We are sorry for a week of no updates or pictures. This has been a tough week for us and we are again sorting through hard decisions. All that we can do at this point is pray and ask for your prayers as well. Again, we are hoping to share good news with you all very soon and we are willing to share our entire story when the time is right.
Much Love from Kaz,
The Letterneaus
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
A Good Day
Thank you all so much for your sweet comments on our previous post. We cried as we read them and felt so loved and supported. It is hard to explain how lonely it truly is being on the other side of the world without any of our loved ones here to encourage us as we make the hardest decisions of our lives.
As we mentioned earlier Darina has a mild case of Cerebral Palsy. This effects the right side of her body while her left side works just perfectly. The muscles in her hand and leg are naturally tight so it takes more effort for her to use those muscles. Today we spent 3 hours at the baby house and were amazed by the progress we've seen her make in these few short visits we've had with her. We played with play-doh today and she used both hands voluntarily! She was also captivated by our baby genius DVD's and even did a little dancing. There is no question that she loves attention and we can see her learning and growing as a result. Please pray for her language development as this is one area that is still very scary for us. Of coarse we don't speak Russian so it's very hard to tell exactly where she's at.
We are taking everything in day by day and are enjoying getting to know this amazing little one.
Here are some more pictures from our day today :-)
Watching Baby Genius
She let me (Kari) put a clip in her hair today. Unfortunately, at 25 lbs, she doesn't fit in any of the 2T and 3T clothes we brought her. Kazakh shopping mall here we come!
She never gets tired of the slide
Look at my new scarf!
The Nose Game
The Chin Game...We also played the clapping game and the high five game :-)
More Fun at the top of the slide.
A doll dressed in traditional Kazakh clothing that we purchased as a keepsake.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Introducing Darina…soon to be Ava D. Letterneau!!
"In love He predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will." Ephesians 1:5
This week we have experienced the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. Last Wednesday, the 18th of March, we visited the baby house for the first time. We were shown a little three year old girl named Darina. We immediately feel in love with this spunky, active, happy little girl and the three of us bonded quickly. Darina has a mild case of Cerebral Palsy and because of this we initially thought we wouldn’t be bringing her home with us. We were scared of the unknown and knew that this would be an even bigger life change than we expected. We spent hours crying, torn over the thought of never seeing her again. We were told of other children available but our hearts kept leading us back to Darina.
This week we have experienced the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. Last Wednesday, the 18th of March, we visited the baby house for the first time. We were shown a little three year old girl named Darina. We immediately feel in love with this spunky, active, happy little girl and the three of us bonded quickly. Darina has a mild case of Cerebral Palsy and because of this we initially thought we wouldn’t be bringing her home with us. We were scared of the unknown and knew that this would be an even bigger life change than we expected. We spent hours crying, torn over the thought of never seeing her again. We were told of other children available but our hearts kept leading us back to Darina.
Through talking with her doctors and caretakers at the baby house, along with lots of internet research, we know that her future is bright. Mentally Darina is very smart, her only limitations are physical. We have already seen her progress in the days we’ve spent with her and know that she will continue to prosper with committed parents and the opportunities available in the United States. We've also been given a referral for an American peditrician who specializes in international adoptions. We'll keep you all posted as we communicate with the doctor and continue to visit Darina.
We could write a novel on all that we have been through this past week but we feel totally at peace with our decision and we are excited to continue bonding with our daughter! Plus, I'm sure you'll get more than a novel over the next few weeks!
Thank you so much for your prayers and encouragement.
Enjoy some pictures from our first week of bonding:
Outside the Baby House.
Watching video of her new bedroom. She's excited!
She's such a sweetie!
That girl is always smiling!
She loves the slide... over and over and over
Adorable baby girl.
Don't be fooled by the outfit, some of these pictures were actually taken on different days. Since she only has one outfit we'll be bringing some clothes for our next visit. =)
Monday, March 23, 2009
A Few More Pictures
Our Dryer
Us waiting outside our apartment for our ride to the baby house
Most apartments here have little playgrounds in the courtyard area. They are pretty run down and don't get much use in the winter.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Pictures from the Kazakh New Year Festivities
Our translator Svetlana (not Sveta)
Us in front of the Irtysh River. The river starts in China and runs through KAZ before ending in Russia.
