Hello blogworld ~ I wanted to thank everyone for all the facebook messages and emails.  The Kaz adoptive families is TOTALLY amazing, and we CAN'T WAIT to meet everyone, maybe at Kazapalooza next year...I don't think we are going to go this year, I want to keep her home with just me for a while, to promote attachment and work on a schedule, plus Hannah won't be a year old yet, and we are going to try to do a Disney/Beach trip in September. But we would be interested in any midwest meet-ups over the summer :-)  Anyway, I saw my little peanut again this morning and she was great.  I bought her at least $75.00 dollars worth of toys, and guess what she wanted to play with?  The paper envelope that some pictures came in. She was fascinated!  Oh well....  She fell asleep toward the end of the visit, nap time is 11am and she definitely likes to snuggle up and sleep at that time.  I took some pictures of her sitting up, which I will post later, she only does it for a few seconds, but it won't be long now.  She also discovered thumb sucking...which I know isn't great, but....its SO CUTE.  Anyway, sorry for the short post, I am starving and need to get some things done around town.  Future Shymkent families, here are a few more recommendations:
Bar B Q (yes, that is the name) Restaurant next to Mega.  Delicious shish Kabobs and french fries, plus a large English  menu -- I think they have breakfast as well
LaDushky (sp?) --Cafeteria style, Kazakh's version of fast food
Samsas -- you can buy these on the street for about 100 tenge. They are awesome pastries filled with meat, potatoes, veggies, etc.
Cinema -- a club and restaurant off of Takyhaha
Madlyns -- coffee shop with great salads and milkshakes
Caravan -- right next to Ken Baba --excellent soups! There is also a couple of good souvenier shops across the street.  I got Hannah a doll, at first I thought it was cute but now it kind of freaks me out.  Her eyes follow you around the room.  LOL. 

  

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Court is thursday

Hello everyone :-)  Well another week has passed and we are doing well.  Elizabeth was almost deported as the result of a visa issue, but Marina saved the day and now she gets to stay!  Yipee!!  Court will be next Thursday so we will probably come home next weekend, so we are hurrying to get lots in this week.  Hannah is amazing, wonderful, sweet, brilliant and, if you can't tell, I am head over heals in love with my baby girl :-)  She is getting very active, rolling over, sitting up almost on her own, and yesterday she pulled a poster off the wall..lol...I may have a long road ahead with this child....  She likes bubbles, looking in the mirror, and any toy that makes sounds. Yesterday I put her in her Reds outfit and we sang Take Me Out to the Ball Game.  We took her for her final check-up before court, they did blood work, which she did not enjoy but everything came out perfectly.  She fell asleep in the car on the way back.  She really is a good baby, she only cries when she is tired or hungry and once you feed her or rock her she stops.  She is teething for sure, as she tried to eat a book today.  She is very patient with me and lets me put on a fashion show with her every day. 

We have been hanging out with the other families a lot, there are 3 here now and other coming next week.  It's interesting to hear all the different experiences they have had throughout the process.  If (not if, WHEN), I adopt again, I would definitely try to come back to Shymkent.  It is SUCH a cool city.  First, it's huge.  500,000 plus people. It's really South, so it's pretty warm here.  We swam outside the other day.  There are lots of cool malls and parks and some great restaurants.  My favorites are El Dorado, which is a really good pizza place, Mozzarella, which is Italian, and Address, which is Turkish. There is also a place called Istanbul, which is supposed to be good but smokey, and we are going to try a BBQ place next week.  We tried Logmon at this Wieger Chinese place the other day after English Club, and on valentine's day we ate at a yummy and fancy Uzbek restaurant. We ate Plov, which was very good.  Sorry to talk so much about food.  Tomorrow we are hitting up the Bazaar and going to a new coffee shop, then having a wine and cheese party for our friends.  We were asked to speak at Miras College Women's group this week on the subject of adoption. It was fun, they were super nice and asked a lot of questions.  We brought the other family to English Club the other day, and they really enjoyed it. One of the guys there is head of the Kazakh baseball league, and he talked our arm off and gave us cards.  We met a bunch of other ex-pats living in the city as well.  I am sad our time in Shymey is coming to an end.  I wish we could stay the whole time, but unfortunately, the real world awaits back home.  Oh well, hopefully soon enough Hannah will be home and we can start our time together. It really is a wonderful life! Love, Erin 

