So I’m unsure how my family is in Seattle after the earthquake. I feel incredibly washed out from my throw up fest. And I am about to meet my two newest children. In spite of everything, I am excited. All the months of longing. The grueling process. All culminating in these moments. I will savor them.

We drove up to the baby house and there was a group of children coming back from a walk. They looked to be about Dinara’s age – around 2 ½. We walked up to the group and two small children ran over to us, threw their arms around our legs and squealed “Mamma! Papa!” They knew. At the tender age of 2 ½ they knew that these adults who talked funny were here to make some child a part of their family. They knew we were here to play the role of Mama and Papa. A role they had never felt but had been told about. It had a tremendous impact on us.

And all these children were REALLY cute. They held our hands as we walked up to the front door of the baby house. We searched each of the 15 faces… is our daughter in this group somewhere? Then one of the caretakers pushed a bundled child up to us. We looked down on a shy quiet little girl and caretaker whispered “Dinara”. It was a Kodak moment in my heart. She was by far the cutest one in the bunch. (Yes, I know I’m not objective but she really is the cutest!) and she kept looking at us. We had sent pictures of us ahead and so she knew who we were. It was like she was studying our faces to see if we were real. She took Johns hand and walked into the baby house. She kept turning around looking at my face, and then looking at John’s face. It was obvious that she had seen the pictures we sent ahead. She was beautiful. She was bundled in a fur coat. Yes fur.. I think it was mink and I think it was handmade. It was BEAUTIFUL and she was all bundled up in little boots, a scarf and a hat. Looking like she was going to expect a blizzard. All I could see was her big chubby cheeks, and those wonderful eyes.

We went into the baby house and waited for Gulbanu and the Director. The baby house smelled well…. “funky”. Not sure what the smell was, but I don’t think I’ll forget it. I will say that we got used to it. The place was immaculately clean though and very cheerful. And it was very obvious that everyone loved these children.Gulbanu arrived and we told her we saw Dinara. She was VERY surprised that Dinara held John’s hand and walked with us. Her surprise was a clue to let us know what was coming… and to let us know that they expected that Dinara was going to have a difficult time accepting and getting used to her new Mamma and Papa.

They took us to the music room and brought Dinara into us. They had changed her clothes to make her look “special”. She was dressed in purple velour and a big purple bow in her hair. She looked beautiful. Here she was, the daughter I had dreamed about. She really is very cute and many of her expressions and “attitude” reminds me very much of her older sister Emma. We sat down together with Gulbanu. We put some toys out on the floor but she wasn’t too interested in them. I could tell she was having a difficult time. She stopped giving us eye contact and looked pretty sad. I tried offering her cookies. No go. I tried offering her goldfish. No go. Ut oh. John then whipped out the camera to take a few pictures. First one didn’t have a flash. The second one did and that was it. Dinara melted down. The flash scared her and she was “done” with us. Her new Mamma and Papa weren’t comforting, they were new and scary and she wanted the comfort of her caretakers. She wouldn’t calm down so they took her from the music room for a bit.

Then they brought us our smiley cuddly boy Noah. What a cutie pie!! He smiles all the time, loves to be held up in the air and loves his Mamma and Papa. Noah is very strong, alert and smart. He vocalizes; he has excellent hand eye coordination and he is already crawling! However he can’t sit up yet by himself. (I bet he will be before we leave Almaty though!) He’s a skinny boy. I expect he weighs about 14-15 lbs? Noah has some minor medical issues. I noticed some eczema or impetigo around his ears. I think he might have an ear infection and he has an upper respitory infection. He felt a little warm. I asked Gulbanu if we could give the caretakers medicine for him. She said it was better to wait. I hate to see him suffer. Although I have to admit he seemed pretty happy. We played with Noah for about an hour. He was a delight. Then it was time to go get some lunch and be back to visit the baby house from 3 to 6. They extended our time at the baby house because they feel we need more time with Dinara. So we will see Noah in the morning from 10-11 and then Dinara from 11-12. Then we will come back and play with Noah from 3 to 4 and then Dinara from 4 to 6.

