SNOW has come to Northeast Ohio!

Well we have had snow for the past three days. I have taken Stephen out several time to walk in it and put his hands in it. Today we got to have fun with dad see the photo to the right.

Last weekend we went and got professional photos done for Christmas. Stephen did really good except for the last set of photos which was our family photos. But we were able to get some really nice photos. I went a little crazy with the photos. Drew I think almost had a heart attack when he went to pay for them.

This week is Thanksgiving and grandma and grandpa are coming to visit for a while. We are celebrating Thanksgiving with my family on Saturday. We are looking forward to see what Stephen thinks of everyone together and all the food he can eat (which is a lot).

Snow!

We had snow today. The first day Stephen has gotten to see and feel snow. He had a lot of fun. All we did was touch it and walk around out side looking at it. I could not take a picture but next time which I know there will be a lot of.

Just a few photos!

Here are a few more photos I thought you might like to see!

Here Stephen is sliding down a slide at an apple farm!

This is what he worn for Trick or Treat!


We are wearing our sweatpants on our head now!

Playing the Guitar Hero with Daddy!

The long forgotten updates! Sorry!

I know I am not very good at keeping everyone updated on how Stephen is adjusting to his new home, but I will try to catch everyone up and keep you caught up.

A lot has changed as you can see in the picture. Stephen has adjusted very well to his new surroundings. We have started to go more places with him and he just loves to explore where ever we go. He is walking all over the place and falling once in a while, especially when Angel knocks him down so we have had a couple of burses and cuts. He is a boy, so he just cries for a minute then it is fine. It is funny, he loves to walk and climb under my kitchen table now. Just so you know it is a bar height table so he still fits for a little while longer, but not much.

Stephen loves to just sit and look at books also. If you don’t hear him for a little while and you look in his play room you will find him sitting at his books and just looking at every page and every detail. Once in a while he will bring you a book just for you to read to him. He really doesn’t let you read he just wants the pictures still for right now. He is getting better and will let you read a little bit. He is starting to color but not too much yet.

He’s feeding him self about 90% of the time now which makes me happy. He is still having a hard time with rolling the spoon over and dumping it on him self. The boy does love to eat. We are mostly eating regular food not baby food and we have started to wean him off the baby formula. The doctor wanted him off formula by 18 months which he will be in 2 days.

I can’t believe he will be 18 months old. It is hard to believe we came home when he was 14 and a half months old and now he is 18months old. He is getting so big. He is weighing in about 25 pounds now and is 30 inches. He has put on almost 10 pounds in a little over 3 months. Stephen has had all of his check ups and everything has turned out great. We go later this week for his 18 month check up.

Stephen is having fun meeting all the kids in the family and just loves being spoiled by his grandma and grandpa. They have been up here I think at least every month since he came home. This is the longest they have been away and they are going crazy. The last time they were up here was at the being of Oct and they have a week and a half to two weeks before they see him again. We are all looking forward to our first family Thanksgiving and Christmas with him this year. I think for the next couple Christmas we are going to celebrate in Alabama with his grandparents. Then we will start staying home for he holidays. We are having family photos done this weekend. I am looking forward to having nice photos of all of us. We have taken a few just on our own but we’re not really happy with them.

Well I will try better this time to keep you all updated.

First week alone!

I know it has been almost 2 weeks since I updated everyone. Well things are going good. My mom left a little over a week ago so I have been on my own and I think I am doing a good job at it. I took Stephen to the pool several times last week and he enjoys the pool very much. The first day we went with Kristen and Peter to their family pool. He just loved it. Next day we went with Aunt Jo, Isabel and Jacob. Isabel and Jacob played with him in the kiddy pool a lot. They wanted him to watch them dive off the diving boards. We went and watched but I don’t think he really could see them; too many people at the pool. Then Dad got to come with us to the pool on Saturday. Stephen loved having his Dad in the water with him. We had a meeting today with a group called “Help Me Grow”; they will help us evaluate how far behind Stephen is and what we can do to help him out. We will have many more meeting with their doctors.

Drew and I realized over the weekend that we painted Stephen's bedroom in Kazakhstan flag colors. What is weird about that is we painted his room before we had even thought to adopt about 2 years before. We are looking at building him a couple of toy boxes now and are going to paint them definetly but in Kazakhstan colors.

We are heading down to Columbus on Sunday for the holiday. It will be a really long day. We are planning on seeing both sides of the family. It will be an interesting weekend; I will let you know how it goes.

Welcome home party!

I know I promised to write a note every week but it has been a little crazy here. I know everyone says not to have a party for a while after they get home. But we did it a little different. We wanted all the craziness out of the way as soon as possible so that we could then settle into a routine. We had a party on Saturday 16th for friends that had not gotten to have a baby shower for me and to celebrate his birthday. We also had a few family members from Drew’s side of the family here. In total I think we had about 60+ people at the house. Stephen did such a great job with everyone and even fit in an hour and half nap while people where here. On Friday we took Stephen to the doctor and he has put on 2.5 pounds and grew 3 inches since we came home. We are very excited about that. The doctor has set us up with a couple of other doctors and county help for international adoptions. We are looking forward to meeting them and working with them to help Stephen grow.

Today my mom starts her trip back to Alabama. After today it will be me, Stephen and our two dogs, Hurc and Angel, home alone while Drew is at work. That will be the true test of how good I can do this. I am sure I can but it will all be true that I am a real mom. Up till now it hasn’t felt real but today it is starting to feel real. I am sure that my mother and stepdad will not be staying away for long. For this year they will have to travel to see us. Drew used up all his vacation time for this year. I think we will be heading down to Alabama for Christmas then for vacation next year.

