Good Morning, Kazkhstan!

We are now writing to you from glorious nation Kazakhstan. Happy to report our travels in Frankfort and all went well, but details will come later. This first posting, written on Monday morning, includes Saturday and Sunday activities.

We arrived in Kostanay Airport (KSN) at about 9:30 am on Saturday March 3rd, and encountered a couple of stoic security guards at Customs. Nobody among about 75 passengers is talking at all. Getting past Customs took about an hour, and we were assisted greatly by the Maps Representative, Zhanat.

Upon getting in the car, we got a surprise: Our first visit to the Delphin (Dolphin) Baby House would be today (Saturday) instead of Monday. Gennadiy was our driver, an outgoing guy who speaks no English but understands some of our grunts and gestures. He insisted on carrying everything.

Everything was covered in about 2 feet of powdery white fluff. It was extraordinarily cold - about 2 degrees F - but the sun shone brightly and abundant lush evergreens made for an entirely positive first impression of Kazakhstan.

We were taken to our apartment, in a downtown district that, um, didn't immediately reveal itself as charming. Got unpacked and changed instantly. Arrived at baby house before 1 pm.

We went to the director's office, and were greeted by Dr. Irina and a woman whose name might be Iana, from the Ministry of Education. They seemed to like us, and showed us the portfolios of four infants right away. We met two of them in the office right away. We were so apprehensive that it was really hard to focus on meeting kids.

We really can't describe the children in detail because we've agreed to confidentiality and it wouldn't be discreet since the next round of parents will be coming shortly and I might be describing the child that they find to be perfect.

Anyways we were truly amazed to have made it so far so quickly in this process, and we are delighted with our options at this point.

Saturday night Michele made some spaghetti with puttanesca sauce, and it was our first food since wieners in Frankfort. We slept like rocks and dreamed of new babies in our lives.

On Sunday, we returned to Delphin and played in the children's room, and took a long walk on the central park downtown. The weather warmed to about 22 degrees F, and it made for very pleasant strolling. We went to TSUM department store to get electronics and to Gros to get foodstuffs, and our apartment is now generously stocked with all kinds of stuff.

More to come soon!

Departure Day

We're both so happy to say that we've got our tickets, our visas, passports and ... well almost luggage ... in order for departure at 4pm today. Dad's driving us to the airport, but first we'll have a send-off from Mom, Lee, Carla, Larry as well as Laurie for especially good traveling mercies.

Weather in Kostanai is 2˚F now, and was at a high of 10˚F today. Sunday and Monday will be clear and it will warm up to about 20˚F we are told (www.wunderground.com then search for KSN). By the end of March it could be as warm as 45-50˚F and that would be balmy!

Libby Walch at MAPS in Portland, Maine, and Dina and Zhanat in Almaty and Kostanai, Kazakhstan have been terrific at making this adoption plan come together, and Countryside Travel got us an amazingly gentle itinerary direct from Miami to Frankfort and then Kostanai. Thank you all for your professionalism and support.

We're going off to have FUN now!

-- R & M.

Three NYT slideshows on Kazakhstan

Shaping Kazakhstan's Capital

The chief architect is really the president himself, a foreign ministry spokesman said.

October 12, 2006 - (NYT) - World - Slide Show

Slide Show: A New Look for Almaty

A new tower in Almaty, Kazakhstan, has become a symbol of the city's coal-hot potential, an iconic structure that reflects Almaty's potential economic might.

June 21, 2006 - (NYT) - World - Slide Show

Movie Minutes: 'Schizo'

A. O. Scott reviews "Schizo," a coming-of-age story from the former Soviet Republic of Kazakhstan.

March 18, 2005 - (NYT) - Movies - Video

VISA COMPLICATION

We have just learned that the US consulate has not been receiving from the MFA the necessary confirmation numbers needed to process visas for adoptive families. The consulate thinks the problem is with the MFA. We are told that a special faxed letter will be accepted, so that would mean that if he gets the letter from the MFA tomorrow he would be overnighting the visa (which means our passports), which we would receive Thursday, the morning we are to travel!!!

So, we may need to prepare and pack for a month long trip, and then not go, if our Visa/Passports don't arrive from Fed Ex.

Yikes . . . stay tuned.

Baby Photo Album

We both love this book which I had originally found online, and saw at Target (Sassy makes it). We hope it will make US feel better when we have to leave little Morgan behind after the first trip.

