Here are two more cute pics

Here's a Kaz tavern we went to

Inching Towards Kaz

Okay, so we need to have a few things changed paperwork-wise so we can bring both boys back to the states. We were previously approved for only one. One thing was coming from DCFS and the other from USCIS. The DCFS one has finally arrived!! So we Fed Exed it to USCIS and it has been received there. So now with any luck we'll actually be approved to bring both boys back when Kaz calls saying we're able to come get them. As you can imagine, this has been a cause for some stress for us. I think we mentioned earlier that we hope to travel in Mid to late Jan. On this trip we'll simply fly to Almaty, get the boys, and fly back. Can't wait!
Ken

Another video of our guys

The boys were "high energy" this particular night and were chasing each other around the room. I got them on video towards the end of their game... (Notice Greesha's balloon. He loves balloons as much as bubbles!)

We're Home!

We are home! It feels good to be in our house again!! However, it is odd and a bit sad to be here without our whole family!
We plan to ready the house in the coming weeks, though. (We have lots of child-proofing to do!) We'll also add a few more pics and another movie that we were not able to post in Kaz, so if you are still interested, check back again. :)
-Jenny

The REAL Last Post From Kaz!

The Court ruled in our favor! After a mandatory 15 day waiting period and some paperwork we'll be able to bring the boys home! Meanwhile, Jenny and I will be home on Saturday. Thanks again for all your support!

Ken

Last Post in Kaz!

The time has arrived!! We have court tomorrow and fly out Friday/Saturday! We'll be posting again on Saturday but didn't want you all to think we forgot about you! Oh, our internet is out in the apt so that's why no more posts. We'll post again this weekend! Thanks for reading!

Ken

The Boys

The boys have been extra cute during the last few visits.
Greesha has been dancing to this sound/music toy. He is so cute when he bops around!!

Andrei has been sitting in Ken's lap drawing. I tried to take a picture of them last night b/c Andrei hasn't sat in Ken's lap much, but as soon as Andrei saw the camera he scowled and then hid his face in Ken's chest. Greesha saw what I was doing and ran over and stuck his face right up to the camera for an up-close-and-personal shot. Silly guys.

Then, Ken was doodling with an Etch-a-Sketch thing and made a picture of a truck (also called a "machina"). Andrei noticed it and smiled this huge smile and ran over to show Greesha - who was equally pleased with it. Good job, Ken!

I think I am getting stronger by the day. I haven't come home with aching arms in quite some time. I can hold the boys and zoom them around the room pretty easily now (one at a time, that is).

-Jenny

Updates

We have court at the end of next week, so we think we may be flying home over the weekend - assuming, of course, that nothing changes timing-wise.

We lost our internet connection for a day, but all is well now.The place where we used to load videos and pics via wifi is really slow now, though. So, we may need to post some when we get home.

Ken went to a Russian "bana" (steamroom/sauna) the other night to help his congestion. He said it was the hottest thing he had ever experienced. I was proud of his sense adventure.

-Jenny

English Class

Larissa, our head translator, has a business where she offers Chinese and English classes to students of all ages. Our other translators, like Helen, are teachers of these classes.

We went to visit the students of the English classes and we got to talk to everyone in English and learn about them and they, in turn, learned about us. We had such a fun time!

One of the students then sang a Kazak song for us. The video won't load, though.

Here are the young ladies I spoke with.



Here is everyone from our group from America and from the class.

Babyhouse

This is the outside of the baby house. Andrei and Gregorii live on the second floor, left of the little landing.


They paint the stairwells with cute characters.



This is a poster for what we assume is the music room.


This is a wall that we walk past each time we pick up and bring the boys back. We use the "meow, meow" as a point of distraction if they are upset about leaving a toy in the bonding room, or something like that, to hopefully stop the tears before we bring them back to their caregivers.

The Zoo

We visited the zoo in Semey the other day. It cost us each 100 tenge (less than one dollar). There were not many animals but it was still fun.

Ken made friends with a camel - that is, before it spat at his head!

I was surprised by the furry wild boar. Are they always furry???


Then we met Greesha the bear!! I wish Greesha the boy could have been there to meet him too!




I think we may need to get a Brookfield Zoo season pass so when we get home we can bring the boys to the zoo whenever they want to go. I just know they would LOVE it!
-Jenny

More Sites in Semey

The wedding tree -
Can you see bottles hanging at the top of this tree that overlooks the Irtysh?
When a couple gets married, they drive to this woodsy area outside of the city where their best male friend climbs the tree and ties a champaign bottle as high up as possible. This ensures good luck for the new couple.
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Saint spring -
On Jan 19th it is the resurrection of Christ day and people go to the spring and swim in the water. They cut a cross out of the ice and swim or they go in the little house pictured here that only holds water. Legend says if you swim there you will be blessed by God and not be sick that year. You can also bottle the water to drink to ensure good health all year long.


