A smiling baby and a view around the nursery

Day 3

Today our little bundle of joy smiled as soon as he saw us walk in the door! In only two days, he has already figured out that we belong to him! What a smartie. Can I just say, my little mohawk man has absolutely the most charming smile of any baby in Kazakhstan. He absolutely lights up the room.

So after a quick change into four layers of clothes, socks, a hat, and a fleece blanket, we were off to the play room again for an hour and a half of smiles and rattle shaking. As our playtime is right after lunch, we also saw our fair share of mashed potato and meatball spit up, but even his spit-up is endearing... stinky, but endearing.

Garrett is facinated by Tim. He can't take his eyes off of his daddy. Tim believes Garrett's attitude is because, even now, Garrett knows that daddy will someday buy him a car. If this is indeed Garrett's line of thinking, then he and Tim are truly kindred spirits. Whatever the reason, it sure is cute!
I also got my share of smiles today.

But far more important than either parent were the teething toys from Big Brother Calvin and the "bowling pin bear."

So when our time was up, we kissed those chubby little cheeks, secured his socks, put his hat back on, wrapped him in his fleece blanket and walked the 15 steps back down the hall to the nursery. The nursery that Garrett lives in has about twelve babies under the age of one. Their living quarters are divided into a sleeping room with cots backed up to one another in a giant U shape. The other room has two large play pins (basically full sized mattereses with rails all around and a pole across with mobiles hanging down),a small changing table with a space heater aimed at it which is always warming a pile of brightly colored socks. There are two highchairs that the end of the playpin. There is a small desk in on corner and a table with two chairs where the caretakes feed the babies and also eat their own lunch. A large window separate the two rooms. Underneath the window is a couch. Everything is brightly colored. Here is a pic. I'll take more when I think caretakers aren't looking.


Love you all. I'll try and write about life in Kokshetau tonight. Right now Makhabat (our interpreter) and her 8-year-old daughter are going to take us to Pyramid Pizza for a treat. Nothing like a local delicacy.

Paka!
Becca

A teething baby and the Eagles of Victory!

Day 2

O.K. - Let's put the biggest mystery to rest right away. What are the Eagles of Victory, you ask? Well, they are only the most ridiculous slippers ever! When we showed up to visit Garrett today, we were chastised for not having slippers to wear inside, so after our visit, Makhabat (our interpretor) took us to the Green Market across town to remedy this serious deficiency in our wardrobe. The only slippers available to me (for cheap) were bright red monstrocites with "Eagle of Victory" proclaimed in bold gold script across the front. Lovely! Take a look.

I wish that I had taken my camera into the Green Market. It's a bazar, basically - a two story warehouse divided into about a hundred cubicle-like units. Each unit is individually owned and they sell everything from the 3 inch stilletto heel boots that all of the women wear to sheep's heads. We were even able to find.... vegetables!!! I think fresh produce will become our prized posessions here in Kaz because, at least in Kokshetau, they don't seem to have the luxury of grapes from Chile and pineapples from Hawaii. If it isn't growing on the frozen Steppe, it's not easy to find. Half of the upper floor fo the bazar was dedicated to groceries, but it wasn't all one store. You still paid each of the vendors separately. Tim was like a kid in a candy store and happily stocked our shelves. The concept of buying in bulk is definately unheard of in Kazakstan and the cheese vendor was much amused when Tim requested half of her block of cheese. The carrots are probably one of the coolest things we found today. Here is a picture of Calvin with a classic giant Kazakhstani carrot.

