How Does She Do It??

We’ve just completed day # 5 of the bonding period. Daniel is still not feeling well but we still had a very good day. As each day passes, he seems to get a little bit more comfortable with us. He still is a very serious little boy. We can get him to smile if we toss him up in the air or swing him around but otherwise; he just looks at everything going on around him. This is all still very new to him and you can tell he is not quite sure what’s going on. We are hoping in the next 3 or 4 days, he starts to show more of his personality.

We were driven to an apartment building this morning and our driver pointed to a door and motioned us to go inside (he doesn’t speak a lick of English). I had no idea what was going on so shook my head “no” and motioned him to lead the way (my police training and the fact that I still carrying an enormous amount of money had me very paranoid). He opened the door and it was an office and we saw our translator and 2 of the other families that we knew inside. Our translator asked us to sign some papers that are required for court. We then were taken to the baby house for our morning visit with Daniel.

Patti never ceases to amaze me! I don’t mean this in a bad way, but whenever she says something, it turns out to be right. We don’t argue at all because when we have a difference of opinion, I know that in the end, she is going to right (and it usually doesn’t take me too long to figure that out). I’ve kind of resigned myself to this fact! I wouldn’t exactly say that I’m “whipped”, I just learn very quickly!

Karaganda is a city of about 600,000 people. There seems to be hundreds of apartment buildings that look exactly the same. They are white / grey, have 12 – 15 floors and look very rundown. They line both sides of all of the streets that we have been on. I also haven’t noticed any street signs and all the store names and billboards are written in Russian. I can’t imagine anyone actually knowing how to get from one place to another without being a long term resident.

We had a different driver at noon to take us back to the hotel after our morning visit. He first had to drop off the Spanish family, who were staying in one of those apartment buildings, about 5 or 6 miles away (In a direction that we’ve never been before). I had absolutely no idea where we were so I was glad to have someone who knew where they were going. Our driver drove for 15 – 20 minutes and made about 10 or 12 turns and pulled into the parking lot of a big blue building. He looked at me and seemed to be waiting for us to get out. I shook my head “no” and he had a puzzled look on his face. Patti then handed him a business card of out hotel and he still had a puzzled look on his face!! He took out his cell phone and tried to call Max (our regular driver) for directions but unfortunately, he didn’t answer the phone. He looked at me and kind of shrugged his shoulders to let us know he didn’t know how to get to our hotel! I started to panic!!

Patti was sitting in the back seat. She told me that our hotel was not far from here. She said it was right up the road, take a left turn and then it should only be about a half mile on the right! I turned around and looked at her, “Are you out of your “%&@! “ mind? How in hell do you know where our hotel is?” It took me a few seconds to realize who I was talking to (Ms. Always-Right)! I tapped our driver on the arm and with all the confidence in the world; I pointed him up the road! Within 5 minutes we were pulling into the hotel parking lot from a direction that we have never taken before! I’m still shaking my head! How does she do this???

Our afternoon visit with Daniel went very well! We brought a few outfits from home with us so we decided to change him into one of them. Most of the people who come here to adopt are looking for little girls. When they bring their babies home, they donate most of the clothes that that they bring over here. Because of this, most of the clothes at the baby house are pink and/or yellow. I don’t really mind the yellow, but I have to draw the line with pink (3 days in a row). Today was the first day that I was able to see my son in blue!! It was a very proud moment in my life! He is such a beautiful baby boy! I still can’t believe how lucky we are!

I’m still felling a little under the weather so we didn’t get a chance to get to the internet café today. We hope to do it soon to post some of our pictures.