Stephen is doing so well; started to furniture surf while walking and is taking our fingers and walking around. It is really hard to believe he is the same child that we met almost 5 months ago. I am so happy to have him home with us and not overseas where we worried about him.

I think that is all for now. I will keep you all updated better from now on.

Thanks again to everyone for support and help.

First week home.

Sorry for the delay in updating everyone. It has been a little crazy around the house with the newest addition to the family.

So lets get you all updated. We arrived home on August 1st around 3pm. But I guess I should start with when we landed in Detroit we were told our luggage was not on the plane and that it would come in the next 24 hours. Our luggage finally all arrived on Tuesday which we were very happy to get because all of Stephen’s clothes were in them plus a blanket that was made for him and a gift from Kaz that he received from Olga.

Mom and Don picked us up at the airport. They were happy to finally meet their grandson. He took to both of them right away. Grandpa headed back to Alabama on Sunday and already is ready to come back and spend more time with him.

It is a week today that we have been home and Stephen is doing great. He is exploring his new house all the time. Grandma taught him the sign for more and he can do the sign but is not sure what it means quite yet. Stephen has also gone on a few car rides and went shopping already. He has met his neighbor, an 11 month old little boy named Peter, and they seem to get a long pretty well. They are still too young to do much but I know they will grow up to be good friends. We have had a few visitors at the house. He seems to be adjusting well to everyone and everything. He goes to people very willingly, does not through a fit and just keeps that great smile going. He is sleeping okay although he wakes up a few times a night but has slept a few nights for 7 to 9 hours. Just once in a while he wakes up screaming then we go in put our hand on his back and he goes right back to sleep. He loves his DOGS and they love him. Angel just lets him climb on her and pet her. Hurc on the other hand just stays out of his way but that is a good thing since he is old and hurts a lot.

I went to the doctors the other day and took Stephen with me and she did a little work with him also. Since then he has been standing up on his own more, crawling around more and I won’t get into much details but he is needing his dipper changed a lot more for the better. I think she did him some good she wants to work with him some next time I go which I am happy about. He does have his first check up next Friday; I hope everything goes well then.

Stephen will meet a lot of his family and friends next weekend as we are having our summer cookout. After that things will calm down for him and it will just be Drew, Stephen and myself for a while. I am sure we will still have family and friends stopping by but not the large groups like we are having now at least not till Thanksgiving.

I can’t believe he is really here. We are finally a FAMILY!!!!!!!

I will keep you all updated. I promise but just might not be everyday. Maybe once a week we will see.

Thanks again to everyone. Hope to see you all soon.

We are home!!!!!

We have finally landed in Cleveland. We are all very tired. I will post more later.
Thanks to everyone.

Return Train Derailed, well at least delayed.

After having a great flight from Almaty to Amsterdam, our flight from Amsterdam has been “postposed” for 2 days. Seems the Pilot got sick…… I’m no airline expert, but it has to be cheaper to fly a new pilot in, than to put 200+ people up in a hotel for 2 nights. Now we are stuck in a Hotel in Amsterdam, short on diapers and baby food. We had enough to make it through the first half day, but we have to take the shuttle back to the airport today to get more Diapers etc… There is nothing around us except a Shell gas station and they have none of what we need. When we go to the airport today, we are going to the counter to make sure our flight is still set for tomorrow, and have them figure out what they are going to do about our connecting flight from Detroit to Cleveland. I called Northwest/KLM yesterday to make sure they still had record of us, and that we were still set for 9:00 am on Aug 1. So far that’s a yes. Our hotel vouchers were for two days, but the flight time was scheduled for the next day. When I first called KLM, he said next day, but after he put me on hold for a few minutes he came back and confirmed two days. Of course Mom and Dad only have what they are wearing, and the checked baggage is stored someplace in the basement until the flight.

Anyway, on to Stephen. So far he has been great! I think he is handling all this much better than we are. He was great on the plane, and everyone just loved him. He only cried a couple of times, I think because he was so tired. He did scream a couple times, but he really doesn’t like to have his Diaper Changed. We were in two seats by the window, but before we started out, the attendant asked a couple gentlemen sitting on either end of a set of three seats if they would mind moving, and they agreed. We were able to have three seats this way, one in the middle for him to sleep in.




Well we went to the airport and got the few items we needed. We stopped at the KLM desk to check on our flight and see about our connecting flight from Detroit. We are supposed to land around noon Detroit time. They said they won’t start rescheduling connecting flight until this flight is in the air. Doesn’t exactly instill confidence.

We will post more, if anything else happens or once we get home. Which ever comes first.

Last day in Almaty

We have completed our exiting invertiew and it was a peice of cake. We have Stephen's passport and visa. When he lands in Detriot he will automaticly be a US citizen. We have all of his documents in order and in a safe place.
We are almost packed and ready to leave. Ducien will be picking us up at 4:30am to head to the air port. Grandma and Grandpa will be picking us up at the airport in Cleveland aroun 6:20pm Wednesday. We can't wait to have him home with family and friends.
Thanks again to everyone that has helped make this process much easier on us. The Larrick family is on the next step of our journey that will last us the next 50 to 60 + years. Keep watching.

