Well, I think we have finally broke out of the hot spell here. I check the weather in Astana every morning to see what kind of day it is going to be, and I check the weather at home about 3 times/day (gotta keep in touch). On Thursday they were calling for a high of 21 C, and the rest of the week up until Sunday is supposed to be around 20 C. Just to jump ahead a bit, after coming back from the orphanage, we went to the Ram store. But coming from the Ram store, we were talking about how beautiful it was outside as we could walk without breaking a sweat. As we were coming to our apartment, we met two young girls, and to my amazement they were cold and one of them was shivering out loud b/c she was so cold. All I could say to Jennifer was "you've got to be kidding" - I guess they really like their heat around here. I wonder what they do when winter comes - hibernate!?!
Getting back to the morning, I called Aliya to see when we would be going to the orphanage, so we could plan our day and just to make sure that it wasn't in the morning. Turns out that we were going at 6 pm again. Oh yeah, just to make it clear to everyone that after our court date on August 13 (which happens to be my mom's birthday), there is a 15 day waiting period. So even if the court thing goes really well and we are legally Matthew's parents, we will still have to go to the orphanage for another 15 days to see him. Only after that fifteen day waiting period will we have full custody of our little man. So no Sarah, Jennifer will not have Matthew in his arms when she comes to pick you up at the Astana airport when you arrive on the 23rd. Sorry, but if we could make the rules, we would have him here with us as I type, but instead we must take it day by day knowing that before long we will all be back in Canada - CAN'T WAIT!
So I decided that I would try and figure out how to transfer the video from our camcorder to our computer so that we could put video on some CDs for me to bring home. The good thing about our camcorder is that everything is stored on a hard drive - there are no tapes or miniDVs or anything. But now I had to find the cable to hook the camcorder up to the laptop. We had several cables at home for the camcorder, and I hadn't realized that Jennifer decided that we didn't need any of them. To her defence, I guess, since she did the majority of the packing, I cannot say very much b/c I could have easily checked that. Oh well! So I decided to phone Tony and Meagan to see if the cord they have for their camcorder might work and borrow it instead. So later in the morning, we walked over to their apartment, and it was just beautiful outside as it was cooler than normal. Unfortunately, the cable they have for their camera didn't fit - turned out to be the same as the cable we use for our digital camera. Our videocamera has 3 different adapters for it, but of course none would fit. We had a nice visit and got to see their apartment - nice and open - and they have a/c. Would have been nice the last few weeks!!
After we left Tony and Meagan's place, we were starving and decided we would go to the pasta place for lunch at this new mall. Yes, the same one we had tried to go before when we had our group together, but couldn't find the restaurant. I had pasta with cream and mushrooms, and Jennifer had lasagna. It was quite a fancy place and the prices were quite reasonable too.
The restaurant was attached to this "new mall" and I'm calling it new because I don't know how new it is, just that it seems very new! Ok, enough with the "news" right - I guess I'm done, bye (just kidding). We decided to walk around in the mall a bit, but I guess the owners of each store must pay a lot for taxes, etc. b/c I would say things at this mall were anywhere from 2 times to 4 times as expensive as elsewhere. For example, Jennifer said that at home this one toy would cost about $25, at this one toy store it was around $100! Thus, being smart shoppers we left the building. Instead we went to a store on Republic street, that sells lots of neat souvenirs.
The day flew by and just as we were getting ready to go see Matthew, someone was at our door pressing the doorbell. I was in the bathroom and Jennifer wasn't fully clothed, so by the time Jennifer got to the door the person was gone. However, we saw who it was walking from our apartment and it was Bayan, our coordinator. So I scrambled to find her phone number, and to my luck I heard a busy signal. But I tried again, and I got a hold of her and she came back up. She dropped off copies of the medical report and when we were done with some other business, we went down with her as she was brought here by our new driver.
When we got to the orphanage and up to the baby's locker area, it was to our surprise that Aliya was already there. When we finally saw Matthew, I had my camera ready to capture his initial excitement to see us. It sure melts our hearts when we see how he reacts when he sees us - I must say this whole bonding thing has gone very well. Our visit was going to be until 7:30 pm, so we had better make the best of our time. Now to the title of this blog entry, Matthew must have been practicing while we were gone b/c boy was he moving today. Now I wouldn't call it crawling, but more like a baby seal flopping forward. All Matthew knows is that it works and he gets to where he wants to on his own. It is quite adorable to watch and if somebody ever wants to see it, we captured it on our videocamera. I didn't know we were adopting a cute little baby seal - but a very adorable one at that! Oh, I almost forgot. Matthew really enjoys it when I take hime and I throw him into the air (not literally), but I knew one of these times I would pay for it. This time I was lying on my back on the floor, with Matthews face over top of mine and yes, you guessed, pukage down the side of my face. There was very little warning, but it was inevitable. And when he is that cute, it's pretty funny!
Today is picture day mostly because the internet was working really well!
Bathroom - shower, sink and washing machine!
Bedroom - lumpy bed and our make shift blinds!
Kitchen - small, but practical!
Living room - Jennifer should have closed the curtains for this picture!
Yes, another belley shot of Matthew, but this one is after he had all that juice. Notice how big his belly looks - just like his Dads, eh?
Here is Matthews cute little arm - the puzzle is coming together!
2 comments:
Hey guys. Great to see some pictures of the apartment. Seems like it has all the basics you would need. Glad to hear there is a washer right in the apartment. Matthew, that is a very cute belly you have! Still loving reading your blog.
Every part of him that we've seen so far is so cute. Congrats again on the court date. Sorry to hear about the constantly shifting visiting schedule. It's frustrating enough to only have two hours a day but when you don't know when those two hours are going to be that's awful. But you guys are such troopers. YOu're doing really well. Oh, and I love the makeshift blind! Why didn't I think of that???
JG
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