Court Date - April 26th at 4pm

Well, we got the court date and we will have to change our flights. We won't be back until the end of the week. The options were not good with the flight costs, dates and availability so we opted to go to Chicago then fly back to Boston on a different airline and pay a penalty and get a small refund with Lufhansa because there are no flights to Boston until next Sunday!!!!!!! ...or we could have paid $4,000 to connect in Amsterdam and fly to Boston which is ridiculously high.... so it looks like we'll be home very late next Friday on another airline if all goes well....

These pictures of M. Oscar are from today. We think this is one of his favorite caregivers. We can tell. She's one of ours too.

We saw a difference with him when we went outside twice today. He looks around more and you can see him thinking and wondering about things whereas before he could care less and would just want to eat or go back inside.

He looks at the cars with the parents in them going out the main entrance and onto the busy street where the buses, trucks and cars go fast and you can see him wonder where they are going and what that busy street is all about. He looks at the dogs, people and many kids playing near the apartment buildings and he looks at them and thinks. We haven't seen that in him before today.

April 20th Day - Still Waiting for Court Date

Still no word about a court date. We know that two other families who are with our agency went to court today (they got here before us) and that's when they were suppose to make the appointment. So, we will see at our afternoon visit if it was made. I have reminded everyone involved many times about getting our date.

We know of two families (that we met online and here) who are stuck in Almaty with their children for 17 days now waiting for visa's for their children. One couple is on their second trip and the other family chose to stay the entire time, so they have been here 61 days total. I hope we don't run into those problems on our second trip. This picture is from last week.

April 19th Evening - No Court Date Still.

Well, we still did not get a court date. One of the representatives said they will get it tomorrow when they go to court for another couple. So this means we have lost two unnecessary days with the court date....

The picture is of Oscar and Arseem (Cape Cod couple's son) looking through my pile of pictures. Arseem was talking and excited so Oscar was acting the same but with baby talk trying to be like him. It was cute. He likes being with other kids. It is going to be a challenge for him living outside the orphanage. That is the only life he knows and he seems pretty content with it. That makes us a bit nervous about the transition of bringing him home. The other picture is the last one of the pictures that I couldn't upload yesterday.

The picture of me and John at a local park in front of the monument of young families. The other picture is of Oscar's group at the visiting room doorway. They all ran up when the door opened when the caregiver was not looking. There is one big baby boy that always makes a beeline for the main door to the hallway when the door opens. We always laugh because he always does it like he's thinking get me the heck out of here (he does it with a smile so he knows he is up to no-good)....he is not in the picture because he took off to the other door and John had to go catch him.

Still Waiting for the Court Appointment

Urgh! Still waiting for court appointment date. Other couples have gotten their court date the same day they filed the court papers and the date is a couple of days after their filing, but that doesn't seem like the case for us....the timelines seem longer....not good....I hope we find out at the next visit. The closer we get to our flights the more money we will have to pay to change them... I don't know what the delay is.... Here are three of the pictures I couldn't upload yesterday.

Pictures of Our Cape Cod Friends and the Museum - Bonding Period Over

(Sorry we've having technical difficulties again. We cannot upload the pictures.)

The people in the picture are Louise, Doug and Debbie from Cape Cod. We've gone out to lunch with them a few times and they are all great people. It's good to talk with them about home and the adoption process. We share the visiting room with Louise and Doug. Debbie is on a different floor where the babies are. Louise and Doug's son is named Matthew Arseem and Debbie's pretty (blue-eyed) daughter is named Emma. I will post pictures of their kids at some point in the near future.

The other picture is of John, Oscar and Donya walking around the orphanage yesterday. We got Oscar to go outside but not without a crying fit when we got him dressed. He was fine once we got outside. He even walked. He doesn't do well walking on the lumpy (dirt/grass) ground but he's ok on the cement. Today we went outside too and he was grumpy. We had to hold him the whole time and he just wanted the cereal he knew I had in my purse. This afternoon’s visit was good.

The other picture is from a museum that we went to yesterday. We found out more about the area to tell Oscar when he grows up. The best part was of the stuffed animals. They showed all the animals in this regions including, eagles, hawks, huge elks, huge boars, mountain lions and bears. I took some good pictures before they told us we're not suppose to take pictures in there…

The other picture is of John and Oscar. As you can see, John doesn’t take the mask-wearing seriously (just kidding, we were in the visiting room where your not required to wear them.) As you can see, Oscar thought it was funny.

Lastly, WE FILED COURT PAPERS TODAY because the 15-day bonding period is now over. We were suppose to find out when our actual court appearance will be today but we haven't heard yet. Hopefully, we will find out tomorrow and it will be later this week. We can't wait to come home eventhough we will miss Oscar...we will be back soon though and he will be ok until then.

Easter Dinner at Donya's House

Yesterday, we were grateful to have dinner at Donya's (our interpreter) home. His mother and sister cooked a delicious traditional meal for us consisting of colorful Kazak food. In the picture, you will see Donya's mother, father, sister, brother-in-law and friends.

We ate, drank, looked at pictures, and had an interesting and funny conversation about the way of life in each of our countries. We all had many questions and, of course, we talked through Donya. We were all bombarding him with questions, answers and stories to tell in both English and Russian.

Donya's father also said a thoughtful toast with champagne. In his toast, amongst many other nice words, he spoke of the oceans between our homes and how they wish our family the best of luck with Oscar. They are very kind people to have welcomed us into their home as they did. It was an Easter we will never forget.