Finally... the story about our adoption day
I'm finally back to a reasonable Internet connection. The other one was impossible as some guy was downloading a really humongous file. Ugh!

So, here's the full story...

I was a bit uneasy the night before the court hearing as I was afraid I wouldn't be up and ready in time. And then on top of that right before bed I realized I was down to 3 diapers. The babysitter was going to arrive at the apartment by 7:30 am, and it seemed like I created a possible disaster and then everyone would be in complete dismay as to what an unfit mother I would be.

My insomnia got me up on time, everyone arrives, and we left the apartment by 7:45 am with gifts and cakes for the orphanage staff. We drive back to the small town of Ecik (about an hour outside of Almaty) and back to the orphanage where I have to sign the register indicating that I have visited the orphanage for the past 14 days, which of course I didn't as I took illegal temporary custody on the 4th day. We have a nice visit with head doctor and take some pictures. Then the head doctor and Aigul (my facilitator) get in Aigul's car to pick up the lady from the Dept. of Education and the prosecuting attorney. Nanci, Alicia and I are suppose to meet them at court. Our driver gets lost on the way to the courthouse and we have to stop 3 times to ask locals for direction. Fortunately, it's a small town.

We eventually arrive at the courthouse with 5 minutes to spare before my court appointment. And as luck would have it, everyone is late. No Aigul, no Orphanage Doctor, no one. So we wait and wait and I start getting anxious and impatient (me... can you believe it?) Aigul and the Orphanage Doctor finally show, but we are still waiting for the department of Education person and the prosecuting attorney. So we go into the judges chambers, which are completely freezing. Everyone is walking around in coats and gloves. Another 15 minutes later, the Department of Education lady arrives and then 10 minutes more, the prosecutor finally comes in. Interestingly, everyone involved in the hearing: the judge, prosecutor, Dept. of Education person, court reporter, translator, my facilitor and I are all women.

The judge was an interesting looking character. She had a 1970's haircut, was wearing a full length mink coat, and had half her mouth capped in gold. Everyone else looked less intriguing. The doctor and I are wearing practically the same outfit: black pants, black boots and pink turtle neck sweaters. (By the way, I am holding Jiana as I write this standing up and typing with one hand.) So court, finally convenes... I was afraid I was going to freeze to death waiting. The questions directed at me are fairly standard... how are you going to support and care for this child? Does your family support your decision to adopt? Why did you pick Kazakhstan?... At that moment, I was sort of wondering that myself. ... What if you get married?... Will you love this child as much as a biological child you have? All expected questions, the only was when I was asked if I believe in G-D.

After I answered the questions and there was quite a bit of back and forth in Russian. They then asked, why I was requesting an immediate decision. I was coached to say the child needed immediate medical attention in the States. More back and forth in Russian, and finally it was translated back that they would wave the 15 day waiting period if we filled out a different set of forms. So then I was once again forced to do what I promised my father I would never do... sign documents without reading them. What could I do... they were all in Russian?

So finally, they read the court's decision and everyone congratulated me. We then went to the Ecik Hall of Records (another freezing building) to wait for Jiana's new birth certificate. So, 4 hours later, we were on the road back to Almaty.

Yesterday, I signed more documents in Russian and today we visited the SOS Medical clinic for my medical sign off for the American Embassy. Turns out that Jiana has gained one full pound since I gained illegal temporary custody of her 16 days ago. 17% growth is a pretty awesome ROI, isn't it. Tomorrow I visit the for my exit interview and then on Sunday morning I fly back to the US.

We've been running around the past few days to get in last minute sightseeing and shopping. I'm getting good at 4-wheeling the stroller through deep snow and slush. But, we have to be very careful to make sure baby's hat stays on straight, as it seems everyone on the street is very concerned when it slips down or when buttons are left open, and we are constantly being stopped by strangers requesting that we fix it.

That's all for now. Baby is strangling me by pulling on my necklace. Gotta run.

Jiana's mom.
Mom and baby are thrilled to be family. (Well at least I hope baby is thrilled.)

It's official: Moldyr Ospanova is now Jiana Hilda Jacobs
And I'm finally a mom.

Yesterday was such an amazing experience and I have quite a story to tell. But, I'm on borrowed time here as we are at the Internet club accompanied by my daughter Jiana, and the Internet connection is painfully slow tonight. I keep feeding her Cheerios and trying to entertain her with various rattles between sentence fragments.

