Happy Halloween!

Daniel's First Haircut!

Daniel is doing great! He turned 15 months old a few days ago and is growing like crazy! He is such a happy little boy and has an endless supply of energy! He loves "The Wiggles", reading his books, playing ball, but most of all, he loves to play outside in the yard!

He got his first haircut a few days ago. Patti told them to trim his hair but make sure he still looks like a baby when she's finished! He was fine until they put the cape over him and then he started to wail (which took me by surprise - as I only brought enough tissues for Patti)!! If you look close at the first picture, you can see a tear running down his cheek. I told the hair lady to give him a comb to hold to divert his attention - he was no problem after that!

Summer Fun!

Daniel Loves The Water!

Daniel is doing great! We've had him home for 2 1/2 months and he is growing and learning new things everyday! He started walking a month ago; the day after that, he was climbing the stairs! The doctor said he was doing very well and had gained 5 pounds in 6 weeks (the only things he doesn't eat is watermelon)! With that little belly of his, he looks more and more like daddy everyday!

Daniel's Birthday Parties!

Daniel turned one year old on Monday (5/12). Here are a few pics from 2 of his parties! His 3rd (and final) one will be this coming Sunday.





Daniel looks a little "too comfortable" behind the wheel! It won't be long before we have to start hiding the car keys!



Daniel loves his new cousin Kailin! Daniel came in second place (not bad for his first race)!! He is also a very good sport as he applauds Kailin's victory!



Daniel is enjoying his birthday cake with mom! If you look at the picture just to the right of the balloon, you will see just how much Daniel has grown since the first day we met him (2 1/2 months ago)!! Did I mention that Daniel loves to eat!?



Daniel received many birthday presents but I think he liked the bows the best!



On Monday evening, Patti and I had our own little birthday party for Daniel. As you will see, he loved his cupcake!!









We hope you enjoyed the pictures!

Some Pictures Of Daniel!!

Daniel is doing great! Here are a few pictures that we have taken in the past couple of weeks!



This picture was taken on the steps of the Shapagot baby house. This was the first time that he had been outside since he was brought to the baby house when he was just 5 days old. We could tell he was scared but he felt much better once we made it to our hotel.



This is Daniel meeting his great grandfather. Daniel's middle name (James) was our way to honor his great grandfather.



Here is Daniel sitting in his high chair displaying his approval of his first taste of real food! He just loves scrambled eggs!! Actually, he just loves to eat!! We haven't found anything he doesn't eat yet!



Here is Daniel after eating some apple sauce! If he could have, I think he would have given us a standing ovation but instead, we had to settle for an enthusiastic applause!!



Here is Daniel just chillin' out in his new swing! When we first put him in there, he's not so sure what it's all about. After a few minutes, he starts kicking his feet so he can check out his new shoes!



Here is Mom showing Daniel his new slide!



He loves his slide! When I was a kid, we had to throw some dirt on it to make sure we made it all the way down! Before Daniel starts playing on it on his own, we need to tape some sandpaper to his butt before he finds himself in the neighbor's yard!! Yikes!!

We Made It Home!!

We spent a quiet weekend in Almaty. We made it outside a few times but due to my bronchitis, we mostly spent it in our room. We stayed at the Uyut Hotel (right next door to the Hotel Kazoul). The 2 room suite was well worth the extra money. It gave us some room to spread out and even have some comfortable furniture to sit it! We spread out a blanket on the floor for Daniel and he was able to roll around and enjoy his toys! For those of you who haven't traveled yet and will be staying at the Uyut in the future, the hotel's restaurant is just horrible! Go to next door to the Hotel Kazoul, it's very reasonable and the food is very good! There is also a bakery just down the block that is very good!

The flights home were very long but Daniel did fairly well. He was a little fussy from Amsterdam to Detroit but after hearing some of the other families stories, we were very lucky. Daniel slept for about 4 hours out of the 30 hours that we were traveling. We all were just exhausted by the time we got home.

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I'm sorry I never finished this post. We did make it home on April 21st. We have both been very sick since we returned home and have been very busy with Daniel. Patti came down with a terrible stomach bug the first few days that we were home and is now trying to get over a cold. I still have that same case of bronchitis that started 2 days after we left for our first trip! I've been to the doctor but nothing seems to help. I have to let it run it's usual course.

I was kind of hoping to "ease into" the whole taking care of the baby thing but unfortunately, due to Patti's illness, it didn't work out that way. Thankfully, Daniel took it easy on me! I learned fast on how to do diapers, making his meals and the right mixture of Kaz formula to American formula. Just when I was getting the hang of it, Patti decided to change things on me so I'm back to being pretty much clueless!

Daniel is such a joy to have around!! He has adjusted unbelievably well! He sometimes has trouble with his afternoon nap, but I think he just hasn't trained us well enough yet! He sleeps very well through the night although he did get up pretty early this morning (10 AM)!! He usually goes to sleep between 9:30 - 10PM and sleeps until around 8:30 AM.