Day 4 with Stephen

Hello everyone. Things are going well. We have had some really good nights as far as sleep is converned. Wewent nt to the SOS clinic today and he is all checked out to leave. We have a few shoots we will need to get when we get home and he will be up to date. He has not gained any weight since the last time we went to the clinic, in April. We will have to work on that when we get home. Other then that things are good. We are looking forward to coming home. We will see everyone in a couple of days.

Second day in Almaty with Stephen

Well I guess I spoke to soon yesterday about not having to much crying last night and today have made up for yesterday. I think we are just way off schedule for him. We are trying our best to keep on schedule but then we all lay down for naps and get off scheduled again. I think it will be a lot better when we get home. Right now at the apartment we only have one room that only has a bed, crib and chair in it all three of us have to be in so when one lays down we all lay down. Olga came over today to help us with the paperwork for the Consulate. We have nothing really planned for Sunday but a walk to the park and maybe breakfast out for mom and dad. Then Monday we have our SOS appointment then Tuesday our exiting interview then home sweet home on Wednesday.
We will keep you all updated.

The Return

Well we arrived in Alamty at 5:10am this morning but did not leave the air port till 6:15am. It was crazy getting through immigration. I think they had 2 planes come in around the same time. Then our driver took us to our apartment, well it is a different building and in a different area than we are use to well I guess not that different just 2 blocks in a different direction. Much smaller then any of our other apartments and our bed is the couch and not very comfortable. We got about an hour of sleep before we heard a knock on the door and it was our driver and he said we were to leave to go pick Stephen up now. Well we had to ask for a couple of minutes to get ready to go. Then we left for the orphanage. We got to the orphanage and the doctor was not in and would not be in till 1pm and we got there around 10:30am. So we got to spend a few last hours with Stephen at the orphanage before we left with him to a strange place. But to tell you the truth he has been great. Just a smiling happy little boy like he was the very first time we met him. We get to have the next couple of days just the three of us which we are looking forward to. We got to get his passport photos today they are not the best pictures because he had just woke up and was not sure what was going on. He knew a picture was being taken but not sure who was behind it. But I figure he will only have to use it maybe a couple more times before he gets a new one. After that we came back to the apartment and all three toke a nap together. Then there was another knock on the door, our driver again with a CRIB!!!!!! Yeah we were not sure how this all worked but we are very glad to have a crib the couch bed is not very easy to sleep in with the three of us. Then we realized it was past Stephens dinner so we ran to the store to get food. We had not had a chance to do that yet. Now we are in for the night and happy to see night come so we can sleep a little with out the door being knocked on. I know Stephen might get us up a couple of times but that will be different. I will be happy to get up with him. I know soon I will not say that but this is actually starting to feel real. We are parents!!!!!!

Well now a little bit about the one you all want updates on. He is doing well. Does not look like he has put much weight on yet but we will fix that soon enough. I am glad I went by my gut feeling about his clothing size he is fitting in our 6 to 9 months right now. I brought some 12 and they just fall off him. I think he will be there soon just not while we are here. He really has not cried since we got him. We have been happily surprised. We thought for sure after he woke up from both naps that he would be surprised as to where he was. I just hope the rest of our time here goes just a smooth with him.

We will keep you all updated. Linda, Bob, Lindsey, Hailey and Johnny we hope you are having a good time with the dogs. Hope they are not being too bad. We promise to be home as soon as possible. We will miss you all once you move away. You are family. Love you guys.

Thanks again to everyone that has helped, sent good wishes for us and supported us through all of this. We look forward to introducing Stephen to you all some day.

To all the families that are getting ready to adopt just want to say good luck and see there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

Just a reminder to all that email us use babylarrick@gmail.com thanks!

We leave to pick up Stephen today

Well this is the day we have been waiting for. We get to make our last flight for a while over to Kaz to pick up Stephen. We are very excited. I hope I packed enough stuff for him. Well I guess we will find out soon enough.

Thanks again to everyone for your support and time. This part of the journey is almost over but we have many years left to come.

Have a great week. We will keep you updated while we are gone.

We got the long waited call today.

Well so everyone is up to date on what is going on. We got a email on Monday night that we need to get some paperwork updated right away. We got them done today and sent them over night to CHI. Then we got our call from Jeff letting us know that we need to be in country by July25th. So we will be flying out on July 23rd from Cleveland and arriving in Almaty on July 25th. We are not sure what our scheduled time there will be like but are really looking forward to see and getting Stephen home right away. Are plains are to leave Almaty on July 30th. So July 31st will be Stephen first full day in the US. We are looking forward to having him home and having fun.

Thanks to everyone that has supported us for all over the world to right next door during our journey. We would also like to thank everyone that has helped us with watching our other children (dogs) and our home while we have been traveling. You all have all be the best.

I can't believe it is almost over.

Back Home

We wanted to let everyone meet Stephen. Also just wanted to let everyone know that we are back home. We will update more later need to get some sleep. Thanks again to everyone for your support.

Court day

Well today was our court date. We left the apartment at 8:20am returned to the apartment at 5pm. A very long day with a very good out come. We started with a court time of 10am but didn’t get started till 11:30am. Once we were done the judge told us she would have a decision by 2:30pm, so Ducien drove us to the baby house to see Baby Larrick. We got to spend 1 hour with him. It was nice to see him in the middle of all that was going on today. We headed back to the court house where when we got there they had lost power so that then delayed us even more because they had to type up the judge’s decision. Once the judge came in she announced in a really long way that our petition to adopt Baby Larrick had been approved. So now we just have to wait out the 16 days for it to be completely final, Which means we could pick Baby Larrick up from the baby house, but we will not be coming back until it is time to bring him home to Chardon Ohio which should be 33 days after court so we should be back in Almaty on July 27th.