Half of the river is frozen, the other half is not frozen because of the runoff water from the plant that heats water for all of Pavlodar.
Donkey rides at The Square
Traditional Kazakh Swing
Us in front of a "Yurt" style tent. A yurt is a portable, felt-covered, wood-framed dwelling structure; this was the traditional Kazakh home before all the apartments were built nearly 50 years ago.
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Happy Kazakh New Year!
Oh the sweet sound of dial up. We do have Internet in our apartment but we'll have to wait another few days for DSL. We are anxious to tell you all the details of our crazy week but we are still sorting through some decisions and feel it's best that we wait. We will hopefully have pictures and news for you by Wednesday!
In non-baby related news, we had our first traditional Russian meal today. I (Kari) played it safe with a soup and salad but it was still out of my comfort zone. James keeps repeating, "What did I just eat?" He ate some sort of beef, stuffed with cheese and tomatoes, with a crust of fat. The meat here is very fatty.
We also went shopping for some cultural Russian and Kazakh gifts. We want to have some special items that our child can keep forever.
Tomorrow is the Kazakh New Year. The city is decorated beautifully and the streets are already full with booths set up for food tasting. We will not be tasting the street food but we will hopefully get to experience the festivities which also include dancing and traditional Kazakh clothing.
We love you!
Fun Kazakh Fact of the Day: Although people here drive on the right side of the road (kind of), the steering wheels can be found on either side of the car. This is mainly because the cars are imported from surrounding countries which all have different conventions.
In non-baby related news, we had our first traditional Russian meal today. I (Kari) played it safe with a soup and salad but it was still out of my comfort zone. James keeps repeating, "What did I just eat?" He ate some sort of beef, stuffed with cheese and tomatoes, with a crust of fat. The meat here is very fatty.
We also went shopping for some cultural Russian and Kazakh gifts. We want to have some special items that our child can keep forever.
Tomorrow is the Kazakh New Year. The city is decorated beautifully and the streets are already full with booths set up for food tasting. We will not be tasting the street food but we will hopefully get to experience the festivities which also include dancing and traditional Kazakh clothing.
We love you!
Fun Kazakh Fact of the Day: Although people here drive on the right side of the road (kind of), the steering wheels can be found on either side of the car. This is mainly because the cars are imported from surrounding countries which all have different conventions.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Recent Updates...
3-19-2009
Hello Everyone. Thanks so much for your kind words and for all your prayers. We have been to the baby house as of Wednesday. We are in the middle of making some personal decisions regarding which child to bond with and we'll update you when those decisions are made. Know that we are having a positive experience and we hope to bring you happy news soon! Until we get internet at the apartment, we'll probably only be able to update every two or three days...sorry :-( In the meantime, enjoy the pictures of our apartment and of Pavlodar.
Russian Orthodox Church in Pavlodar
Eternal Flame Memorial (World War II)
Mosque in Pavlodar
Apartment: Living Room
James Cooking Our First Meal in the Apartment
Views of the Courtyard from our Apartment
3-17-2009
Sveta to the rescue! We’ll preface our post with that so you don’t worry too much as you read the beginning of this story. Today we had one final meeting/interview to go through before we are allowed to visit the babies. This interview was with the director of the Child Welfare Union in Kaz. We were assigned a translator, Vitaly, who had never before translated for an adoption situation. His English was also not very good. Sveta is our coordinator and deals with the paper work and all the many logistics and we have a translator who comes with us to meetings for simple translations. Hmm…it was not so simple as it turned out. We expected the interview to be a little harder than the first but since the first one went so incredibly smoothly, we really weren’t worried. The woman at the union began by asking us the simple question of why we wanted to adopt from Kazakhstan. We answered, and she continued to ask the same question, clearly not satisfied with the answer we were giving. For about 20 minutes she kept asking us why we didn’t adopt from the states or why we didn’t try to have biological children first. We had the feeling that our translator must not be communicating our words correctly considering that thousands of US families have adopted from Kazakhstan over the years. I was close to breaking down in tears and we were both convinced that they were going to send us home without even being able to meet the children. Then, like a dramatic movie, Sveta comes through the door and takes over the conversation. The woman asks Sveta to ask us why we want to adopt from Kazakhstan. Again, we answered, Sveta translated, and the woman moved on to the next question. Phew…
By the end of the interview, the woman told us that she was done torturing us and explained that she had to ask us the hard questions since she would be representing us in court. We are now happy that this very strong willed, persistent woman is on our side. She even cracked a smile. She was required to appear in court for two other families today and was unable to bring us to the baby house so we will likely be going tomorrow. Each day we ARE getting closer.
