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.

When our driver picked us up, our translator was already waiting for us in his car. All ready to go get passport pictures. We got to the babyhouse at 10 and it was decided that a caretaker would go with us instead of Janara our translator. I think they also thought that if a caretaker went with us, there was less chance of a Dinara freak out. They were right.We plied her with pa-chen-ya’s (cookies) before we left and we were off.

She was terrified. She was in her quiet but withdrawn state. This is how she is whenever there is something new. She literally can’t eat or react. She’s just frozen. Catatonic. She guarded those two cookies though!

Noah was a little trooper. They had put him in the light blue snowsuit I bought him, but when I picked him up, they put him in ANOTHER snowsuit over it… because mine wasn’t considered warm enough I guess. The caretakers hugged themselves and did the Brrrrr noise… and handed me a big stay puff marshmallow man snow suit. Poor little guy. I knew he had to be sweating up a storm. Just to put this into perspective they had on him a onsie, an outfit from the orphanage, the OshKosh outfit I brought him, the snowsuit, a hat, the hood from the snowsuit I bought him, and then a snowsuit with a hood of theirs!! It’s a cultural thing. *sigh*

We got to the passport picture place and low and behold Dinara started to cry a little bit. Then Noah started to cry. Wouldn’t it figure the first time Noah is going to cry is right before a picture? I can now assure everyone that my son does have a good set of lungs on him. He can really make his protests known! We got the kids quieted down and got their pictures made.

Dinara is wearing the traditional BIG Russian bow in her hair. (Purple) complete with the now well known Dinara pout. Noah’s pictures are just normal Noah… the ever happy go lucky boy.

When we got back to the orphanage we went to the music room. Dinara was HAPPY to be back and only “whimpered” a few minutes when the caretaker left. We started feeding both of them fruit. Dinara was comfy and coming around to her happy self. She was all of a sudden much more interested in her brother. The translator told her that this was her “Enya” (kazakh for brother) and she had a little smile. She didn’t like him touching her shoes though.

Later on in the visit, when Noah was crawling by, she reached out and touched him and smiled. We also put Noah on her lap. She wasn’t quite sure what to do but she did give us a quick grin. The whole morning was wonderful. Dinara was as happy playing and joking with us as she has been when Timur is there. It was a wonderful morning visit. Daddy especially liked it when Dinara lay down in his arms like a baby and played games with his glasses and face. Gave him lots of smiles and cuddles.

I went to take Noah to the Baby room. The caretaker was there. She saw I had the camera. Then she motioned that I could take a picture as she put him down to sleep. This is a BIG deal in the babyhouse. No one except the caregivers gets to go into the sleeping room. I was so honored. Then she took Noah out of the crib and the other caretaker was back from her walk with two children so I took her picture. Usually there is a third caretaker, I don’t know where she was at… I’m taking the camera back this afternoon so I can take more pictures.

Then I went and took Dinara back to Groupa. I took pictures with her caregivers too. Again, they liked getting their picture taken. It was so funny… her favorite caretaker was trying to get her to put her arms around her neck and give her a kiss. Dinara, showing her usual stubbornness, would have nothing of it! We all had a good laugh that Dinara shows no favorites with her strong will. Everyone gets to enjoy it!It was a great morning. It’s very obvious that Dinara is feeling much more comfortable with us and is really only crying for her caregivers now out of preference, vs. fright.

We love these happy visits when we get to see her true delightful personality.

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