Goodbye Nina for a little while

A happy day. Over 3 hours together as we say goodbye at the end of Trip 2. Nina will be legally ours in 15 days and we can bring her home a few weeks after that once the birth certificate, passport, and visa are in place.

Nina is suffering a bad hair day but is still so cute. Her eyes are so dark we have yet to find her pupils.

Off to a slow start today but she'll get going. Army crawl.

I remember these from the first trip.

But I don't remember them tasting like this.

Yuck! Let's move on to my favorite activities. Some things never get old.

Feeling better after a change of clothes.

I like this lady a lot.

A whole lot.

I am feeling my power today. Check it out. (some technical difficulties with the video but still worth it. Turn your head sideways and enjoy!)

I am happy. Things just might work out for me after all.

Trip 2 Goodbye Dinner

The Koreans went all out for our goodbye dinner on Saturday. I think they were so happy we ordered something from their traditional menu, Korean short ribs, they filled the table with food. Gotta love 'em.

Sabir the Driver

Oxana works part-time as a travel agent, arranging trips to Egypt and Turkey which are quite popular and low-cost. An all inclusive 10-day trip to Turkey is less than $1000 including airfare, food, and hotel on a beach. I had once asked my friend/co-worker Juha from Finland if he ever visited Turkey during his extended summer vacations (Finland is closed for 6 weeks each summer) when he travels Europe. He politely told me, "I try not to make a practice of vacationing in 3rd world countries." After our experiences here, I think I'm taking Juha's advice on this one.

Anyway, Oxana left Thursday for Turkey to prepare for the upcoming travel season and she was replaced by Kate the interpreter (seen earlier) and Sabir the driver (below).

Sabir speaks no English but sure likes to try. We have found him to be one of the bright spots of this trip besides Nina and the Koreans of course. He is very kind with a warm smile, arrives 30 minutes early each time to pick us up (and is ok if we are late), and brought us a translation book this morning. His car and driving could be improved, but he more than makes up for it with his positive attitude and spirit. Here he is, doing his job.

Oxana, Anna, and Demetri

Oxana took us to dinner the other night with her son and our first interpreter Anna. Oxana and Anna are good friends since grade school. We ate at a traditional Kazakh restaurant (a nicer one) and had chicken and pork kebobs. It was fun to see Anna again. She is still hoping to immigrate to Canada sometime in 2012 (long process) where she hopes to have a better future for herself and her son Gleb.

Oxana's son, Demetri, Oxana, and Anna (Anna's son Gleb couldn't make it)

So Happy Together

Rob, Thanks for this glimpse into the near future. Rich

Celebrate this Day!

Dear Family and Friends,
Prayers were answered in court today! The judge gave a positive ruling to make Nina officially our daughter. We have a mandatory waiting period (15 days) plus a few weeks of paperwork before we can bring her home. But today is a great day for our family. Thank you for all your encouragement and support. We could not have made it without you. Monte and I will be coming home on Sunday after visiting with Nina one more time on Saturday. We will share the events of the day a little later today - nothing is simple in Kazakhstan - but it is done.
Rich and Monte

Our Girl

There is one sure way to lift our spirits - seeing this little girl. She has bigger things on her mind though.

Her bouncey! But we're making her work for it today.

At last!

Since it is later in the day, she is a little tired. Here is some footage of her fading but trying to keep herself awake.

And the sweetest thing happens at the end of the day (no video, sorry). When Monte is handing baby Nina over to the nurse, Nina kicks and grabs Monte, trying to stay with her. You can see it in Nina's eyes each day, but this is the first time she puts up a fight to stay with Mom. It looks like we're all in this fight together.

Fight Night

I love the Korean restaurant more and more each day. There are not many places that have such good food and entertainment. Like last night, I am sitting there eating my sushi, and a fight breaks out between a group of guys who have a private room. They finally calm down, have more to drink, and start fighting again 15 mintues later. This cycle repeats about 3 times. I was in a pretty foul mood myself after the day's events so it was a welcome distraction. It has been a long time since I had been to a place where fights break out. I think the last time was with my dad at one of his hangouts. Anyway, despite their hostilities to one another, they are all very kind and treat me like their favorite customer. The lady even gave me an extra Coke with our carry-out order today. And Monte is starting to like their seaweed/vegetable rolls. You could argue that they are really the only game in town, but we sure will miss them.

Day 7 - Court Date #2

We were hoping to be writing with good news and going out for a celebratory dinner. Unfortunately, this is not the case. We had our court appointment at 4 p.m. and again did not receive a favorable ruling. We could tell things were not going well from the start. The court demanded that the baby house director attend the proceedings to address the court's concerns about how many other families have seen Deanna. The law requires that local families have first dibs, and the baby house had only documented two families that had seen and rejected her. The court was questioning if these families were real or made up.

Court did not start until 5:15 p.m. The baby house director went first and confirmed that two local families did see and reject Deanna. The judge seemed happy with that. Then DA was at it again, arguing that two is not enough, and that more local families must see and reject her. The law does not specify a required number of rejections and the baby house felt that two documented rejections was enough.

