and the adventure continues, a bit longer

Just left our visit with Nurik today. He is still not feeling great and we got a little bit of crying but at least with that came lots of comforting. He let us hold him alot and the room was just about at its hottest today so this was uncomfortable for all. He was ready to get out of that room at the end of our time and so were we.....the very cold chill in the air never felt so good.

Masha let us know that the judge only wanted our papers by tomorrow so that he could review them so the actual court date is not until March 6th. Masha had mentioned that she thought our court date was really quick so apparently it was.......just a miscomunication, we guess. Good thing we have been told over and over again that things change and you just have to go with the flow. So, our 16 day waiting period will not start until the 6th of March and then we still have the other paperwork and visit to Almaty. So, it will definitely be first part of April, we predict, before we can start home. Good thing is that we get to see Nurik everyday until Court so another full week of quality time. After court, we will only see him every other day per their rules. God is definitely continuing to teach us patience and flexibility. We really are doing fine though and feel rather irresponsible most days because we lay around alot and watch sports and read.....We feel like we should be doing something but with the weather such as it is, not much else to do. So, I guess you can still continue to pray for good court appearance on the 6th but maybe start praying for spring like weather so we can get out and see the town and walk around although we do plenty of walking anyway not including the 76 steps up to our apartment. Oi veh! Love you guys, just wanted to fill you in on the breaking news! K-Pat

I spent a long time in papa's lap just taking things
in and out of the firetruck. I didn't feel so well and
it felt good just to be held.

I like my new very noisy firetruck!

We have not seen Nurik yet today ..... it is a late visit this afternoon. Dr. Roza told us that he had a fever yesterday. Maybe we gave him cold drinks? ;) But, we think it is all the new germs we may be introducing to him. But he seems to be a trooper and just wanted to sit more. As most parents know, this is not a bad thing! ;)

We have court tomorrow and will then begin our 16 day waiting period for paperwork and such. This is required and never waived as far as I know so it will be 2 more weeks here at least and then to Almaty. It really doesn't feel that long for us especially because we know that more time allows Nurik to feel very comfortable with us and maybe we can get a few more communication terms down before we hit the friendly skies.

We will write more later after we go to court. Thanks for all the prayers. Our interview yesterday went fine. I think these are very procedural and not so intimidating as one might think. The Director and assistant Director were very nice ladies and just were worried about Pat's jacket. It doesn't look like a winter coat to them. Pat says he can't even go to Kaz without being mothered! I think it is very humorous! Love to all! K-Pat

A few pictures we had made for our court appearance

Two weeks down, ? to go

Pondering from Papa. Well as the 2nd week closes, this journey continues to ever change, evolve, What a wonderful change we have seen in Nurik (Nick) over the last two weeks. Where there was uncertainty (and some fear) there is now the beginnings of trust. First comes trust then comes love. What a wonderfully amazing thing to see in such an out in the open environment such as the green room. I have gone from being a spectator to being able to hold an play with the little fellow. Today he was feeling sick so he just wanted to be held by both of us. Nurik has also discovered that papa's mouth make a very good disposal for the food he doesn't wish to eat (especially partially eaten bananas and apples). Karen is very happy that he has chosen me for such an honor as this. He has also discovered he can reach much higher when pap lifts him. He has a mischievous side to him and still likes to test where the boundaries are. One of the things I have truly enjoyed over the last two weeks has been watching how much he is bonding and growing in his trust of him Mama. It is hard to believe that in a few short days we go to court to start the process of becoming a true family. Nervous doesn't begin to describe how I feel about this next step. But with each passing day I realize a little more that this is the right direction for all of our lives.

As Karen has written it is very cold here. I actually had to buy a scarf at the open market yesterday. As Karen would say...If polar Boy needs a scarf, it must be cold. On Sunday it snowed most of the day and the wind has been very impressive a lot of the week (especially since there aren't any forests or mountains for hundreds of miles in each direction to stop it). We spent some time entertaining ourselves watching the wind blow the people (literally) down the sidewalks since most of the sidewalks are ice covered (snow removal is not a priority). Karen thinks this may be why so many great gymnasts come from this part of the world since everyone has to walk on the ice for many months out of the year. It is really amazing watching most of the women negotiate this icy area in high heel boots.

Finally, yes Scott we will consider adopting you. However, the girls and Tracy have to come also. Will this mean more free kayaking tours of southern WI?.

We have been getting more adventurous with the local cusine. We now eat fried hot pockets with mashed potatos and dough wrapped sausages. We did have a misadventure with what we thought were blueberry wrapped crepes which turned out to be liver wrapped crepes. Not interchangeable!!!!!! This afternoon we go back to the Ministry of education for another interview with the director who was not present when we went the first day.

Please pray that our court day on wednesday (tuesday evening your time) goes smooth and short. As always we enjoy your comments and all of your prayers. Pat and Karen

Happy Birthday Nurik!

Balloons are very funny!

Happy Birthday to Nurik!

