I finally found them!!!

Top: On our way home from the baby house - Joshua was a trooper; Middle: Our family; Bottom: Sleeping with Oma's blanket.

April 30, 2007

“I finally found them!!!” This is what Joshua Roman David Lundberg is saying today about his new parents Amy & Dave Lundberg or as he calls them: Mama & Papa.

It’s late (10pm our time) and we just were able to put Joshua down. Everything has been amazing today. From court, to signing the official registry at the department of records, to picking up Joshua from the baby house, to bringing him home to our apartment, this has been the best day of all. Today we finally have our son and he has us – forever.

Our hearing in the judge’s office was a little nerve wracking but both of us did what we were supposed to do almost flawlessly. The judge granted us the adoption of Joshua and also granted immediate execution of our custody. The hearing began at 10:30 and lasted about 20 minutes. It wasn’t until 2:30 this afternoon that we were able to go to the baby house and bring home our son. It was an emotional time at the BH as many of the caregivers, doctors and director said goodbye to Roman. They wished us blessed and happy lives and made us promise to send photos as he grows older – we gladly committed to this promise. We made it home by about 3:30 - 4:00 this afternoon as Ol’ga and Vladimir drove us from the baby house to our apartment one last time. Ol’ga saw us to the door, wished us a wonderful life and we all hugged and said goodbye for the day. We will still see Ol’ga and Vladimir this week as we continue to shop etc. but this particular goodbye this afternoon had a completely different meaning. It was final – we have our son.

Late this afternoon we played as a family in the middle of the living room and all of us felt contented immediately. As Joshua smiled when we played peek-a-boo and shook his favorite rattles he has come to enjoy over the last 2 ½ weeks his eyes said to us, “I’m not looking back – I’m happy I’m here with you.” Amy was able to rock him to sleep at about 5:30pm and he crashed hard for almost 2 hours. Mama and Papa took this chance to nap as well. Joshua lay in his crib benefiting from a well-earned sleep near our bed and we napped anxiously (more like lay in bed watching him sleep, then put our heads back and listened to him breathe). Joshua awoke to us shuffling about the apartment around 7pm and Amy fed him his bottle of formula (we were both relieved that he was more than happy to drink from this western baby bottle which was a bit different from the bottles he was used to) – he has a healthy appetite. Then we gave him a little applesauce while we ate dinner – he seemed to enjoy eating from his cool new walker. He went down a bit later than he is used to but I suppose we all have some getting used to.

We are going to bed now, finally as a family. (by the way – we have hot water)

Honey - Should I wear the brown slacks or the brown slacks today?

Top: Preparing gift bags for Joshua's caregivers - that's one of 20 Great Judy's hand-made postcard quilts Amy is holding; Bottom: Yeh, yeh, she's a beautiful bride but check out the spiked heels on the woman taking the picture!

April 28, 2007

Good news and bad news. The good news is that everything is proceeding nicely on our Road to Kazakhstan. The bad news is we don’t have hot water again. At least we got one good shower in this morning (well I should say two showers because we each took one separately).

We had terrific visits with Joshua today; we saw many, many weddings; the weather is just about perfect and soon we will be posting pictures of Joshua because you know what that means…
Amy fed Joshua a breakfast fit for a king to start the day this morning and then she gave him his late afternoon bottle to wrap up our afternoon visit. Just after the afternoon bottle, Amy took great joy in changing Joshua’s diaper (come to think of it, I found great joy when Amy changed my diaper too). She took her time and was caring and Joshua felt completely comfortable with Amy taking care of him – something that only the caregivers have done to this point other than the one time we changed him on our 2nd visit. Amy made certain to show Joshua his feet – he was captivated. We then dressed the little guy in clean clothes and Amy’s expertise was somewhat hindered by Dave’s assistance – I’m a little out of my zone at this point but I plan on working very hard to be a top notch changer. It’s hard to believe we’re almost there. Today we shopped for baby formula, picked up a water kettle for the BH as one of our gifts to them (they needed one badly), and we were able to find a walker for Joshua so he can run around in it in the apartment here in Uralsk. It compacts well enough that we may be able to fit it into a suitcase and take to Almaty to use in the apartment there as we finish up our paperwork with the embassy before returning stateside. We are both somewhat tired of the same clothes. We only brought 3 pairs of slacks each and I think we may burn them when we get back home. We do laundry every day. Our new neighbors, Janene and Rich of Lansdale, PA, still don’t have a working washer and we have been sub-letting time on our washing machine to them – we’ve racked up a pretty good tally by now. Just kiddin’. Bless their hearts for having to deal with no hot water and no working washing machine – at least Rich has a DSL line to watch the NFL draft on ESPN.com.

Hot water feels gooood

Top: Amy & Dave after a VERY, VERY important meeting; Bottom:

We call this one "Soldier on a horse"

April 27, 2007

Ladno, ladno (that’s O.K., O.K. in Russian). Just a quick post before we retire. Hot water has found its way back to our apartment! Yeah! Just so you understand – many buildings do not have hot water heaters. Instead there are 2 water supplies piped into these buildings. A cold water supply and a hot water supply which also heats the building via hot water radiators.

We find it so comforting that everyone is following our journey. We can’t wait to introduce the world to Joshua Roman David Lundberg AND we can’t wait to introduce Joshua to the world. Thank you all for your support in our journey. By the way, we should add that Vladimir and Dave really are TWO WILD AND CRAZY GUYS! We will post again tomorrow morning (our time). It’s been a great, long day. Please keep the tree identifications coming – we have had some interesting answers and there may be a winner but we would still like some more definite growth characteristics noted to narrow down the final i.d. and winner.

Still no hot water...

Top: Our driver, Vladimir and Dave; Bottom: Stray dog who likes to sleep on a pile of rocks

April 25, 2007

Our good fortune having a continuous supply of hot running water has run out! Today is our second full day without this vital commodity!! We had heard that the city turns off the hot water to check the pipes after the winter, and it’s done in the city: district by district. We knew of other people losing theirs, and we were hopeful that it just wouldn’t get to our district (Central) until after we left for Almaty, but no such luck. Showering has been an adventure! Dave yelps with intensity, so much so, that our neighbors across the hall heard him this morning. I (Amy) can’t hold back my laughter as I listen to him jump around the shower and holler! I made my first attempt at showering today, and spent most of the time leaning over the tap, as the cold daggers of water coming from the MacGuyver shower head were just too much. We will boil some water Thursday morning to rinse down with and mix it up with the cold to see if that helps. Our part-time interpreter, Varia (sp?) was with us this afternoon, and told us that her mom thinks it will be off for a full week. We just hope we get it back before Joshua is here with us. Cleaning and washing toys with boiling hot water will become a real drag!

Today’s visits were quite nice, starting with “Breakfast with Joshua.” He devoured a full bowl of semolina with egg and biscuit, sucked down a full cup of juice, and enjoyed nearly a full jar of apple sauce. The kid was very hungry today! The caregivers have told us that he’s been much more active since we’ve been visiting with him, so we’re thinking his appetite is increasing as well. Today he showed that he wanted to be fed fast and furiously, and didn’t settle until about half way through the semolina! After the frenzy, we took a breather and then decided to head outside for another stroll through the playground and baby house property. Joshua continues to be very observant, but not quite ready for the world outside his baby house rooms. We will take him out as often as the weather allows.