Fun Kazakh Fact of the Day:
While Kazakhstan does have washing machines, they do not have clothes dryers. This is mainly due to lack of space.
3-16-2009
Not much to report today. We were unable to get to the baby house this morning because the ministry of education here wanted to confirm the exact children who are off the registry and available for adoption. There was an unfortunate incident with another family here who was in the middle of their bonding time with a child. The family was at the end of their 14 day bonding when the orphanage director discovered that the child they were bonding with was not yet off the registry and therefore was not able to be adopted. How terribly heartbreaking for this family. We are thankful that the ministry of education is taking necessary precautions to ensure that we don’t find ourselves in a similar position.
Fun Kazakh Fact of the Day:
Peanut butter is a luxury item in Kazakhstan. We found one jar of it in Almaty but there is none to be found here in Pavlodar. Sveta says that sometimes American Families will send her peanut butter for Christmas. They don’t eat it much so they told us we can raid their supply if we get desperate.
3-15-2009
We can truly say we are experiencing Kazakhstan to the fullest. Today we moved into an apartment and boy is it a sight. We’ll just say that the place has character! It’s all part of the experience and we are loving it. Ava is going to have a pretty cool story to tell her friends about how she came to be our daughter. We feel comfortable here and have children playing soccer outside our window at this very moment.
Today we went to lunch with Sveta, Iliya and their son Danny. We went to Sveta’s favorite restaurant that served just about everything. I got a greek salad with chicken crapes and James had a tropical salad with pizza. This was Danny’s favorite restaurant too because there is a play area for the kids to enjoy while their parents eat and drink their tea. Sveta and Iliya also have a daughter, Sasha (2 1/2), who on a trip to visit grandma for the week. We will meet her when she returns.
Well, back to watching Dawson’s Creek…we are now in the middle of season 3! We only have through season 4 so if anyone has another TV series or Dawson’s Creek season 5-9, we’d welcome them!
Fun Kazakh Fact of the Day: Mom wont like this one… Fitted bed sheets don’t really exist in Kazakhstan. There is one sheet that lays over the mattress and then one sheet on top. If you are planning to travel to Kaz, and have room, I would suggest brining bed sheets!
Hello Everyone. Thanks so much for your kind words and for all your prayers. We have been to the baby house as of Wednesday. We are in the middle of making some personal decisions regarding which child to bond with and we'll update you when those decisions are made. Know that we are having a positive experience and we hope to bring you happy news soon! Until we get internet at the apartment, we'll probably only be able to update every two or three days...sorry :-( In the meantime, enjoy the pictures of our apartment and of Pavlodar.
Russian Orthodox Church in Pavlodar
Eternal Flame Memorial (World War II)
Mosque in Pavlodar
Apartment: Living Room
James Cooking Our First Meal in the Apartment
Views of the Courtyard from our Apartment
3-17-2009
Sveta to the rescue! We’ll preface our post with that so you don’t worry too much as you read the beginning of this story. Today we had one final meeting/interview to go through before we are allowed to visit the babies. This interview was with the director of the Child Welfare Union in Kaz. We were assigned a translator, Vitaly, who had never before translated for an adoption situation. His English was also not very good. Sveta is our coordinator and deals with the paper work and all the many logistics and we have a translator who comes with us to meetings for simple translations. Hmm…it was not so simple as it turned out. We expected the interview to be a little harder than the first but since the first one went so incredibly smoothly, we really weren’t worried. The woman at the union began by asking us the simple question of why we wanted to adopt from Kazakhstan. We answered, and she continued to ask the same question, clearly not satisfied with the answer we were giving. For about 20 minutes she kept asking us why we didn’t adopt from the states or why we didn’t try to have biological children first. We had the feeling that our translator must not be communicating our words correctly considering that thousands of US families have adopted from Kazakhstan over the years. I was close to breaking down in tears and we were both convinced that they were going to send us home without even being able to meet the children. Then, like a dramatic movie, Sveta comes through the door and takes over the conversation. The woman asks Sveta to ask us why we want to adopt from Kazakhstan. Again, we answered, Sveta translated, and the woman moved on to the next question. Phew…
By the end of the interview, the woman told us that she was done torturing us and explained that she had to ask us the hard questions since she would be representing us in court. We are now happy that this very strong willed, persistent woman is on our side. She even cracked a smile. She was required to appear in court for two other families today and was unable to bring us to the baby house so we will likely be going tomorrow. Each day we ARE getting closer.