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Last bonding day is tomorrow

Hello from Kazakhstan! Just got back from picking up some groceries at the Ramstop, saw the baby this morning, and going to work out tonight.  I missed getting to see Hannah over the weekend, and I can't believe the bonding period will be over tomorrow!!  We should have a court date by later this week, time is going by very quickly.  Friday, we got to see Hannah twice because she had a doctor's appointment to get her last cast off her foot.  I still want to have my orthopedist look at at it when we get home of course, but her range of motion seems good, so we will see.  This weekend we went to English club and then out to dinner with our Peace Corps friends as well as one of the other adoptive families. It was delicious.  They even played Celine Dion and Backstreet boys (I am sure in honor of the Americans). Saturday we went to a Superbowl party at the home of a friend of a friends who teaches English here in Shymkent.  yes the superbowl tape just made it here and no, not everyone knew who won (I made some bets, hehehe, JK). Later Saturday night, our friends Joe and Tyler made us a YUMMY dinner and then we had a boys vs. girls Euchre tournament.  The weather here is pretty good, supposed to be about 57 tomorrow but overcast. We will go see Hannah about 10 tomorrow, can't wait!  She is getting so animated with us..and busy!!!  She also loves looking at herself in the mirror!! I will update more later, enjoy the pictures!  ~Erin

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Tomorrow is our day 10 of bonding!

Hello again :-)  Another quick update!  Hannah (yes that is definitely the name now, even the nurses at the baby house are calling her that) is great, we will see the doctor tomorrow to get the final report on her foot, but everything seems to be A-Okay, which is a relief.  She is rolling all over the place and babbling a lot, and I think she will be scooting soon.  She points to pictures in a book and we rolled a beach ball back and forth today.  Last night we went to dinner with the other adoptive families (the ones that we met in the airport, and also a single mom who is also with my agency) at Mozzarella's, which was totally delicious! What do you think are the chances they will open up a location in Hamilton, Ohio?!  The other families are both adopting girls as well, they are just a little bit older than Hannie.  Tonight we are going swimming (note to other Shymey AP's -- the pool is outside and SUPER HOT, but you have to wear goggles and a swim cap so bring them with you) and to our friend's apartment for dinner, and tomorrow we get to see Hannah twice! Yay!!    Thanks for all the nice comments, I will post them when I get home since blogger is blocked here.  Have a great weekend! ~Erin

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New pictures

I already wrote a blog but had to post some cute pics!! More tomorrow

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FW: Day 7

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From: minime0910@hotmail.com
To: minime0910.erin@blogger.com
Subject: Day 7
Date: Tue, 16 Feb 2010 00:41:18 -0500

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Hi everyone!!!  Just wanted to send another quick update!!  The baby is doing great, I gave her a bottle yesterday   Mom, I am happy to report I think she will be a good eater!!  .  She really loves when we sing songs, yesterday I went through all the usuals, the Wheels on the bus, Itsy Bitsy Spider, Twinkle Twinkle, Old MacDonald, etc.  She also enjoys Beyonce's Single Ladies. Her cast comes off her foot today, so hopefully it will be all healed up. We have been spending lots of time taking in the sights of the city, yesterday we went to Ken Baba park, and Elizabeth went to a Kazakhstan rock concert last week but I stayed in and worked on some court stuff.  Tomorrow we are going swimming and to a play after we go to the baby house (the best part of the day, of course), and we are meeting the 2 other families (one is a couple, one is a single mom from New York City) at Mozzarella's for dinner.  We ate at a cool Uzbek restaurant that our friends took us to on Valentine's Day.  It was delicious.  Well, I am am going to sign off because Olympic ice skating is on :-)  Kazakhstan has a ton of athletes competing in the games this year!! ~Erin

 

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Things are going well in Shymey