This afternoon, they woke him from his nap for our visit. That’s been happening more and more lately, again we think he’s really tuckered out from our visits and could probably sleep longer. But we respect the BH schedules, and don’t want to upset the nice rapport we have going with the caregivers. He’s likes to cuddle when he sees us, so we just do quiet time for a while, and then when the other kids wake up a few minutes later, we begin our play time with him. Today’s highlights featured more crawling (yeah!!), 2 nice, stinky spit-ups on Mama and a great game of catch with the beach ball. He loved that. To wrap things up, quite literally, we tested out Joshua in the Snugli with Dave. The boys were a little uneasy at first, but everything snapped in place and Dave took a little stroll around the room and hallway to test it out. Joshua was pretty good with it, but it was getting near dinner time, and he let us know when he was ready to get out.
With that, we packed our bags and returned Joshua to his caregivers for his evening meal. We are very sad to leave him every day, and so look forward to each morning with him, despite the cold showers lately!!

Today, we also developed our photos for court – which we hope will be scheduled soon. We should hear of our pre-court date soon – then we’ll be given our actual final official date.

No Hot Water?

Top: women selling sunflower seeds; Bottom: Can you identify this tree? Send us an email or post a comment with your answer (botanical name preferred please).

April 23 and 24, 2007

Monday the 23rd: Bustling or mildly frantic best describes the mood at the BH this morning. It felt like there was a lot of energy and commotion when we arrived. Joshua’s caregivers (or as Amy says “caretakers” – oops!!) had to feed Joshua before we got there because he was hungry earlier than normal this morning and he expressed this rather ardently along with his roommates. After the rush of the food demand had been alleviated, Joshua Roman gave us a huge surprise. He CRAWLED. Mind you this feat was more of a lunge than a full-out crawl but it was a forward motion on hands and knees nonetheless and we agreed this visibly qualified as a crawl. We were beaming with pride and joy. After the morning workout, he became a little cranky and fussy earlier than normal – Joshua was pooped too. So the caregivers ended the visit a few minutes early today due to the earlier antics of the babies and we think this made them a little nervous in anticipation of an all out remonstration.

Our afternoon visit turned out to be very similar to the morning visit. Joshua was of course pleased to see us back and demonstrated this with his cheerful smiles. We could tell he was a little tired than normal – probably due to his vigorous workout this morning. We continue to be amazed by his progress and take great pleasures in his sense of familiarity when we come to visit. Every day it is always a bit more difficult to end our visit and we can’t wait for the day when we can take him with us on our way back to the apartment. Certainly, this time the three of us spend together will be a tender memory never to be recaptured in this setting but we do look forward to the day when we play together (and cry together) as a family in our own home.

Tonight we met our new neighbors, Janene and Rich Klumpp of Lansdale, PA, a suburb west of Philadelphia. We talked and got to know each other well in such a short period of time and the hours just flew by tonight. They are very nice people and we hope to continue our friendship long after Kazakhstan becomes a fond memory.

Tuesday the 24th: Let us first recognize a most grand and excellent occasion: the 15th birthday of Mariah Claire Fortman, which is Wednesday, April 25. Mariah is the eldest daughter of Mark and Sally Fortman of Crofton, MD. We wish you many happy returns, hope you celebrate(d) your day with all of the excitement and enjoyment by which you so truly deserve. Hard to believe you’ll be driving in a year, Mariah girl.

Today, as was true with other days before this, was a great day. Our guy started out eating his breakfast promptly and efficiently. Much less mess today. But the biggest news is that Joshua performed for us a FULL-OUT CRAWL!!! We say performed because HE was clearly proud and happy of his accomplishment. He crawled clear across a 3 foot long blanket we lay on the floor to play on and headed towards his pile of stacking cups on the other end. His face lit up, and he let out a scream of delight that made all three of us start up in laughter. This moment will never be forgotten and was only topped by Joshua carrying out the same feat again. This was a great moment of a great day. Just in case you’re wondering this was all captured on video to share with everyone else – we are eager to publish this footage or even just a few photos, but please be patient as we need to continue to respect the protocol of the entire adoption procedure and must wait until everything is official. Again – thanks for your patience. We also have great pics of the morning feeding to share. Joshua’s appetite astounds us. Sometimes it seems as though he eats more than Dave does for breakfast.

After our morning visit Ol’ga took us to several very fascinating and colorful places. First we shopped and people watched at another bazaar near the train station. This bazaar is inside a large warehouse type building with everything from produce to meats to dried fish hanging in the wind, to gadgets and household items to clothing. Being inside it is quite a bit darker but the sights of the daily life of shoppers and vendors are bold and lively. We picked up a ¼ kilo of ham (delicious) and few small bottles of vodka for gifts next door. Ol’ga says this is the cheapest place in town to buy vodka. The varieties seemed endless.
Outside the bazaar we found a row of older Russian women, sitting along a wall of the building with bowls of black sunflower seeds on tables mad of cardboard boxes in front of them, selling there seeds by the kilo. We had to get a picture of this. You can see in their faces the hard lives they must lead, selling seeds for pennies a pound, but also they smile as we take their picture to let me know they are proud of themselves and who they are.

After the bazaar, we visited a Russian Orthodox Church, Christ the Savior, only a few blocks from our apartment (this is the same church as we posted a few days earlier). Inside we found the religious icons and scenes painted on all of the walls and ceilings to be magnificent. Amy lit a candle to St. Nicholas – who is saint prayed to for any wish or blessing.

Our afternoon visit was again a grand time. Joshua’s face lights up when we arrive and if this were the only thing we were able to do with him then we would treasure this image all day. Happily for us we are able enjoy the next hour playing, watching, teaching and learning with our son. The day we arrive back to Dulles airport can’t come soon enough now. Each day we feel staggeringly lucky we have found our son Joshua Roman. Oh, and by the way, we have no hot water. No matter.

