Good-bye for now Ust-Kamenogorsk!

Well, the driver should pick us up in a little while to go to the airport. We are going to miss Oscar very much but we will be back soon. The interpreter told him we were going home ("doma") to see Haley ("sistra") and the dogs ("sabaka's") and that we'll come back soon. He started crying a little bit but I don't know if it was because he didn't know her or because of what she was saying. He was fine after that. The caregivers asked for pictures of us and we made a photo album for them to show him while we are gone. Here is a picture of him today with that thinking look on his face. He was looking down the street of the orphanage again from the main gate entrance.
Das-vee-don-ya!

-Dotalina and John Pitt (hahaha!)

IT'S OFFICIAL!!

Michael Oscar Zalomski is officially our new baby boy! In the afternoon, we were dropped off at court and Marat, our driver, had to go to the orphanage to pick up the Dept. of Education person and a doctor at the orphanage to bring to our court appointment. Our interpreter was with them too. When 4:00 rolled around and they still were not there, we were stressing out wondering if the court would make us reschedule. At about 4:02, we finally saw Marat slowly driving up the road with the people we needed for the appointment in the car. Marat always drives slow and never goes over the speed limit which made us nervous that they would not make it back in time.

We all hurried into court and then had to wait for the prosecuter for about 30 minutes. When the prosecuter finally came, we went into the Judge's chamber. We had to say two speeches and answer questions. We messed up a little but I think the interpreter made up for it with the translation.

The Dept. of Education lady and the Doctor had great things to say about us in the court and before we went in there. They were telling us that everybody thought we were going to not want Oscar and ask for another child. They said that we did such a good job with opening him up and approaching him the right way to bring out his personality. They said he has blossomed and that he is now a lot better with the other kids and caregivers since we've been there. They told us that they thought he would grow up in the orphanage system because he acts grumpy and/or stubborn when he first meets new people.

So, the judge and the others looked through our piles of paperwork and asked us questions about this and that and then the judge gave us his approval! We all couldn't stop smiling after that. After court, me, John, Marat and Bo-ta (another interpreter) went out to our favorite restaurant here. Our last night of the first trip. Thank you everybody for all your prayers and well-wishes! You have all been great friends and relatives!! :) We (or just I) will be back in a couple or few weeks.

p.s. Oscar went for his first car ride around the orphanage with "Mama" in Marat's car. He screamed and cried the whole time and didn't know what the heck was going on. After the ride, he wouldn't stop staring at the car and thinking about it.

Good Bye Donya & Court Tomorrow!

OK BIG B, I'm updating the blog! :)

Yesterday was our interpreter Donya's last day with us. He is going back to his regular job of looking for gas and oil in another region of Kazakhstan. He has been an excellent companion to us throughout this whole trip and we are so grateful for everything he has done for us. We were lucky to have him and we will miss him.

Our Cape Cod friends who are with another agency filed for court today and they got a court appointment for tomorrow morning. (hmmm, weren't we told last week that there were no appt.'s until tomorrow at 4pm?? We had a feeling this was untrue... so this all could have been done last week???!!) This upsets us because they came exactly one week after us and we should be home today and we could have been home last week if things were done like clockwork like the service given to the other couples at the orphanage. It's not right that the process takes longer for no real reason except that we signed something that says it may take up to 25 days and believe me they milk it up to 25 days....let me remind you that we are on our 23rd day here and leaving on the 25th....very unnecessary and costly...

Oscar has been very good the past couple of days. He is learning English words slowely but surely. We found out that his real name is Askar (Ah-skah) and we now wish that we kept this same name and spelling as his middle name. We thought about asking to change it for court but we know better not to make changes now or we'll probably end up staying another month or two and have to spend even more money. So, we're keeping it as Michael Oscar. Askar means warrior or soldier. Oscar means god spear. Maybe we can change it to the Michael Askar if it's not a hard thing to do in the U.S. after this process is done.

court tomorrow............

Today is Orthodox Easter in Kazakhstan

Hello. Today is Orthodox Easter here. Here is a picture of our daughter Haley in the pink dress from Easter last week. She looks SO nice so we had to post her picture because we are so proud of her for being so good with staying with others for such a long period of time. We miss her. We heard that she is sick which is not comforting to hear from so far away. John caught a cold here too somehow.

In the other pictures, you will see that we are getting use to it here with our Kazak hats and serious looks. ha-ha

Oscar has been grouchy the past couple of days. I don't think he's feeling well too. A lot of kids are sick at the orphanage so he may have caught something. Yesterday, he was mad and crying before we got there. It was funny because he was sitting on the potty (a bowl) by himself in the potty room and when the caregiver told us he was in there crying we looked over there and he got more aggravated and waved his arms in the air and turned the potty around with his back towards us all as to say leave me alone I'm not in a good mood. We were all laughing (including all the other kids) because it was pretty funny with him doing that and sitting back down on the little bowl. I wish I could have taken a picture of him sitting there.

3 more days until court, 4 more days until we leave here to go home........... :) hope everything goes well.......