Fun Kazakh Fact of the Day:
While Kazakhstan does have washing machines, they do not have clothes dryers. This is mainly due to lack of space.
3-16-2009
Not much to report today. We were unable to get to the baby house this morning because the ministry of education here wanted to confirm the exact children who are off the registry and available for adoption. There was an unfortunate incident with another family here who was in the middle of their bonding time with a child. The family was at the end of their 14 day bonding when the orphanage director discovered that the child they were bonding with was not yet off the registry and therefore was not able to be adopted. How terribly heartbreaking for this family. We are thankful that the ministry of education is taking necessary precautions to ensure that we don’t find ourselves in a similar position.
Fun Kazakh Fact of the Day:
Peanut butter is a luxury item in Kazakhstan. We found one jar of it in Almaty but there is none to be found here in Pavlodar. Sveta says that sometimes American Families will send her peanut butter for Christmas. They don’t eat it much so they told us we can raid their supply if we get desperate.
3-15-2009
We can truly say we are experiencing Kazakhstan to the fullest. Today we moved into an apartment and boy is it a sight. We’ll just say that the place has character! It’s all part of the experience and we are loving it. Ava is going to have a pretty cool story to tell her friends about how she came to be our daughter. We feel comfortable here and have children playing soccer outside our window at this very moment.
Today we went to lunch with Sveta, Iliya and their son Danny. We went to Sveta’s favorite restaurant that served just about everything. I got a greek salad with chicken crapes and James had a tropical salad with pizza. This was Danny’s favorite restaurant too because there is a play area for the kids to enjoy while their parents eat and drink their tea. Sveta and Iliya also have a daughter, Sasha (2 1/2), who on a trip to visit grandma for the week. We will meet her when she returns.
Well, back to watching Dawson’s Creek…we are now in the middle of season 3! We only have through season 4 so if anyone has another TV series or Dawson’s Creek season 5-9, we’d welcome them!
Fun Kazakh Fact of the Day: Mom wont like this one… Fitted bed sheets don’t really exist in Kazakhstan. There is one sheet that lays over the mattress and then one sheet on top. If you are planning to travel to Kaz, and have room, I would suggest brining bed sheets!
Sunday, March 15, 2009
House Hunters: International
3/14/2009 We wait in anticipation for when we can visit the baby house on Monday but today we enjoyed doing some sight seeing and looked for an apartment to stay in for the remainder of the trip. Almost everyone lives in apartments here and they are much cheaper than staying at the hotel. We found one that we like and will probably be moving in tomorrow. We felt like we were on the House Hunters show where couples view three properties and then pick which one they like best. All the apartments here come fully furnished and most of them still had the tenant living there when we visited. America is not the only country struggling right now…people are trying to rent out their places while they move in with family members to save money. Apartments are only about 600-900 square feet inside and are nothing special but they are roomier than the hotel, cheaper than the hotel, and will allow us to cook our own food rather than having to eat out every night. We’ve already gotten sick of eating out and have resorted to Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches once or twice for dinner already. We may even have internet in our place! I asked Sveta if these apartments would be safe for us and she looked at me and said, “Do they not look safe?” In America these apartments would probably not be in a great neighborhood and wouldn’t be somewhere that we would normally find ourselves living, but in Kazakhstan, this is how all people live. It is rare for people to live in homes. Only the very rich live in free standing homes. In her 10 years of working with American families she hasn’t had a problem yet and we feel very safe staying there.
