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.