So we are the proud parents of Stephen Richard Talgat Larrick.

Time with Baby Larrick

We got to see Baby Larrick today. He is still as cute as possible. I know everyone said he would remember us well I think he did but it was not the same reaction we use to get. He was a little shy with us. He is still sitting up nicely but his standing is a little weak. He did try to take a few little steps for Drew. But most of the time he wanted held and walked around. We did take him out side again today and he just loved it. We put him in a swing and let him sit in it for a while then we both took turns on the bigger swings swinging with him. This was our longest trip outside with out him fussing we were happy to see that. We got to feed him is dinner which was really nice to do. I missed the little things like that when we were at home. I think he might be teething we got him a bath book and we brought it well he just kept putting it in his mouth and just chewing away on it. I felt around and thought I felt a few more teeth but not sure they were just below the gum level.

Well Ducien let us know he was picking us up at 8:30 for court at 10 tomorrow so I will update you all once I know more. Wish us luck!

We would also like to wish a belated HAPPY FATHERS DAY to all dads new or old or even still waiting for there little on.

Back In Kazakhstan

Hello from Kazakhstan! We made it safe with just a few bumps in the road nothing big. We have to agree with every one that said we should not fly through Frankfurt it is a really crappie airport. One our last flight we meet another couple that is just starting there journey of adoption. We wish them a lot of luck, time and patients with the process. We are hoping to get together with them while we are here.
We are staying in the same apartment building not same apartment. But this one has been updated and is better then our last apartment. We are glad to be in the same building that way we know where everything is if we need to go some where. I will update more later today after we go to see Baby Larrick and meet with our translator.

I would really like to thank our friend Nicole for making this trip a little easier on me. I hope everything is going good at home will email you later.

Thanks everyone for your support.

Travel for Court

Well Hello again. We are back for a little while.

I would first like to start off by explaining one of my last entries, stating we had family issues back home that we needed to take care of. Those of you that know us very well know we have 2 dogs and they are also like our children. When we found out that they were having some really big issues back home, we got a little worried about them. Hercules as most of you know he is getting up there in the years and is having those old age problems. Well we thought we had them under control but we found out that we were wrong. Now we have a mess to clean up at home once all this is over. Then Angle got a really bad infection in her neck. It is cleared up now, but the vet said it was a hot spot and is cause by allergies, so not sure if it is gone or not. We also think it could have been the stress of us not being here for 5 weeks. We are hoping with this next trip since it is so short that they will both be fine.

Also I want to explain what happen in Kazakhstan. Recently things have changed with the international adoption laws and with that, the process has also changed. What once was to be a 5 week trip with our 15 days of bonding and our court date included is now a 2 trip process. We had our bonding time and Olga turned in our dossier to the court but we were missing one form that the judge is now requiring before they set the dated for court. The form was a letter letting the judge know that Baby Larrick had been on the registry for the 6 months that they require them to be on before they can be adopted internationally. So we had to wait for them to come from the capital in Kazakhstan. That took us about 4 days to get taken care of. Then we found out that the judge had set the court date for the 20th of June. So we now have to make 3 total trips to complete the process. From what we can see from our experience and what we heard from 3 other families, the judge in Karakastek is setting court dates at least 30 days after bonding. Which we have heard is because of the new Hague Act. We don’t have a direct answer as to why it is taking so long for court, but that is just what someone has told us.

Well we leave in about 24 hours to fly back over for our court date. We will be arriving in Almaty around midnight on the 18th. We have a meeting with our translator and then we will get to go see Baby Larrick on June 19th. We are really excited to see him. I hope he remembers who we are. We then have court on June 20th hope all goes well there. We will keep you all updated once we get over there. Then on June 21st which is our anniversary we will go back to the baby house and see Baby Larrick. As long as every thing goes good at court we will be coming home on June 22nd.
Well that is what is new on our end of things, we hope everyone is doing well. We will keep everyone updated. We will let you know when we arrive in Almaty.

Back home

Hello everyone. We just wanted to let you know that we got in safe last night. I will post more later.
Glad to be back home just wish Baby Larrick was with us.
Just a little long I know.

Court Date

Well some good but bad news. We have our court date June 20th which is the good news. Now for the bad news is that we are coming home on Thursday till time for court.

Update on court date

Okay well we have had a lot going on in the last few days. We were hoping for a quick court date but that is not going to happen. There has been a small hiccup in the process of the documents. But the paperwork we were waiting on came in on Friday and Olga will be taking it on Tuesday to the court house to finish our paperwork. We should know for sure on Tuesday when our court date is. When Olga asked on Saturday they told her as long as the paperwork was in on Tuesday our court dated should be June 10th. So we are hoping they keep their word that June 10th is our court date. So we will be staying till the court date is over. Then we will be returning home for a month. We were hoping to stay till we got to bring Baby Larrick home but with the delay on our paperwork it is not going to be able to be done.
We are glad we get to have two in a half weeks more with Baby Larrick but not happy that we have to leave him for a month. We have made some progress with him and really don’t want to see that it has faded because we had to leave him here. But we have some family issue back home that we need to go home and take care of so that when we bring Baby Larrick home things are good for him.

Our visits with him have been good. We are still having some problems with him spitting up every time we give him juice, eats or is put on his stomach to work on his crawling. He is doing really well at standing up getting really close to standing on his own.