Our tour of Pavlodar began with visiting the Russian Orthodox Church. Sveta told us that it was built about 4 years ago but took 10 years of fundraising before it was built. Next we visited the Eternal Flame, which was built in memory of those who died in World War II. They also have a statue of a real tank that was used in the war. They keep these memorials as a reminder that they don’t ever want to be involved in anything like this again in the future. We saw many weddings taking place in Pavlodar today and it seemed that everywhere we visited, the same wedding party was there. It is tradition for the wedding party to visit the church and the eternal flame after their ceremony. Lastly, we visited the Mosque, which was also built within the last 4 years. Sveta and I had to cover our heads when we went inside, but when the women are not in the church, the do not cover their head like we see in the states. It was fun to get out today and see the city and spend time with Sveta and Iliya. We will post pictures of our apartment once we get settled there. Hugs and Kisses…we miss everyone and hope you are well.
We have taken some beautiful pictures of our tour around the city but the internet cafe that we are at wont let us post them for some reason. We should have internet at our apartment by the middle of the week and we'll upload them at that time.
Fun Kazakh Fact of the Day: All the coffee here is decaf unless you special order it caffeinated. Opposite of America…we love our caffeine in the states!
Our tour of Pavlodar began with visiting the Russian Orthodox Church. Sveta told us that it was built about 4 years ago but took 10 years of fundraising before it was built. Next we visited the Eternal Flame, which was built in memory of those who died in World War II. They also have a statue of a real tank that was used in the war. They keep these memorials as a reminder that they don’t ever want to be involved in anything like this again in the future. We saw many weddings taking place in Pavlodar today and it seemed that everywhere we visited, the same wedding party was there. It is tradition for the wedding party to visit the church and the eternal flame after their ceremony. Lastly, we visited the Mosque, which was also built within the last 4 years. Sveta and I had to cover our heads when we went inside, but when the women are not in the church, the do not cover their head like we see in the states. It was fun to get out today and see the city and spend time with Sveta and Iliya. We will post pictures of our apartment once we get settled there. Hugs and Kisses…we miss everyone and hope you are well.
We have taken some beautiful pictures of our tour around the city but the internet cafe that we are at wont let us post them for some reason. We should have internet at our apartment by the middle of the week and we'll upload them at that time.
Fun Kazakh Fact of the Day: All the coffee here is decaf unless you special order it caffeinated. Opposite of America…we love our caffeine in the states!
Friday, March 13, 2009
Interview with Ministry of Education
3/13/2009
Today we found out that before visiting the baby house there are few more steps we must go through. So this morning we met with the department of education and had an interview with them. They asked us questions about our age and jobs and why we intended to adopt from Kaz. The women were very friendly and sweet to us and asked us how our experience in Kazakhstan had been so far. They thanked us for visiting Kazakhstan and for deciding to adopt one of their children. Now we have to wait for a signature before we can visit the baby. We felt very comfortable during the interview and were pleased that we should have the signature and permission to visit the baby by Monday.
While we are so anxious to finally meet Ava, we are also enjoying Pavlodar. Today we had lunch with our translator, Svetlana, who spent all last year teaching English in Lake Tahoe. She says that the children in the baby house are so sweet and that we will fall in love with them all. We have come on this trip to meet and bring home our daughter but we also hope to fall in love with this country and the people. We truly are having a wonderful experience. Tomorrow, we may look into apartments and might get a tour of the city. We will keep you posted each chance we get. Speceba (Thank you) for leaving comments on the blog. We sooooo enjoy reading them. Speceba for your prayers. We feel that God’s favor is with us.
Fun Kazak fact of the day: A common breakfast item here is "Sausage" which is realy a hotdog. They also serve noodle soup and salad for breakfast.
Today we found out that before visiting the baby house there are few more steps we must go through. So this morning we met with the department of education and had an interview with them. They asked us questions about our age and jobs and why we intended to adopt from Kaz. The women were very friendly and sweet to us and asked us how our experience in Kazakhstan had been so far. They thanked us for visiting Kazakhstan and for deciding to adopt one of their children. Now we have to wait for a signature before we can visit the baby. We felt very comfortable during the interview and were pleased that we should have the signature and permission to visit the baby by Monday.