Daniel has learned so much in the past 2 weeks! He knows how to wave and to clap and is really quite proud of his new accomplishments! Whenever he starts to fuss because he is hungry, I start clapping and he follows suit with a huge smile on his face! This usually buys us about 30 seconds as Patti makes a dash for the kitchen! His favorite foods are scrambled eggs, mashed potatoes and ground chicken.

Daniel has met most of his extended family already. It takes him about 10 minutes to warm up to all the new faces but he is fine after the new toys start appearing! I can't believe how many new toys and clothes he has accumulated in such a short time! Patti just smiles and reminds me that his birthday is just a week away (5/12)!! I think we're going to need a bigger boat!

Back to Almaty - Then HOME with Daniel!

On Wednesday evening, we left the hotel and headed for the Karaganda airport to catch our flight back to Almaty! Wow!! The weather was incredibly bad; cold, snow and wind made for near zero visibility and I was concerned that they would cancel our flight! Those fears were heightened as we approached the military checkpoint on the road to the airport. It looked as if there was a traffic jam on this ghost town of a road! The road was CLOSED due to the weather! Our driver (Max) weaved his way around dozens of cars, buses and trucks to get up to the gate. We were required to show the guards our plane tickets to be able to pass the gate and drive the few more miles to the airport! I was very surprised that our plane departed as scheduled. Daniel slept the whole time and didn't make a peep! I'm sure we are going to pay for it somewhere down the road!

We checked into our hotel a little after midnight and were instructed to be ready to go to the International Medical Clinic at 11AM the next morning. We all had a good nights sleep (in fact, it turned out to be even better than I thought)! I was just getting ready to get in the shower as the phone rang. It was our coordinator (Sonya); she said "I'm down stairs in the lobby". It turns out that our clock stopped working during the night and even though our clock said 9:30, it was 11:15!
Well, anyway, we did get into the SOS clinic and Daniel did very well. They stuck his fingers for the blood test and Daniel didn't even flinch! It wasn't until the doctor tried to listen to his heart that he started crying!

Sonya told us that we had our interview at the Embassy on Friday afternoon. She also said that there was a possibility that we could go home early if she received paperwork from Astana (Capital of Kazakhstan) on Friday! Well, the paperwork came in (Daniel's passport and USA visa) and we completed our appointment at the Embassy and all we are doing now is waiting to come home!! Unfortunately, there are no available flights on Saturday or Sunday so we have to wait until Monday to come home!

The three of us will make the best of this weekend. From the weather on our blog, it appears as if will be warming up. We hope to get out and enjoy a few days in Almaty. This will also give me an opportunity to take a few pictures. I'll try to post a few pics before we come home!

Daniel is doing great!! His personality is shinning through! He is really a wonderful little boy; we have definitely been blessed! He can't wait to meet all his new family and friends!!

I figured out why my spell checker isn't working! I'm using one of the hotels computers in the business center and I have no idea how to change the spell checker to English!

"GOTCHA" Day!!

We arrived in Almaty at 5AM on Tuesday morning. It was a very long trip and we were looking forward to getting to the hotel for 5 or 6 hours of sleep until we had to return to the airport to catch our afternoon flight to Karaganda. Then, we thought, we would get a good nights rest and pick up Daniel from the baby house on Wednesday morning. We would then bring him back to the hotel and spend our first day together as a family! It didn't work out that way!

Instead of getting a hotel to rest, we caught a 9AM flight to Karaganda and were dropped of at the hotel to shower and unpack some of our stuff to prepare for Daniel. When we arrived at the hotel, we went up to the room and Patti went to take a shower. There was no water! So instead of taking a MUCH needed shower, we took a short nap and headed to the baby house for the main attraction!

As we entered Daniel’s room, he was sitting in his walker. We didn't expect him to recognize us so we weren't terribly disappointed when he just kind of sat there. Patti picked him up and gave him a big hug and started taking to him. She told him how much we had missed him these past 4 weeks and we had come back to take him home. Within 3 or 4 minutes, Daniel gave us a huge smile!! It was all coming back to him! Daniel has grown so much in the past few weeks. He has 3 more teeth for a total of 5!! I wouldn't be surprised if he was shaving by the end of the summer!!

We spent about an hour at the baby house while our translator was gathering required documents at her office. We then stopped at the grocery store for some diapers, baby food and cold medicine. Then, it was off to our hotel for lots of fun with Daniel!!

The biggest surprise that we had was that Daniel was such a little chatter box!! He was smiling, laughing and babbling away!! This was a far cry from the very quiet and reserved boy that we had met back in March! We didn't know it but behind those absolutely beautiful eyes, Daniel had quite a little personality!! We had such a great time getting reacquainted with him. We played with all his toys and he told us all the things he has been doing while he waited for us to return and pick him up! He's been such a busy little boy! April, 15, from this time forward, will be known as "Gotcha Day" in our family!! What a wonderful day it was!!

Daniel fell asleep around 10PM and woke up at 1:30 for his bottle. The 3 of us were up for the day at 6AM. Daniel didn't want anything to do with his morning nap because there was so much new stuff going on. He didn't want to miss anything! Patti was finally able to get him down at around 2PM. Patti and Daniel are just starting to wake up now after 2 hours.

