A crabby t-shirt sighting

A year ago today we left for our court trip for our adoption. On this trip we brought a bag full of t-shirts for Lukas and his group mates. Lukas wore one for his passport photo seen here...


I always look for them in pictures of blogposts from other families who have been in Taraz at Umit since then. I was beginning to suspect they had left the building until recently. I was catching up on the blog of one of the families currently in the appeal process of their adoption of a sibling pair. The oldest is now in the room Lukas was in when we were there. Low and behold, on Almat's 3rd Birthday post from January, I see the following photo....Thanks for allowing me to post this photo M.

New photos of Lukas

We heard word today that the newest family has arrived in Taraz and has been for her first visit with her new daughter at Umit. She was kind enough to send us some photos of Lukas. We look forward to meeting up with her when return later this month.

Passport Photo Do-over Day

27 Jun 2009

Well Lukas Anton appears to have made a full recovery. He was quite the handful today. We went to find him with his group and as soon as he saw us he came running over and reached up for mama to pick him up. We brought shirts for all the children in his group today that Mama bought in St. Michaels, Md. We put Lukas’s shirt on him for his second attempt at a passport photo. The phrase on the shirt was appropriate and we think we got a good photo. See for yourself. “sometimes crabby, but always cute”


He paraded us all the way around the baby house today before settling in at the gazebo. He had a few choice words for his group as they came by. Zema said he was basically telling them, “don’t come here, you keep moving.”



We watered the ground and plants again today. Ate every bit of food Mama brought. Walked out the gate to see the dogs and share part of a cookie with them. He didn’t give it directly to them just through it on the ground after one ran past him. We pitched coins again today, splashed in the fountain in the courtyard, and found a new way to ride the merry go round.







Symbat was still the challenge for taking more passport shots. We think we finally got one that will do. Kara- I’ll email you the whole series separately later.


Mama and Zema took Lukas up to his room for lunch and give the nana the t-shirts for his group. We said good bye for now and blew each other a kiss. It is still hard to say good bye and leave him but much easier this time knowing he is ours and we will be back in a few weeks to pick him up.

Wayne is still a little under the weather but feeling better, just tired. It may be a long, long trip home for him. Hopefully he will sleep in the car on the trip to Almaty.

We have a long lay-over in London so I may try and post some from Heathrow.

Paka,
Lynda and Wayne

Feeling Better and Passport Pictures

26 Jun 2009

We arrived at Umit today to find Lukas Anton was outside with his group. We figured that was a sign that he must be feeling better. When we found his group and called to him he turned around and gave us a great big grin. He was back to the boy we remembered as you can see.











We spent a few minutes with his group during which a couple of them attempted to sneak into my backpack while it was on my back. They all came over to show us the toys they had and get some attention.

We headed around to the gazebo out front for some one on one time with our boy. The Nana told us he still had a fever last night and he ended up having 3 antibiotic shots since we left him yesterday. No wonder he was feeling better. His appetite was back in full swing as well. He went through every bit of tamook I brought with me today.






Since he was sick I didn’t want to give him our shared water bottle that we typically use. I brought what was left of one of the 1 liter bottles of water. He got quite the mouth full the first time he tried to take a drink. Then we decided it was more fun to play with the water than actually drink it. Good thing there was a nice breeze and it wasn’t as hot today since he used all the water up playing. He would hold the bottle up and blink his eyes at us while filling his mouth with water. Then he would proceed to water the plants around the gazebo by spitting or spraying the water at them. He also thought it was fun to pour the water in his hand and through it out of the gazebo.








During our visit the doctor came out to check on Lukas and see how he was doing. He behaves very well for the doctor while she examines him. He should be doing much better considering it cost us $55 US dollars for all the medicine Janette bought at the doctor’s instructions. We have a feeling not all of it is for Lukas which we don’t mind as long as it is going to the children. We didn’t have exact change so we told Janette to keep the change. She said she would use it to buy vitamins for Umit. That is fine with us.



Lukas decided since he was out of food and water he would rummage through Mama’s purse. He may have been planning a shopping spree since he took all the plastic out of my wallet. Then he decided to play with the change. He thought it was great fun to throw the coins up in the air and then try and find them all. That was fine in the gazebo but then he decided to throw them in the driveway and they went rolling everywhere. Amazingly enough I think we only came up 20cents short of what we started with. Some where on the ground are 2 stray dimes.


Janette asked us to take Lukas Anton and Symbat’s passport photos today. Neither of them was very cooperative. They are very picky about how the photos are done. They have to be against a white background, looking straight at the camera and so you can see both ears, all of their head and the upper half of their torso. It was hard enough to get our 3 ½ year old to stand still and cooperate, try getting a 13 month old to pose like that! Kara and Quentin, the price just went up on you daughter’s photo session! We thought they came out pretty good but we have been told we have to try again tomorrow. Hopefully we will do well enough since it is our last visit until we come back in July to take him home.




When it came time to go Lukas wasn’t too happy about going inside. He kicked off his shoes that were about 2 sizes to big and threw his hat and shirt on the ground. At least he didn’t cry or scream when I carried him and his belongings up to his room. All the other children had finished eating and were getting ready for their afternoon nap. As soon as I set him down and showed him his lunch at the table he had a sudden change of heart and ran over to the table to sit down and start eating. Mama barely got a good bye.

Tomorrow we will take our gifts to the baby house and visit one last time with our son before heading to Almaty in the afternoon. At least this time we have an idea of when we will see him again and that he is actually ours now. We will have plenty to do in the short time before coming back to get his room finished. His furniture should be arriving the day before we get home and we still need to get some sort of window treatment for his room or he will be up at 5am every morning with the sun shining in his room.