So, here's the short version... the long version will come at a later date. We went to court in town of Ecik, the adoption was granted, the judged waved the 2 week waiting period and I am flying back home with my new daughter this Sunday.

Gotta run,
Jiana's mom

How's that for anti-climatic after a year of adoption drama?

Nanci's Guest Post - Travel Letter #3
hello - i am in the Ramstore (spelled Pamctop in cyrillic)

its a huge shopping mall that in the most american like place i've been to here.

i'm getting better at reading cyrillic. it reminds me of reading hebrew. once you get it down, you can start sounding things out. i love it when i recognize a word. like the other day i figured out a sign that said "bistro."

my internet connection today is very slow, so thats why this is brief today.

you can read more on genice's blog - but i can tell you now. hers is BRIEF too!!! :)

We had a wonderful day on sunday with our new russian friend Svieta whom we met at the Arsana bathhouse (can I say how GREAT that was again?). She took us to her house for a lovely family meal. They served - meat. then we had a lovely tour by car (finally not by FOOT!) of the city.

Monday was super long. We went to the town of the orphanage (Ecik - in cyrrillic, pronounced Issyk). I got to go to the orphange, but saw no children, met the orphanage doctor. then court and legal proceedings - which took like 5 hours. and i had to wait in the car for most of it with the driver, who speaks no english.

Today, we went back to the fabulous green bizarre which only pictures can do justice, (but its the place where i saw the animal heart last week) so you'll have some wonderful pictures to see soon.

Later we meet up with my Kazakh friend, Abay, (named after a famous Kazakh poet from late 19th century - he has many things named after him such as the opera house here). I met him on the plane over here. he teaches geology at the university. He took us for a traditional kazakh meal in an unbelievably beautiful and fancy restaurant. So what is that - well - meat. seems similar to the russians. But not so. Our appetizer was many variations of horse meat (and from what i could tell horse fat). Yes, I ate it and behaved politely, saying how wonderful it was. this was followed by a wonderful lamb dish. It was amazing, but i'll just say this - i probably won't be going back there before i leave! :)

the events to come are a trip to the opera one night and hopefully a drive to the mountains this weekend!

the weather here is spectacular. its about 32 degrees every day, and there is NEVER a wind which makes it really pleasant. it snows on and off almost every day. but for the last 24 hrs its been snowing constantly, yet only seems to have accumulated about 1 or 2 inches. i hope we get a sunny day too, maybe i'll get my wish on the day we drive up to the mountain.

thats it for now,
will be home soon, happily!

dobre vecher, (good night),
nanci

finally... the long awaited massage
Privet,

Baby is developing more and more everyday. It's amazing. In the last couple of days, Nanci has taught her to give me a high five, wave bye, bye (sort of) and she is started taking a few steps (with assistance). I think she is really beginning to bond with me as she is not nearly as cranky as she was just a few days ago and is much more responsive to my attempts to soothe her. We even got to sleep through the night last night, which was a huge breakthrough.

Yesterday, I onced again commissioned the Kazakh babysitter (the one whose baby feeding talents put me to shame), and Nanci and I finally had the chance to visit the Arasan baths, a somewhat decrepit, but very traditional Russian style bath house. The Arasan bathhouse turned out to be one of the great things in life that the US is sorely lacking.

Nanci and I arrived at the baths only to find out that we had a bit of a translation problem.... (Even with Nanci's valent attempt to learn Cyrillic, we were challenged. At the perfect moment, we were rescued by a Russian woman, name Svetlana who spoke good English and offered to show us the ropes. We purchased our bath tickets, which entitled us to a 2 hour visit for around US $4, and then bought rubber sandals which were sold in a Kiosk outside for around $3. We entering the bath and joined Russian and Kazakh women in various states of dress and were assigned a locker. What an amazing experience this turned out to be. It really ranks with being buried in hot sand on the beach of Beppu, Japan, my encounter with the leaf carrying ants in Costa Rica) and dancing with the pilgrims in Muktanath, Nepal. I would of killed to have started shooting off my camera, but I guess that wouldn't have been too appreciated. There were women dressing, being massaged and getting facials and enjoying tea in their underwear. I couldn't help but notice the underwear and that most of the women weren't wearing matching bras and panties.