The Irtysh River runs from Op, Russia to China. In China it is called Black Irtysh.
__________________________
This is the house that Dostoyevsky lived in for 5 years after he was exiled from Russia. It had very small rooms except for his study which was a pretty good size.
Downstairs there is a collection of antiques and the guide down there was thrilled to show us some of the old things like a bread mold that was used for an Easter bread. It had a cross and some other symbols on it. A thing like that is pretty meaningful (the fact that is survived) when churches were being destroyed and religion in general was not acceptable during the Russian take-over.

Andre's fave

Here is another pre-illness set of pics.
Andre was decorating his truck with stickers and offered us one... it is amazing how stickers are still a great source of entertainment! I remember loving stickers too!

Court

On wed. our group will have finished our 15^th day of bonding with the children. That means that on Thursday we will be able to apply for a court hearing to request to adopt the boys. We do not know when our court date will be but the Kazak law says that it could be up to 30 days from our request! Our coordinator (a lawyer here in Semey) does not believe it will take nearly that long but she did warn us! Eeek!

We will post when we know the court date. Most likely we will begin our return trip to the states within a day or two of our court date (assuming they grant us a decision at court – the usual situation).

Greesha Sticking out His Tongue

Greesha likes to stick his tongue out. When he concentrates he does it too and it reminds me of Ken! (This was taken a few days back before their illnesses that have them down right now, but we wanted to post it because it is so cute!)
-Jenny

Siteseeing

We went to see the nuclear testing memorial the other day. Russia started the testing in the late 1940s and did not stop the testing until the 1980s. There are special hospitals in the area specifically for patients who are suffering from the sideaffects. Our translator, Larissa, said she remembers her apartment shaking from the explosions when she was a little girl. Pretty scary.

This is the good wishes tree. (We can’t remember the real name of it.) You tie a ribbon on the tree and make a wish and it is supposed to come true.
This is a famous philospher and writer.


This is the remaining gate (of 4 originals) used to protoct the city.

Ups and Downs

Well, today we had a trying morning. Both boys were relatively unhappy the whole session. Greesha was uncharacteristically fussy and unconsolable and Andre was sporatically fitful. Greesha wanted nothing to do with the playroom but Andre at least stayed in there with Jenny. I had Greesha in the bathroom area and then the hallway. He'd let me hold him for awhile and would stay focussed on switching lights off and on for awhile and then would spontaneously throw an all-out fit. The fit would last for awhile. He didn't want me to hold him but I didn't want to let him stay on the ground for fear that he'd hurt himself flailing around. In any case, we survived. Jenny had a little more luck redirecting Andre but he would also seem to throw tantrums for no apparent reason. I'm wondering if their medication has weird side effects or if they aren't sleeping well. In any case, we're happy to be getting the full parenting experience on our surreal trip half way around the world.

Ken

Outside and Hallway of Apt.

Here are some other pictures of our apartment. The hallway is a bit freaky - notice the mailboxes and broken windows! The lights are now on in the hallway at night, though, so we are less scared. :) We are much relieved when we enter our nice, modern apartment and lock the steel door behind us.
-Jenny

One of our Drivers

Pasha is one of our drivers. He is also the fix-it man, and as of yesterday a proud grandpa. Pasha is pictured here with Ken in our apt. because he helped to fix our washing machine. Pasha is a very friendly, jovial person who enjoys talking with us, teasing our newest (and youngest translator) and talking about how much he likes Russian Vodka!
-Jenny

Curious Greesha

The Slide in the Gym

So sweet

We got to see the boys again today! Woohoo!

Andre had a very tearful start to his morning. Ken helped to console him and after much singing, looking out of the window (for distraction purposes), and rocking he felt better. He then mastered a puzzle in the play room in no time flat!

Although Andre is usually the one who shares with Greesha, today Greesha shared both crayons and another favored toy with Andre. It is so nice to see the boys caring for each other.

And, to top it all off, Andre - the more independent of the two, the boy who almost never wants to be held, and smiles less often - wanted me to hold him tonight and then he kissed me 4 times!!!! I almost cried with him in my arms! So sweet.

-Jenny

We are Grateful for...

Happy Thanksgiving, family and friends!! We thought often of you today.

You all have been so wonderful to us! You have given us toys, furniture, clothes, music and dvds for our soon-to-be sons. You have said wonderful things to us in support, you have loaned us things for our trip, you have thrown us a party. You have followed our blog and asked about our journey. You have cried for joy with us and you have prayed for us.

We are so grateful for your support in our decision to adopt these boys! It is hard to put into words how much you mean to us.

Ill on Thanksgiving

Unfortunately, the day started out not so well… We went to visit the boys last night and were turned away b/c they both had fevers at that time and were sleeping. Then today we went in the morning, hoping they would feel a bit better, but were turned away again until tomorrow. I know they need to rest to get better, but I felt so sad – I think especially because it is Thanksgiving. We would have to go without seeing the little pipsqueaks, who so quickly came to mean so much to us, for almost 48 hours.

