Day 6 of Bonding

Andrew has become more and more playful each day. He is so smart and only needs to be shown something once before he gives it a try. We handed him the camera today and he immediately put it up to his eyes and tried to push buttons. He is also coloring some…well maybe it’s scribbling but we’re easily entertained. Lainey was able to play with him more today and she is so good with him. He just watches her every move. We are surprised at how much Lainey and Andrew are alike in personality. Andrew so wants to walk and run. We’ve seen him crawl but with us he only wants to hold our hands and walk. He smiles more each day and even laughs some. He is very ticklish, especially his ears. We couldn’t enjoy our time more with him. We just wish we could visit him longer. Two hours goes by quickly and it is hard to hand him back to the caregivers. The baby house director sets the visitation hours. We sign in each day and the log will be used as proof in court that we are fulfilling the bonding period.
We’ve already started thinking about how hard it will be to leave him. Bonding has happened very quickly for us. He is so easy to love. He has such an easy going, curious personality. We have yet to see him cry. A couple of times he’s stuck his bottom lip out. That’s it. Otherwise, it’s time to play. He does get frustrated when we take toys away (like colors that he’s putting in his mouth). He waves his hands up and down to let us know his displeasure. He shares his toys. If we ask him for a toy, he hands it to us. I’ll try to stop bragging now…
We met a couple for lunch yesterday. We actually met them for the first time at the Dept. of Education when we were all there for our initial meeting. When they walked in, Mark said out loud “try to pick out the Americans”. They laughed and we found out they are from Mississippi also, only a couple hours away from us. We exchanged numbers and were finally able to get together yesterday. They have their 4 year old daughter with them and Lainey was very happy to have someone to play with. The restaurant, Mad Murphy’s, has a play ground. For anyone coming to Almaty, we have found Mad Murphy’s to be a great restaurant. The food is good, they have wi-fi, and they will call a cab for you. We live on the other side of town so we need a cab to get home.
We’re attaching a picture from our trip to Panfilov Park. We went there a couple of days ago. The park contains several impressive war memorials from their civil war and World War II. The picture is of the Zenkov Cathedral which is on the park grounds. It was built in 1904. It is built entirely of wood and without nails. The park is nice and we were able to spend a couple of hours there.
Almaty is a very interesting place. The people are beautiful (tall and thin like models) and very diverse. There are so many different ethnicities here. There’s a lot to share but we’ll save that for another day.
We feel so blessed. There have been things that did not go smoothly since we’ve arrived but we have been at peace. That peace could definitely only come from above.