Svetlana, who it turns out works for one of my favorite American company's Philip Morris) helped us to schedule massages and showed us to the sauna room. There were two sauna rooms, one with dry heat and another with steam. After a week and a half of carrying around baby, my muscles were so sore, I practically collapsed in the steam room. Later Svetletia asked if I would like to have a women hit me with a branch of myrtle leaves, which I believe is a Russian bath treatment. I couldn't think of a good reason why not, so I said sure bring it on. The Russian bath lady gave me a good whacking in hot steam, and then poured three buckets of freezing cold water over me. It was great and I was about ready to collapse (in a good way now) when she was done. I took a dip in the pool, spent more time in the dry room, took a shower and sat in a mesmerized state waiting for my massage. I visited to toilet only to find newspaper, in lieu of toilet paper. Enough information.

Finally, Svetlana came by to say my massuese was ready for me. This woman was amazing... She came right out of that TV commercial from the '80s, with the Russian fashion show where all the women were wearing grey smocks. The big, strong massage woman clad in a red shirt, white sarong, and a pink terry cloth headband. She had short bleach blond hair and was about 80 pounds overweight and perspiring... sometimes on me. But, wow did she give a great massage... perhaps the best I've ever had. After I was done, Nanci was her next victim. After showering and dressing, we thanked Svetlana and exchanged phone numbers and made arrangements to meet the next day (today). We visited the small snack bar in the main area, where I had great fresh squeezed orange juice and a pastry. I then showed Nanci to the Green Market and I ran off to relieve the babysitter.

Later that night, venture off for dinner a couple blocks from our apartment and stumbled upon a fabulous Romanian restaurant. Baby got cranky upon our being seated and we were saved again by a waitress who picked up and soothed the baby while we ate. Of course, I never let them out of sight for a second and after I started following around the restaurant (it was a small restaurant), she got the message that she shouldn't be more than two feet away from me. The wait staff was incredibly nice and the food was spectacular.

This morning I ran out and bought a stroller at the Green Market and Nanci and wrapped up the baby and took her to the Central Museum, where we met up with Svetlana. It turns out the Svetlana's family is from Ecik, the same town as the orphanage my daughter was in. We had a great time at the museum and gift shop and then went over to Svetlana's house to for a late lunch with her mother, daughter, and daughter's boyfriend. We enjoyed a traditional Russian lunch of sausages, salami, mashed potatoes, cheese, juice, vodka, coffee and pastries. I could go on and on about how wonderful they were and what a wonderful time we had.

I need to sign off now as the internet club is about to close, and I need to get ready for my big court date tomorrow.

Paka,

Genice
who is making new friends and having a great time.

Nanci's Guest Post - Travel Letter #2
Hello!!!
Zdrasvuite

I love this city/country. Genice and I are having alot of fun exploring.

I finally got my luggage two days late, another detail in the travel hell experience - and only two pieces of clothing were wet. As i was on the shuttle at London Heathrow, about to miss the only plane to Almaty (for two days), my shuttle followed a little cart (the size of a parking ticketers' cart), pulling luggage at 5mph on an open bin. in the rain. i guess thats how my luggage got wet and missed my plane. as for me, i managed to get on that plane by the skin of my teeth - i had to run - (15 min walking distance to the gate, per the sign) - since the monitor said my flight was "closing". got to the gate and they wouldn't let me on. but being british, they were oh so polite about it. i begged and cried - alot - but being cottonmouthed/dehydrated, i doubt they understood a word i said! somehow they took pity and gave me the last seat on the plane (which was broken). when i got onto the plane, all the flight attendants said to me 'youre really lucky!" So i said, hey can i have one of these 1st class seats (which were all empty). i figured i'd test how much luck i could get! (didn't get it).

anyway - here in almaty - we have been walking and mostly seeing shops. an outing can be as simple as going to the OVIR (office of visa and immigration registration) which i did yesterday.

The rule is all visitors have to register their passports. it was about 30 minute walk. since the building has NO SIGNS on it, i ofcourse couldnt find it! but i asked people and as luck would have it (there's been alot of that on this trip), a well dressed man with briefcase spoke english and said he was going there too!! so he took me to this building with zillions of people coming and going, and all kinds of goings on, including the construction on the first floor, which was basically a dirt floor. he asked people, and floor by floor we found my window!!! there i waited in line with these very pushy people. man they make new yorkers look like wimps!! after being pushed to the back a few times i got my chance at the window. 3 windows later, i paid them, and now they have MY passport. i have alittle piece of paper ("don't lose it" the only english speaking worker said) which i must bring back on monday (between 6 -7) to get back my passport.

on my way back i found a little open street market and got a bagful of "mandareen' oranges for 80 cents plus a few pictures of the vendors. (they loved and kept wanting me to take more pix)

today has been full of BIG adventure.