While we are so anxious to finally meet Ava, we are also enjoying Pavlodar. Today we had lunch with our translator, Svetlana, who spent all last year teaching English in Lake Tahoe. She says that the children in the baby house are so sweet and that we will fall in love with them all. We have come on this trip to meet and bring home our daughter but we also hope to fall in love with this country and the people. We truly are having a wonderful experience. Tomorrow, we may look into apartments and might get a tour of the city. We will keep you posted each chance we get. Speceba (Thank you) for leaving comments on the blog. We sooooo enjoy reading them. Speceba for your prayers. We feel that God’s favor is with us.
Fun Kazak fact of the day: A common breakfast item here is "Sausage" which is realy a hotdog. They also serve noodle soup and salad for breakfast.
Updates From the Past Few Days
3/11/2009
We are unable to get to the internet café everyday but we want to be sure to write something about each day we are here. We have been writing entries on our computer so that we don’t forget to include anything. I know that everyone is anxious to hear information about the baby but we also want to give details of the trip for those families who are waiting to travel to Kaz or who will look at our blog for travel/adoption information in the future.
3/11/2009 From Almaty
We are about 15 minutes from leaving our hotel in Almaty and heading to Pavlodar. We loved Almaty! We have been to the local mall several times and found that it’s very similar to the malls in America. Our translator says that her favorite show is Lost and we told her that we are probably the only people in America who don’t watch that show! At the internet café yesterday we met a man who showed us the Kazakhstan version of facebook and asked us to create an account so that we could be “friends” with him. We kindly said, No thank you :-) James and I are feeling refreshed after the long day of traveling. We went to bed at 6:00 pm last evening and woke up at 7:00 am. We can’t wait to get to Pavlodar and get settled into our place there. We think we'll meet Ava tomorrow! UNBELIEVABLE! We love you all and will update again tomorrow. Fun Kazakh fact of the day: The clean-up staff that works at the food court in the mall wear hospital scrubs. It also costs money to use the bathroom and to use a cart at the store.
3/11/2009 From Pavlodar
We arrived safely in Pavlodar a few hours ago. I (Kari) spent many hours over the past year and half worrying about the small plane flight from Almaty to Pavlodar. Wow, was I wasting my time. Our flight was perfectly smooth and we had much more leg room than we did on the international flight. They even served a meal on the three hour trip. Once we got off the plane we met Sveta, our coordinator, who was the sweetest women in world! She was so warm and friendly and we feel so good knowing that she is looking out for us. Our hotel here is amazing. It’s large and clean and the architecture is beautiful. Pavlodar is much colder than Almaty, it’s about 15 degrees. Sveta says that it should warm up a bit next week. Well, James and I will probably watch a movie on the lap top and get to bed. We think we'll get to meet our princess tomorrow. We are so excited. Another fun Kazakh fact…The women here are incredibly fashionable. Almost all the women wear skinny jeans with tall boots.
3/12/2009
Well today has definitely been a difficult day. First of all we woke up at about 4 AM too excited to sleep and still trying to recover from jet lag. We spent the morning counting the hours until 9AM, the time we were supposed to get going. Before we can go to the Baby House we need to meet with an official who will sign our paperwork off to the “city” level. Unfortunately we got all dressed up in our nice clothes around 9 AM, and waited in anticipation all day long. We first heard the official was going to be in a meeting all morning, and we’d have to wait until after lunch. Well lunch came and went and the rest of the afternoon slowly (and I mean slowly) vanished. Our only trip outside today was to walk a few buildings down to exchange money to pay for the hotel. At about 6:30 pm we did find out that we have a meeting tomorrow morning at 10:30 which was a bright spot of the day. Throughout the day we experienced many emotions. There was a time we were “loopy” from being awake too long, there was a time we felt helpless because we are stuck in this hotel room until the logistics are worked out, there was a time we broke down in tears because we feel so far away from a baby girl who is literally a couple miles away. It’s hard not to feel lonely, being in a foreign place with little to no contact with the outside world. We know this will get better. Once we get into the Baby House we’ll forget about these days of waiting. Hopefully we can establish a routine of visiting the Baby House a couple times a day while stopping by the internet café and/or doing some other fun activity in between visits. These are the days that make us thankful for all of you at home who are praying in our behalf. We have also been blessed by the daily letters written to us that were arranged by our good friend Brandi; thanks so much for that! Just a reminder, we should be able to check email every couple days, so your emails are encouraged! It will be nice to hear from friends and family at home. James wrote this blog but I am adding to it quickly before he sees. I can’t express how amazing he has been during this first week. He had handled all the money and arrangements so beautifully and on top of that has been there emotionally for me as I adjust to being here. He is the best! Fun Letterneau Fact of the day: We purchased a magnet drawing board for Ava and have probably used this to entertain ourselves more than Ava will this trip. We are also on the second season of Dawson’s Creek DVD’s, which has saved us from going completely stir crazy.