You are 3 years old today. We are not really sure that you know what that means especially since you have received goodies and toys from us every day that you have seen us; But, we celebrate your birth with you today because, for us, it means that 3 years ago, God was starting a path for us that not even we were thinking about at that time. 3 years ago today, you were born, early they tell us, and you weighed a whole whopping 2 lbs. The bible tells us that God formed you and knew you even in your biological mother's womb. He fearfully and wonderfully made you with a plan in mind, we have no doubt! How could we possibly know that 3 years ago, God was directing a heavenly orchestra in His creation of you and we know that much went into keeping you safe and protected for 3 years because even starting out at 2 lbs, you have beaten all odds and were brought through difficult circumstances to be here this day. we are sure you do not understand what is about to happen to you but we know that God has given us a great honor and responsibility to take on such a special boy to make our family.. We are very sure God has big plans for Nicholas Carmon! You share your birthday with your mama's Grandpa Carmon and now you share his name too. If I could make a selfish wish, it would be that you will have lots of years to get to know your Grandparents like we knew our Grandparents. Your great grandpa Carmon left a legacy of great character, generosity, and love. Any one that knew him, never forgot him even to this day. Your Grandpas will carry on the same legacy to you and probably add a few more like southern gospel music, golf, the Packers or will it be the Cowboys, hmmm? So, the best birthday present that we can give you for your 3rd year is a family. Your Papa and Mama grow to love you more every day and we feel that you are loving us a little more every day too. Becoming a family will be a great journey for all of us. we will not be perfect, I promise but we will pray ever day that God will show us how to bring out the unique, beautiful, person that He created you to be. With our gift of a family, you will not just be getting Mama and Papa but more love than you can comprehend right now from Atas (Grandmas), Apas (Grandpas), Uncles, Aunts, and cousins. They all are so excited that you are joining the family and oh, the things they will teach you and bless you with during your life. You will need to learn to play Bocce ball and eat cheese curds, light firecrackers and challenge the iron chef (brats or fried turkey?) You will also learn the difference between a trio and a quartet, an F-15 and an F-18, and a holler and a knob (would that be butcher or tater), and last but not least, is that a greasy, pink tip or shelly bean (great great Aunt Wanda is responsible for that lesson). Dakota will teach you snowboarding and maybe saxophone, Zach is ready to play Spiro and transformers, and Lyndsay will have you singing the strawberry shortcake song and many others before you know it. And, maybe Uncle Mike will teach you how to cross the lake on the really slick ice (NOT!) or most likely he will be your Techno guru as your parents will surely fail you in this arena. Your grandmas will keep your stomach full with the best food you have ever eaten (sorry, your Mama won't compare). Most likely, your uncle BJ will teach you a love of Mexican food and computers and Uncle Brian will show you the boogey board moves and how to plant a tree. And, your Aunts, Oh goodness, what a treat. They will love all over you and you won't forget Aunt Julie's sugar cookies and salsa and probably a preschool craft or two, Aunt Kelly's yummy brownie treats and her heart for little one's like you, Auntie Erin will teach you somersaults and most likely you will get your ability to talk from her, and Aunt Tracey will teach you about the world, travelling, and she will help Mama teach you the non-grey area things! The really great thing is that this is just your immediate family. You have a Great Grandma, Great Aunts and Uncles, and more cousins than you could ever imagine all waiting to teach you all about the world as they know it ( a little scary but priceless, none the less) God has placed you in our family, we are a special breed but you will be loved to the end of the earth and back and we will always be so thankful for His gift of you to us. So, we do celebrate your third year because this year you will become a son, a grandson, a nephew, and a cousin. Someday you will understand what this third year meant to you and we pray that you will be grateful as we are grateful that God ordained February 22nd, 2004 for a special little boy with an exciting adventure ahead to be born. Happy Birthday to you, Nicholas. Love, Mama and Papa

Mark and Carrie, Your son is brilliant! Did you know he was bilingual? He was just practicing for Nuriks homecoming so they could share chips together. Who would have thought that we were wrong in assuming that he was just asking for crackers? Such a smart boy you are Mikey!

We haven't gone to see our boy yet today for his birthday. Still a few more hours but the internet is working well right now and we even got a few emails off which is a luxury we don't get too often. We will try to celebrate a bit although I don't think it will be a concept he understands. We were told that we could of course bring toys but no cake since they worry about the cream? So, it will be cookies for Nurik and some balloons and a toy or two. I think that we will try to celebrate his homecoming and just wait for a big 4 year old birthday when hopefully he can understand a bunch more.

Everyone has been asking about what is left for us here. After our court date, we will still have a 16 day waiting period for the court papers to be filed. On the 16th day, I believe we get to bring Nurik to our apartment while we wait on his immigration papers. This will also take a few days. Then we will fly to Almaty for all of his Dr. appointments and the rest of his INS papers. This can take about a week also. SO, we are still looking at mid-late March for our return to USA.
We are so blessed to have some contacts in Almaty now (former Hodags (school mascot) from Rhinelander) so they have offered to show us the town and I am sure Nurik will enjoy playing with their girls. Kirsten was the one who gave me the valuable contact solution!

Another question has been in regards to Nurik's name. We will continue to call him Nurik (Nurboulot) here and over time will maybe shorten it to Nick though Pat thinks Nick Nurik, Private Eye, "I carry a badge" sounds really cool.....yes, we still have our sense of humor here, you have to!

Sizes are probably 3T but he is shorter as Julie said and may have to have some pants rolled up which is pretty much what they do here.