Genice - the brave - wanted to go to the bathhouse and so i followed. Nanci - the wimp - would never have done this without encouragement.

its a huge building - you go below street level and pay. then you go up to huge front entry - soviet style - and inside is huge entry with grand staircase. up you go to the women's section. inside you get a locker and you undress - there are lots of rooms - with lots of women of all ages running around - at best with a towel on. (ok - you guys!) as luck would have it - again - we met an english speaker right at the beginning when you pay - or we never would have navigated this! Svieta - our saviour. with her guidance, we found showers and saunas, and a huge, round beautiful but Freezing swimming pool. genice had the 'leaf beating treatment' in the sauna. they have a handful of dried leafy branches about the size of a thick fan, and they beat your backside with it. then we got our "massazhes." you have choice of face, back, or full body. guess what we chose??? honestly, it was the best and most interesting massage ever, altho not always pleasant. (no pain no gain?) at times i thought maybe i was at the chiropracter! and even my belly button got attention. :)

i had a brief walk through the famous green market. this is a HUGE indoor market - one giant room, with all kinds of foods. Ofcourse the meat section was my favorite. Each meat counter had the head of their animal displayed - i guess so you know what youre buying? But the best was the bowl holding the cow's heart - brought back fond memories of gross anatomy! OK, i'm sure some of you are queasy now! How bout them fruit? the fruits were displayed and magnicent looking. makes Whole Foods pale in comparison. I will have to go back with the camera next time.

Our new friend Svieta has offered to drive us to the mountains tomorrow. i can't wait. I also made a friend with a kazakh brother and sister on the airplane - 10 hrs in the same row helps develop friendships. I am hoping they can show us some of the sights or restaurants too.

And now, for the baby! she is such a treat. She and Genice are bonding beautifully as genice tries to learn how to comfort her and figure out her needs - each day it gets easier for them.

sometimes we take turns going out, so i get some prolonged time with jiana by myself. I am ofcourse doing developmental evals (and bits of a physical exam here and there - well ok, while changing her diaper i examined her abdomen - which she giggled throughout, and then checked her hips for dislocation - which sent her wailing!!!! )

okay, so developmentally - well she's incredible. she's not delayed by much. she started crawling with genice before i arrived. she sits by herself but falls after a minute and she doesnt really stand well. so i started working on her. she couldnt take steps when being supported in standing position - and after 2 days - she CAN!!! she couldn't clap hands with us (like high 5) because she'd make a fist. I showed her once how to do it and now she does high 5. and she even started to wave after i showed her. i think this child is really bright, just seeing how quickly she learns. She is also eating a ton and already feels heavier to genice, and she says the baby has a bigger tummy now too!

Well i can't end this letter without commenting on the driving here. OK, I just love it. Again, New Yorkers have nothing on these kazakhs and russians. Did you say lanes? You can apparently drive on any part of the road you want. Seems a 2 lane road is just a suggestion - why not make it 3 lanes?

And lastly, i want to mention the architecture. its so big, bulky and cold, yet beatiful and ugly at one time. Everything here is big. Lots of cement style bldgs. Really the soviets had huge impact. i hope my pictures can do it justice. But just the opposite are the people, all beautiful and elegant and warm and friendly. its an odd contrast.

Only 8 days left here! Time is flying!

Miss you all,
Nanci

Saturday, January 15th

Nanci's Guest Post - Travel Letter #1
all is well here,
i am here in kazakhstan, on the other side of the planet. (14 hours ahead of SF) this is a wonderful city. i have not had chance to see enough of it
yet, sightseeing is slowed down ALOT when you have a baby to care for!

there is always some snow on the ground, which makes everything so pretty. there are the dramatic, huge, snow covered mountains just south - that are beautifuyl.

my study of cyrillic alphabet is helpful - i can read street signs and a few words, but what helps even more is that there always seem to be someone who know just enough english! (anglyski)

we have our own apt, a driver and a translator for adoption related activities, which fortunately includes shopping - just food shoppingso far, but that was a BIG adventure. very upscale store in a mall called Silk Way.