Well we hope everyone back home is doing well and we will see you all in about two and half weeks. We miss you all and love you.

Sorry so long since updated.

Well again I am sorry it has been so long since I posted an update. I have been really sick. I am feeling much better now. So I wanted to update everyone.

We have had a great few days with Baby Larrick. The past few days we have really been working on him standing on his own and walking. They have a tri cycle and a dump truck you can ride and we have put him on them the last two days and he just holds on smiles and does not want taken off of it. We have taken him out side a few of the days when it was warm out. Today was a little cold to go out side.

Sunday we spent the day with Scott and Kalyb walking around Almaty. He showed us around some of the spots he and his wife visited while they were here. He also took us to some baby stores in the area, and a great place to get good food. We thank him and his son for a great day.

Tuesday we didn’t go to the orphanage because I felt really bad. I ended up sleeping the entire day away glad I did take time for my self other wise I think I would be much worse than I am.

We are waiting for a call from Asiya tonight to let us know when our court dated is. We will keep everyone updated.

May 16th

First off I would like to say I am sorry I have not updated you in a little while but I have been a little under the weather for the past few days and still not feeling really good but wanted to update everyone.

Well we have had several good visits with Baby Larrick recently. He has started to move around a lot on his belly can’t say it is crawling yet but close. We keep trying to get him up on his knees more but it has not worked yet. He is standing a lot better but still not on his own. We tried to have him hold on to a walker with our feet holding it still because he is not ready to walk yet. But he held on as I let go of him and he stood on his own holding on to the walker. We have been able to take him out side a couple of times. The one thing we have learned about Baby Larrick is that if he sees someone else doing it he wants to try and do it. From Drew making noises and him trying to do it the next day to Nadia (spelling?) walking in to our room and he wanting to stand. Now when we go out side he is watching the kid play and thinking about what they are doing.

Today was a very interesting day we started the day with a breakfast at the American Bar and Grill with Scott and his son which was really nice. His son is really cute and well behaved. Then we went to Medeo Ice-skating stadium and Dam which they are preparing the area for the 2011 Asian Winter Games to be hosted at. It was amazing to see the ice-skating stadium. It is the largest skating rink/speed skating area in the world. The mountains around it were gorgeous and full of trees, grass and snow. I have a lot of photos and video from up there. Once we have a chance to go to the wi-fi café and upload photos we will put them on the blog.

We hope to know by next week when our court date is and when we might be coming home. We will let everyone know as soon as we know. We miss everyone and hope to see you all very soon with all the Larrick family at home.

We will keep you updated.

Last "official" bonding day(s)

Sorry it has been so long but it has been pretty quite around here. On Sunday Drew and I walked around and did some shopping. We went to a place called the Green Market it was okay but a little cramped for me, then we went over to TSUM and found some neat little things to take home for Baby Larrick. Then we went to a grocery store that we were told is a bigger and better store then where we have been shopping.

Yesterday was Baby Larrick 1st birthday. We got to take him outside for a little while which was fun. He was not really sure of what to make of things. He just kept looking around and around. I can’t wait to bring him home and have a really big party for him and have his first cake. We got him a stuffed giraffe. At first he was not sure what to make of it but then he warmed up to it. They let him keep it with him in his crib.

Today was our last bonding day and we had a really good day with him he was really standing today. Still not on his own but close, I think Drew and I both only had to use one hand with him while he tried to stand. We got to take him outside again today. He was much more active today when we went out side, he was twisting and turning in our arms to see what all was going on. When we went outside they had some for the older kids outside and I think that was making him feel better about being outside. He likes to see others do things then he likes to do them.

Tomorrow Olga will be turning in our paperwork for the courts to start our finishing process. We are very excited about this. Only problem we have is that we just got our photos back and we have 2 for the same day and missing yesterday. We are trying to figure out how to get a new photo printed fast. We will see what happens.

I will post more news once we have it. We will keep you all updated.

Danielle if you read this please email us an updated. I have tried to email a couple of time and am not sure if you are not getting them or what is going on. We would like to know how both the dogs and you are doing.

Day 11 &12 of bonding

Well Friday May 9th was a holiday here in Kazakhstan it is their Victory Day the day they separated form the Soviet Union. On Thursday night we got a call that our driver was going to be late taking us to the orphanage because of family obligation. Which worked out great because early Friday morning we started to here music out side our apartment and went to see what was going on. The police had our road blocked off and looking way up our road we could see people walking. Then the music got closer, once they were right in front of our apartment we could see it was their vets walking to Panfilov Park for celebration. We decide to get ready for the day and walk to the park. It was really nice at the park, they have monuments for there fallen soldiers and people would place flowers on top of he monuments. While we were walking at one point we were behind 3 vets and people would just stop them so they could say thanks and give them flowers. They really give them a lot respect for serving. In the park they have what is an eternal flame and people had laid flowers all around it, it looked amazing. They had put up a stage and they had music and dancers performing all the time. Balloons, windmills, necklaces, peacock feathers and a lot more fun things for kids. Horse back rides and carriage rides through the park. Then last night when we got back from the orphanage we had fireworks that we watched over the building across the street from us. We couldn’t see the low ones but we still got to see quit a bit of them. We are happy we went late to the orphanage now we can tell Baby Larrick about how they celebrate Victory Day in Kaz.