We will probably keep Nurik out of the "public" for at least a month or so until he feels comfortable in his surroundings. After we feel that he is ready for more integration, We want to have a big party to celebrate his adoption and all of our great family and friends! Maybe it will be in May since that is birthday and anniversary month for Pat and I.

Hope this answers a few questions.. Still loving the comments...Thanks for the long ones Kristina and Julie! It is definitely a weird experience transitioning from Nanny to Mommy! Love you guys! K-Pat

We may be rounding the bonding corner......

I love to be high up in the air....height does
work for Papa in this instance. He loves his
Papa more everyday!


Bad lighting but priceless picture!




I love eating with PaPa.....visions
of Superbowls to come....

Another bag for me!

Today is Wednesday and we are almost 3/4 th of the way through our bonding and we are actually bonding! He saw us this morning and ran from his caretaker to the door to the play room. This was a big change for us because he usually starts to pout when he sees us. Dr. Roza also says that he is crying when it is time for group because he does not want to go but wants to come to the room. He also pouted when it was time for him to go which he has never done. He kept walking to the other side of the room away from the door where Dr. Roza was standing. Such a special thing to see for us. We got lots of touches and smiles today. He like to be put up in the air, tickeled and likes "ride a little horsey". He is mostly like a typical 3 (as of tomorrow) yr old. A tornado when he hits the room. Toys go everywhere. I think he will love the type of toys that you put things in and out. He will probably like legos as long as he has boxes to pour them in and out of. We got him a russian play cell phone which he like very much and took it with him when he left. Our translator, Masha, has a cell phone as we said before with lots of ring tones so this one was similar (and loud!) We keep forgetting to tell everyone about his special like of the turkish ring tone. It plays a turkish song and he just starts to wiggle and dance....only this song does he wiggle....the other ring tones he just sways. We feel this is once again a definite sign that he is for us because that means he is ready to meet Ahmet at our favorite restaurant, Oasis!!!! He will go crazy for the music and probably the food too! We tried bananas today and yesterday and it is quite comical. He won't let me cut it into pieces, he wants to hold the whole thing and keeps gagging himself trying to put the whole thing down his throat. Hilarious faces. He is definitely being more verbal now although none of us know what he is saying since it is Kazak spoken by a 3 year old. We had to do some boundary things today which was interesting. He wanted to play with our dossier (Masha was working on it) and he kept wanting to get up in the window sill (which would be OK except he is too smart and figured out how to open the window and that will get us in trouble with the Dr! ) so we had to take him away from both things and say no and as you can expect he was not so happy. Had to lay down and cry a bit but let Mama hold him and comfort him and then he tried again, just saying no worked the second time although we got the most hilarious mean face.

Thanks for all of the prayers, It is amazing how well the internet is working so far today and we found out our court date is the 28th (next wednesday!) .....only 2 days after our bonding time ends. Masha said this was fast and we know its because of some great Prayers back home and a gracious God!

We will not see Nurik until about 3 tomorrow because Masha is a teacher and her schedule will not allow a morning visit so we will try and take some pics of our area for all to see.

We have had some questions about sizes and we think he will probably be about a 3T. His weight is about 50th percentile and height about 10th. Well, we don't want to lose this blog so we will send now and say thanks for the prayers and comments. We really do value each and every one! Love to all! K-Pat

More pics from week 1 .....

This is downtown in the square. Not
the coldest day but cold!




Flat stanley at the Amsterdam, Holland


Airport. This was a cool Lego model of the


airport.





This is our first apartment bed...
new apartment bed is good for Karen but
still too short for Pat.....thus he is on mattress
on floor!

OK, we won't press our luck anymore this is our third post in an hour. We are feeling good about touching base with you all we will try and post for Sunday tomorrow when we post for Tuesday. If that makes any sense to you! We had our coldest day yesterday and even Pat was miserable...yes it was that COLD! We will go buy him a scarf now just in case it happens again. and Ladies at work, please pass this email address to Lan Chi and Tell Lisa Purdy Hello! :) I miss you guys but we are surviving on their version of hot pockets so I still can't get away from them even a week later! ;) Bye for now! K-Pat

More pictures from the other days!

I love my snacks!




Everything goes in my favorite bag!





Going through Papa's pack!





Making yogurt messes with Papa.





Ok, we are still on so here are some more pictures. I would like to say that yes, we and Nurik have the same clothes on almost everyday. It is all we packed but it is different days, just same clothes! ;) We do have a laundry though.

We will try and add back blogs but you may start getting the days mixed up so we will add the date to our back blogs otherwise we will type on the day that is on the blog. Here is Saturdays blog (the 17th).