the baby (jiana) is a cutie pie. she's very small, 8 1/2 months old, we are trying to figure out her routine so we can anticipate her needs
before her meltdowns! so far, we have a lot to learn. i now know that she only drinks her formula if it is warm (otherwise she spits the bottle out -
after she sips a taste test!) using the stove is hard since you have to light it with a match every time - so far i have no success. don't even ask about the oven!! for anyone in my office reading this - don't let word get out but we are heating formula in the microwave! and we are probably breaking alot of other rules too. we are really limited in our resources here.

the flight here was - oh lets just say - difficult. the flight movie was around the world in 80 days - and my itinerary became just that! SF - Portland - Frankfurt - London - stop over in katerinasburg, russia - looked desolate at 5am, but almost all the passengers got off there and were Well Dressed!!!! then we all moved around the plane and each got our own row for the final 2 or 3 hours to almaty. only to have low fog. after 3 landing attempts - with wheels down - and low enough to read the words
on the trucks - 2 landings were 'aborted' We circled in total for about 1hour and i saw a spectacular sunrise over almaty's mountain range.

so in total - my flight included 2 sunsets and 2 sunrises!

more sooon,
nanci

Our new phone number
Our current phone number from the states is:

011-7-3272-610-193

Thanks to everyone who has called so far. It's been wonderful to hear familiar voices.

Paka, paka

She's a good eatter!!
Back at the Nhtephet club...

That girl can power down food like a linebacker. I swear I can't make the formula and warm the baby food fast enough. She's always hungry. She eats something like 6 meals a day at all hours of the day and night. Nanci has suggested that whenever she screams, I should just feed her and it seems to work. Here I thought the major expenses of raising a child would be education, enrichment activities and daycare, and it turns out to be groceries. Who would have guessed? All joking aside, I think she is either ramping up for a big growth spurt or playing catch up due to being slightly underfed at the orphanage. Nanci thinks that she is a little thin for her height. She is wearing size 6-9 months, and she is swimming in all the 12-18 month clothes I brought for her.

The future Ms. Jiana is doing very well on all fronts. She cracks up at seeing herself in the mirror. It's so incredibly cute. She is also battling me at every meal for control of the spoon. And that girl is strong. When she can't get the spoon, she tries to stick her fingers in the food or grab at any food droppings on the table so that she can wipe her sticky fingers on me. Meal time is great fun. But, with all due respect to her, the jury is back and it turns out that I am the one to blame for messy meal times and not the other way around. My Kazakh babysitter has been found to possess the special talent of feeding the baby without creating a complete disaster of everyone's clothes. I don't know how she does it.

This morning, after Nanci's luggage finally arrived (another mishap on her travels to Kaz), Anastasia and our driver took us all to have the baby's passport pictures taken. Afterward, we went to British Airways and made a tentative plane reservation home for January 23 (assuming all goes well at court on Monday and my 15 day waiting period is waved). I have mixed feeling about leaving so soon as I really, really miss everyone and Team Orange at home, but I am so enjoying being here that I will also be sad to leave. It's just ironic that I would have the world fastest Kaz adoption... as it is pretty common for parents to be here for up to 45 days.

Although, I have to say that my back is totally killing me from lifting her so much (and dragging around heavy rugs... more on that later) and from feeding her without the benefit of a high chair. I thought that my experience dragging around Jupiter would help build me up for this (he's also about 15 pounds), but I'm clearly still not quite up for the task. I am in such bad need of that massage and mineral baths, that I've been meaning to get to for the past week and a half. We will hopefully make it to the Arasan baths this weekend.

What else? Yesterday, I hired the babysitter again and Nanci and I went out to the Fine Arts Museum. The building was really a dump, but they had a nice collection of very interesting work. As one might guess, there was a lot of Kazakh ethnic art, which I have never before seen the like of. They also have a couple of rug dealers and an awesome gift shop. I ended up with two rugs, which now I am sort of stressing about how I am going to get them home. I also bought a couple pieces of 100 year old Kazakh ethnic jewelry, which I plan to frame.

Also, Nanci and I took her out on the town last night for her very first girls night out. Let's just say it wasn't a late night and leave it at that.

A note to my parents: Don't harass me about my spelling. I'll get this spell and grammar checked later.

Also Mom: I have to admit that you were right... I absolutely need your help as soon as I get home. So don't wait a few days as I suggested, just plan to come ASAP. I will definitely need to catch up on some sleep.