We have had two very eventful days at the orphanage. Baby Larrick has started to crawl. We put Drew’s cell phone down on the blanket on the opposite end and he made his way over to get it. We tried it three more times and he did it each time. We even put the camera down and he came after it. Any thing shinny he will crawl for but still will not crawl to us. Today he was getting a little cranky and I tried to get him to come to me instead he just laid there and fussed so Drew picked him up.

Baby Larrick is really starting to stand a lot more today. Drew had him standing up with his hands and then Baby Larrick leaned back and put his butt on Drew leg and just stood there. We are very happy with his improvements. We are still having some problems with keeping food in but we know it will all come together soon. We have been trying to take him out side but we keep being told doctor said no but when our drive Ducien asked if we could take him out the doctor said yes just not that day since we were only there an hour. We tried the next day and the nurses said no per doctor. We are going to have Asiya go with us on Monday and help us out because we are having a few other issues with the orphanage. Monday will be Baby Larricks first birthday and we would like to take him a couple of things to leave with him for while we are not there.

We had a little excitement on the way home from the orphanage yesterday. About half way back Ducien got a flat tire. We all go out and Drew helped him change the tire. I kept telling Drew not to touch it, after what happened at home before we left. ( Small issue with breaking a lug nut stud on the car at home. Sorry, long story for those that don’t know. ) We got it all settled and made our way home. This morning he either had a new one or was able to fix the old, not sure which.

We are hoping to do more sight seeing tomorrow and some shopping.

I would like to wish all the mothers a very HAPPY MOTHERS DAY tomorrow.

Mom I know I will talk to you but HAPPY MOTHERS DAY miss you.

Day 10 of Bonding

We had a good visit with Olga and Asiya last night found a lot of good information that we were confused on. I was really messed up on how many days we have been bonding for. I guess we are on Day 10 today our bonding time is up on Baby Larricks birthday. So things are moving a little quicker then we thought they would. They also showed us the stores everyone told us about from one of our Yahoo groups. We are planning on going shopping this Sunday.

We started out to the orphanage in good moods because we thought we would talk Baby Larrick out side for a little while. But as we were driving to the orphanage we got a call from Asiya saying we would need to leave a little early today, so we could meet Olga to work on some paperwork. We only got about an hour with him but it was a great hour. As they where bringing him to us one of the nurses put him down and he stood up for us. So we worked on that for the rest of our visit. They have agreed to let us see Baby Larrick tomorrow even though it is a holiday. We are very happy about that.

We are hoping by the end of next week we might know when our court date is set for. That way we will know when we will be coming home. We will talk to you all again soon.

Day 7 & 8 of Bonding

We have had a good couple of days. Baby Larrick has set up for most of both days. He is starting to stand a little bit more. We met a mother to be. She is waiting on their court date. Her husband had to go back to the states and she stayed. Her little girl is walking and Baby Larrick is seeing her and I think that is making him want to stand more. He started making a lot more sounds today, he is so funny. When he makes the sounds he looks to us to see what we are doing then he starts to laugh and puts his head down and smiles, like he is happy he is making us smile at him. They have walkers at the orphanage and we started putting him in one yesterday and he loves it. He just sits in it and plays with his cups and balls. He likes trying to grab them and watching them roll around on the table. I am happy he likes it because it puts his legs in the right spot for standing and hopefully that will help him on standing up. Today he wanted to look out side a lot, the sun was out and I think it was calling him to come see it. He needs to see some sun per the doctor. Yesterday he fell asleep in my arms I was happy he felt comfortable with me to fall asleep. After a while I handed him to Drew to hold he woke up but went right back to sleep. I guess he feels that we are good for him, which makes us so happy. Today he started to fall asleep again but we kept him a wake so that he could get his lunch. Once he had his lunch he was a wake and wanting to play more. He watched me today cleaning up when it was time to leave. I felt like he knew what I was doing and he did not want us to go.

Today we went to a store called “Mothescare” and got a teething ring, bibs, and a bottle. We have been told we could bring juice but not sure if they will supply us with the bottle or not, and the teething ring is because my fingers are not a teething ring and the past 2 days I have been being teethed on. Drew said that is what I get for putting my fingers near his mouth. I guess he is right for once.

We have a meeting tonight with Olga and Asiya regarding our SOS paperwork. The English version has some incorrect dates, and we’re not sure if any thing else is wrong on it. They are going to look it over and let us know. I know this is for our records but I still want it to be correct for the doctors back home.

Well that is all for today I hope everyone is doing good. We will talk to you soon.

Day 6 of bonding

Well yesterday was a good day we went traveling around the area found a really nice park and walked around it for an hour. Then we walked up the mountain to get some dinner. We tried a local pizza cheese, ham and tomato sauce it was not bad.

We went to the orphanage today and had a good visit with Baby Larrick. He wanted held a lot today and walked around. I am not sure if he was feeling good today. That is the only part I have a hard time with not being able to ask questions at the orphanage. It is getting a lot harder to leave him at the orphanage.

Day 5 of bonding

Well today was our last visit for this week. It was a good one. He seems to be getting use to us coming to see him. He came in with a smile on his face and then just sat and played with his toys. We want to work with him more on his leg strength but ever time we do he gets sick so we thought we would wait till next week to work on them. We got to feed him twice today which really surprised us, but made us happy because he got a lot of food in him today. Actually with the last feeding he ended up being full, he would not finish the food we tried and tried but he would just cry so we stopped. He also kept almost all the food in today. We had one spit up which really was not much.

I think tomorrow we are going to go walk around our area and see what is here. We haven’t done that yet. We thought we would leave that for days we had nothing to do. So tomorrows will be about Almaty.

