Cars and Trains and finally arrive in Almaty for US clearance

26 July 2009

At 8pm Friday evening (one hour before Lukas’ usual bedtime) with a little help from Lukas we packed up and headed downstairs to wait for Janette to take us to the train station. Our train to Almaty was to leave at 9:30pm. Kim saw us off and we all loaded up into the cars and headed off much to Lukas’ delight. Upon arriving at the train station Janette handed us a folder full of papers to give to the Almaty coordinator. It contained the original versions and English translations of his official adoption decision, passport, birth certificate, adoption certificate and medical and Umit papers.

We then headed up to the train platform to wait for our train which was coming from Moscow. Lukas has developed an attachment to his backpack on wheels and won’t let anyone else take it so it is a little slow moving up stairs and down bad sidewalks. Kural headed in to check on things and came back out to tell us that the train was delayed by 3 hrs because of a problem with the tracks. So Janette decided we would be better off going back to the hotel and waiting there. We checked the large bags and took the backpacks back to the hotel with us. Lukas actually willingly gave his bag to Kural for the trip back to the hotel, however, when we got back he immediately went to the back of the van to retrieve it. Janette got us our rooms back without paying additional and we headed back upstairs to wait until 12am. Mama and Lukas took a short catnap during the 2 hr wait.

Aima and Kural loaded us all up and we headed back to the train station to try again. They tell us that this is the first time the train has not been on time when they have sent a family to Almaty by train. When we arrive back at the train station Janette phones Aima to tell her that the train is delayed another several hours and will not be leaving until 3:30am. They offered to take us back to the hotel again but we all decided we would rather stick it out at the station. So far Lukas has been holding up pretty well inspite of the fact that it is 1am. Kural would keep checking on the status of the train and come back to help us get on the correct train and car when it actually arrived.

Wayne managed to figure out the board listing the comings and goings of the trains and kept an eye on the status of our train. Needless to say, Lukas eventually went in to meltdown mode. God bless chocolate candy! It is about the only thing that will quickly stop his screaming fits so you can attempt to calm him down. He fought off going to sleep the whole time. He was just really excited by the trains and everything was new. We finally decided to go ahead and retrieve our bags and head to the platform to wait. We met a gentleman who spoke English. He does business in the US. My best translation of what he told me “I work for the American Council” is that he does something for the US Consulate based on the location of his office from the Hotel Kazzhol where we will be staying in Almaty. He was in Taraz working with some people in the Peace Corp. He gave us some information on the train we were taking and how to locate our train car and sleeping compartments.

Kural arrived about 15 minutes before our train to assist us. When it was our turn to actually get on a train Lukas was beside himself in excitement. He couldn’t wait to get on the train. He tried to run Marcia, Kara’s mom, over on the steps to get up into the train car. Did I mention he was still pulling his backpack. Kural ended up lifting him up into the car because the steps up were very steep. We settled into our sleeping compartment and when the train started to move Lukas wasn’t to sure he still wanted to be on it. As the motion smoothed out he relaxed and amazingly settled himself in by taking a pillow and covering himself up with the blanket. I gave him a little Dramamine just to be on the safe side. He fell asleep without any problems. Once he was asleep Mama and Papa settled in to try and get some shut eye. It had been a long evening and it was 4am by the time we pulled out of the station.

Later in the morning Mama got some quiet time as Lukas was still sleeping. He slept till about 10:30am. He had a little snack and decided he was keeping all the food we brought next to him in bed along with his shorts, shoes and Eeyore that we bought him. He just kept moving the items around so he could keep a close eye on them while he laid there quietly. Every so often he would get up and look at the window and start chattering away or singing. Eventually he got restless and we wandered down to Kara and Marcia’s compartment. This seemed to occupy him as he played with Alina. We stopped at some large station outside of Almaty. We were stopped for quite some time. A young family that was in our next compartment with a little boy spoke English and translated what the purser was trying to tell us. We would be stopped for another 20 minutes. Then they said it would be faster to take a taxi to Almaty. Not having any clue where we were and being told we probably wouldn’t arrive in Almaty until 2pm we were confused because it was only 12:30pm at the time. Once we started moving again it was only about 15 minutes later and we arrived in Almaty. We then understood why the couple made the comment about the taxi.

We were met by a man named Nikoli who came directly to our compartments to get us. We hurriedly gathered all our belongings and followed him off the train. Yes, Lukas still had a clutch hold on his wheeling backpack and wouldn’t let anyone help him. We headed down the rutted out sidewalk, across the other track and up onto the main walk way. Lukas was so distracted by everything around him and tired that we had quite the time with getting him to the van in one piece. Mama eventually had to resort to standing in the middle of the parking lot to stop the cars so he could get across to the van. Everyone was calling to me that a vehicle was coming and I said, “I know, I figured if I stood in their way they would have to stop.”