We are unable to get to the internet café everyday but we want to be sure to write something about each day we are here. We have been writing entries on our computer so that we don’t forget to include anything. I know that everyone is anxious to hear information about the baby but we also want to give details of the trip for those families who are waiting to travel to Kaz or who will look at our blog for travel/adoption information in the future.
3/11/2009 From Almaty
We are about 15 minutes from leaving our hotel in Almaty and heading to Pavlodar. We loved Almaty! We have been to the local mall several times and found that it’s very similar to the malls in America. Our translator says that her favorite show is Lost and we told her that we are probably the only people in America who don’t watch that show! At the internet café yesterday we met a man who showed us the Kazakhstan version of facebook and asked us to create an account so that we could be “friends” with him. We kindly said, No thank you :-) James and I are feeling refreshed after the long day of traveling. We went to bed at 6:00 pm last evening and woke up at 7:00 am. We can’t wait to get to Pavlodar and get settled into our place there. We think we'll meet Ava tomorrow! UNBELIEVABLE! We love you all and will update again tomorrow. Fun Kazakh fact of the day: The clean-up staff that works at the food court in the mall wear hospital scrubs. It also costs money to use the bathroom and to use a cart at the store.
3/11/2009 From Pavlodar
We arrived safely in Pavlodar a few hours ago. I (Kari) spent many hours over the past year and half worrying about the small plane flight from Almaty to Pavlodar. Wow, was I wasting my time. Our flight was perfectly smooth and we had much more leg room than we did on the international flight. They even served a meal on the three hour trip. Once we got off the plane we met Sveta, our coordinator, who was the sweetest women in world! She was so warm and friendly and we feel so good knowing that she is looking out for us. Our hotel here is amazing. It’s large and clean and the architecture is beautiful. Pavlodar is much colder than Almaty, it’s about 15 degrees. Sveta says that it should warm up a bit next week. Well, James and I will probably watch a movie on the lap top and get to bed. We think we'll get to meet our princess tomorrow. We are so excited. Another fun Kazakh fact…The women here are incredibly fashionable. Almost all the women wear skinny jeans with tall boots.
3/12/2009
Well today has definitely been a difficult day. First of all we woke up at about 4 AM too excited to sleep and still trying to recover from jet lag. We spent the morning counting the hours until 9AM, the time we were supposed to get going. Before we can go to the Baby House we need to meet with an official who will sign our paperwork off to the “city” level. Unfortunately we got all dressed up in our nice clothes around 9 AM, and waited in anticipation all day long. We first heard the official was going to be in a meeting all morning, and we’d have to wait until after lunch. Well lunch came and went and the rest of the afternoon slowly (and I mean slowly) vanished. Our only trip outside today was to walk a few buildings down to exchange money to pay for the hotel. At about 6:30 pm we did find out that we have a meeting tomorrow morning at 10:30 which was a bright spot of the day. Throughout the day we experienced many emotions. There was a time we were “loopy” from being awake too long, there was a time we felt helpless because we are stuck in this hotel room until the logistics are worked out, there was a time we broke down in tears because we feel so far away from a baby girl who is literally a couple miles away. It’s hard not to feel lonely, being in a foreign place with little to no contact with the outside world. We know this will get better. Once we get into the Baby House we’ll forget about these days of waiting. Hopefully we can establish a routine of visiting the Baby House a couple times a day while stopping by the internet café and/or doing some other fun activity in between visits. These are the days that make us thankful for all of you at home who are praying in our behalf. We have also been blessed by the daily letters written to us that were arranged by our good friend Brandi; thanks so much for that! Just a reminder, we should be able to check email every couple days, so your emails are encouraged! It will be nice to hear from friends and family at home. James wrote this blog but I am adding to it quickly before he sees. I can’t express how amazing he has been during this first week. He had handled all the money and arrangements so beautifully and on top of that has been there emotionally for me as I adjust to being here. He is the best! Fun Letterneau Fact of the day: We purchased a magnet drawing board for Ava and have probably used this to entertain ourselves more than Ava will this trip. We are also on the second season of Dawson’s Creek DVD’s, which has saved us from going completely stir crazy.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Hello From Almaty
Hello All,
We arrived in Almaty, Kazakhstan yesterday at 1:30pm your time, 2:30am here. We are leaving for Pavlodar tomorrow at 1:30 pm and will be visiting the baby house the next day. Almaty is beautiful. There is snow on the ground and the weather is not too cold...about 30 -40 degrees. The people here are beautiful and have been so kind to us thus far. It was a long long long day of traveling yesterday but we are happy to have survived our first international flying experience. We had our breakfast dilivered to us this morning...bread and cheese...yummy! We will update you from Pavlodar next. Blessings!