The Bizarre Bazaar

Deja vu all over again or "Groundhog Day"

April 21 and 22, 2007 Joshua is eating well. Saturday morning he ate most of his semolina which is similar to cream of wheat. Also, he had his usual cup of fruit compote – he loves this. Today there was a mushed up cookie in the bottom, and he was thrilled to eat that. Mixed some of the cookie in with the last few bites of semolina, so that helped him eat a little more. Joshua continues to develop and we discuss daily how excited we are that he begins to use his arms, hands and feet more during play time. He is particularly fond of my (Dave here) nose (as most of everyone is) and finds it an easy target to grab for – both inside and out. In just 9 days Joshua has shown advances in his balance and ability to mimic us when playing with toys. He’s building his strength in his torso while we have him sit up and is beginning to crawl on hands and knees a little better each visit. He actually did his first real crawl today! Only one sequence, but we were all pretty thrilled. At the end of today’s visit, we were fortunate enough to see the full playroom, and most touching, the adjacent room where the babies sleep. The room is very simple, yet large, with the centerpiece being the three rows of three cribs, lined from foot to head. The caregivers also showed us Joshua’s crib and also the plaque in the entry way that blesses the baby. It was a moving and emotional moment for us. I (Amy) couldn’t hold back my tears as we left. I also couldn’t take my mind off the other children in his group. I pray someone takes them home soon.
We have settled into a nice routine in the mornings and afternoon and it’s beginning to be a lot like the movie Groundhog Day with Bill Murray – much of the same each day. Olga mentioned it is kind of like 'deja vu' and I thought of mentioning Yogi Beara and one of his famous quotes but thought again about it and felt it best probably not to bring this up as it would most likely get 'lost in translation'. Regularity is an idea that was difficult to find at first but now we have worked out a groove not only with getting to know Joshua but also with our daily lives shopping, seeing the town and even watching a DVD on Saturday night on our laptop. Today we toured the Uralsk Museum. A modest 2 story building of ornate architecture painted with the nationally recognized light blue pastel paint. Inside we learned of discoveries of early man who once dwelled in this area, Kazakh people’s history, war heroes of World War II, cultural interests including royal garb and exhibits of musical stringed instruments like the dombra (sp?) which is similar in shape to a Russian balalaika having 2-4 strings. The Khan’s (Ghengis Khan’s clan) who dominated and terrorized this region for 3 centuries were also represented in one of the museums exhibits.
Sunday the 22nd Joshua continues to eat well. This morning he finished a full bowl (yes full bowl) of semolina, which was garnished with chopped up boiled egg. He was really into this combo. We also swapped out the plastic bib for a cloth one and he seemed happy with that change too. Also, he had his usual cup of fruit compote – he loves this. Amy and Joshua get along swimmingly during a.m. feed time. Amy was able to shovel down the complete breakfast in record time this morning and as a reward Joshua gave us several hearty burps of approval once the feed was done. We think feeding is purely a business-oriented deal with the caregivers, so we are trying to enjoy it with him more and not be so regimented. We also had a nice chat with the woman who appears to be Joshua’s primary caregiver. She is a gregarious Kazakh woman, with burgundy red hair. She shared with us some religious beliefs and customs, which we will share with Joshua when he’s old enough to understand. Olga has offered to get us some holy water from her church, which we will treasure and include when we baptize Joshua. Ol’ga, our interpreter, today accompanied us to one of the local bazaars. They are comparable to our flea markets (except it’s not used items) and have many, many shoes. The sights, smells and sounds of the bazaars are bizarre. Row after row of vendors in 8 foot by 8 foot cubicles (more like primitive self-storage lockers) with 3 foot wide fabric overhangs held up by metal poles in front of each space to provide minor protection from the elements. All adorned with their products be it shoes, jackets, clothing, sunglasses, bolts of fabric for draperies, socks, stockings, household needs, Russian fur hats for men with the ear flaps (I’ll get the name tomorrow – sorry Dad – I didn’t write it down when Ol’ga told us the name), electronics, toys, purses, etc. Women pushing small carts filled with baked goods, bananas, apples or tea walk up and down the rows selling their goods. A food market area of this bazaar displaying and selling fresh beef, pork and produce are in buildings and separated by product. We were reminded of the Cross Street and Lexington markets in Baltimore. The first building we entered was the sausage section. Large pieces of sausage (I mean large – 3-5” in diameter and up to 2’ long) wrapped in pig intestine and laying out on the countertops. All of the vendors were located in a large rectangular area in the center of the building and the patrons walk around this area to survey the choices. The next building was all pork. Large sides of pig were hanging in the center on meat hooks and pieces of pork were on display on the ceramic countertops. No refrigeration but everything was displayed in a very orderly fashion (presentation means everything when you see slabs of meat lying out on counters). Pig’s feet lined up in a row.
The next building was the beef. The first sight you see is a long counter top along one side of the center rectangle area filled with deep colored red beef. Cutlets to chops, ribs to tongue, liver to large pieces of beef you would need to carry over your shoulder – I absolutely HAD to take a picture of this building. We purchased nothing in any of these buildings. It was such a different experience to see all of this flesh in such huge quantities presented on these long counters “like a piece of meat.” It’s difficult to imagine these buildings in the middle of a hot, sweltering summer. Finally we made it to the produce building. A light and airy building with high ceilings and the ever popular light blue pastel painted walls. The smell of fresh produce and herbs fill the air. Before buying anything we had to walk around the entire building and view all of the different vegetables, fruits, dried flowers such as lavender and lilac and tropical fish sold from aquariums. Old women with scarves wrapped around there hair hawking there scents attracting the attention of women patrons by saying “beautiful ladies” in Russian. Today was a good day to be repeated just like the movie Groundhog Day. We also spoke by phone with our new neighbors Janine and Rich, just in from Philadelphia. They are visiting BH#2. We will probably meet them in person Monday evening. We are looking forward to it!

If it's raining this must be Friday

April 20, 2007

We want to start today’s post recognizing some important events going on at home! First, Happy Birthday to Grandpa Dave Lundberg, as well to Aunt Joyce (Lundberg) Hayden. Joshua gave us special drools for you both today! We hope you both had/have a terrific day, and wanted to know you’re in our thoughts! Next, congrats to Kyle Fortman for making the first frontline on the Lynchburg Hornets lacrosse team. Good luck this weekend! Special blessings to Jamie, Erin and new baby Luke Mabry in Wilmington, NC (born on 4/12). And also, kudos to Mike Kuehn on his new job in Philadelphia. Go get ‘em, Mike!!

And, on to important events here in Kazakhstan! We send special wishes and congratulations to our new friends the Morrisons, who today left Uralsk for Almaty to complete the final stages of their adoption of Bryce. He is a darling little boy, and they all packed up this morning to head off to the airport, for the first of many flights back to Okinawa.

News from Joshua-land: Another good day! We were able to feed him this morning, some kind of rice or cream of wheat cereal, along with the cranberry compote. He continues to be patient with me while I shovel in the food, and Dave distracts his hands with toys and funny faces. A mess was made, but it was fun! We had to then change his clothes – which went pretty well. Most of the sweating during this first half hour of our morning visit came from me! We then proceeded to have a nice 2nd half hour playing. The weather’s been rainy today, so no playground. Our afternoon visit went smoothly too, as Dave found some new ways to make Joshua laugh, and my face become an exploration site! As the afternoon wrapped up, Joshua was getting tired and we were able to settle him nicely for the caregivers who were waiting in the next room, readying all the tikes for dinner. Joshua hears them from our room, and starts his wiggling and fussing – we think he knows the sounds and his belly probably is starting to grumble a bit. We wish we could spend an entire day at the BH with him, but we are so fortunate to have such quality time with him during our 2 visits – it’s only that we want to get to know him and his routine even better.