We will try and make a quick post tomorrow before leaving Taraz around 3pm. It sounds like we will have a nice overnight stay at the Almaty airport since our flight to London does not leave until 7am on Sunday.

Paka for now,
Wayne and Lynda

A little under the weather at Umit

25 Jun 2009

We arrived at Umit this morning for our first visit as Lukas Anton’s actual parents. Zema brought him in from playing outside. He was a little quieter than he had been in previous days but went straight to the back pack to see what was inside. He pulled out some food and had a few bites and then appeared to be mad because I was paying attention to Symbat. I played around with him a little and he seemed to snap out of it.

We decided to go out side with him and he suddenly didn’t seem interested an anything which is very unusual for him. When I picked him up I noticed he appeared to be warm. Fever warm not because it was hot outside. I basically carried him outside to the gazebo and all he wanted to do was sleep. Wayne and I took turns holding him while he slept for about an hour. Janette came out and was surprised to see him sleeping. She agreed that she thought he might have a temperature. She fetched the doctor who came outside to check him out. She agreed that he was sick and took him inside to check him further. End result, the little guy has strep throat which several other children in his group also have. At least I am assuming it is strep because she gave him an antibiotic shot and gave the new parents their first prescription for more antibiotics and something for his appetite. Definitely not like our son to not want to eat. Janette is getting the prescription filled and will bring us the bill this afternoon. Yes, since we are his parents now, we pick up the tab. The doctor promised to have him good and strong for us when we return to pick him up to take him home on our next trip.

The adoption decree becomes official on July 10th as long as no one appeals it during the 15 day appeal period. Once it is official Janette will submit all the paperwork she has filled out to begin collecting all the new documents we need before we can take him home. Since our visas are only good for one month she will have to wait until our return with our next visas to file some document so we will be in Taraz for around 5 days on the next trip instead of just 2-3. She surprised us today by telling us that we can plan to come back on July 18th or 19th because Lukas will be ready to be set free from Umit around the 20th or 21st. That seems to be record time to us considering other families’ timelines but we aren’t complaining. So we might make it back to the USA before July is over.

We were going to take his passport picture today but he was in no condition for that as you can see by the two photos we took today.



Here are a few pictures from around Umit and Jackie the last one is especially for you. Wayne captured a shot of this tiny hummingbird in the Bee Balm.







(If you click on the photo it will enlarge it so you can see it better.)

Paka,
Lynda and Wayne

Protection of Children Day in Kazakhstan

We received another email from the Canadian family who is currently in Taraz. June 1st was Protection of Children Day at Umit. Based on the photos Christian sent I think this is the program we watched the 4 year olds rehearsing when we were there. Lukas was not part of the program but a spectator. It appears they were all given toys as a gift at the celebration. Christian also included a short video. From what Christian described, they filled the pool in the court yard and Lukas discovered this while in the music room after the program. I have no clue what Lukas is saying but he is definitely excited to see the water in the pool. Christian thinks they went swimming later in the day.

Project for Special Needs Children at Umit

Interlink made an agreement with two physical therapists, one American and one British, who work with their CP program in Shymkent. These physical therapists will put on a four-day training program for the caregivers at Umit - and will provide exercise equipment designed specifically for this purpose. The new Umit physical therapist has already taken a trip to Shymkent to meet with them, the new equipment has been purchased and donated to the baby home, and the four-day training program for the caregivers has been tentatively scheduled for September.

We are so thrilled to have been able to support this for the kids we came to know and love while visiting Taraz. This kind of therapy can help a child reach their full potential - maybe being able to walk or achieve other key milestones.

I was just reading the updates on the message board for Taraz Adoptive families and one of the familes informed everyone of a special project they were doing to help the special needs children at Umit where our son is. Seeing as we have just recently been there and witnessed these children for ourselves I was very excited to here this news. Below is her post regarding the program and how people can help fund the project through a very minimal donation of $10.

"I posted some pictures of the equipment donation event here under "Balducci family." There was a news story in our local paper which covers the program toward the end. Link: The link appears to be going to the domain www.pnwlocal, but is really going to the domain pnwlocalnews.com.

http://www.pnwlocalnews.com/east_king/bel/lifestyle/41925627.html

Worth a read if only for the many, hilarious factual inaccuracies -- starting with the "fact" that Taraz is "a nearby town" to Almaty. (HA HA HA!!!! If ONLY.)

There is a small remaining gap to complete funding for the whole program (about $150 dollars as of the last report). Knowing how you all care about Taraz and the children there, I thought people here might want to contribute. We are specifically asking only for SMALL donations - $10 per person. If you would like to help, please make your donation directly to Interlink, this can be done via mail or website (see www.interlinkresources.org/donate/ for instructions). Please note on the donation that it is for the "Umit Disabled Program."

Special email from Taraz today

I was blessed this morning with an email from a Canadian couple who are currently in Taraz bonding with a little boy at Umit. I had asked them to keep an eye out for him if they were outside with their little boy. Not only was Christian kind enough to send us an email letting us know how our little guy is doing but he send pictures and a short video as well. He appears to be doing just fine in our absence. I don't know if that's a good thing or not. I guess we'll see the true effect when we return and see how he reacts to us. I'm just glad he is doing well and happy. Christian also had their translator tell him that we love him and will be back soon. How lucky we are to be in contact with a family that is currently there.

They must have had these little riding toys somewhere else when we were there because I don't recall seeing them.