We arrived in Almaty, Kazakhstan yesterday at 1:30pm your time, 2:30am here. We are leaving for Pavlodar tomorrow at 1:30 pm and will be visiting the baby house the next day. Almaty is beautiful. There is snow on the ground and the weather is not too cold...about 30 -40 degrees. The people here are beautiful and have been so kind to us thus far. It was a long long long day of traveling yesterday but we are happy to have survived our first international flying experience. We had our breakfast dilivered to us this morning...bread and cheese...yummy! We will update you from Pavlodar next. Blessings!
Monday, March 9, 2009
Kazakhstan Trip Day 1
Leaving the house this morning was quite surreal. We have played this day over in our head so many times and we can’t believe that we are actually on our way to Kazakhstan. My Mom and Dad picked us up this morning and we had lunch, said our emotional goodbyes, and are now writing this post as we wait at our gate. Our first flight is to Frankfurt, Germany and then, after a three hour layover, we’ll be on another 6 hour flight to Almaty, Kazakhstan. After spending the night in Almaty, we’ll be taking a short flight to Pavlodar, which is where we will be for the remainder or our trip. Keep the prayers coming. We are excited beyond belief!
Sunday, March 8, 2009
WE HAVE OUR VISAS!
After two stressful days of waiting for our visas, they finally came!! We are all set to fly out on Sunday around 3:35 pm. Thank you all for your support, and the next time you hear from us we should be in KAZ!!
The Letterneau Family
The Letterneau Family
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Saying our goodbyes
Today was an emotional day as we said goodbye to some of our favorite people. I had my last day at work and had to say good bye to my wonderful students and co workers. My students made me a book with sweet notes and pictures. They prayed for me and gave me countless hugs. I have amazing students this year and we are a really close group. I also said goodbye to my fellow teachers who sent me off with prayers and warm wishes. I am so thankful for them! After work we met our best friends, Brandi and JB, for dinner at Chili's. My dear sweet Brandi had collected letters from our friends and family and put them in an envelope for us to read throughout our trip. I want to read every one of them right now but I know that reading them throughout our trip will be so encouraging and will help us get through those long days and weeks. We will update one last time tomorrow before we leave on Sunday. Your prayers are being felt as we are experiencing God's peace and joy as we prepare to leave.
Here are some of my students and me. I love them!
Here are some of my students and me. I love them!Thursday, March 5, 2009
Testing, Testing... 1 - 2 - 3
As we're getting everything ready for our trip I wanted to make sure I'm able to upload video from the laptop. So you get a bonus video of Ava's room and new home, enjoy! And please comment to let us know you were able to view the video without any problems.
Tomorrow (Thursday) we should hear that our visas are on their way to us. We have plane arrangements for Sunday, so, visas permitting, Kazakhstan here we come!
Tomorrow (Thursday) we should hear that our visas are on their way to us. We have plane arrangements for Sunday, so, visas permitting, Kazakhstan here we come!
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
So Very Close! A Quick Update...
We've been told that we should have our Visas on Friday March 6th. As long as there are no delays, we'll be on a plane to Kazakhstan (through Frankfurt) Sunday afternoon!
Please pray for our visas. We can not express how excited we are and how so very thankful we are for everyone's support.
Please pray for our visas. We can not express how excited we are and how so very thankful we are for everyone's support.
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