Dave here: Amy is being kind about feeding Joshua – she did all the work, I have been only an assistant. Here is how a feeding might go: Amy: shovel, shovel, shovel food. Dave: wipe, make funny faces, bounce the ball. Amy: shovel, shovel, shovel food. Dave: sweat and consider “man, I’m already getting nervous thinking about my turn”. So you see how it goes.
Another highlight is a fine gift of several traditional hand-painted wooden Russian spoons given to us by our interpreter, Olga. We noticed them in a store’s display case and recognized them as the same style as a set of ornamental plates my parents gave to us a gift. They picked them up the plates while vacationing in Russia last year while on a river cruise from Moscow to St. Petersburg. Olga gave to us 3 spoons: one for Dave, one for Amy and one for Joshua Roman.
Observations: Several have asked about city life in Uralsk (also published as ‘Oral’ on some maps) and what our ‘hood is like and where in fact is Uralsk. We are on the extreme northwestern end of Kazakhstan. As a part of this post are some of the sights in our neighborhood and outlying areas. Our apartment is a very unassuming, grey concrete building but the building in front of ours is an attractive light pastel blue. This building is our landmark whenever we return from a visit with Joshua or a walk back from the Atrium for some groceries. Many of the natural gas lines are above ground through the poorer areas (not sure why this is but I have a good idea). There are many newer, contemporary buildings but also many older apartment buildings and very poor single family houses grouped together sharing common privacy fences constructed of many different types of material. We give thanks every day for what we have.

Wednesday, April 18 & Thursday, April, 19, 2007

It is remarkable how much we take for granted in this day and age of technology. Being without simple access to the internet in our apartment has restricted our blog updates and so we have decided to combine both Wednesday and Thursday in order to catch up. We know some of you may feel slighted by this decision but we promise not to disappoint. Amy is boiling Joshua Roman’s toys so I am filling in for tonight with the opening remarks (I hope I satisfy your needs for reading as Tales from Uralsk continues).

Wednesday the 18th: Big, Big, Big day. Many “firsts” today. Amy will go into more detail on a later post but I need to let you know from the git-go how happy and proud I am of my wife and son today. They both worked together beautifully (and I use the term beautifully to describe a beautiful moment because the actual eating of food is better described as sloppy fun) as Amy, for the first time, fed Joshua his mid-morning meal! There was plenty to eat and we found Joshua has a hell of an appetite – more like a desire for food! (please do not mind my excessive use of exclamation points – as Colette said “I’m not yelling, I’m just excited!”)

Late September, 2006 marks the last time Joshua has been outside. A day when he was taken from the maternity hospital to the baby house, probably a 20 minute drive. Wednesday, April 18, 2007 is the “first” day Romka has been outside since that cold, snowy day in September (I don’t know if it was really cold or snowy but it adds to the dramatic effect, DA?). The weather here today is delightful. The sun is shining, just a few wispy cirrus clouds high up in the sky, and the gang wants to hang out at the playground. There are other older kids from the baby house outside today as well and we just can’t wait to get out there.

On Friday, we’ll get to feed Joshua again, and visit the playground if weather permits. If not, we’re bringing a second blanket to the visiting room to give the guy a little more space to practice his crawl/creep action, which has been quite effective for getting him to his favorite toys!

Observations: Today (Thursday) we went to the Big Market (simply a larger mall but not nearly the size of US malls). We did a little souvenir and grocery shopping. We bought some Russian Nesting dolls and KZ stickers for our cars. Also, we bought ham and cheese as well as a large peroshkie (sp?) which is a bread stuffed with meat, potatoes, onion and/or cabbage. They can be delicious. We had peroshkie for dinner tonight with potato flakes (dehydrated potatoes – just add hot water), you guessed it – it tastes as good as it sounds. The packaging looked delicious so I bought it. All of the info was in Russian and I thought it would be a neat experience to taste something local. Unfortunately it was like “Stove Top Stuffing” in a bag, but not even close to as tasty.

As far as the sights we see when we walk down the streets, I had mentioned the style of architecture we see but have neglected to mention the stuff we see in our faces. Along the streets there are paved walkways in front of the buildings using either gray brick pavers or concrete and between the sidewalk and curb (usually about 10-15’ in width) it is usually dirt. Downtown there is very little turfgrass areas and and all of the street trees trunks up to about 5’ above the ground are painted white (probably to be more visible at night). The landscape along the roads receive no mulch whatsoever but the shrub and tree pits are cultivated to give the appearance of a freshly turned planting bed – even on the mature trees they create a earth saucer. The roads are cleaned almost daily by large water trucks which drive along the curb lane with a spray nozzle mounted on the front of the truck to wash the dust from all of the airborne dirt along the roads into the gutter pan. Men are often seen shoveling this accumulated dirt in the gutter using square tipped shovels and tossing it onto the edge of the roadway. After years of this practice, the sides of the roads have mounded a bit with soil.

From Amy: Wednesday night on our walk home from dinner at a nearby hotel, we saw an amazing scene. An old woman pumping her water into a rather large pail at a community water pump. She was as curious about us as we were about her, and as I turned to look back at her, saw she was still looking at me curiously. At times like this, we want to reach out and say hello, and offer some sort of care or help. However, it was a first only for us, and not her. This is the daily way of life for most who live here. Also at the BH playground today, I was struck by the faces and curiosity of two toddlers. A boy with bright blue eyes and a girl that could have been his sister. Both of these kids really touched my heart, and were so fascinated by us and Joshua. I wished I could speak more to them, but the laughter of the playground transcends words, and we were able to communicate in our own way. I look forward to seeing them again on our adventures in the outdoors with Joshua. He finds these kids interesting, a little too much at first, but he continues to be really interested in everything new in his world. There is so much more to come!

Joshua Roman and Uralsk City

Attention: We have been out of contact for the past day. Our dial-up access card ran out of minutes so we had to purchase a new card at the kiosk in the Atrium (small shopping mall - remember?) Anyway, we are back online.

Tuesday, April 17:

Today’s visits were full of more unexpected treats. This morning’s highlights include watching and photographing Joshua with one of his caregivers, as she changed and dressed him for his visit with us. He eagerly looked over at us (or we perceived him to be eager!) almost saying, “hey, hang on, let me get my snazzy clothes on and I’ll be right over!” After he was ready, they gave him to me (Amy) and we proceeded to play time. Which was just a joy. We sat with him, rolled with him, stood up with him, cleaned up after him as he spit up (this seems to be his morning routine, as he’s usually been fed directly before we see him), and introduced him to a new teething ring, which was a big hit after a few seconds of hesitation. The brightest highlight of this morning’s visit started about 45 minutes in, and the little guy was getting tuckered out and ready for his nap. He began to get a bit cranky and I was able to rock him on my shoulder as he sucked his fingers, and after just a few moments he fell fast asleep, and his little hand fell from his mouth, finally resigning himself to the sandman. It was an incredible moment and gave Dave and me such joy – we hope for Joshua too.

This afternoon’s best moment was the belly full of giggles and laughs Dave roused from our boy. It was fantastic!! Joshua likes to lie on his back (the babies spend a lot of time that way) and near the end of our visit, we thought we’d let him rest a bit and play that way. That was a winning moment, as Dave jiggled his belly and tickled Joshua a bit, his little face broke out in a full smile, he took in large breaths, and let out a couple of goo/giggle combos! Which got Dave laughing, which got Joshua laughing. It was a joyous moment and we will treasure it forever!