O.K. now the babyhouse update. We officially have the cutest baby in Kazakhstan, even when he is grumpy.Our little bug was teething and pretty miserable today. When we came in, he was sitting in the highchair having just finished his breakfast of formula and meatballs. Yup, really. He looked a little bit dazed, not quite as bright-eyed as yesterday. When they saw us, the caregivers swooped him up and asked us for our diaper. We are supposed to bring a diaper everyday for our visits with Garrett. This is the only time that the babies wear diapers. It's too expensive for the babyhouse to diaper all of the kids all of the time, so generally, they just wear layers of long underwear. After they diapered him, I was told that I could dress him in the clothes I had brought. I thought, since he now had a diaper on, that Garrett would not need any long underwear underneath his clothes. Boy was I wrong, after I had finished putting a long sleeved onesie, jeans, socks, and a sweater on our fussy bub, they told me to take it all off and put on a longjohn jumper underneath. Then they pulled a thick cotton hat on his head and wrapped him in a huge fleece blanket so that he wouldn't get chilled on his walk down the hallway. Now, I'm only going to say this here, because the caretakers make the rules at the babyhouse, but it wasn't cold. In fact, it was downright hot in there. I was perfectly comfortable in a thin cotton tee-shirt and my baby is dressed for a blizzard! Oh well.

We played for a little while today, letting Garrett stand on our laps and show off those strong legs of his. He really is so big and strong. The clothes I brought along are almost too small for him and the diapers are definately too little. The caretakers told me that he is a good eater and a good sleeper. That is definately evident from how big he is! At least three of the caretakers have commented on how well he will fit in with his tall daddy.

They also told me that he is a very happy baby with a big smile. I bet we'll get to see that smile another day. Today he just wanted to be held and to chew on something, anything to ease those throbbing little gums of his. He finally settled on plastic bear bowling pin that was on a shelf. It was delicious.

Then Tim and I took turns rocking with our sweet boy while he fussed. Every once in a while, he would just drop his toy and let out the most heartrending little cry of pain and desperation. It absolutely broke my heart.

I just wanted to strip off half of those hot layers of clothes and give him something a little bit more soothing to chew on. But, as our visit was under the constant supervision of a very well meaning caretaker who was scrubbing the room, that was not in the cards. I'm hoping that tomorrow we will be left alone for a while. We bought him some real teething toys at the Green Market and I'd love to be able to set him down a little so that he can stretch out.

Isn't he the cutest!!!

I'm in love.

Paka,

Becca

Introducing Garrett Ruslan Snyder!

Hello Everybody! I'm finally here and aren't I cute!


Mommy says my mohawk is darling!

Hello, brother.

Here is our little family!

Daddy and his boys! Finally.


Love you all. Way too exhausted to type. Must sleep. zzzzzzzzzzz...

Becca

Almaty Amazing!

March 11, 2009

After our meeting with Gulzhan yesterday, we had time to do a little sightseeing in the section of Almaty near our apartment. What luck that we happen to be within walking distance of some of the biggest sights of the city. Let me take you on a tour.

Walk down the three flights of sloping and uneven soviet era concrete stairs, past the dilapidated mailbox center with its small metal doors hanging open like a discarded advent calendar and out the bright blue metal door of the apartment building. Make a right and walk along the side of the building out to the main street. Now you should be facing the Japanese food restaurant (strangely named “Seoul”) that keeps the blue Christmas lights in its window illuminated all night. Make a left and walk tight against the line of cars parked haphazardly along what we must assume is the side of the street. The concrete curb is only 2 inches tall and as everything is covered in a couple inches of snow, it’s impossible to know for sure where the street ends and the grass begins. The drivers, however, seem less concerned with this distinction. They have parked both parallel and perpendicular to the edge of the street in a rough semblance of a line. There are no sidewalks here and as none of the very smartly dressed Kazakhs want to get their black leather boots covered in snow, everyone walks in the street, completely unconcerned with the cars and SUVs racing past them. When driving the Kazakhs subscribe to my father’s old saying that ‘an inch is as good as a mile.’ In other words, as long as they don’t actually hit you with their cars, it doesn’t matter how close they get. Also, there aren’t any crosswalks here and everyone crosses the harrowing street wherever they want. It took us a while to get the hang of it, but here is how you cross a street in Almaty: Only look in one directly, when there is a break in the line of cars streaming towards you or one of them appears to be going less than 40mph start to cross. Get the middle of the street and stare at the oncoming traffic like a matador in the ring. Exude confidence because if you show weakness you could be stuck there all day. Instead, you should glare at the speeding traffic with a look that says “I’m going to walk in front of your car and if you don’t stop I’m going to be really pissed!” That usually does it.
So after crossing two streets in that way, you’ll reach a wide flight of concrete stairs like you might see outside some impressive courthouse in America. Here, however, instead of leading up to a building, these stairs take you under a huge concrete archway and into a wide plaza flanked with large metal soviet stars and HUGE black statues and commemorating the various wars in which the Kazakhs have fought. When I say that these statues are big, that doesn’t do them justice. They seem to be carved from chunks of a mountainside and have haunting faces and arms brandishing weaponry jutting out from their sides. The largest and most impressive, by far, is the statue honoring the soldiers of WWII. I’ve seen this one before, when googling images of Kazakh weddings. It seems to be a tradition for the couple to take a picture in front of this huge slab of what I think is black granite. This statue depicts a Kazakh soldier, arms spread eagle, face clenched, who seems about to leap out of the rock and into the middle of the courtyard. He is about 2 stories tall and is surrounded by faces of all ethnicities, some peaceful, some tormented. It’s really a powerful image. In the middle of the courtyard is long slab of black granite, I’d say about half a football field, with an eternal flame of remembrance in the middle.