The judge then asked if we had anything to say. We were stunned, hoping today would just be a formality since the mother showed on Friday and we understood that to be the only issue. But saying nothing would have been very bad, so I stood up and started. I said that Deanna was a Kazakh girl by nationality, but also a Kurdish minority with a Russian father. She had been rejected by her mother, family, and community, and no local families will want her given her ethnicity. But we want her as our daughter, and love her with all her hearts. And that we will provide a loving family and great future for her, while she has no future here. This is all true, and we know the judge knows it. But it seems this is more a matter of politics than logic.

We then reiterated our request, expecting a decision right there as promised.

Instead, the judge said she would make the final decision Thursday at 3:00 p.m. After court, they said we could leave tomorrow as planned and have Natalia represent us on Thursday. And the court administrator tried to make us sign a paper saying that we had received the decision already. She argued that we must sign since we were leaving. We refused and said we're staying.

Before our court appointment, we had about 30 minutes with Nina to say goodbye before our planned flight tomorrow morning. I held her close and looked deeply into those big, dark brown eyes. She stared back at me and I promised her that we would return to her and bring her home no matter what the judge said today. I know she could not understand the words, but I believe her heart heard me.

Please pray that God allows us to deliver on that promise on Thursday. In the meantime, we're licking our wounds and preparing a final statement for Thursday while Natalia tries to work some magic with her contacts in the background.

iBaby!

Given a choice between an iPhone and a teething ring, what will she decide?

Was there really any question?


After a few quick pointers from mom...

Let's rock!

That was fun. Now it's time for a bath - also fun.



Ok. Enough of that. You can watch me jam to No Doubt! one more time on your way out. See ya tomorrow.

Maverick

We had another special visitor today for about 15 minutes. His name is Maverick and he is the son of Becki and Greg in Ohio. He is 7 months old wearing an outfit that seems familiar to us. Here are a few pics of this special little boy who will be going home soon.

Nina in November.

Orin - Karakastek 2006 Alum

Dear Orin, (of the Keogh clan of Toronto, Canada)
Thank you so much for sending your pictures for the Karakastek Wall of Fame. The entire nursing staff was so excited to see how big and handsome you are. They turned to chatter boxes! We heard them talking about you for about 30 minutes after we gave them the pictures. You definitely made their day. Thank you!
Sincerely,
Rich and Monte

Aisha

Here is a precious little one named Aisha. She will be 2 in June and is very sweet. Oxana managed to sneak in and take this picture today for a new friend of ours (you know who you are Indiana!). The doctor said that Aisha is still available and doing well. She can sit and stand and has all the right proportions, except for being a little slender. Here's a pic!

Ice Dancing

We have one watchable TV channel which is 24-hour Olympic coverage with Russian commentators. They have been advertising LIVE coverage of the USA vs. Canada hockey game at 5 a.m. and we woke early to watch it. Unfortunately, live coverage means something different in Kazakhstan as the hockey game has been preempted by this.



This cowboy/cowgirl routine was followed by a couple sailors, and of course more cowboy routines. No hockey. I'm thinking this Woody character was better in Toy Story but he seems happy with his performance.



We're off to see Nina.

Day 4 with Cholepan plus some video!

What a great day. Our old friend Cholepan joined us for the full 2 hours. She is looking good and really excited about it!







This makes Nina happy as well.

Tooth count: Cholepan - 4, Nina - 0.

Monte is a little worried that Nina has no teeth yet. The interpreter says: "Relax, have you ever seen anyone without teeth?" She's got us on that one.

The party continues with a wipedown which has become Nina's favorite.

Cholepan is pretty in her new outfit. She had on about 3 layers of boys' clothes when she came in.

Cholepan eats the entire plate of mashed potatoes while Nina only eats half. Nina's growth spurt has her pushing the limits of any 9-month outfit and Cholepan must be trying to catch up.

No time to rest after eating. More foot in mouth fun.

Cholepan likes her footrest but is wondering why it is moving.

Here are some precious videos of Nina so you can get a taste of the action.

First, here's that ever-present giggle.

Here's the new army crawl followed by some sweet moves.

Have a great Sunday. We're heading back to the baby house on Monday.

IT consultant and the president

Here's the 10 year old neighbor boy, Alec, who hooked us up with an Internet connection. Monte paid him with pizza. He was excited.

Here's an example of the cool billboards portraying their most excellent president in various situations. This is my favorite as he strolls through the field in his suit overseeing the farmers.

Day 3 Intermission

We took a brief intermission from our court saga on Friday to have some fun with Nina. It was short and sweet.

Nurse Cholepan delivers Nina to us.


Nina heard we had a hard time at court so she decides to dish a little out on Monte as well.

She loves to inspect.

And kiss.

And laugh.

And laugh more.

More kisses.

Time for a break. Look at dad.

A quick costume change and tickles.

Fun stuff.

A short visit but we'll see you again tomorrow.