As we wrapped up our visit, Olga told us that tomorrow morning we could feed Joshua! He is fed a buck wheat type of cereal, and from what Olga told us, it is kind of runny, and that it’s delivered via a rather large spoon. Should be interesting, and we’re thinking I should wear a bib too! If we don’t get enough in him, the caregivers will be standing by ready to back us up as needed! This is really a treat to be doing a feeding so early in the visitations. We are so lucky to be getting such great support and care from the BH staff. Also, Olga told us that if the weather gets warmer soon, we will be allowed to take him outside – which will be another first for him since being moved from the hospital to the BH. It will also be one less stressful moment for when we bring Joshua back to the apartment. He will have at least been outside one other time!

Observations: We learned that today is “Parent’s Day” – a somber Christian holiday when the faithful pay respects to their family members who have passed on by visiting their graves. The origin of the day is based on the belief in the Resurrection and is on the Tuesday one week after Easter. Many people were traveling to Uralsk’s two cemeteries today, and the streets were more congested than usual, causing Vladimir to take some alternate routes back and forth from the BH.

In between visits we took a brief tour of Uralsk, which Dave videotaped. It included a stop at the beautiful Russian Orthodox Church (has been there since 1700s – the oldest in Uralsk), but during the time of Soviet rule, all of the beautiful paintings and windows were covered over, and the building was a museum – as the people were not allowed to publicly practice their faith. One of Olga’s professors was involved in the recovery of the paintings, and helped the restoration by painting many himself. It is called the church of Michael the Archangel. It was beautiful, and gave us such peace. Olga was married there, and her little girl (now 8) was baptized there. We also visited the sports stadium where football (soccer) is played and sometimes music concerts, a beautiful park filled with groves of birch trees, and a stop at the War Memorial, which sits close to the bank of the Ural River (the Ural River divides Europe from Central Asia). The faces of many heroes are sculpted into the walls, where we learned that the 11th one is the face of the father of one of the agency drivers, Phillipich. We also learned here that Vladimir was a career Army man for Russia, and was a paratrooper. He was stationed in Kaz when the Soviet Union broke up. We also learned that he worked for a few years at a nearby vodka factory, managing the guard staff. Another highlight on our way back from the BH this afternoon featured a stop at Olga’s son’s day care center. Dave asked if we could accompany her, and walk with her on her way back, since it was just by our apartment. We think she was surprised that we asked! It was sweet, and the center was not unlike many at home. A nice playground out front, and painted walls, and a little area with lockers for the kids’ stuff, and a large playroom. Olga’s son (he’s 3) was a bit shy around us, but accepted our presence as Olga got him dressed for the walk and bus ride home. He’s a cute little guy, and reminded Dave of himself was he young.

Driving around the streets of Uralsk we see bright, pastel colored baroque style buildings of sky blue, burnt orange/amber, seafoam green and flat yellow ranging from 3-5 stories in height. These are usually government buildings, identified by a large brass plaque at the entrance with an aqua blue background and raised brass lettering, and are always pleasing to see when contrasted by many of the classic Soviet style buildings (simple lines, square to rectangular footprints, symmetrical construction with little to no ornament) which are usually concrete grey in color. The beautiful churches and mosques found about the city are kept up very well and it’s always a surprise to see this type of architecture no matter how many times we may drive past them in a day’s travels.

This evening (Tuesday, April 17) our internet card has run out of minutes and we were just able to squeeze in time enough to check our email and see if any comments were left on the blog (as you may recall this is our 2nd highlight of the day). I will stop at the kiosk in The Atrium tomorrow and purchase additional minutes for our dial-up access so we can continue to communicate with everyone. Thanks again for all of the wonderful thoughts and prayers everyone has sent to us. We will treasure what you have told us and someday share all of this with Joshua Roman as part of his story.

More of Joshua, Dave & Amy

Really the afternoon visit! – April 16 - It was so special. Roma spends a lot of time playing on his tummy, and we had some great fun with him sitting on our laps and laying on the blanket. He found Amy’s mouth, hair and nose, and was really into examining our faces. Dave’s nose also proved particularly interesting. It was a nice relaxing visit. He’s at the beginning stages of crawling, but does need some help balancing himself sitting up, but we’ll spend some time on that each visit. It seems that after an hour all of us are pretty tired! Roma takes little breaks by rolling over on to his back or side for about 20 seconds (or less), then pops right back up for more fun! It’s a lot of stimulation for him, and he needs little time to regroup! Most of the children spend a lot of time on their backs or on their tummies, or in strollers. So having this much interactive time with grownups dedicated to him is all new. The caregivers, however, are fantastic, and give such loving care. Joshua Roman really has a special place in their hearts. Today, when we left, Maria his caregiver, was telling him we were his mama and papa. They want only the best for their babies and we will do our best to give Roma a wonderful life.

Observations: We shared a special night with the Morrison’s from across the hall. They celebrated their approval from the court today and are officially the parents of their 10 month old, Bryce. He’s a cutie pie and doing great. They bring him home Tuesday. We walked to dinner at the Dixie Pub (no English menus, but the waitress was fantastic and helped translate). Dave had a t-bone steak and Amy had chicken fajita. All very good! Beers and cheers were shared. The guys also indulged in celebratory cigars, and we did the Kaz version of stooping (you’ll know what that is if you know anything about B-more City!) outside the apartment when we got home, and took some pictures to capture the memory. Fortunately, one of the apartment residents came home and turned on the building light, so didn’t have to stoop in the dark – and it gets very dark, and a little on the scary side! This will be one of our favorite days in Uralsk. We will miss our new friends when they head to Almaty on Friday, but know we’ll be following them soon. We have learned another family is coming Friday/Saturday, and they’ve adopted from here before, so we look forward to meeting them.

On a final note: We have CNN International on the TV in the apartment and just learned of the shootings at VA Tech. We are shocked and deeply saddened to hear of the tragedy which occurred there today. All of our prayers go to the victims and families.

Joshua Roman getting to know us

April 15 and 16 Update:

April 15 - AM visit: We are back from our first morning visit. Joshua’s still feeling under the weather, and after we expressed concern about how warm he was, they took his temp. It was 100.4. So don’t think he was quite himself. At the end of our visit, Olga told us that 3-4 other babies were sick too. Plus, he’s teething, so that could be contributing. But he was such a trooper, for having a temp he was quite pleasant and played a lot. His nickname is Roma or Romka.

But we had a nice quiet visit. We discovered that he likes it when you make your lips vibrate, so we’ve gotten some cute little facial expressions from that. He also is quite expressive with his eyebrows!

He got a little tired near the end of the visit and I (Amy) was able to rock him to sleep in my arms. He sucks his fingers. I was unable to hold back my tears. I think the little guy probably has never been rocked to sleep and I felt so lucky to be holding this beautiful boy who is starting to trust me. He fought it for a bit, but come to find out shortly later that he was due a little bottle, which is normal procedure before putting down for a nap. So I think he was looking for his bottle. One of his caregivers came in with his bottle and I gave him to her. He woke up and she gave him the bottle. He was much happier. We were told it was probably water, mixed with rose syrup. After they gave him that, we were packing up to leave, and saw they put him back in the little crib in the room, to go back to sleep. So no baby cuddling to sleep. Olga told us that they are too busy to do that with every child and they have to put themselves to sleep. So I’m thinking now that if I had had his bottle and fed him, then put him down, it all would have been perfect. We are so lucky to be in this BH. We also took a picture of his caretaker giving him his bottle. She said “he is a very good boy.”