Have a great weekend. Love and miss you all.

Day 4 of bonding

Well we had a really good day today with Baby Larrick. He was able to sit up the whole 2 hours we were there. If he starts to tip over he still can’t pick him self up or correct him self. I guess they are right the more love and time you spend with them they will grow leaps and bounds. We worked today a lot on his legs he actually started to put weight on his legs like he was trying to stand. We will keep working with him. He started blowing bubbles, making raspberries not really sure what it is called just really cute noise and bubbles. He had me on the floor laughing with these noises. We also played some music for him when we first turned it on he just stared at the computer.

We did not get to feed him today we are not sure why they made him wait till we left to feed him. We have fed him the last 2 days we have been there. We are going to ask Asiya when we talk to her. He was so hungry by the time we left. I was getting frustrated that I could not talk to them and explain that we can feed him. I think we are going to need Asiya to come with us one more time.

It is so funny Drew is trying to talk to Ducien. Now Drew is showing Ducien words in our dictionary as Ducien is driving (which is scary with out him trying to read a book) I tried to stop Drew but Ducien said he could do it. I shut my eye for that part. Well we made it there and back safe. Don’t worry MOM I think I will make it back in one piece. Just kidding we are just fine.

Hope it is warm back in the states. It is cold in the morning but by afternoon it is great here. Talk to you all later.

Day 3 of bonding

Today is a holiday in Kazakhstan so not many people were on the road to the orphanage but one town we had to go through the road were closed so we had to go a long way around the town to get back to the main road to the orphanage. We were a couple of minutes late getting to the orphanage. But once we got there we had a great visit with Baby Larrick. He was as smiley as ever, when we first got there he was sitting up on his own he even crawled a little for us. But after a while he was having a harder time sitting up. Just not use to it yet. We got to feed him again today he was not happy once all the food was gone he wanted a lot more. After that they came and took him back to bed. Drew and I both are ready to get him home so we can take care of him al the time. He is such a sweet baby. I can’t wait for every one to meet him. He loves all the toys we have brought him he just lights up when he sees them.

When we were driving in today every city you came to they had a huge festival going on today is like the Labor Day. People were dress up in suits and in native wear they were having a lot of fun. The kids were running around with big long balloons. Seeing people walking for miles to go the festivals was amazing. People in the US would not walk as far as these people do to get things done or to see people. It amazes me everyday.

I think after this week we might go to every other day with the blog unless something happens that day. We will see. We hope everyone is doing good in the US and France. We will talk to you all soon.

Second day of bonding

I have to start out by saying I am not a city girl. Most of you know that I was brought up in the country. Living in a city that never sleeps is not much fun. I think I have slept one full night here. I am getting really use to not sleeping. I guess that is a good thing soon enough baby Larrick will be keeping me up. We also have an upstairs neighbor that is either working on the remodeling or I have no idea what else but normally he starts about 9am and goes to 5pm. Then sometimes he starts back up at 6:30 till 8:30 or 9pm. It sounds so much like a dentist office when they are drilling.

Now to the better subject, baby Larrick, we got to see him for 2 hours today. He is trying to crawl and sit up. Still has some problems with both but this is only really our first day of working with him. We got there right after they fed him which was not the best thing he was spitting up the whole time we were there. I forgot to say that he has 6 teeth already and I think he is teething right now. We brought a teething toy and he really likes it and always has it in his mouth. Hey Heather your blanket you made for baby Larrick is getting broken in. We brought it with us to let him play on it while we are with him. Baby Larrick has learned how to make a noise just like Drew makes at him, when he is trying to get his attention, it is so funny. Drew got to feed him today that was a treat he kept lunging forward to the food the only problem we had was Drew was holding the food down low so Baby Larrick was looking down and lunging for the food once Drew picked it up it was a lot easier to feed him.

We found out today that our bonding period started yesterday so we are on day 2 of the 14. We also found out that tomorrow is a holiday they thought the orphanage would be closed but we lucked out and can go there is another holiday on May 9th we are not sure if we will be able to go then or not. We also can’t see him on Sundays the orphanage is closed. I guess we understand but we would really love to see him as much as possible right now. So he gets to know who we are.

Okay one more thing about living in the city I can not stand traffic. And with the way the locals drive around here. The road is marked for 2 lanes each way but they just make lanes where ever they want one and they just lay on the car horn like it is just natural to make noise at some thing in there way. Well on our way home today we were stuck in a really long traffic jam with people just pushing there way in and out of lanes in the pouring down rain. So much fun.

We have now had 3 blackouts and we are only on our 4th full day. We got home and had no power. The stairs to the apartment are mostly in the dark except for a couple of lights anyway. Once on our floor we enter a hallway that has one light and no windows. I am so glad some one said that blackouts are very common in Kaz. I had a flash light in my bag.

Oh mom, guess I should have grabbed those throw away burp rags. I could have used them today. Not easy to clean him up with a small package of Kleenexes.

Day 3

Well we just got back from the SOS clinic Baby Larrick’s check up. The results were like we expected them to be. He weighed 16 lbs and was 72cm. He has all the normal delays for being in an orphanage. He needs to get a lot more exercises for his legs and sitting up. We will work on this with him everyday while we are here. We know once he comes home and we have more time with him he will bounce back. We also know with all the support we have behind us that will help him leaps and bounds.

We will see him again tomorrow I will update more after the visit. Thanks again to everyone family, friends and our adoption group friends for all of you support and loving thoughts.