Paka for now,

Love Genice
Who is counting down 4 more days til it's official.

Move to new apartment and Nanci arrived safely
While I finally got to a computer and logged my blog entry just to have the server go down at the exact moment I go to save it and I lose everything so here I go attemping to recreate it.

We moved into a new apartment yesterday, which incidentally is not next door to the Ramstore as I was told, but is in a safe neighborhood not too far from the old apartment. This apartment is much, much nicer than the other place and is very nicely appointed with beautifully furnishings and an exquisite Chrystal chandelier. I was a bit embarrassed after spending 10 minutes complaining Anastasia about the location once I saw how nice it is. Most importantly, the living room has two very comfortable arm chairs, which are perfect for feeding baby, a couch for changing her and a strategically placed microwave oven so that I can sit baby on the counter while maneuvering the microwave and kitchen sink. Life couldn't be better?

Nanci, my pediatrician friend from my San Francisco Ski Club days, arrived this morning after a 30-something hour ordeal, which took her from San Francisco to Portland to Frankfurt to London with a stop in Katerinasburg, Russia and then finally to Almaty, which was fogged in and they almost couldn't land. She is currently crashed out with the baby as I write this. I was so delighted to stumble upon this interet assess... I was aimlessly walking the streets and saw a building with a Cyrillic word that looked a little like inter et... walked in and somehow made myself understood and was then escorted to a little room with 5 computers. So here I am happily typing away (telling the same darn story for the second time, and probably getting charged for the full time usage. What can you do.)

After a brief meeting, Nanci agrees with my assessment that the baby seems to be right on target developmentally in terms of fine motor, gross motor and language skills. She is babbling up a storm and crawling all over the place and getting into mischief. Her only problem is that she is getting over a chest cold and has been a bit cranky. Which I am praying is only due to the chest cold and has nothing to do with her disposition. Most of the time, when she is well fed, diapered and rested, she is pretty cheery.

This morning baby and I were playing on the floor, she was crawling and I was at temping to do some Yoga. Baby crawled over to me and planted what I think she meant to be kisses. They were pretty slobbery, but among the best kisses I've ever received. What a great reward for traveling so far.

I've learned a lot of lessons about baby after my first 6 days with her, For instance, 1) be sure to cover the entire neck area prior to feedings to avoid collateral damage, 2) do not surrender full control of the spoon if food is on it, 3) sneak vitamins and medications into baby's bottle for ease of consumption, 4) under no circumstances should you ever feed baby any form of broccoli. It has definitely been a learning curve for me, but I am also having a lot of fun.

Once everyone left the apartment, I dressed baby up in a snowsuit and took her for a walk around the block to check out our new hood. We wondered into some very nice boutiques, where I found the swede boots of my dreams for a mere US $1,000. Guess I'll pass. I also stumbled upon a nice cafe, where the hostess showed us to a downstairs room with a Turkish motiff with lovely chaise lounges where the baby slept and I could enjoy a Club Sandwich and Coke. The menu was almost entirely in Cyrillic and that was about all I could decifer. Of course, no one there spoke any English.

I bought a wonderful oil painting yesterday by a well-known Kaz artist. It's quite large and now I will challenged with how to get it back home.

All and all, I am having a great time here. I'm a bit tired, but basically OK. I'm thrilled to have Nanci here for moral support and help with baby, and I am really hoping to be able to get out more now.

Paka,

Genice
who is thrilled to have a comfortable arm chair and to find inter et access.

Breaking out and being locked up
Privet,

Here is my delayed post for January 5... I got a bit of respite today as I hired a babysitter for 3 hours. She is a friend of Anastasia my translator and has 3 children of her own. My travel partners Rahila and Abdul are home watching the football playoff on CSPAN, so I felt pretty comfortable leaving her.

So here's my reflections from the day after I brought to baby home.

..........

I was informed yesterday morning (Tuesday) that there was a good chance that I would gain temporary custody that day. I was taken a bit off guard as I was previously informed that I would just be meeting the orphanage director, but would gain custody the following day, which would have given me enough time to buy baby food, diapers, and bottles. So after a year of fanatically planning The Baby's first 5 years of life we me, I was still caught unprepared in the most fundamental necessities.