well, when we walked by the internet cafe it was open but after we visited with Nurik and ate some lunch, it was closed. We were so bummed. we had a good day with Nurik. He cried a bit at first but warmed up quickly with snacks as usual. I tried to sit back and let Pat interact some and we did see some improvement. He said some words today. The translator was able to tell us what he said and he did say mama and papa when we talked about the pictures. masha did get him to point to his nose when she asked but he wouldn't do any other body parts but I think he knows because he had that half smaile that he gets when he knows what you want or what you are saying but he doesn't want to admit it. I got Pat to try yogurt with him and he mostly just liked dumping it from container to container. Very Messy. Sorry Pat! ;) Nurik loves to put things in and out of bags. Everything goes into the bag then it gets dumped out. He has been told no Several times and seems to respond if you are consistant and continue to say no. It would be easy to give in but we don't want to start any bad habits that we will have to break later. we continue to be amazed at how abservant and detail oriented he is. We got some more good smiles out of him today and even Pat was able to tickle him and get some grins. We said our Paka, pakas (bye, byes) and he still seemed plenty happy to leave but maybe that will change before we have to take him out of here. We still have about 3 more weeks. We ate at the other local restaurant that has english menus. I had an omelet with croutons in it, rice and fries. Pat had chicken cordon bleu. I still can't make myself try the meats. I think they all feel that we should want to eat lots of salad because they always try to offer us salads but unfortunately, I can't risk it with my allergies and they all have some type of mayo thing going on which we know Pat won't eat. :) eating here has been rather inexpensive even if we eat out. This mal only cost us about 11 american dollars. We mostly eat ramen noodles, yogurt, bread an cheese. They have lots of different flavors of fruit juice that are really good. We just bought cherry and black currant. We have also been surviving on my mom and sister's hot chocolate and tea mixes. Very heavy to get here but worth it. I can't believe we have finished our first week here. we will not see Nurik tomorrow per the schedule so it will be a long day with just the apartment, the cold, and russian tv.

This was Saturdays blog for you to start catching up! Please Pray for our court day that it will be very soon after our bonding period ends next week. Please also pray for the internet access as I asked before. It seems trivial but means alot to us. Love you guys, Ok, now we will press the button and see what happens! K-Pat

See, I can smile.....even belly laugh!




I think I like my family?





Am I cute, or what...this is his I
want to smile but won't smirk.





Looking at pictures of Atas and Apas!

This definitely a lesson in Praying without ceasing. The internet is killing us but we will survive even if we have to do quick snipets just to get pictures off. We are doing well! Pat is now sleeping on the floor and on a nice mattress that doesn't make him have to curl up to fit.

We had a great day with Nurik today and have plenty of blogs for the previous days but won't download them until we know we have a good connection. Met with our regional coordinator today and should know when our court day is by tomorrow. Nurik continues to warm up to us and Papa was able to lift him up in the air and play with his tummy for lots of giggles and smiles.

Just so you know the internet cafe is not open on Sat/Sun (at least not that we can tell) so we will not be posting on those days anyway but we do try the internet everyday and will continue to test technology in Kaz. We get such a boost from all of the comments that it is actually depressing to us when we can't get to our blog.

Nurik (Nicholas Carmon Kitzman) is now sharing snacks with us and loves to put chapstick on all of our lips. He like my mirror and loves to put everything in and out of bags. We are starting to enjoy him more and more and him the same, I think! Love you guys! we are going to try and send this one while we think we have a signal! K-Pat

Technological difficulties

Hearts are warming in Kazakhstan!

This is our little chipmunk with his
mouth full of Kazak cheerios!




The New Family Kitzman




Juice is good!





Alex, Will and Ellie, Guess What?
The TICKLE MONSTER is in KAZAKHSTAN!!

Pat's ponderings..... Well the last two visits went better. Nurik is warming up to Karen (as seen by the tickle monster). He is still a bit afraid of me (it must be my giant size). It is still taking some getting use to being more of spectator but from what I have read this is very normal since nurik has seen almost no men in his entire life. OH WELL... I will continue to be patient and know he will trust me when he is ready and not before. I can tell you one thing, he is very, very smart and is very deft at taking things apart (which gives my folks a chuckle since I was the same when I was young) and it will make nurik proofing the house very interesting. All of us have had to endure one of our parents or grandparents giving us the I WALKED FIVE MILES TO SCHOOL IN THE SNOW, UP HILL, BOTH WAYS lecture. Well I can now tell Nurik that I did walk 1.5 miles in the snow and ice both ways to see him each day....and my story is actually real... I can say one thing, the more I look at him the more I see him as my son...WAY COOL. We are getting adjusted to the Kazak food. It is not the most light and airy food but the bread and cheese is very good..and stays with you a very long time. Well thats all from me this go around. We love reading everyones comments.

From Karen.......It is amazing to watch someone learn to trust you as I said before and I can tell each day that he is warming up just a little more. Today, we had no crying just a sad face for just a minute. He is trying so hard not to smile that it is comical. He wants to but just won't. He is letting me hold him and snuggle which I love and he loves looking at the pictures of our family especially the pages with the Ata's (Grandmas) and Apa's(Granpas). We did not have a really hot room today so our time with him was much more enjoyable. He loves his snacks and juice we bring him everyday. He is very good at holding a spoon and very good with his crayons. And, Yes, we have tried stickers and he does like them. I can't wait for him to play with all of his friends at home. He loves music and will start playing some Greater Vision and Cathedrals as soon as he is home if not before to get him ready for Apa Bill. He likes looking at flat Stanley and we have him out almost every time we go. I am amazed at how smart he is and think that this orphanage has taken great care of him considering the circumstances. God has protected him well in his wait for us. We asked the Dr. what his name means and she said Nurboulat (Nurik) means Strength and someone who is bright or brings light. Very cool, we think!
I have been a babysitter/nanny for so long that I still feel that someone will come in and be the person who will swoop up Nurik and be the one they look to for comfort so it is a very new and very special feeling to be the one that is the person that he will look to for comfort and We will be the ones that will swoop him up and be his protectors from now on. It is starting to sink in and we are enjoying the feelings! Thanks again to all of the support and prayers. The allergies are definitely getting bettter and I have been sleeping much better. Now, if we can just get Pat to quit waking up so early.....old habits are hard to break. Love you all!! Karen

Happy Valentine's Day!