Day 1 & 2

Sorry it has taken so long for us to post any updates. We have had an issue with contenting to the internet. So get ready this will be a long post.

This was to be yesterdays post. Ok, the flights are over. Well, at least the flights TO Almaty. After a crazy morning, we got settled into our apartment and were able to meet with Olga our coordinator and our translator Asiya. We went out for a quick bite and to discuss tomorrow’s proceedings. We also made a quick shopping trip for a few essentials. It might take a while to get used to milk sold in a box, and not kept cold. (its cold now =P) I will now add a lot more.

Let me start with our flights. They were fine we only had one real delay and that was from Cleveland to Detroit. After that all of the flights went fine they were just really long. With Drew and I both being so tall our knees were most of the time in the back of the person in front of us. The Detroit airport is really neat it has a tram in it. I took a picture I will post in once I have the blog figured out. Then our next stop was the Amsterdam airport well let me tell you at first I was not impressed with it. But then Drew and I went for a long walk and found this large area that had shopping, dinning, games, and much more. Next we landed in Almaty our home for the next month. Our driver took us to the apartment. Once we got to the apartment we tried to call and connect to the internet but both failed. We tried to call our coordinator and we could not get the phone to work. At that point I was a little worried. But a few hours later we got a call from Asiya, saying her and Olga would be over shortly. I felt much better about everything. They both were a lot of help for our first day here they made my nerves about being here a lot better. After our meeting Drew and I came back to the apartment and took a very long nap. That night we had our first power outage. I am so glad that everyone let me know about the power outages. I was prepared for them.

Today Monday April 28th we went to the MOE and got our letter of approval to go to the baby house to see our little one. Well let me tell you that was the most amazing trip ever. When they brought Baby Larrick in he just smiled and was looking around like crazy. He was the cutest little thing. We sat and played with him for a while then went in to the orphanage doctor. She let us know all about Baby Larrick (which I will talk about more in a little while). Olga talked to the orphanage to see if we could take Baby Larrick out of the orphanage to the SOS doctor and they agreed. On our way back to the apartment Olga set up our appointment at the SOS to have a doctor of North American medicine look at him. So on Tuesday we will not go to the orphanage but they will bring him to Almaty to see the SOS doctor and we will go with him then. Wednesday will be our first normal visit with him. I can not wait he was having so much fun with the toys we brought him. But he was really interested in our video camera and camera. We got some good footage of him today.

Well now for the part I know most of you would like to know. He is 11 months old. We will actually be here with him on his first birthday. He was found on the side of the road on May 12 2007 as a new born. So they really have no family history for him. We sat him down and he can almost sit up on his own. He can hold him self up when he is on his stomach. He tried to crawl for a ball that was in front of him. He has a really strong hold. We tried to see if he could stand. He tried but his legs could not hold him yet. He loves to try and pull my glass off my face, he wanted Drew’s beard. As of right now unless something major happens at the SOS I think we have found our son.

Well I think that is enough for today. We miss you all. Danielle please give both Angel and Hercules big hugs form us. Talk to you all soon.

April 25, 2008

Well today is the day we leave for Kazakhstan our flight is at 5:10 tonight. We are very excited to make the journey it is going to be a long one. I am sure once we are there it will be the biggest adventure of our lives and a life changing one to.



We will miss everyone here. We will try to keep everyone updated the best we can. We will post again once we have landed in Kazakhstan.

The start of our journey!

We are going to start this at the beginning.
Drew and I started this amazing journey on April 5th 2007 that is when we sent in our application to the adoption agency. On April 9th 2007 we found out that they approved our application. From there we started on the long journey to get our dossier done. We finalized our dossier and sent it in, I think, on August 30th. Our Dossier arrived at the Embassy in New York on Sept 28th. The next step on our dossiers journey would be Ministry of Foreign Affairs which it arrived there on November 30th. Next would be the last step for our dossier which is the Ministry of Education and it arrived on February 20th 2008. We were told at that time it would be a while before we would receive our call to go over. So our wait began.
Drew and I decided we would go on a last minute vacation to Alabama to see a NASCAR race and my parents. We booked our flight on March 9th we were to fly down on April 23rd and come home on April 29th. Then we received an email from the air line on March 19th that they no longer where flying to Chattanooga TN. So our vacation was off. We did not want to drive down. I told my mom and Drew that the big guy had something better for us to do during that time. Well on March 28th my mom called to tell me the air line we were to fly down to see them had just closed there doors. Again I told my mom something better was going to happen.
On April 9th 2008 Drew took the day off and we were both sitting down playing on the computer when the phone rang Drew answered it and it was Kellie. She told Drew that she was going to call right back and that we should answer the phone. Drew turned around and said to me that was Kellie, she said she will call back, and the look on his face was like oh my do you think. I told him no way, that she was calling with our new contact since she would be leaving soon. When she called back Jeff and Kellie where both on the phone, then I started to feel like Drew might have been right. Then Jeff said “if you want to cry, scream or jump please do because you have received your referral”. We both looked at each other and were in shock. Then Jeff said you are to be in Kazakhstan on April 27th 2008. I could not believe it but I guess the big guy was looking out for us after all. We were supposed to be at the NASCAR race that weekend, I told Jeff and Kellie, and we were all in shock.
We have scheduled our flights we will be leaving Ohio April 25th and arriving in Kazakhstan on April 27th. Our first visit with our little one will be April 28th. We will keep everyone updated.