Our afternoon visit started a little rough, as we woke Roma again from his nap in the little visiting room. They were still keeping him apart from the other group of babies. He was still feverish, and he was still a little scared by us, so there were some tears. The caregiver came in and changed him in the next room. She calmed him and told him we were his mama and papa and would be taking him home soon on a long plane ride. It was so sweet, and we really appreciate their efforts transitioning him. Overall, we had a very nice visit again, but knew he was not quite himself.

We also found out today that they shave their heads, since they can’t wash all of their heads all the time efficiently. So, that’s good to know. We thought he was just a baldy. Our neighbors across the hall said the same was true with their boy (they must start letting it grow once they are being adopted). Their son now has real hair after 3 weeks! They have court tomorrow, 4/16 and we will get to meet their son soon!

Also, we had a visit from Olga (facilitator) and Aliya (interpreter) tonight. They asked if we wanted to proceed with the adoption – and of course, we said yes! Also they reviewed some additional procedures with us (apartment can be cleaned if we had also a fan and vacuum cleaner delivered per our request.

Observations: We saw some of the older kids playing in the playground outside the BH. It’s a nice sunny day today, Sunday, things are quieter, roads not so congested. There’s a homeless man, in a wheelchair that sleeps out in the courtyard outside the apartment. Last night he slept at the entry way to our building. Saw him waking up this a.m. and going through his morning routine. My heart aches for him, and wish I could converse with him. I’m sure our coordinators would not like us to do that.

We learned that the heat gets turned off on April 16. It’s been warm in the apartment, but we keep the windows open only while we’re here.

There are lots of stray cats, too in the courtyard and landing of our apartment building. We really miss OJ, and really want to thank Dara for taking such great care of him while we’re here. Also, the church bells were ringing right at 9 am – which I love. Reminds me of living in B-more and helps remind me that this is where people and families live, to not be afraid. Life is just different than ours, but it is their life and this is the town of Joshua Roman.

What our days are like:
Each morning around 10:05am we are picked up by our driver, Vladimir. He is a solid man with a stern face and short hair, always wears dark sunglasses and is a retired Colonel from the Kazakh Army. He speaks only English niceties (Hello, good morning etc.) so are drives are always a bit quiet but not uncomfortable in the least. Despite his stern appearance he is always the most polite person. He opens our door from the inside so that it is always open when we hop in the car (a 3-4 year old white four door Toyota with manual transmission). On our way to the baby house we pick up our interpreter, Olga. She is a polite woman, about 30 years old, with 2 children aged 3 and 8. She does a fine job interpreting for us but sometimes when we ask a question we feel we may be imposing but in fact we surmised today that she is concentrating on responding with the correctly constructed sentence in English. While she is thinking about the response there is a delay and we mistook this delay of “thinking” for a delay of disregard. Today we felt we got to know her a little better and we are more comfortable with her. Having an interpreter to explain all your thoughts, questions and needs is somewhat awkward at first but we are all together for the same reason ultimately – to take care of the children. Our drive is about only 10-15 minutes in each direction to the baby house and we travel past many different sights of residential poverty to open air bazaars (markets) to retail shops and storefronts to new construction of 20 floor buildings. There are at least a dozen tower cranes we have seen dotted around the city in various phases of new building construction.
Our afternoons between visits and after visits usually consist of transferring photos from the digital camera to the laptop, checking email, posting on the blog and talking about how Joshua Roman felt today or how we truly enjoyed spending time with him or some particular action or expression he had that warmed our hearts. We watch only a little TV as CNN International, BBC World News and Animal Planet are the 3 stations we get in English. I tried watching Kazakh TV in Russian for a few minutes and found I identified only about 3 words in 15 minutes.
We go to the grocery store every couple of days and hope to go to a bazaar tomorrow. One of the main services our interpreter offers is a tour of the cultural sights of the city including museums, the Ural river, city parks with statues of famous war heroes and various points of interest. We’ll let you know what we find.

We are doing our first laundry this afternoon, after a lot of instruction from Olga (facilitator) and reading the apartment journal. We’ll see how it goes! Mind you, there is no clothes dryer. We hang the laundry in the hallway to the bathroom, and mostly on the outside terrace. I think of Eileen, and her love of the fresh smell of clothes from the line! We got dropped off at the Atrium following our afternoon visit (shopping mall-ish), and did a quick run through the grocery for some supplies and walked home. It was nice to be out and only about 10 blocks away.


April 16 (morning visit)– Happy 7 Month Birthday, Joshua Roman!

Today, we went into our morning visit hopeful that Roma’s fever was down and that we’d have a really great visit. Happy to report that your prayers and ours came true! With some trusted guidance and research from Sally (you are an angel), we went in very calm about the bonding and transitioning process, too. His temperature was normal, he seemed to recognize us, and we proceeded to have a very special visit. I’m (Amy) calling this Daddy Dave day. The boys played together and Roma was very interested in everything Dave. His watch, his arms, his nose…it was so adorable and we were very happy and relieved. We also sang Happy Birthday to him. We also met again, the caretaker Maria, who seems to be his “informal” primary caregiver. This woman exudes love for him and we are so blessed to have great interactions with her. She also reviewed some of his recent medical info with us that are logged in a journal. She told us “he’s a good boy” and is very interested in things around him, starting to crawl, rolling over (all of which we have observed).


Afternoon visit April 16:

Observations: We visited the drug store today, which also houses the “optica” - eye doctor, eye glass shopping. It was very busy, surprisingly. We picked up the ointment for our noses and will use it this afternoon before our visit. A lot of stray dogs on the streets. Buildings are kind of dreary on the outside, but inside is not bad. From 4/14 - We went to a supply store (a sort of Staples but way smaller) to pick up paper plates. This store was very modern on the inside and had virtually anything you could want for outfitting an office, or school supplies, etc. Olga (interpreter) bought a Russian Happy Birthday card for Dave, too! Our driver Vladimir gave Dave a bar of chocolates, and Olga (facilitator) was with Vladimir this a.m. to wish Dave a happy birthday. It was a very kind gesture, and we were very surprised with the chocolate and to see Olga.

