Trip #3

We received the call from our agency and we will are returning to Kaz for our final trip. We hope to have custody of Andrew within a day of arriving. That sounds great…we will have custody…I just needed to write that down and read it again. Our son will finally be with us, his family.
We are also counting our blessings because we know that the waiting period passed without objections and we have our plane tickets. However I wouldn’t say that we are relieved because we are not there and we do not have him in our care.


I anticipate a pretty quick turn around in country where will be completing the immigration stuff at the US embassy and visiting the health clinic. These are all very stock adoption documents and we anticipate and are optimistic that these final steps will be very smooth.


I believe (pray, hope) that our next post will be when we have Andrew, after we arrive in Kaz.

Back in the US Again

We haven’t blogged in about a week so here’s the update.

We did arrive home Sunday 8/12. We expect to get a phone call within the next week letting us know when we are to return and pick up Andrew. For now we are playing the waiting game.
I know that we are close to the end of this process and we should start to feel good about bringing him home but just like other surprises to the schedule, here comes another.
We have been told that Baby House #1 will be temporarily closed and remodeled so Andrew and all the kids will be moved. We do not know for how long and where. I am telling myself that it is nothing to worry about. It’s just that we love him so much and we feel like he is family so we should have more control and we don’t.
I read over and over before we started this about being patient and flexible. I just never thought how much we would need that advice. There are plenty of other families that have also lived through this and I know they feel blessed when they get their child home.-M

I knew the waiting period would be difficult but I had no idea just how difficult. I am trying to keep busy but am finding it hard to concentrate. We just want all of us to be together as a family. We feel like we’ve had our kids spread across the world for the last 3 weeks and it’s not over yet (2 weeks in Kaz with Andrew, w/ Lainey in US; home 1 week in US w/ Lainey but Andrew is still in Kaz).

I hope our next post will include our trip plans to pick up Andrew.-S

Lainey Has a New Brother

This was the most stressful Friday…. since last Friday.
Court was scheduled for 10:00am and we showed up early and got in on time. We walked into the court room and the judge immediately found a paperwork error. She allowed us to continue so all of the testimony was given by Stacye, me, the chief baby house nurse, and the Kaz children’s advocate. Afterwards we left the court room (without a decision) and made stops where we could get the corrected paperwork, then to the notary and then back to court. We arrived to court (remember this is now our third trip to the court room, second trip today) at about 1:30pm. This new corrected document was entered into the record and the prosecutor stood and concluded the proceedings. However the judge would not issue a decision until 3:00pm. We received the phone call at 3:16pm stating that we were granted a favorable ruling, which means we are Andrew’s parents! We still have many steps to go, but those should be less stressful since we are now his parents. We just need to get him home, which should be in about four weeks.

Because of all that we have been through on this trip, this was an emotional release that is hard to describe. We are just so thankful! Thank you Lord!!!!

Speaking of home, we will be home Sunday where we look forward to massive hugs from Lainey!

Count Down

Two more days to court and we are hanging in there. The days do seem to drag a little as we look toward Friday court. Our phone calls home to talk to Lainey, Andrew visits, and reading our e-mails and blog comments are helpful.

Another new side to Andrew, he has started talking. When he gets excited playing with a toy or likes what he is doing he talks to himself. When I say he is talking, we do not have a clue what he is saying but he is just babbling as he sits and plays or as we walk with him. He has mostly been silent (he points to communicate) for all of our visits before Tuesday. Just one more cool change as we see his progress toward a very well bonded little boy.

We went out with another couple last night to a good Chinese restaurant. They speak pretty good Russian so we let them order for us. The rice and chicken were very good and were as tasty as we get at home in our favorite Chinese place. Afterwards we walked to a local mall called Promenade and then grabbed a taxi to Coffeedelia and had a pleasant conversation over Mochas and Cappuccinos.

One and a half days until court.

New Day - New Attitude - New Apartment

We are missing our daughter Lainey today and would love to get a big hug from her. She is in good hands with Shin-Shin. I am including a picture from one of her favorite familiar places in Almaty, the see-saw at Mad Murphy’s restaurant. Olivia was asking about you Lainey and wanting to know where you were and to say hello.

Andrew continues to bond well. Saturday when we went to his room to get him at 10:00am his caregiver was holding his hand and letting him walk to the door where we were standing smiling at him waiting. He was waddling toward us when she paused to get his hat from a cabinet. As soon as she stopped he looked up at her, made a face, and then looked back to me and immediately started crying. He was mad that she stopped and he was letting her know that he needed to get across the room now, to us. She retrieved the hat and as soon as he was making forward momentum again he stopped crying as quickly as he began.
Another good sign was that he started trying to make friends with the other families today. He caught the attention of one of the Spanish moms and offered her his toy. She stopped and he would offer his toy, she would take it and then offer it back and he would take it from her and do it all over again. After she returned to her group Andrew grabbed Stacye’s hand and led her over to another family where he wanted to play the same give and take game with another mom. Once he got the mom’s attention he looked at Stacye for a sign of permission before he would offer her the toy. This is the first time he has been extraverted with other folks and on top of that he wanted Stacye to say it's okay, go ahead and play. We are pretty excited that he has bonded so well.