Behind the main statue is a giant and ornate yellow building with blue trim and rounded gold turrets. Sasha the Benevolent had told us that it was a mosque but upon closer inspection it turned out to be a very ornate Russian Orthodox Church filled with very emotional and devoted worshippers kissing the ground and genuflecting.
This plaza, with its statutes and church seems to be a hub for Kazakhs walking to and from work. They walk determinedly with their laptop cases along the wide treelined walkways. The Kazakhs in their fancy black coats trimmed with fur will not make eye contact with you as you pass. We garnered quite a few distasteful looks from the locals when we greeted them with a smile and “Privet!” as we passed. We are quick learners, though, and have almost mastered the indifferent glare we have seen so often. Not that the Kazakhs are cold, mind you, it’s just not culturally accepted to acknowledge strangers in the street. It’s very much like NY or any other big city in that way.
So that was our big adventure after which we mustered up our courage and crossed the streets again, wandered back along the snaking lines of parked cars, passed the colorful rusty metal playground, trudged up the slanty stairs and tried to remember which of the unmarked doors was ours. Then, as has become our habit, we all collapsed in various states of exhaustion. Tomorrow we hop a plane to Astana, and drive to the babyhouse to meet our son!!!
Paka!
Becca

We're Here!

We’re here! We’re here! We’re here!
The flights couldn’t have been smoother. We actually got bulkhead seating on the longest leg of the journey, so Tim was able to cross his legs. Ohhh! The luxury. And, Luftansa was fancy. Even in our econo-seats, the flight attendents kept coming around offering free wine and beer. In those moments when Calvin was happily entertained (thank you leapfrog), it was sort of like a party in the plane!