Kazakhstan DVD from Kz Embassy DC

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyNBu_s1euY

"We still have a few copies available of Kazakhstan: Reaching for the Future, a 9-minute video documentary prepared by the Embassy of Kazakhstan to the United States. It tells the story of what Kazakhstan has become in the 15 years of its independence and of the importance of strategic partnership between Kazakhstan and the U.S. The video is available at Youtube here. Those in the United States and Canada who would like to receive a copy on DVD, please contact Roman Vassilenko at the Embassy."

Welcome to Kazakhstan video

Run Sally Run!

So, thanks to SALLY CAMPBELL-EVANS, we were able to have our second set of documents apostilled in Tallyhassee with no delay. We overnighted them last night, and she was able to shimmy on into the Clifton State Building in downtown Tally, and turn around and overnight to Portland, Maine.

This enables us to be on schedule to depart Miami on MARCH 1, 2007.

Yeah!

Paperwork crunch and possible travel!

We just been given an enormous amount of additional paperwork to do. Some our co-ordinator, Libby, hasn't had to deal with before. It has to do with Florida not licensing social workers, and problems created by Kaz' normal requirement for documentation reflecting a current license for the social worker who prepares our home study, among six other documents that need to be updated/redone.

However, this is all by way of buildup to the news that we could travel the weekend of March 2 or March 9th! (That would be two weekends away!) We are not ready, but we're working on it! We'll keep everyone posted, but right now, we've got to get our . . . stuff together.

Photo Albums of Kostanai

КОСТАНАЙ On - Line - Фото дня
http://www.kostanai.kz/picofday.php

Adoption News: It's Kostanai, Kazakhstan

Hi to family and friends... I wanted to share some news we got today about our adoption plans.

We're happy to hear a report that our "dossier" has been approved in all the federal-level government ministries in Kazakhstan, and that means we're now on a waiting list for a child at the local level. We'll be traveling to Kostanai, Kazakhstan, within two weeks after getting our invitation to travel.

Q. When will we get the invitation to travel?
A. We don't know. (Awwww!) But it's probably coming in March or as late as April.

Q. What's to know about Kostanai?
A. First, you can spell it about five different ways so it's tough to look up. It's cold, even in the middle of summer it's rarely over 95 degrees. It's dry - they get about 12 inches of rain in a whole year. Think of it as the Dakotas of the former Soviet Union - their main product is wheat and iron ore.

Q. Will you get a boy or a girl? What age?
A. We don't know yet, but we will find out after we get there. The odds are strong that it'll be a girl under 1 year old, and we don't know if is Asian, European or mixed ethnicity. We don't know anything until we arrive in Kostanai and are matched to a baby.

Q. How long will you be traveling?
A. If we could leave in mid-March (that's a big IF) we would travel from Miami to Germany, and change plans to fly to Almaty, which is in south Kazakhstan. Then we fly to Kostanai. We'd meet babies and pick one, then spend at least 15 days visiting it in the "baby house." Return to Miami -- without a baby -- in early to mid April. Then wait two to four weeks, and make a second trip to Kostanai, for a trip of about 1 week, to pick up the baby and bring him or her home to Miami. After that, we have some "family medical leave" to get used to parenthood, before returning to work possibly in mid-May.

Q. What will you do for fun in Kostanai?
A. There's a pizza restaurant and not much else. We'll spend a lot of time going back and forth to the baby house, which is 15 minutes outside of Kostanai (it's truly in the middle of nowhere!). We might help work on the orphanage to improve it for future families, or something like that. ( i.e., we're not going to seek work, teach or translate.)

Q. Do you have a gift registry started?
A. We do have registries for gifts started, at these shops. The baby's room is yellow and white with green, and has a bumble-bee theme to it (since we don't know if it's a boy or girl yet).

• Target registry
  
• Amazon.com registry
  
• JCPenney registry
  
• Babies-R-Us registry
  

Q. What's the baby's name?
A. Wouldn't you like to know! (Wouldn't we like to just pick one already!). "Morgan" is the code name for now.