It was a short van ride to the hotel and Nikoli pointed out where the big shopping center was and the buildings we would be going to for our appointments on Monday and Tuesday. You can definitely tell you are in a metropolitan city. The hotel is very nice and just like what you would expect of a major chain hotel in the states. We actually have wifi in our room for the nominal fee of about $4.50/hour. We checked in and then Nikoli asked for the papers Janette gave us. He was looking through Alina’s first and Lukas kept trying to give him his papers. Fortunately we had plenty of different pictures of Lukas in our packet. Nikoli wasn’t happy with the picture of Alina and told Kara she would have to go have another photo taken. When he looked at Lukas’ he started to tell me the same thing and I told him there were more photos in the bag and he found one he liked. I have no idea what they are for since they already have their passports done. Currently Lukas’ passport is in Astana for registry and will be sent to Almaty.

Lukas was getting extremely cranky so I had Wayne take him up to the room while I finished with Nikoli. He informed Kara and I that he would meet us at 2pm in the lobby on Monday to take the children for their SOS Clinic medical appointments. Kara and I then headed upstairs to join the others. Lukas was still all revved up and quite the handful. I showed him the bathroom and when he saw the tub with the hand held shower head he was ready to get in. When he took off the pullup I put on him once we were on the train I wasn’t sure what I would find because he hadn’t been to the bathroom since we left the train station in Taraz. It had been close to 12 hours since he had last been to the bathroom. I was amazed to find it was completely dry and clean.

Once he was dressed we headed out to find some “real” food since we hadn’t eaten anything but snack food since the evening before. We went to the hotel restaurant which was fine until after we ordered. Mr. Lukas decided he was going to start yelling and being disorderly. I immediately took him out to try and calm him down. I was afraid I was going to have to take him back upstairs. When I took him back in his juice was there and that seemed to occupy him until the food arrived. We ordered him broth with meat and noodles but the fancied it up and he wasn’t very interested in it. He dipped some vegetables from Wayne’s plate and a few pieces of bread in it and he was done. He had a few bites of Mama’s chicken ceasar salad and some of Papa’s fries and he was done.

Just before Mama left to bring him upstairs the waitress brought him 4 balloons tied together. That was enough distraction for Mama to get him upstairs. Did I mention this hotel actually has elevators! Lukas doesn’t mind them but he is very careful stepping into them and out of them over the part where the doors open and close. Once back in the room he kept trying to pull the balloons apart. Mama managed to get them separated and he entertained himself playing with them for a while. He wasn’t to happy when Mama locked herself in the bathroom to take a shower. Someone in their infinite wisdom chose to put the light switch on the outside at child level. Guess who took her shower mostly in the dark? He wasn’t too happy with Papa trying to keep him away from the light switch. While Papa showered we eventually had another meltdown and fell asleep on the floor around 4:30pm. I think it was a combination of the excitement of everything new, the messed up sleeping schedule and pure exhaustion. It was my intent to keep him up so he would go to sleep on schedule in the evening. I think we all needed some sleep because we all fell asleep. About an hour later there was a knock on the door. Just when I thought I was in for the evening we were told we needed to meet Oleg, the Almaty coordinator, in the lobby to fill out paper work. So mama got dressed, grabbed her documents file and headed down to the lobby. Filling out forms when you are half asleep is no fun. Fortunately Oleg told me what to write and I just filled it in.

Lukas was still asleep when I got back to the room. It gave Mama and Papa a chance to rest as well. When Mama woke up Papa was feeding Lukas some snack we had left over. We then played with the balloons some more until it was time to go to bed. Guess who was wide awake? Yep, Lukas was not ready to sleep. After another bath and a small dose of Dramamine (yes, I know, I’m a bad mother, but we all needed some sleep and I need something to take the edge off so he would go to sleep) we settled into bed with him quietly playing with the balloons and within about 15 minutes he was asleep. So at midnight Mama was able to turn the tv and all the lights off and get some sleep.

It is now 7:30am on Sunday morning and both my boys are sleeping soundly. I took the opportunity to write this up while I had the chance because once his royal highness is up I don’t stand a chance with his little fingers wanting to push all the keys on the keyboard.

Hopefully we will have a quiet, leisurely Sunday and get back on a “normal” schedule until it is time to leave. Of course both appointments this week are when he is just getting up from his nap and wanting to eat. That should be fun.

Paka,
Lynda