Did I mention that Calvin did great! He didn’t sleep, mind you. Let me repeat that, even without a nap, he was too excited to close his eyes on our first 12 hour flight! He finally fell asleep at the airport in Frankfurt between our two flights. It was 3:30am California time before he finally succumbed to exhaustion. Mommy, Daddy, and Nana were ready a little before then! But, all and all, he did great. He was so happy playing with his toys and watching his movies and eating snacks. He kept turning to me and saying: “Mommy, this plane is FUN!”
So, after a 12 hour flight from SFO, we laid over in Frankfurt (home of the crankiest airport staff and the most thorough security checks) for 3 hours. Then we hopped a 7 hour flight from Frankfurt to Almaty, KZ. When we got off the plane, Calvin had finally reached the end of his rope and, with baggage and snow jackets, and a thrashing 3 year-old, the passport check line was one of the more exhausting moments of my life.
We had a brief moment of panic when we didn’t see any drivers waiting in the baggage claim area. Our agency had told us that the driver would be there, but it was 1am local time and we wouldn’t even know where to begin if we had somehow been forgotten. Anyway, that worry was forgotten, when the first passenger claimed his bag and walked to the opaque sliding door at the end of the room. Even at 1am, that door opened up to reveal a veritable sea of taxi drivers… and there standing cool as a cucumber in the back of the room with a sign that said SNYDER was our Sasha.
Let me take a moment to describe Sasha to you all, because trust me, it’s worth it to get a mental picture of the guy. He’s about 32 years old, Russian features, about 6’2”, average build. In the four times that he has picked us up, so far, we have never seen him without the black leather hair scarf (think Harley Davidson) and knock-off Oakley reflective sunglasses. He’s got a shoulder length pony tail and a carefully groomed stubble beard. He is constantly talking in rapid Russian on his cell phone and he has a TV glowing in the dashboard of his car (while driving). Mostly, though, I think it’s the attitude that makes Sasha the man he is. Sasha exudes an air of barely veiled frustration with his lot in life. He has, after all, been saddled with a group of very annoying Americanskis. We are forever asking him questions about our itinerary or his hometown, when it should be very obvious that he simply wants to talk on his phone and listen to 1970s classic rock in peace. It is all the poor guy can do grunt an almost-contemptuous three word answer at us and turn up Queen’s Another One Bites the Dust in time for the chorus. Everything we do annoys Sasha, in fact, our mere presence annoys Sasha, but being the tough guy that he is, he soldiers on anyway.
Sasha attitude aside, everything has been going just perfectly. Our apartment is clean and comfortable. It even has a little playground covered in snow just outside, perfect for a very restless 3-year-old I know.

The grocery shopping is amazing! Honesty, I might just decide to live at the local Ramstore. I’ve heard about these stores on other blogs for years, but nothing quite prepared me for the wonder of the mall/high-end boutique/ arcade/costco/grocery store in one. It even has an ice-skating rink. This place has a whole wall of cheeses and strange stubby carrots as this as my wrist. I want to try it all! Tim and I, as tired as we are, were like kids in a candy store. In fact, as I type, Tim is whipping up a tasty meal in our little kitchen.

While, Nana tried to keep Calvin from eating the snow in the little playground (a definite ambition of his), Tim and I hitched a ride with Sasha to our first meeting with the famous “sisters” who run the Kazakhstan side of the adoption. Can I just say how incredibly relieved I feel after an hour with Gulzhan. We are in such good hands here! They are taking care of everything just as promised and I am utterly confident that they have got it all taken care of. After all this time of planning and pushing, I think I finally get to put myself in their capable hands and simply enjoy this amazing moment with my new little family.
Tomorrow we are back on a plane. Sasha is picking us up, one final time, at 4:00am, and putting us on a plane to Astana. Our new driver, Nursultan, will pick us up at the airport and drive us all to the babyhouse for our first really big day… when we meet our baby! After our first visit, we’ll drive the hour to our cottage in Kokshetau… where we’ll collapse.
Collapsing sounds pretty good right now! I’m beat.

Paka!
Becca

Travel Dates!

I'm almost incoherant with nerves and to-do lists because we finally have travel dates! Our letter of invitation (in Russian) came last week and two days ago we finally got our travel dates! We have booked our tickets, thanks to Barbara Walters at Go To Russia Travels (yes, that is really her name). We are leaving for Almaty on March 9th... and arriving on March 11th!!!!! I don't even want to think about how many house in the air that means... but the important thing is that we are officially going. We will be back on April 12th (a.k.a - Easter).
After two years of longing and one year of serious planning, we will actually find and meet our son in less than ten days! Unbelievable!
I'll post an itinerary once I knock down some of the millions of things I have to do before we leave.
Stay tuned, folks, we are in the final countdown!
Paka!

Making room for baby

Tim and I have just finished painting the nursery and we love it soooo much that I had to share. Take a look.

I took the colors right from his quilt. I painted the branch and bird freehand and then stenciled the birch leaves across two walls. Isn't it awesome! Now all I have to do is finish the quilt ( I'm having a hard time letting go of it long enough to send it to the long arm quilter) and make some crib sheets. I'll keep you posted.

Paka!

Becca