What our day is like: We woke up around 8:15 (we still stay up too late). Checked email and blog (keep the posts coming!) folded laundry, did more laundry and prepared for our visit. We also have coffee, breakfast, showers etc. Shower gets nice hot water, and Dave’s Mac Guyver rigging of the shower head is working nicely so we don’t have to hold the shower hose! Thank god for Duct Tape and rope (brought with us). On Saturday, I blew a fuse drying my hair (yes fuses – no circuit breakers here- at least in this apartment building). The fuse was fixed while we were visiting in the afternoon. We brush our teeth using bottled water only. I’ve been boiling hot water for keeping the baby’s toys clean in between visits, so I do this 2x a day! We made egg salad today for lunch, using brown eggs – have no clue the expiration date (they are sold in bags and we can’t read the sticker) and it was quite tasty. We also ate yogurt – no fat-free here. Milk is sold in aseptic packaging, warm. Then you refrigerate. No fat-free, or low-fat either. But the milk is good and kind of a treat since it is so sweet tasting! We also find ourselves getting very sleepy mid-day and try to get a nap in before our afternoon with Joshua Roman. Tonight we’re having dinner with the Morrisons’ who are having court today! Celebration Time

Getting to know Joshua Roman

4/14/2007 – Visit with Joshua (blog post)

Our first full visit with Joshua was really a treat, and the best birthday gift Dave has ever had. This morning’s visit was crazy. We brought in the clothes (Aunt Sal’s Easter outfit) and diapers for him to wear. He came out looking quite handsome, but we were told the dipes were too small! But no worries, they used it anyway. He was so cute. But within a few minutes, his first meeting with Dave proved a little scary. Men are new, voices deep, etc. So his little face got tense, and he started crying pretty well (Joshua not Dave J ). I took him then and was quite stressed that if I didn’t calm him down I would be deemed a bad mother and the BH (Baby House) staff would have major worries. Meanwhile BH director, caretaker and Olga were outside the door waiting to see what was going to happen. I was stressed. No pressure, right? But the little guy just likes women and luckily I was able to settle him down. Just after we got him situated, we were told that the passport photographer was there and we needed to get Joshua’s head shots (we had been told when leaving the apartment that it was probably going to happen – it was just awkward timing!). Anyway, I wasn’t able to hold him high enough up on the white wall as a background for the photo in the visiting room so Dave had to take him again. Joshua wasn’t quite sure about this, but the little man was quite a trooper. The photographer was a little too careful if you ask me, and wasn’t quick enough getting the shots so poor Joshua looked like he was about to crack again. Between Olga (our translator) and me, we were able to distract him enough to get the shots. Talk about an unexpected morning. After that, we all calmed down and had a really nice visit. Brought out some nice toys, he loves the photo book from Jodi Mechem (thank you!!). He’s teething, so sucks on it more than anything. He also LOVES the Fortman rattle and that will be one of our trip regulars. He really seems to be doing well, reaches for toys, lies on his belly and pushes himself up, and does the backward crawl thing if we give him support on his feet. He’s a neat kid. This morning we were really trying to get him to smile and we eeked a few little snickers. Olga was helpful, we asked for Russian terms and he seemed good with that. He really does respond to the cadence of the Russian/Kazakh women’s voices – but hope we can find ways with him to get him to respond to us. We also gave him Oma’s blanket and hat and took a sweet shot with him and Dave. BTW – I thought he was a little warm, but didn’t think too much about it b/c BH is warm, but did think twice about it.

On to the afternoon visit. We got there 15 minutes early, and Olga led us in to the little (I mean little) visiting room, which has a crib, two chairs, and a table with a digital baby scale. Much to Olga’s surprise, she walked in on the end of Roman’s nap. He was just waking up, and poked his head up! He stayed there quietly though, sucking his fingers (just like my god-daughter, Kate Sakell), until his caretaker came in, just about 5 minutes later. He was dressed in this huge funny looking outfit. His caretaker essentially told Olga that we could change his diaper (we picked up larger ones) and clothes! What??? We were shocked. Most families don’t get to do this until near the end of their visitation period! We found out that she was really busy, they had just aired out the other room, and she was fine if we took care of him! Again, talk about new mommy pressure. But I picked him up for a while just to give him a few minutes to adjust to us again, and wake up. He was so cool, and more than patient as I tried to get this funky outfit off of him. It tied at the top. I had no clue how it worked, as I wasn’t sure if it was one piece, or two, had snaps or what! I had no wipes (or a changing pad). Olga said that’s okay, just go head and change his dipe and off we (it) went. We did this in the crib, which was weird also. He was so sweet. And then on to putting his Easter outfit back on. Yikes! I knew I couldn’t do it alone and having him so low in the crib, so we grabbed his onesie and Dave helped me do it while the baby was sitting on my lap. It all worked out and again the baby was a trooper. He was SO hot though. Turns out, the reason he was in the separate room was b/c he had a sore throat… and a fever, but they gave him a shot in his butt earlier in the day. So they didn’t want him around the other kids. I had felt pressured to put the rest of his clothes on but Olga said, not to worry since he was so hot. I was expecting a check in by the caretaker, but that’s not the way it is at this BH. So Joshua got to hang out in his onesie, and had a great time playing with us and his toys. We were able to get a few more giggles and a couple of coos. Olga says he’s a quiet boy like Dave. He really is quite sweet, with brownish green eyes. He likes to reach for his toys and is very interested in things around him. For having a fever and getting a shot, he did great overall.

When it was time to go, the caretaker took him again (at some point she lovingly said “he’s her baby”) and put him in a stroller in the nearby room with about 3 or so other kids, and he kept looking out the door at us. We say “paka Roman, paka” (bye,bye Roman, bye, bye) – he was turning his head to watch us. So the caretaker turned his stroller and we got a full goodbye. It was sweet.

I think that’s all of the important baby scoop for now! Oops one last thought – at some point today the caretaker called us mama and papa to Roman when she brought him to us. Boy that was sweet.

LOVE YOU GUYS. And Roman met his family via the photo book. He drooled all over everyone. We know everyone’s looking for photos of him, which we will post soon, but want to finish out a few more days of visits and following the protocols. Thanks for your patience!

Our celebration feast: Chips from Russian grown potatoes, The Original Budweiser from the Czech Republic and the Kazakh favorite: Salsa imported from Elizabeth, NJ

Dinner at the Camelot Restaurant with our neighbors Wayne & Cari Morrison from Kansas by way of Okinawa.

Enjoying breakfast in our Uralsk apartment: coffee, raisin bran and Russian milk in box.

We are starting to feel normal again. We have obtained some of the creature comforts like internet, cell phone and Raisin Bran to help us get into a groove. Our groove of course is to bring home our son: Joshua Roman David Lundberg. This is our job for the next 5 weeks which is all a part of our journey. We didn’t realize what this “journey” was until we started. Our travels have taken us almost 8,000 miles flying over the UK, Germany, Russia crossing the Ural Mountains into Almaty, Kazakhstan just kilometers from the border with Western China. The first few days we were still in a haze and could not believe we were finally here. The realization sinks in that the world is huge geographically, diverse culturally and yet so small that all you have to do is sit (endure) an aeroplane flight for several hours and you are in a part of the world that could only be imagined in books and stories about faraway lands.

Kazakh, Russian, German and Chinese are only a few of the over 130 ethnicities and races which make up the people of Kazakhstan. They are a beautiful people with striking features. Many women wear stiletto heeled shoes and colorful scarves while the men must all have the narrowest of feet to fit into pointed leather Italian shoes and stretch denim jeans.