I have absolutely no idea if these are posting or not, so I am going to only blog every couple of days, and mostly I will send emails.  Blogspot is a nightmare over here, but everything else is wonderful.  Today is bonding day 4,  and I will post some pics.  Hannah is amazing, I took a video of her looking at books with me and she is actually turning the pages.  I think she is very advanced for 7 mos!!!  But of course, I may be the tiniest bit biased.  We got to take her outside, her first time seeing snow as well!! That was amazing, she was in awe.  On Monday, we are going to get to feed her.  We are enjoying our time here as well.  Balzan, our translator, is taking us to a bazaar next week, and last night we went out with the peace corps friends again, and met Joe, who is from Mason Ohio 15 minutes from where I live. It really is a small, small, world.  Tonight we are having some friends over to our apartment for dinner, movies, and games.  We were invited to a rock concert as well, but opted out this time.  There is a very cool park near where we are staying I want to get some pictures of that as well.  That is all for now, enjoy the pics...if anyone can even read this...  

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Hello again everyone!!! I wanted to post some pics of our apartment and the area.  We are having lots of fun, had our first dinner out last night and will be leaving for the BH again in a couple hours to spend more time with Hannah!!  She is wonderful though, very healthy looking, very alert, and of course, very cute!  The apartment is very nice, 2 bedrooms, breakfast nook, kitchen, bathroom, living room.  We are supposed to get internet today, for now we are at Adress, a cafe near where we live.  Everyone in Kaz is kind of laid back, they eat a lot of greasy food and like to shop. I might live here forever, lol. The peace corps girls we met met up with are WONDERFUL!! Cipra and Becca, they have shown us around, we are having them over for dinner and they are taking us swimming. It feels like a vacation!!  The city is very cool, lots of shops and last night we visited the college and spoke with a group of women who are learning English to become translators and teachers. They were SO COOL. OUr driver and translators are nice as well, I think we may road trip to an ancient city next week with them.   Now to say more about what everone is waiting for..Hannah!!!
yesterday we went to the MOE for a pre-court thing, which was easy, just signing paper and some questions about the home study.  Then we went in the baby house, which is being renovated right now. We waiting a few minutes and I saw a couple babies briefly in passing, they seemed happy and smiley and well taken care of ( well as much as you can be in a baby house.)  I was filled with trepidation and some self doubt, and I was thinking, What am I doing?  What if I dont connect with this child. I tell myself I am doing a good thing, saving a child.   Then they brought Hannah in and passed her to me, and she gave me a look like she definitely knew I was Mom, but a look that clearly says, WHERE have you been? WHAT TOOK YOU SO LONG?!  It was funny! I knew immediately this child was my child.  We stared at each other for a while, and then a tiny smile and what can I say, I fell for the kid. There are no accidents. I have saved a child, but I am the lucky one, not her.  She has saved me right back.

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FW: Everything is wonderful!!

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We are here! The trip was wild, ended up taking a train from Almaty due to weather and traveled 60 hours straight, but it was worth it to have Hannah in my arms.  She is very alert and not very delayed that I can tell.  Shymkent is AMAZING and so much fun. Today we are with our peace corps friends, we went to the mall, dinner, and to a womens group meeting at a local college.  Tomorrow is more Hannah!!  Everyone here is so nice and cool!  Erin

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We are off!

After snowstorms, visa delays, and a wonderful bon voyage party at El Mariachi (the official restaurant of Orient Way)  we are finally on our way to Kazakhstan.  Yipee!!  Hopefully our luggage will also be arriving in Kazakhstan and will be under the weight limit. Want to send a quick shout-out to all the friends and family who have helped me along the way, especially Shauna, who was the first Kaz mom I ever met way back in November of last year when I started this process. Shauna, even though you told me you were positive my baby would be a boy and I spent the entire year buying blue, I LOVE YOU ANYWAY!!! LOL!! You are the best.  Also to my friend Kim, who has answered many adoption questions for me along the way, I owe you a big THANK YOU.  I hope my daughter is as loving and spirited as Nate :-)  Of course I want to thank my neighbors and family, who have had to listen to me complain for a whole year about things like consulates, LOIs, I171Hs and other phrases that only mean anything to  PAPs...thanks for putting up with it.  There will be some excellent souveniers headed your way!  And to those of you following along who I have only recently met through blog-world,  thanks for following along and good luck on your journies as well!! Hope to meet some of you in person someday soon. Love, Erin

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