Wednesday, June 30, 2010

First Official Day as a Family of 3

Poor kid had a long day!
- We arrived at the orphanage about 11 and packed his stuff up. He
quickly said his goodbyes and gave out hugs. His new caregiver was very
emotional and gave him her whistle that she always wears to round up the
kids. He LOVES it and we are so thankful that it's been "hiding" in my
purse for a few hours!!
- He was very excited to leave and as we were walking out he said, in
English, "where is the taxi"? All the "Where is______" games have been
paying off!!
- We then stopped by the Baby House where he lived from 2-4 and said
our goodbyes there.
- Next stop was Kids Village to say goodbye to sign off on some
paperwork. This was a VERY confusing stop for Ry. When we got there,
he didn't want to get out of the car. Once it was time to leave, he
wanted to stay. He was very tired at this point and thought he was
"home". After some explanation from the translator, he was good to go
and hopped into the car.
- Then it was on to lunch. We gave away several cakes and sweets today
and at every stop, Ry said he wanted cake and didn't want to give them
away because he wanted to eat them all! We call that a "hungry fella"
in our family.
- After lunch was passport photos which he wasn't too thrilled for, but
we got them done.
- Several pick ups and drop offs along the way of misc. paperwork
people.
- During all of this excitement, Dust had been on and off the phone
with the Embassy. The easiest/quickest trip is to Astana, but they are
only doing fingerprinting one time in the next week. Tomorrow from
2-4... So during all of the other errands, we tried to buy plane and
train tickets and explain to Ry that our first night as a family may be
on a train!!! No planes would get there in time...the train to Astana
tonight was completely full. It's been crazy!
The plans are that we have hired a taxi to drive the three Stone's + our
translator to Astana early in the morning. (About a 5 hour drive...on
what we hear are terrible and very bumpy roads). The taxi drive will
only cost us 14000 tenge which is about $94...we couldn't believe how
cheap that was...for all 4 of us! We should arrive in Astana around
lunchtime. We will rent a room at an inexpensive hotel for us to use
off and on throughout the day. Symbat will stay with Ry while we go to
handle the fingerprinting. After that we're going to check out some fun
things in Astana and then take the train home later tomorrow night. A
quick/crazy trip, but Ry is really excited to go on the train! A
private room on the train for all of us will cost about $45. We just
can't get over it!!!

- We finally arrived home and Ry was very excited to get in the
elevator and go see the apartment. He thinks we are in America now and
as soon as we walked in door, he looked around and said "Where is
Sadie"?
- He checked out everything and kept asking if everything he saw was
his. Moi means mine? Moi? Moi? Moi? Moi? Moi? We tried to explain
that it was all of ours, but that was a little over his head.
- We rode his new scooter, had dinner, bath time & a terrible attempt
at bedtime at 8:00PM! It's now 10:30 and he's still wide awake. I guess
we shouldn't have let him have that nap in the car today!
It's been a looong day for all of us, especially Ryland! Tomorrow
should be an adventure! Dust and I are tired and I sure hope Ry gets
sleepy soon! Will post when we are back from Astana.

7 Comments:

At June 30, 2010 at 8:32 PM , Blogger minime0910 said...

Congrats!!! I was waiting for this post!! We took the train in February to Shymkent overnight and it was quite an experience :-) Actually really cool to get to see the Kaz countryside. Hope all goes well in Astana and hope Ry got to bed at a decent hour :-) Erin

 
At June 30, 2010 at 11:35 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

Congratulations on finally being together! You have waited so long! Enjoy every second of Ry's adjustment period. It's so fun to watch someone experience the world for the first time! Mishelle

 
At June 30, 2010 at 11:45 PM , Blogger 4texans said...

Congrats to you! It is all so exciting. I think Nicholas probably thought our apartment was home, too. It's too much for them to grasp. He had a meltdown when we finally got to our home in CA. I highly recommend an herbal sleep supplement that we still have to use with Nicholas. It's called Tranquil by Natural Factor, we get it at the natural food store, it has melatonin in it. For some reason, it helps Nicholas to calm down for bedtime, otherwise, he fights going to bed.

 
At June 30, 2010 at 11:46 PM , Blogger 4texans said...

It's called Tranquil Sleep...

 
At July 1, 2010 at 12:05 AM , Blogger Lou Ann said...

Congratulations Stone family of 3!! What a wonderful experience you've had in Kaz and I'm sure there are more to come! I know the first few days of full time parenthood are wonderful & crazy! Enjoy every moment.

Lou Ann
Mom to Lexie from Aktau Kaz

 
At July 1, 2010 at 4:36 AM , Blogger Julian and Sara said...

Congratulations to you all in finally "coming together" forever. We are delighted for you. And you probably couldn't have planned for a better first day than a relaxing family outing/drive to Astana. :) Good luck with that part of the processing.

Enjoy your last (crazy) period of time in Kazakhstan - and try to take as many "posterity photographs" of Ry together with Kazakh landmarks as you can. He might not be in that part of the world on too many other occasions, so you should take advantage of your remaining in-country time to capture the moment for him.

And really enjoy yourselves as you have now truly become family. Most of the interminable, seemingly never-ending hurdles have been cleared and what may now be hard to believe - you have really reached the beginning. Congratulations once again.

 
At July 1, 2010 at 12:53 PM , Blogger Yael said...

so happy to hear everything worked out well for you and you are now ready start your new life as a family. Congratulations! Yael

 

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