We know he is not looking at the camera but we didn't know the picture thing was going to work so we didn't bring all of them but now we know and have a faster computer cafe so maybe we can get the whole thing together next time.

Our second day with Nurik (probably Nicholas) was up and down. He pretty much wanted to cry when they first brought him in but was trying to be brave and just had this quivering lip for a bit until we brought out all of the food. The snacks worked for a while but then he all of the sudden just started crying so hard and luckily, Dr. Roza came in and helped get him calmed down. I just can't imagine what the poor little one is thinking. My Nannie radar was no good when you can't communicate very well with him. I just think about all of the other 2-3 year olds we have around us and imagine if they were thrust into this type of situation. My feeling is that they would freak too! We did get him in his Moose shoes and he kept them on until time to go. After Dr. Roza left again, we still had more time on the clock so we kept playing with anything we could think of, towards the end of the visit, he started allowing us to play with him and this felt like a small step towards normalcy. This will be an interesting experience to watch someone learn to trust you and love you. For him, he has no idea what a family is or what a Mama and Papa really are....so being told he has one now probably doesn't mean the same thing to him as it does to us. We do get smiles but hard to catch on camera like I said before. As far as our other time spent here, we do alot of sleeping! Still trying to get in this time zone. On the lighter side of our lives, We had a small apartment that we affectionately called the Kaz spa because of the extreme heat like a sauna and then our kitchen flooded so we had the steam room also. Thanks to our translator, we moved all of our stuff yesterday to a new apt. which is right next to their big open market. It is a much bigger place and has an actual bed although still small for Pat! ;) He is kind of a giant here. We get lots of stares.....dark clothes don't even help. We have really appreciated and teared up over all of the comments! Please keep them coming, they help us feel so connected in a foreign land. We have discussed how we have a whole new appreciation and respect for missionaries and foreign exchange students. Hopefully, we can add new pics of just daily life here and more pics of Nurik from our visit this afternoon. If you notice the little "flat stanley" in some of the pictures, this is my nephew's school project and he has travelled with us to Kaz for an adventure with us. He will go back to Zach's school and hopefully, win the contest for the most miles travelled! Well, we will go for now but can't wait to fill you in on more of our Kazventure tomorrow. Love, K-Pat

New Beginnings....

Well, we just spent the better part of 2 hours retyping the other posts into this computer so this blog will be short. We went and visited with Nurik today and it was really HOT! They have us in very small room with doors shut and no air flow. Luckily, Nurik was able to shed clothes, we were not so lucky. We took lots of pictures but can't get them to download on these computers so we will keep pursuing this problem. Nurik was very funny and interactive at first...lots of smiles of course we caught none of them on camera. He loves music and was kept very happy with our translators ring tones. He loved our snacks and toys but soon grew weary of us all and wanted to leave. They don't allow them to leave until the time is up so we had to be very creative to keep him happy and not crying. The funny thing is that he looked at our pictures in our photo album and called Pat Papa right away. He won't have alot to do with Papa but he knows his name! Our days will continue to be much the same but we will work on getting the pictures downloaded! Thanks to all you for your comments......keep them coming...we feel closer to you when we read them. Love to all. K-Pat

Impressions of a first day

Patrick's point of view.... after about 3 hours of sleep we were up and going. Masha ( our life saving interpreter) picked us up for our appointment with the Ministry of Education. After several hours of intense questioning (actually, it took about 10-15 minutes, but my stomach thought it was several hours) we received our invitation to go to the orphanage where we were presented with two possible children in a small room with our interpreter and the orphanage doctor ( a very nice lady). After about and hour we were asked if we would be able to choose. Did I mention the stomach that had issues during the lengthy interview at the ministry was butterfly central during this initial play session? But some how one of the little boys did pull at our hears and will be the one we will continue with (see Karen's comment below about one of the reasons we chose Nurik (spelling uncertain, though this abbreviated version of his name is easier to pronounce than his full name). Nurik will turn 3 years old this month and is extremely cute, quiet (as to be expected) and as we found out can be very persistent. This whole process took about 2 hours so needless to say Karen and I are still very much deer in the headlight right now. We went to lunch with our ever helpful interpreter. She has been and will continue to be a constant help for us strangers in a strange land. We spent the rest of the day shopping for groceries and a hair dryer for Karen (being a slave to fashion that I am, I bet mos of you thought the hair dryer would be for me). We have been working on figuring out a proper name for Nurik, thought we will probably keep his first name as a middle name to keep part of his heritage. We will go back to the orphanage later tomorrow morning to begin the process of becoming a family and I can say that I am excited, stressed, nervous, and very happy (all these emotions working at ever changing levels throughout this day... and I am sure for the days to come)