We very briefly met other adoptive families at breakfast this morning. Daniel is going to have a very busy social schedule as 3 of the families are from the immediate Capital District area!! One of the women's sisters has been following our blog and told her sister to be on the lookout for Daniel’s mom and dad!! We didn't have enough time to exchange contact information so if you could send us an email to babykaz2008@gmail.com, we would love to set something up for a summer get together!

Well, Daniel just woke up and boy is he ever cranky!! Wow!! He is still has a cold and is very congested! We will be bringing him to a doctor as soon as we get him home.

Well, that's about it for now, we have to start packing for our evening flight back to Almaty.

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I tried to post this but it didn't work. I'll post it as soon as I can!

Also the spell checker is not working. Yikes!! My mom is going to find out that my time in a catholic school maybe wasn't worth all that money after all!!

Return Trip!

Late this afternoon, we received word from our agency that we are to be back in Almaty, Kazakhstan on Monday, April 14th! We will be traveling Karaganda on Tuesday and returning to Alamty on Thursday with Daniel!! We then have to finalize some paperwork for Daniel's passport and visa. We will be spending the weekend in Alamty and going to the American Embassy on Monday or Tuesday for his medical exam and our exit interview. There is a small possibility that we could be home on Wednesday but more likely it will be late Thursday night (24th).

These past 2 weeks have been difficult for us. We can't wait to bring Daniel home and start this new chapter in our lives!

Here are a few pictures that we just received yesterday by email! These pictures were taken as soon as we returned to the baby house from our court hearing on March 19th! Jennifer is from New Jersey and is adopting a beautiful little girl named Emma! Emma has the most pinch-able cheeks you will ever see! She is beautiful!! Debbie (Jennifer's mom) accompanied her on this trip and was nice enough to take a few pictures for us! I'm glad she did; they came out great!! Thank you Jennifer and Debbie!!

By the look on his face, you can see that Daniel is not too sure what to make of all this "kissing stuff" but he better get used to it!!

Home Sweet Home!

This is just a quick note to let everyone know that we made it home safe and sound. It felt so good to sleep in our own bed on Friday night; it was like sleeping on a cloud! Patti and I decided to take Monday off since we had such a busy weekend (Easter & Patti's birthday) but will return to work tomorrow.

We miss Daniel and can't wait to bring him home! The mandatory 15 day appeal period will expire on April 3rd. Our translator will then need about a week or so to complete our paperwork. We hope to make our return trip around April 10th or so. We will then fly to Karaganda and pick him up from the baby house and fly him to Alamty. In Almaty, we need to apply for his passport and also take him to the US Embassy for his medical exam. The three of us will then fly home and begin our lives together as a family!

Quick Update!

Patti and I went to court this morning; everything went very well! The judge granted our request to become Daniel's legal parents! It was a very big day for us! The court proceeding was a lot like the MOE interview except it was much more formal. We were in the courtroom for about 20 minutes.

We then returned to the baby house and had a small party with the doctors. This afternoon, we had another small party with Daniel's nannies that work in his room. The nannies told us that Daniel was shown to several adoptive parents and were all very surprised when he was returned to the room. They all thought that Daniel would be adopted quickly because he was such a happy and active little boy. When he would be brought in to see other prospective parents, he would become freightened and/or overwhelmed and start to cry very loudly! It seems as if Daniel was waiting just for us to come and get him!! We're very glad he did!! He is the perfect child for us!

Patti has done a lot of packing tonight. We will begin our trip home tomorrow afternoon and complete our 44 hour journey back home. We will return to Karaganda in about 3 weeks to bring the new addition to our family home! We can't wait to start our new lives together!

Court Is Tomorrow!!

We were not able to get seats on our flight on Thursday so we will be delayed by one day. We will be coming home on Friday night at 11:3o PM. This means that Patti will be home for her birthday (and Easter) and I will be home for my Fantasy Baseball draft on Saturday night (if all goes as planned)!

We forgot to bring Daniel a St. Patrick's Day outfit but we were able to borrowed a bib from one of the other mom's in our visiting room (thank you Jennifer)! I love the expression on his face in the picture of all 3 of us! Patti's favorite picture so far is the last one. She loves his expression and Daniel is looking right at her! I don't think Patti will ever be able to say "no" to this little guy; especially with those eyes (she just melts)!

For the few folks who have asked for Natalia's email address, it's darigusha_a@mail.ru

We have court tomorrow morning at 9AM. We are both a little nervous but we think that things will go well. Then we will have a small party with the doctors and the director of the baby house. In the afternoon, we will have a small party with the nannies in Daniels room. On Thursday, we will visit daniel one last time before we make our long journey home.

We will be making the trip back to Karaganda in a few more weeks. Most people have the children escorted to Almaty where the children are handed off to the parents. Our agency does it a little differently in that we will actually come back to Karaganda to pick up Daniel and bring him to Almaty ourselves. Patti wants to be there when he leaves the baby house (and it also allows us to pick him up a few days earlier). We should find out exactly when we will be returning tomorrow.

That's it for now! See you all soon!