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.

Noah had on a new “outside” outfit today. The put the babies in THREE outfits to keep them warm. On top of the baby house being heated to 85 degrees. The kids sweat. But it’s the culture here. Anyway — he looked quite cute in his new outfit. He was again a very happy baby. We gave him more bananas which he really seems to enjoy. He spent the morning crawling around exploring the room. He loves to seek out new things. He’s fun to watch.

Dinara spent the first half of our visit crying. Juice wouldn’t do it today, nor would fruit. At about 11:45 her caretaker came to the door and made spoon to mouth motions. We thought she was telling us to try giving her fruit. We shook our head no that she didn’t want it. She left and Dinara screamed. Finally, we tried chocolate. This calmed Dinara down and then she started eating fruit. It was pretty amazing to us that she calmed down so quickly after seeing her caretaker.

Today we did a lot of video tape… even of Dinara crying. This should make for interesting watching with our grandchildren one day.

We are going up to the mountains this afternoon…. We just stopped into the apartment to grab a quick lunch of… yep… you guessed it.. PASTA ! Passed up again the opportunity to eat HORSE! *grin*

Afternoon visit

Today, Timur came to play with us for the afternoon visit. The visits are always so much fun when he comes. Dinara plays, doesn’t cry… jokes around. It’s the only time we get to see her true personality. She’s really delightful. We can tell she is more comfortable with us by the way she is eating. Two fisted… and very fast. We have to tell her “Bolda” (that’s enough) and regulate how many pieces of fruit she can shove in her mouth.

Today, she was sitting on Daddy’s lap (she’s becoming quite the daddy’s girl!) and was eating a cookie. (Pa-chen-ya) Dinara got the last one and Timur was not a happy little boy. Timur said he wanted “Choc-o-lat”. So daddy started getting it out. As soon as Dinara realized that chocolate was coming…she shoved the whole cookie in her mouth and held out her hand. She has learned at the orphanage that if there is candy or cookies.. you better have free hands.

If Timur wasn’t waiting for his forever family already to come get him, we’d adopt him. He is just the sweetest little boy. I am very attached to him. I can’t wait to talk to his mom and tell her what a sweet little boy she has waiting for her in Kazakhstan. The orphanage workers put Dinara in the clothes that she was going to wear tomorrow for pictures. I guess they didn’t understand the word tomorrow.

We go get the kids passport pics tomorrow.I gave the caretakers journals for each of the kids today. I had a friend at work who speaks Russian translate directions I had written asking them to write their well wishes, anything about their time at the orphanage, their culture, etc. I think this went over very well. Noahs caretaker got a big smile when she started reading this in Russian. I can’t wiat to see what they write.We went up to the mountains today and visited some Kazakh monuments, including their WWII tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

Related posts:

  1. *Day Nine - Morning Passport Pics
    2.    This is the continuation of my travel...
  2. *Dinara Loves Fruit - Breakthough Day Four
    3.    This is the continuation of my travel...
  3. *Day Two with Kids - Getting to Know You
    4.    Here is another excerpt from our travel...