Q. That's just not enough info! I gotta have more!
A. Visit our new blog, to keep up on developments:
http://findingmorganadams.blogspot.com


Here are some other links for organizations and information that we refer to frequently:

• Wikipedia on Kostanai:
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kostanai
• Kazakh Adoptive Families:
  http://kazakhadoptivefamilies.com/cities/qostanay.html
  
• Our adoption agency:
  http://www.mapsadopt.org
  
• Our social worker:
  http://www.lifelink.org
  
• Weather in Kostanai :
  http://www.wunderground.com/global/stations/28952.html
  

Kostanai

This morning I received a phone call from Libby, our MAPS coordinator. She was happy to report that our dossier had been approved "through all channels", including both the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Education, and been assigned a region-- Kostanay. This was wonderful news, and a bit of a surprise. We had been hoping to hear that we had cleared MFA.

So,we'll be busy planning for our trip, which we were told would be "sometime in the next two months". Of course, that is a little too vague to help our employers, but we'll work with it.

Meanwhile, we're going to spend more time with our Russian language tapes, working on a picture book for Morgan, and finalizing the house plans while researching Kostanai.

More later . . .

Adoption News: It's Kostanai, Kazakhstan

Hi to family and friends... I wanted to share some news we got today about our adoption plans.

We're happy to hear a report that our "dossier" has been approved in all the federal-level government ministries in Kazakhstan, and that means we're now on a waiting list for a child at the local level. We'll be traveling to Kostanai, Kazakhstan, within two weeks after getting our invitation to travel.

Q. When will we get the invitation to travel?

A. We don't know. (Awwww!) But it's probably coming in March or as late as April.

Q. What's to know about Kostanai?

A. First, you can spell it about five different ways so it's tough to look up. It's cold, even in the middle of summer it's rarely over 95 degrees. It's dry - they get about 12 inches of rain in a whole year. Think of it as the Dakotas of the former Soviet Union - their main product is wheat and iron ore.

Q. Will you get a boy or a girl? What age?

A. We don't know yet, but we will find out after we get there. The odds are strong that it'll be a girl under 1 year old, and we don't know if is Asian, European or mixed ethnicity. We don't know anything until we arrive in Kostanai and are matched to a baby.

Q. How long will you be traveling?

A. If we could leave in mid-March (that's a big IF) we would travel from Miami to Germany, and change plans to fly to Almaty, which is in south Kazakhstan. Then we fly to Kostanai. We'd meet babies and pick one, then spend at least 15 days visiting it in the "baby house." Return to Miami -- without a baby -- in early to mid April. Then wait two to four weeks, and make a second trip to Kostanai, for a trip of about 1 week, to pick up the baby and bring him or her home to Miami. After that, we have some "family medical leave" to get used to parenthood, before returning to work possibly in mid-May.

Q. What will you do for fun in Kostanai?

A. There's a pizza restaurant and not much else. We'll spend a lot of time going back and forth to the baby house, which is 15 minutes outside of Kostanai (it's truly in the middle of nowhere!). We might help work on the orphanage to improve it for future families, or something like that. ( i.e., we're not going to seek work, teach or translate.)

Q. Do you have a gift registry started?

A. We do have registries for gifts started, at these shops. The baby's room is yellow and white with green, and has a bumble-bee theme to it (since we don't know if it's a boy or girl yet).

• Target registry


• Amazon.com registry


• JCPenney registry


• Babies-R-Us registry
  

Q. What's the baby's name?

A. Wouldn't you like to know! (Wouldn't we like to just pick one already!). "Morgan" is the code name for now.

Q. That's just not enough info! I gotta have more!

A. Visit our new blog, to keep up on developments: http://findingmorganadams.blogspot.com

Here are some other links for organizations and information that we refer to frequently:

• Wikipedia on Kostanai:
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kostanai


• Kazakh Adoptive Families:
  http://kazakhadoptivefamilies.com/cities/qostanay.html


• Our adoption agency:
  
  http://www.mapsadopt.org



• Our social worker: http://www.lifelink.org


• Weather in Kostanai:
  http://www.wunderground.com/global/stations/28952.html
  

February Update

While waiting, we've been working on the baby space. We've painted, and redecorated, and re-organized to make room for baby Morgan. The walls are "Pismo Dunes" yellow and the trim is "Swiss Coffee," or off white. There are stuffed animals and diapers at the ready. We need a crib and it looks like this might come from our friends Dominique and Alex (thanks David for your crib in advance). In terms of the sheets and pillows, it's "honeybee" by Wendy Bellissimo, a gender-neutral gingham-plus-bugs design in green and yellow.