Prior to gaining temporary custody, I would have a final visit with the baby and a chance to feed her for the purpose of taking photos for my court appearance. So the orphanage worker brings in the baby along with her breakfast, which consisted of some form of cream of wheat type porrage served in a ceramic cereal bowl with a metal soup spoon, and milk served in a ceramic coffee mug. So I take a really deep breath and try as hard as I can not to roll my eyes in dismay. I start gently feeding her with the metal soup spoon and she is taking it, but getting a bit cranky between bites. The orphanage worker then comes over, takes the bowl off the table, and puts it under The Baby's chin and motions that I should just start shoveling it in. I do as directed and she finishes the porrage. Then I gently put the ceramic coffee mug to her tiny lips and try to slowly pour it in her little mouth. As you can imagine, the finally well fed child is a complete mess by the time we finish.

Afterward, I have a really nice talk with the orphanage's head doctor. I ask about a hundred questions, and then tell her about how much I want the baby and how I have prepared to take care of her and how all my family and friends have been supportive and how all my cousin is married to a women who born in Moscow and how my mom plays's the Dombra in the Los Angeles St. Petersburg Russian Folk Orchestra, and how I plan to send her to college and hopefully grad school and all that. She gave The Baby a rave report and was seemed very happy that I wanted to be her mom. We were both teary eyed in the end and gave each other a warm hug. It turns out that she is the one who gave The Baby the name Moldyr, which means Chrystal Clear Water in Russian or Kazakh. She choose the name to celebrate her beautiful eyes.

So finally, I break the baby out of the orphanage and drive back in Aigul's beautiful Mercedes.... Got to take her out in style, you know. Delilah and Alisha, my translator are with us. We drive back to Almaty to the well stocked, but overpriced western style Silk Way Market. If everything wasn't written in Cyrillic, you would think you were in the States. I even found one of my favorite staples... Vanilla flavored Organic Soy Milk. When I asked what type of formula she is taking, Alisha tells me "it's cows milk", which I refuse to believe so I insist that we buy some Milk-based Iron-Fortied formula. I choose the Nestle' brand, which incidentally is the same company that was responsible for the death of thousands of babies in Subsaharan Africa in the mid 80s. It was a big Oops see on Nestles part, when they failed to inform their illiterate market that they should use the formula with purified water.

We get back to the apartment, unload the groceries and everyone but Delilah and me take off. For the first few minutes, I feel sort of dumbfounded when it hits me that I am incharge of feeding and diapering this little baby, something I have virtually no experience doing. I am not really sure of what to do first.

I start by ripping of 4 layers of clothing, that I was obliged to dress her in in order to escape the orphanage. She is as happy as a little clam to be free to move and I take off her little socks so she can get what is probably her first ever glimpse of her little toes.

By this point, she is cooing and smiling--- a totally different child then the one I met in the orphanage. I think she is beginning to like me a bit and I am falling completely head over heels in love with her.

All is pretty well, except that she has a bit of a cold, is teething, has diarea (from the change in formula) and is probably a bit disoriented from all the changes. The next day, I inquire again about the brand of formula she is used to, and again I am told that she is drinking cows milk. I am instructed to feed her that as well. After one round of arguing the point, I decide to give in and let Anastasia buy the cow's milk, which I plan to use with my cereal.

Ever since taking custody of the baby I've been pretty much on house arrest as the command of my adoption facilitator, Aigul. I get about an hour or two off, and I've made my way to the internet club, and usually find it closed or that the server it down.

The last few days have really been trial by fire as baby has been a bit cranky. The only way, I am able to console her cries is by marching around the room. Apparently, sitting down and rocking her isn't good enough. By 6am, I was so desparate to be horizontal.

While TV coverage is somewhat limited... Tsunami news, American Football, a music channel, there are occassional special features in English. I saw a preview for an exclusive interview with Amber Frey. I can hardly wait.

The first few days were a challenge to figure out the least distructive way to feed her. I'm doing laundry every day due to the fallout. It was a battle at first to get her to eat. The last couple of days, she has decided that she can do a better job than me and is battling me for the spoon. She was frustrated that the hole on the bottle was too small, but now she has adjusted. In desperation, we tried to cup method. (I am afraid she will do all too well if handed a beer bong in college."

All in all, it's been a fun and interesting challenge. I'm really loving it and loving her more and more everyday and feeling more and more like a mom. Oh one last thing, yesterday I noticed that she discovered her hand. She was checking it out front and back and then checking my hand out and biting my fingers. She only has four teeth, but they are strong and bite hard.

Paka Paka,
Genice
who is a bit tired, but very happy.