When we came back in the afternoon, we saw Noah first. He again was very playful. We brought the “discovery stacking toy” which he just loved. He loved the crinklely green one the best. He really seems to be teething. Poor guy. Felt like he had a slight temp.

Gulbanu had gotten permission for us to join the “group” of children who are Dinara’s age. This is a big deal. Most of the time, they do not let parents interact with other children and they are very private. I think part of the reason they don’t want you with the group is because they don’t want you to “pick another child” or do a comparison thing. Maybe they could see how taken we were with Dinara. I think we made a good impression on them. And we assured Gulbanu that no matter what, we wanted Dinara. She was very reassured I think that we were willing to be patient and weren’t expecting everything to be like one big AT&T commercial.

We got to see the kids in Music class. Dinara was upset we were there, so she didn’t participate much till the end. But we saw her sing and do little dance. Then take a bow at the end. They are teaching the kids traditional Kazakh dances and songs. Dinara knew “some” of the words. This is the only sense we have that she does in fact SPEAK! The kids dancing together were precious. Boy girl dancing…. arm in arm, marching around the room. Very cute. We hope we can get video of it. Right now, they have told us “no pictures” but we think we might be able to get some later. Another thing that was cute was that they shook maracahas and did a dance to the pop song “It’s a beautiful life” (Ace of Base?). They blasted the music. It was funny. Oh… and John wanted me to put in here about the “train song” with all the little boys doing a choo choo train dance with the girls play acting to the song.

After music class we played with the kids… tickling them, giving them “rides” in our arms. Dinara would watch, and sometimes smile when she would see one of her “friends” having a good time with us. Finally, I started rolling a “ball” back and forth with another child. Then I rolled it to Dinara. Dinara then rolled it back and we started to play. Then the caretaker said “roll it to PaPa” and she did and she played with her dad a little bit. Another little boy started butting in and rolling a ball to him and Dinara just pushed him out of the way as if to say “Hands off… I am playing with my papa!” When this was all over, she gave John a big smile and waved “bye bye” to get ready to go for her walk.We went on the walk with them. They had us take Dinara by ourselves but she melted down again. She does not want to leave her caretakers. So we walked with the group for a while. All the kids would hold our hands and they were bundled up like little Pillsbury doughboys.

An older caretaker came on duty at 5pm and she was not very patient with Dinara’s crying. So she told Dinara to cut it out and that we would go back into the music room. Which we did with one other little boy. Just the four of us. Dinara sat on her caretakers lap. She was not a happy girl. The caretaker kept reassuring her in Kazakh. Oh and before I forget, we found out that Dinara was at Baby House #2 and that is why she was taking direction in Russian. Then she was transferred to Baby House #3 and they speak Kazakh there. So that is why she is confused language wise. Gulbanu told us that is why she is speech delayed. But she clearly understands a little of both languages. Now she’ll know three.

So the caretaker had us get close. Give her a cookie. Give her goldfish. And we brought her a bunny. She liked the bunny. It’s pink and very soft. She doesn’t get that type of toy in the baby house because it “carries germs”. The word for bunny in Kazakh is Koy-un.The caregiver told Dinara to sit on her Papas lap. Dinara said no. Then I suggested she might do it if the little boy (we don’t know what his name is but he calls us mama and papa and he’s going to be adopted…he’s really cute) sat on one side and Dinara sat on the other. That worked. I really sensed that Dinara wants to be close to us but she is afraid. Anyway, she sat on her Daddy’s lap and boy was he thrilled. When the little boy got off John’s lap so did Dinara. We didn’t push it. Then I started tickling the bunny. Dinara thought this was funny. First I would tickle the bunny… then I would tickle Dinara. She laughed!!! She has a great laugh. She would give me some smiles. I tried to get her to tickle the bunny… but I don’t think she understood. These little moments… hearing my daughter laugh for the first time, slowly watching her let us in… are priceless. We played a little ball, then it was time to go.

We thought this was great progress for the first day. We love both these beautiful children… and can’t believe we are so blessed to get to be their parents.

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