Karen's point of view..... I will try to be more brief in upcoming blogs but probably not. Lack of sleep and big travel acclimation has left me weary and shell-shocked. When we arrived last night late and Masha told us that we would meet our child today, I was a bit overwhelmed. I just couldn't imagine entering the most important day of this experience as a zombie. I just prayed over and over during the night that God would just give me strength to get thru the day. I have been fighting a huge onslaught of apparently every other kind of allergenic trigger that maybe I just hadn't experienced yet because I didn't live here. New Air and environment, New allergies. I have been fighting valiantly with all of the travel pharmacy but this morning, I just felt like a truck hit me....going in and out of extreme temperatures is not helping. When we got in the taxi to drive to the orphanage to pick up paperwork, I just stared at the building knowing that just inside those doors there was a child whose life we were going to be allowed to change forever. A big responsibility! We headed to what the translator described as their City Hall. We had the short interview and took a short detour to the grocery for water and a little toy. We had forgotten to bring one in the dazed rush of the morning. As we drove to the orphanage, I still couldn't believe that we were going to do this when I could barely spell my name. We met with the Dr. and she asked us a few questions and told us a little about the boys before they brought them in. I was a little shocked that they were not bringing us a baby but only because I had switched back and forth between ages so much and we just thought we would get a little one since we were not getting siblings. It reminds me of the Greater Vision song that I brought with me ....GOD'S got a bigger thing going on than our little bitty eyes can see....So true! Honestly, one of the first coherent thoughts that I can remember thinking when she started with their ages was....but we packed all of that baby stuff! Ugh! But, then, thru the haze, I thought I heard her say one of their birthdays was coming up. And, sister, correct me if I am wrong but didn't you say maybe God will give you a sign or something like they were born on Papa Carmon's birthday. Well, Guess what day Nurik will turn 3... on papa Carmon's birthday, February 22nd. It kind of made me chuckle at first but we didn't have much else to start the process with because all I really felt was numb. I wanted to feel a flood of emotion and know exactly that we had seen our child but with our tired, mental state, I just couldn't feel anything. We played with both of them for a bit and Nurik definitely stepped out of his comfort zone and approached each of us on his on terms and the other child did not seem to want to interact much at all. I will tell you this was one of the weirdest experiences of my life trying to just decide which one fits, which one feels right, but something about Nurik kept my heart interested. He was very intrigued with Pat's water bottle and kept wanting to open it himself and then proceeded to drink it all. The other little one got in on this activity as well which still goes to prove that you can have all the toyrs in the world and they still pick the simple stuff. As they left for the day, they both turned around and said good bye or Paka Paka in Russian. Oh, did I mention that these boys are Kazak and not Russian so they have learned more Kazak than Russian, but they did say the knew short phrases and words in Russian so I guess they will fit right in with us! When they said this experience would have all ranges of emotion they were right on. I felt so scared that I had not had that rush of emotion that I thought I needed but as the day progressed and I felt worse physically at one point, I began to feel at peace with our choice. I will say, in many ways, relieved also that we finally could sit down and look at all of the positives of bringing Nurik home with us. As Pat and I pondered over the day after a long nap and lots of water, I could sense the feelings starting to emerge of excitement and anticipation about seeing him the next day, naming him , playing with him, introducing him to all of his new friends (sorry, Emma Claire, he won't need a pacifier! ) that will be very similar in age, and just the future in general. We both are being patient with ourselves and feel more relaxed not that we know that we will continue to feel better after all of that travel and stress and that a range of emotions is OK and normal. I am sure Nurik will go thru the same things but for now as we go to bed after our first day, I can say that I am thrilled to start this bonding process (scared too) but feel at peace which is a huge answer to our prayers. Oh yeah, and we are going to have to do a lot of shipping and returning as we definitely brought more baby stuff than little boy stuff so stay tuned for our shipping requests. Love you all and thanks for your abundant prayers. I could definitely feel God's presence thru the day. Please pray that our allergies will calm down so we can function without too many meds and enjoy our next 2 weeks of bonding time.

What Day is it?