Tonight we hope to post more photos so far that we have taken in our apartment in Uralsk and a local restaurant (it turns out posting photos is most successful in the early am hours – we’ll try again tomorrow). We have made friends with our neighbors: Wayne and Cari Morrison from Kansas who are also adopting here in Uralsk. Wayne is in the US Air Force and they are stationed currently at Okinawa, Japan (there flight from Okinawa was much closer than ours but they had to change planes 3 times which required them to claim and re-check their baggage at each layover point).

A final thought for now about our son and when we first met Roman (pronounced row-mahn). The baby house director, after speaking with us for a few minutes at our meeting in her office left the room. She is the ideal vision of what we expected: a stern looking Russian woman who finally smiled through her imposing demeanor once she had a chance to speak with us (through our interpreter). The director came back into the room after a few moments and we could feel Roman’s presence outside the room. The caregiver, Maria, was holding this beautiful young boy who up until now did not seem real. Maria handed Roman to me and I held him in my arms. He wasn’t quite sure about this man (probably the first man he has ever met) but he could sense that we all knew this moment was meant to happen. We felt that Roman has been waiting for us to arrive and take him home to be with us – to be our son.

Our first night in Almaty, KZ

Hi all. I finally figured out how to post our photos through our dial-up internet connection. It's slow but it works. What you will see may be anti-climactic as I will try to post in the order of events so everyone can better understand our journey. This is a photo of us just after arriving to our apartment in Almaty. It was around 3am local time and it still felt very surreal. We enjoyed bottled water, bread and a tasty Kazakh beer.

We met our son!

We want to tell everyone so much - we don't know where to start and how much to tell you. The emotions are overwhelming. Every challenge, every hurdle, protocol and procedure are all just a blip on the screen now. We have met our son and he has met us. Today has been indescribable - a day we have never imagined it to be but a day we have dreamed of.

We were able to meet and play with Joshua for about 20 minutes and we learned that the caregivers in the baby house adore and love him. He has received the attention and been given care that would make your heart pound out of your chest.

We are so grateful for the lives we have been given by our parents and the love we are unendingly fortunate to have received from our family and friends.

Hi all! A short note from Amy!! Dave's been so wonderful updating the blog periodically during this time! It's so amazing to be here and know that we've really made the right decision - and meeting Joshua was like a dream come true. He is bright, happy, and so interested in everything around him. His caregivers know he's a love and we are so very blessed he's received such great care. It's been a day full of emotions - from our first meetings this morning at the other BH, to in-between and preparing for our visit at BH#1. Dave and I will both sleep well tonight, knowing our little guy is in great hands. We also know we will do well with him here in our care in our little apartment in downtown Uralsk. We have so much more to tell, and will soon. And remember, April 14 is Dave's birthday!! The most wonderful gift of all will be our time with Joshua tomorrow. However, we will be doing some celebrating with our friends across the hall for dinner. Much love to all.

PS - it's been a rather gray day here, but it's become sunny in the last hour or so! We believe that to be a good sign, along with a number of others we've had along the way, will share more later.

It's late & I thought I would try to upload some pictures at the early am hours of the morning but no such luck. Tomorrow we visit the baby house and see Joshua!!! for the first time. After that meeting we will spend more time (twice a day) to get to know him and he get to know us. Once we get pictures of the 3 of us we will use our neighbors DSL line to upload a boatload of photos. (by the way how is the new boat mike?) Sorry to take away from your glory.

We are very excited at this point. That is why I can't sleep at 3 o'clock in the morning and trying to work out this dial-up. We will get some photo's soon.

Thanks everyone for your comments - Amy and I receive great joy from reading each and everyone of them.

Love, Dave & Amy

P.S. our blogsite over here is in Russian. So it has been another minor challenge navigating the site to make posts.

Hello from Uralsk, Kazakhstan!!! We are here! After travelling for 22 hrs. over 8,000 miles (or 13,500 kilometers) we are here. Access to the internet has been a minor challenge - this coupled with jet lag, meetings, flights, catching up on sleep - did I mention jet lag? we have contacted the rest of the world. Please forgive me if I happen to repeat myself - we're feeling the effects from a little jet lag. We are adjusting however and hope to post something more poignant later tonight or tomorrow. Thanks to all who have left comments so far - it is a welcome sight to receive your well wishes. I have attempted to post a photo of us in our hotel room in Almaty however the dial-up connection is too slow in our apt. so text only. We were finally able to relax a bit and settle down for a few hours. Almaty is a fascinating city, surrounded on the south eastern side by snow-capped mountain peaks. Truly an incredible sight to wake up to after arriving late in the evening. We will post again soon. I feel this stong urge to describe our journey up to this point with great poignancy but am somewhat handicapped by the need to sleep. My brain sees and feels all of the different experiences so far but I am still quite slow to capture ideas quickly and easily. I will do my best to share our experiences with everyone soon enough.

We made it to Frankfurt. Amy's exhausted and I'm fading fast. We leave in about an hour (it's 12:15 in the afternoon on Tuesday the 10th). Here is a screen shot of our flight path (I know, I know - but what else is there to take a picture of on a night flight over water).

Also, a shot of Amy "catchin' up" on some sleep.

We made it to the aeropuerto! (sorry, wrong trip). After a minor delay on the Baltimore beltway the remainder of our trip to Dulles (IAD) was uneventful and smooth sailing (uneventful does not include the various outburst of tears from our wonderful drivers and hosts - Sally, Eileen & Megan - of course it should be known that Dave led the chorus with all the outbursts).

Above is a photo of us waiting for our flight to Frankfurt (FRA). At the risk of blogging a blow-by-blow description of our waiting I will close now. However, with 2 more hours to go until our departure we may post again. I know, I know - you're all saying to yourselves "I can't wait until we get another post of Amy & Dave waiting at the Frankfurt airport for their flight to Almaty" - well, you'll just have to wait.

Alright, enough for now as we are both reminded of a scene from Leonardo DiCaprio's movie "Catch Me If You Can" by watching a gaggle of Swiss Air flight attendants all dressed in scarlet uniforms strutting to their next flight.

Happy Easter!

It's late Easter Night and we are packed (and re-packed), all of our documents are in order and we're ready to go. We depart Dulles Monday, April 9th. Grandpa Dave and Great Judy colored eggs in honor of our Joshua. We can't wait for you to meet our son when we will all be able to share in this rich tradition. Thank you Mom & Dad.

The Welcome Cake

Just a quick posting for those of you who have been eagerly awaiting an update from us! We had a family welcoming party a few weeks ago at the Fortman's (thanks again Sal, Mark & Ei). This cake was a brilliant idea by Aunt Sal - so perfect with the Kaz flag and colors, and framed by gorgeous flowers from Rox. At the party we celebrated the receipt of our travel dates, and the name we've decided to give our

little boy: Joshua.

Lately, we've been getting his room ready, chatting with other adoptive parents for tips on traveling and living in Kaz for a month, (with special thanks to new friends, Jodi and Shannon) and ironing out last minute details here at home, and giving OJ lots of TLC. Hoping he loves Joshua as much as us!

We haven't started packing up yet, but the piles of stuff are growing!

We may not post again until we're ready to leave, or even when we get to Kaz, so stay tuned!

Thanks, Great Judy for the curtains! And the cozy rocker from Linda and Denise.