(Update: thanks to Nana Marlene for the wonderful white crib!)

Learning Russian with Natalia and Emily

I've been listening to the "Spoonful of Russian" podcast while commuting lately, to learn a little Russian. It's fun to hear words I remember from my college study of Russian (c. 1983) again.

'Lamb Ladies' respond to 'Lettuce Ladies' in Kaz

Kazakh ‘Lamb Ladies’ Respond to British ‘Lettuce Ladies’ with Gusto

Two Kazakh models, Assel and Aliya, staged a counter-demonstration on Almaty’s main square on Independence Day calling on their compatriots to reject calls from foreigners to go vegetarian and continue eating meat.

This was a response from Megapolis, one of Kazakhstan’s leading newspapers, to a protest by two People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) activists earlier in the week who sported lettuce bikinis and bras and called on Kazakhs to reject horsemeat, or any other meat for that matter. (See Kazakhstan News Bulletin, December 15.)

“Lettuce is for goats” and “Meat helps us study and live” read the banners of Assel and Aliya who made their point by wearing sheep skins. People around them were gleaming at their sight and cheering them up.

“I saw those British ladies on TV, and they were so pale… Who cares about what we eat? We have such a climate that we simply must eat meat! Meat helps us grow!” said Professor Madeniet Kobdikov of a Kazakh college who was on the square to join in the December 16 festivities.

“One should not exclude meat altogether,” said Professor Olga Bagryantseva of the Kazakh Academy of Nutrition in Almaty. “Meat has protein, and protein has eight irreplaceable amino acids which play a major role in the life of a human and must definitely come from food because they are not produced by the body. Those who are vegetarians need to very carefully select their food so that it does provide them with the necessary proteins.”

“In fact, there is such a thing as an ideal standard of protein. Horsemeat and beef are 90 percent close to this standard. So, indeed a Kazakh’s body is predisposed to eating meat, and the complete renunciation of meat can have negative consequences,” she explained.

People do love their meat in Kazakhstan, as U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns noted recently. There is even a popular joke the Kazakhs love to tell their foreign guests which goes like this. They first ask: “Did you know that Kazakhs are the second in the world in terms of meat consumption?” This usually invites a moment of puzzled silence followed by a natural question: “Who’s first?”

“Wolves,” goes the answer to the belly laughs of everybody in the room.

More: http://www.kazembassy.com.ua/

'Lettuce Ladies' protest meat in Almaty, Kaz.

Freezing Animal Rights Campaigners in Almaty

Chilly Vegetarians by tienshan

Michael Steen of Reuters reported an odd happening on Almaty Square: two British animal rights campaigners wearing bikinis made of lettuce leaves urged people of Kazakhstan to stop eating horses and go vegetarian in a freezing -8 °C in Almaty.

Whereas Borat is ridiculing the country, we’re trying to come here with a positive message,” Yvonne Taylor, 35, told Reuters. “We’re saying that going vegetarian is the best thing people can do for their health and to stop animals suffering.” “We’ve got stronger immune systems because we’re vegetarian,” Taylor told reporters and photographers wearing winter coats in front of Kazakhstan’s independence monument”, writes Steen.

More: NewEurasia Blogzine

Miami Herald: 'Creating an Artistic Universe for Your Child'

Creating an Artistic Universe for Your Child

Published 12/6/2006

GUEST ADVICE DIVA: Robert Chambers, artist

Q: My wife and I are expecting, and want to raise our child in a hyper-creative environment that goes beyond ant farms and monthly trips to the museum.

RC: As a former NYU art teacher and father of three children under the age of 2, I have some advice. You, your wife and child are already off to a great start on your journey to creative nirvana. To begin, I would suggest thinking about light arriving to Earth from galaxies billions of years away. Use this as a form of meditation while you prepare to hyper-create your child's universe. It is a process to break the bonds enshrouding your imagination.

Learn to think outside the cube. Expand your imagination and your child will blossom. Train now by studying Eva Hesse, Joseph Beuys, Robert Smithson, Hannah Wilke, Louise Bourgeois, Vito Acconci, Jessica Stockholder, Fischli & Weiss and Beverly Semmes. There is a ton of online info on these artists. Read John Cage's Manifesto. Begin to think like these ''rule breakers'' and you will be able to help your child's mind hyper-develop. Use this four-step program during your child's first year.