We are having computer problems and it is taking a long time to get things posted.
We thought Amsterdam would be finished with the last blog since that is where we wrote it. But, there is a little bit more to write about Amsterdam because we had yet to go thru customs....oh the joy! Part of this saga is probably my fault because I wasn't aggressive enough in finding out if the European rules for carry-ons were the same as ours. It looked the same on their board but some how my gut told me it might not be so because I went to the immigration desk and no one would help me so I got frustrated and walked away and thought I would find a security person somewhere to ask by in the rest of the afternoon in our semi-delirium, we did not see one until time to go thru security for the plane. And, yep, you guessed it the rules are not the same, absolutely no contact solution in your carry on bags. Well, normally, when I travel I might put a new one in the suitcase and carry the old one but since I had called ahead to our TSA/customs people and they said we could carry solutions because it was considered medicine, I just decided to carry all of it in my back pack because there was no room in the suitcases. So, guess what, I got to throw away 6 brand new bottles of saline and contact cleaner solution. The wouldn't even just check my back pack unless I went all the way out to the ticket counters and checked it.... of course, we didn't have time. Poor Pat, he was trying so hard to help me figure out something and it was just hopeless so I just cried as they threw all of my contact solution in a trash can......at least my peanut butter went to the homeless people......this is what fatigue does to you .... a normally very stable person(ha) was inconsolable about contact solution. But, that is where God can be so there in the small stuff, just wait until you hear this..... so, anyway, we got on the plane and at least got to sit together for the 6 hour flight to Almaty. It was fairly uneventful flight. When we got to Almaty, I had that sick feeling about going thru customs because we had such an ordeal in all of the places, BUT, Almaty was heaven... no problemo, no nothing. Walked right thru the customs gate (thank you nice customs people) and then went and collected All four pieces of our luggage and easily found our driver Oleg. He was waiting for us with a GMC Suburban... how fun is that! We would have never fit int a European car, never! He took us to our hotel for the day until he was to pick us up at 7 p to catch our next flight to Dzezkazgan, our final destination. We had breakfast since it was morning for Kaz. Not sure what time our body thought it was. All the food on the plane had tomatoes so I was starving. They had some interesting looking stuff. I had some crepes and cheese with bread and tea. Pat was the more adventurous one as usual and tried some hot pocket type things....Gosh, I can't even get away form Hot Pockets in Kaz......they're Everywhere! Anyway, then we slept for about 5 hours with our alarm set to get us up in time to meet our driver. It was a nice rest and we woke up before the alarm so we thought we would call a family friend that we were put in contact with thru Pat's parents and her parents. We gave them a call and told them that we wee in town and were about to leave again. During our conversation, I was telling them that I lost all of my contact solution and guess what kind of contact solution that Kirsten used, The Same Kind! So, she came right over to the hotel and visited with us and dropped off one of her precious bottles of solution (can't get it here) for me to use until we can get some shipped. A coincidence, I think not, God takes care of us, even in the small stuff. We will add pictures as soon as we can get the computer to work. Our word processing doesn't download onto these Kazak computers so we are having to re-type everything and pictures.....who knows. We will try.

And the kazventure has begun.......

Friday started out as any normal day.....Ha! If we would have had fireworks to celebrate the day we would have but instead we did it my way, at MAGEE'S. Nothing better to get you started on a big adventure than a pure sugar load. Pat and I stayed up until 2 am trying to figure out how to get everything they tell you to bring in 2 checked baggages and 2 carry ons. Not posssible, I finally broke down and added a duffle but still left some stuff at home. I am not sure how I am going to face a little one with out Cheerios but they didn't make it....we may have folks ship them later when we are settled.

So, the day progressed rather rapidly but fairly organized. Just the last minute panic of "do we have everything we might need for 2 months" Probably Not. Carrie took us to the airport around 330p arriving about 2 hours before our flight. And, yep, we were over the weight limit but the kind people at northwest had mercy on us and didn't charge....it's a good thing because now they owe us, big time. They decided that it would be more beneficial with our weighty baggages to take a different flight thru detroit since it was a jet versus prop-job and Memphis was expecting freezing rain. So we said sure! It would get us into Amsterdam a bit earlier but we had a long lay-over anyway. Well, that's when the excitement started........

Just so you know, we vowed to always keep a sense of humor about any of the ups and downs so parents just don't worry, we will survive even cocky, barney fife wanna be's. OK, so here is what happened. In lexington, we went thru our securty check almost without problems but alas, something in my bag flagged them. I asked for a private viewing because they were going to have to take all my stuff out and I had it packed to the very last inch.....oh, I dreaded trying to get it back in....but they were very kind and quick and the offensive material, PEANUT BUTTER! yes, that food product didn't even cross my mind. It was probably on the list but I didn't remember. So, Our peanut butter is now donated to the homeless shelter.... so be it! Unfortunately, we can't count it off on our taxes......because they are already done! So, efficient we are.....Thank you so much, Tammy!

Now, we catch our slightly delayed flight to Detroit. No problems, we think.....well, we sat out on the tarmack in Detroit for a few minutes, just enough to make us have to walk really, really fast to our flight to Amsterdam. Our little nice Northwest people at the beginning failed to really explain how close the flights might be..... We rushed to the plane, the last ones to arrive. The ticket people were practically pushing us down the jetway but then we had to stop to visit the customs people......No, let me re-phrase, BarneyFife dressed as Tom Cruise. Seemingly nice looking fella, Nope. He asked the normal questions and somehow when we said adoption like we were supposed to little flags went up in his head.....oh, they carry money. So, he proceeds to lecture us on the importance of declaring our money....which we hadn't because no one told us we needed to. We were bringing extra because of the chance of getting two so we went over the limit. Now, remember, they were pushing us down the taxiway to get on the plane that was waiting for us. Barney decides that since we had not filled out the form yet that everything must be searched because we might be hiding another million or so in our backpacks (very heavily packed back packs). Oh, did I mention that he wanted to count all the money right in the middle of the taxiway.....he did get some people to help him so lets all know that Karen and Pat have money on them.....there went that anonymity that we were supposed to keep. So basically it was this fight between them and the airline. The one security lady was thinking he would let us go once we signed the forms but nope, had to search everything and count that money (new money, which so easy to count! ) Needless to say, we made the plane. This is also where the kindness of strangers never came in to play because in our delay, a rather hateful man decided that he wanted Pat's seat because he wanted to be next to his wife and would not move! So then the Flight attendant tried to get the lady next to me to move to the other seat where Pat had been sent to.....aisle seat, no different than hers. AND, she wouldn't move! So, I sat in the middle of the middle seats and Pat sat 5 rows in front of me for 9 hours. Lovely! My lady was so obnoxious that I decided to hog the arm rest just as a protest. She had her earphones on so loud that I didn't even need mine! But, I am happy to say that we are blogging at the Amsterdam airport waiting on our flight to Almaty at 615p (9 1/2 hour layover). We are tired but glad to be back together. The KLM people and everyone here at the airport are so nice and we are just going to be glad for that and remember barney and the mean people with a smile on our face because we are half way to getting our child! Woo Hoo. We will blog again if possible once we get to Almaty! Bye for now, the rather tired and dazed Kitzkazventurers.

