This is the continuation of my travel journal of our adoption of Dinara and Noah from Kazakhstan in 2001. Dinara was 2 1/2 and Noah was 7 months. If you are new to my blog, please check the JULY ARCHIVES and start reading with post titled *Detained in Moscow. Posts that start with an * are adoption journal posts. I hope you enjoy the story. I’ll be striving to share a bit of the story each day.

Afternoon visit.

Well, we had a breakthrough. Dinara LOVES fruit. Could really care less about the candy and cookies - but likes banana a WHOLE lot. She also ate a few orange sections. We spent the afternoon with her, Timur, the interpreter and a caretaker. The caretaker left towards the end and Dinara was fine with us.

Interesting things happened today. Firstly, Dinara seemed to understand the patterns of the music toy we brought. She would turn two or three so all the shapes were the same. This is a pretty big concept. We thought before that she was too “delayed” to get it. But she’s not. She’s just learning. She also totally loved taking all the blocks off the toy then putting them back. She’s very into repetition. Another good sign. She also was very proud of her toys. The caretakers “changed shifts” and she was proudly showing off all her toys. The other thing that was so adorable (and we got on tape!) is that she would shake her head back and forth with a slight rock and tap her foot in time to the music. It is SOOOOO cute.

So the biggest breakthrough today was that Momma offered many times some cookies, etc. Finally right before I was leaving, I offered Timur some banana… which he gladly took. And he sat down on my lap. Dinara then came over of her own accord and took a piece of the banana and then sat down on my lap!

But wait…it gets better. She also kissed both John and I! Before, she would only “half heartedly” offer us her cheek for us to kiss her. But today, she kissed both of us.

It was a really good day. I don’t think this post adequately even catches all the little nuances that made it so great. I finally feel like this will all work and we will get through this and she will be happy with us. It’s been a rough couple of days.

Noah also amazed us today with his bubble blowing abilities. He has learn to do this sucking raspberry noise. It’s really cute. Daddy thinks its charming. He was a little bit fussy today. He never cried, but he whimpered a bit. He does not like getting his nose wiped! I can’t wait till we can get some antibiotic into him.

Hopefully tomorrow we will find out when our court date is — I miss Emma like crazy.

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