One week in Kazakhstan...

Big hug for Mom

Darya with Pops!

"Mom, tell me about that time when you....Zzzzz....Zzzzz"

We have now been in Kazakhstan for one whole week....it really seems like we have been here for a lot longer than that - in a good way. What a week it has been. We have experienced a new culture, met lots of new friends and last but not least have met our beautiful daughter Darya. Our lives have changed so much in the last week. Darya is precious and words cannot express how much we love her. We are truly blessed to have met her! It gets harder and harder to leave her everyday at the babyhouse. We are so anxious to get her home and go to the park, visit the grandparents, show her her bedroom and just watch her grow up.

Another couple from Florida just arrived at our hotel today and they are working with the same agency here in Petropavlovsk. As a matter of fact they are adopting from the same baby house - so it appears that we will be hanging out together quite a bit over the next few weeks. Another couple we met a couple days ago from California are also staying here at the hotel - so it may be getting to the point where we will have to make a reservation for dinner now down at the hotel restaurant just so we can all sit togehter :-) It is really nice to have some other families here to talk with and share stories with.

Today's visit with Darya was awesome. Kim left the the little denim dress behind yesterday for the caregivers to dress her in today....she was so cute. Apparently she had slept until 9am today which was good because she was really tired today. We spent most of our time in the baby room this visit because the music room was being used to host a music class for some of the older children. There was a lady playing the acordian in there and you could hear it as you walked up the stairs. I swore I heard her playing the 'Chicken Dance' song. After 11am the music class was over and we were able to bring Darya in there to spend the rest of our time along with her. A game we have been playing with her is a variation on the airplane game but this time Kim would sit on one side of the room and I would ask Darya in Russian 'Where's Mama?" And then fly her up in the air over to Kim. Darya really seems to enjoy it. Right now she is still pretty quiet ....not babbling as much as a girl her age might - but we aren't too concerned about it. The doctor at the baby house believes that Darya is a couple months delayed in some of her motor and communication skills - but you would expect that under the circumstances. It will be great once we get to spend some more time with her at home!