48 hours and counting!

This entry will not be a too long because of all the things we have yet to do. But, just wanted everyone to feel our pain....I mean joy! How in the world will this all fit into 2 suitcases and 2 carry-ons.

These pictures really don't do the stuff justice....looks worse here, trust me!

And, consider that this isn't even all of it plus do you see clothes for us in the picture....nope, just some gloves and a hat. I am just hoping that being my dad's daughter, he is the ultimate packer, and my multiple nanny trips will come in handy. Can you say ROLL-in, ROLL-in, ROLL-in.....only veteran packers will get this! I want you also to notice the travel MASH unit that we will have on this trip.....there is not one ailment that we will not be able to attend to......except that we have yet to find Powdered Pedialyte....any ideas? The good thing is that we have actually had the luxury of babysitting for a few friends in our free time this week (sweet Olivia and Mikey are the cutest kids ever) so that has reminded us of why we are doing all of this.....babies are awsome.....can't wait to meet ours! We have replenished our supply of JellyBellies again....we should have waited until the night before leaving although they were half price three weeks ago.....but, yeah, they didn't last so we had to get some more at full price. We have books, games, DVD's all collected from friends and family.....we should be set! We have lots left to do in the last 48 hours.......not to mention, the pest-control man is coming, the plumber is coming to put in a new toilet so our college student house sitter has a throne that doesn't break all of the time because she is a Queen to us.....Amigo will appreciate her also......Oh, and did I mention that we are meeting with our tax people tomorrow......there must be a refund waiting on us when we get back.....we owe Wal-Mart and Target a mint! Thanks for all of the well wishes and prayers from everyone.......... We are getting excited and anxious....I don't think we will truly take a deep breath until we are on the plane......I just hope we can stay above the clouds with all of the weight our plane will be hauling......... Love to all! K-Pat

Journey to a Family

We thought we would begin our blog, well, at the beginning.......
In the beginning God created.....no, no not that far back but yes, He did!
Once upon a time.....try again,
In a Galaxy far, far away......oh, puhleeez,
Ok, Ok.....Patrick and Karen were married 3 years and 9 months ago. Several years later, they felt that God wanted them to add dimension to their amazing adventure and thus, this adoption journey began, the kitzkazventure.

JULY - started the process at the end of the month by contacting Adoption Ark adopt. agency

AUGUST - took a quick trip at the beginning of the month through Louisville and then Missouri for our fingerprint applications, INS application, and birth certificates.
14th- our first homestudy

SEPTEMBER -
3rd - second home study
Continued preparation of Dossier.....notarizations, certifications, and apostilles. More fingerprints. More paperwork.

OCTOBER - Finish up Dossier, Send Dossier to AA. The waiting begins, or so we thought.....



NOVEMBER -
21st - we received notification that our Dossier had been approved and sent to Kaz.
30th - First ministry for approval

DECEMBER -

New Year's Eve - started stripping wall paper for the kid's room!

JANUARY -
Painted the kids room a fun harvest yellow color. Should look perfect with our Northwoods/moose/bear/lodge theme! We used metallic based paint so that the kids can use magnets on the wall. It took some work but we have magnets on the wall!


Here are pictures of the room.......notice the magnets on the wall on this last one! cool!

3rd - Second ministry for approval
11th - Notified that we will be going to the Karaganda region. More paperwork.
22nd - received our Letter of Invitation from Dzezkazgan. Our case worker asked us to be ready to travel at the end of the month! We applied for visas and began to make arrangements.
31st - received visas from Kaz embassy! We are official! Received our ticket confirmation from the travel agent confirming our flights to Almaty, Kaz on Feb. 9th.

As you can see, from start to travel has only been a little more than 6.5 months. God has been good and given us a smooth process so far. We are just going to consider our wee one(s) preemies since we haven't even been given 9 months! We can't say that this speedy process hasn't given us the deer in the headlight look but as we all know Patrick's motto by heart, Things will happen when they are supposed to happen!

We will arrive in Almaty on the 11th via that large international hub of Memphis, TN and Amersterdam, Holland! We will meet our coordinator who will arrange our final flight to Dzez to meet our little one(s).

Our trip will be for 6-8 weeks. We look forward to immersing ourselves in this exciting culture as we become a family. We have joined a Yahoo group of adoptive families who have brought their children home from the same orphanage that we will visit. They already feel like a second family and the information that they have provided will be invaluable for us newbies. Stay tuned for the kitzkazventure daily saga!