1. Purchase giant sheets of colored paper and tape them to the ceiling and walls for a few days. Next, begin to remove various squares and cut with scissors in big egg-like shapes. Over a week, replace all squares with egg shapes. Change order and location frequently. This will stimulate the Precambrian in the child specifically and theoretically the Proterozoic eon of Earth's earliest animal history. Read Emotion and Meaning in Music by Leonard B. Meyer.

2. Apply Leonard B. Meyer's concepts of music theory to art projects for the child, such as a dozen large exercise balls in different colors, half deflated and in a state of amorphousness. Flop/roll balls out into room with you hiding behind something in baby's view while singing numbers and colors in various languages. (This might even work wonders on your partner. ) Think about expectation, continuation, saturation and association. Even early word/form stimulation is important. Don't be stymied by ''experts.'' Sing words from books instead of reading out loud. Even if you are not a diva, your child will remember the sound of the nurturing parent and the cadence of the words. Plus, it's fun to sing.

3. Home Depot or similar stores are the new über-Toys 'R' Us. Buy four 20-foot lengths of PVC pipe, an inch in diameter. Have them cut into many lengths of one-, two-, three- and four-foot sections. Buy a few dozen one-inch connectors -- 90-degree, etc.; also, a huge pack of zip ties and Velcro. Now go to the fabric store and purchase one-, two- and three-foot-square pieces of fabric and vinyl. You now have everything you need to make experimental dwellings that you can change every day. Sit inside these morphing structures with your child.

4. Read a paper titled Visual Perception in Karesansui(http://www.mis.atr.jp/~mlyons/pub_pdf/IAEA.pdf). Substitute rocks, sand and water with huge chunks of foam rocks (get custom-cut at foam store), orange safety cones and Astroturf sheets cut into organic island shapes. Assemble into the order of the gardens pictured in the paper and into the natural order of other Karesansui gardens you have researched. Show these ''gardens'' to the baby, but don't expect a reaction. It's all about imprinting an image and feeling. Think about the macro/micro of objects using this paper as a guide. Go to Kinko's and print out 3' by 4' photos of known Karesansui gardens on oversized regular Xerox paper. Place these images on the ceiling above the child. Rotate images. Develop your own creative terms. Your mind will temper with your child's creative development.

Copyright © 2006 The Miami Herald Media Company

Guten Morgan!

Ok, here goes! Baby Morgan is out there, and we aim to find him/her. We're adopting from Kazakhstan through MAPS Adopt, and our dossier has been sent to be translated, hopefully soon to be sent to New York Consulate. The following is for other prospective adoptive parents who are interested (obsessed?) with timelines:

June 2006-- research adoption, consider Kazakhstan, start paper chase
July 22, 2006-- apply for I-600
July 27, 2006 --begin homestudy
August 9, 2006-- Select MAPS agency
August 19-20-- tell family our plans
August 22, 2006 -- home inspection, last home study visit
August 25, 2006 --dossier notarizing party & medical checkups
September 30, 2006 -- I-600 letter/Fingerprinting invitation
October 5, 2006-- Dossier sent to be apostilled
October 6, 2006-- Homestudy notarized
October 10, 2006-- Fingerprinted for Immigration
October 18, 2006-- I-171H received from USCIS
November 1, 2006-- Dossier sent for translation
November 27, 2006-- Dossier translation completed
December 5, 2006-- Dossier received by NYC consulate
December 15, 2006-- Dossier approved by NYC consulate, and off to Kaz!
February 6, 2007--Call received that our dossier has passed through both MFA and MOE, and been assigned to Kostanai, Kaz
February 13, 2007-- email that we need to redo certain docs, as we will be traveling either the 2nd or 9th of March
February 19, 2007--receive LOI, and visa application
February 20, 2007-- book flights, send visa application to NY consulate
March 1 -- travel to Frankfurt
March 2 -- travel to Kostanai
March 3 -- arrive Kostanai, meet Morgan at Delphin Baby House
March 18 -- 15-day bonding is complete
April 3 -- Court date
April 9 -- Return home from trip 1
May 9 -- "Gotcha" day
May 12 -- Arrived in New York City, JFK
May 13 -- Travel to Miami, homecoming at Nana's house