However, the rest of the day went as well as possible without seeing the boys. Our group of 8 and our translators went to a place for lunch together. Before we were served, our head translator met with each couple to go over our legal statement for court. This statement makes our request to adopt the boys. It was pretty cool to sign those papers and write the names of what we wish to call the boys legally. We decided on Andre Port Henrikson and Gregory Novi Henrikson. We chose to Americanize their first names (from Andrei and Grigorii) but then we wanted to give each of them half of their current last name so they always remember that they belong together as brothers and so they remember their Kazak heritage.

We had lamb kabobs, veggies, rice, fries, for lunch. Turkey is not an option here... After our partial Chinese, partial Kazak, not-so-great lunch yesterday no one was feeling too adventurous, so kabobs sounded good.. Nothing was de-boned so we had to pick it up and use our fingers and several napkins each. It was messy but pretty good.

We then went to a coffee shop for wifi. Of course we did not have our laptop with us so we had some desserts instead of wifi. J Then we went to the Dostoyevsky house/museum. Very interesting. Our afternoon continued with a few more food stops – to the bakery, the mini mart and to the chicken (rotisserie) store. Mom asked about prices here, I think. The food is quite reasonably priced – unless you want peanut butter ($7 a jar) or Nestle hot chocolate ($12 a container).

I will cut this off now as I know Ken wants to post as well.

Again, Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
-Jenny

Let's see, I'll just add a bit to what Jenny already wrote. We are both dissapointed to not see the kids but we hope that their rest will make them heal faster. Dinner was certainly good and felt like a real "thanksgiving to remember".

We've been watching Gilmore Girls to kill time and are enjoying seeing new spots like the Dostoyevsky house. How fascinating that he lived here for several years in exile. We saw copies of his hand written notes on his most famous books including The Idiot, Brothers K, and Crime and Punishment. And of course, being in his actual house where he wrote was amazing.

Okay, I'll write more later and we'll include some pics.

Ken

Sched. Change and Illness

So, our a.m. visiting hours were moved to 8:30-10:30. That means we have an extra half an hour with the boys. Plus they have allowed us and the other family adopting a 5 year old and a 2 year old to switch off using the gym in the morning as well as in the evening. Very nice.

Today, though, the boys were sick... Andre (have I mentioned that they pronounce his name like Audrey but with an "n"?) had a fever, but they said it was ok for us to take him anyway. He was soooo pooped, though, that he just sat in 3 different spots and played all morning. No zooming around the room with his truck! He clearly did not feel well.

Greesha was a bit more active, but didn't really take advantage of the gym when Ken brought him in today. Very unlike him...

He and Andre have drippy noses and coughs. The other kids in their suite sound the same. Plus a 12 month old is sick too... I guess it's going around. We are doubling up on vitamin C.

-Jenny

Apartment

Here are a few shots of the inside of our apartment. As you can see it is quite modern. We’ll post some pics. of the outside of our apt. (hallways) later – necessary for the full effect of our experience!

Another Video! Gregory's first bubbles.

video! - Andre is in blue. Gregory is in red.

Bonding Rooms, etc.

The boys (and Mama and Papa) were getting a little bored with the original bonding room. It has several car toys, some balls, and some noise making toys. And we introduced the two little plastic dump trucks (they don't hurt as much when brothers wack each other with them :)) and some bubbles. The boys flipped over the bubbles! It was SO cute! Oh, yeah, so anyway, we asked if we could take the boys to the "gym" for some play time. Last night was our first time in there. It was so great! There are more physical toys to play with. Slides, mats, bowling pins, swings and stuff like that. Plus the room is larger and fully carpeted so the boys can run around more. We were also alone with the boys in that room and got to see them interact in a whole new way. Andre is very compassionate and will bring a toy to a crying child to try to sooth him/her. Gregory is more rambunctious and likes to be carried around and "wrestle". Andre spoke a lot more in the gym with just his brother and us around. Andre seems to like the smaller group. We'll be in the old bonding room during the morning visits and the gym in the evenings.

Can't believe it's been a week since we left IL! Well, actually, in some ways it seems shorter and in others it seems longer. Did we talk about lunches yet? Our coordinator has brought us to several good restaurants. We had paninis the first day, kabobs the second, and Chinese the third. All was good. And very different from the states. My fav so far was the Chinese, but my stomach might have other opinions :) We've also had good baklava and some cakes/sweets from a bakery last night.

Ken

Trucks

We went to a toy store after lunch yesterday and bought the boys 2 plastic dump trucks. They love “machinas” (cars in Russian) and so we thought they’d like big, new ones.

Well, we pulled them out during the evening play time and they played with them the whole time. We had one of our translators with us, Karina, and she asked Andre if he liked the truck and he said yes, he loves it. I told Ken that was the best money we ever spent!

Unfortunately, one of the trucks was taken into another toddler suite last night and didn’t get back into the bonding room today, so there was a little meltdown when Andre’s truck was grabbed… Oh, boy…

It is hard to take pictures with Andre b/c he is so busy and moving so much, but here is one. Gregory likes to be held more so it is easier to snap shots of him.