as I am summoned. The final court appearance will be in Almaty. Also in Almaty will be our little trooper, having been brought down from Karaganda. With baby gear and travel arrangements all in situ, the mad dash back to the U.S. will begin. In Amsterdam, a dear friend of Becky and mine from Germany, Yovanka, will climb on board and assist me for the final distances home.

Charles

The Beginning of the End

Finally, after a year and a half of paperwork and waiting, my wife Becky and I have a firm date for our departure. Going to Kazakhstan mid-winter to adopt a child seems ever more far-out as the parting time draws near. It is now early January, and I have already taken off of work to achieve a sense of order on the home-front before the new member of our clan makes his presence. Our son Edward is certainly excited; as an only child he has longed to have a companion for the many adventures that our family likes to engage. Given that "Operation Kazakhstan" seems to be reserved for Becky and myself (Edward will not be traveling), I am hoping that this blog will in part serve to keep him connected while we are away. I also hope that this blog will help to keep our greater family abreast with the progress as this saga unfolds.
In the next post, I will describe some of the details about our adoption from Kazakhstan and what, as far as we know, we are to expect.

Charles