Today we moved to the apartment from Hotel Almaty. Hotel Almaty has made our stay fairly pleasant. I would say it is a 3-star hotel. The room rates are decent (compared to most hotels in Almaty) if you are below the sixth floor. Above the 5th (our floor) has been remodeled and appears to have all of the modern amenities. A couple of recommendations for someone deciding to book here, I recommend requesting a South facing room but check the price, south facing has a beautiful mountain view and I am not sure the cost is the same. The noisy café on the North side (the side we are on) is a tough neighbor to live with. The wedding party Friday night went on until midnight and then there were fireworks. The music was amplified loudly and it just rolls up the building and directly onto our patio. We are on the fifth floor and it felt like we could join the party from our balcony. The music was a very loud but not awful. It was a blend - like “The Wedding Singer” meets “Fiddler on the Roof” and let me tell you these weddings are festive. I would book here again if the stay was short, plus the complimentary breakfast is good. Just be ready for hot tea not coffee.

Another couple is staying at Hotel Astana which sounds like similar accommodations but I do not know how the per night cost compares. They were complimentary, saying it was a quiet and they like the café on the first floor and room service. However it is not as centrally located, so taxis will likely add to your cost. It sounds like a good option if you are bringing kid(s).

Storm clouds are passing

View from the Hotel Almaty balcony. Opera House in the foreground and the Zailiysky Alatau mountains in the back ground.

We went to bed last night with heavy hearts over not getting to go before the judge and having to wait another week. Maybe we will find the positive that will come from the delay. We just stopped and prayed for Andrew and the process and Lainey. Also we set into motion a few requests for changes that are important in order to stay longer. We awoke this morning and with the previous emotional day behind us, the prospect of being here another week was a little easier to contemplate.


One of the changes needed was new flight schedules. With Lainey at home and starting her first day of first grade on Aug 13 (happy b-day Dad) we really want to be there. It looks like we will make it thanks to Shawna at Golden Rule travel we will fly out Aug 12 and get home Sunday Aug 12. By the way Shawna is the most awesome travel agent we have ever worked with and her company Golden Rule Travel (Goldrule.net) specializes in humanitarian fares which adoption travel qualifies as, so she has been able to help with good fares with little notice.
Second we needed to cut our daily rent. Our in country staff has lined up the same apartment we had on our first trip (which we liked) and we will make that change Sunday. This will save us about 50% of our current hotel room rate a day, and we will have a kitchen, washing machine, and comfortable mattress. It does not have air conditioning but the weather here has been surprisingly cool so we should be okay.


Our employers have been awesome and we appreciate their kind flexibility.

We had a good visit with Andrew today. We no longer see the shyness that he exhibited the first couple of days of this trip.

High Blood Pressure

We have some bad news. We showed up for court Friday morning as scheduled and there had been a mix-up. We are one of 2 Moore families (from MS) in Almaty, Kaz adopting and the court date was actually their date. It's a long story but we had hoped all day Friday that it would be resolved and we would still get to present to the court. We have just received news that we have a new court date for next Friday, August 10th at 10:00 am. We are working on flights now for the quickest return after court August 10.

We are looking for the positive in this but have yet to find one. As you can imagine we are very frustrated as this throws a kink in every schedule you can think of. Your continued prayers are appreciated.

Trip #2 - Court Friday 8/3

Well we (Stacye & Mark) got here for trip #2. Lainey is home with her Shin-Shin (Stacye’s mom). We left at 7:00pm CDST Monday and spent 17 hours on two planes with one 7 hour layover in Amsterdam. With the time difference we landed Wednesday 5:00am after 24 hours of traveling.
We were able to get through customs easier this time and our driver was right there to greet us. Saujar (San-jai) is the best. We had time to get checked in and settled into the hotel room and then walked to the baby house at 10:00am to see Andrew.

We were not sure how he would react to seeing us again. Well he was timid and cautious. His action was not a surprise to us so we began working on gaining his trust again. We took him downstairs and setup the blanket like we do on all visits and sat down with him. Stacye was loving all over him and he was not drawing back so I took this a good sign. We gave him a bite of cookie once we settled down on the blanket for the visit and talked and loved on him some more before we went and walked and swung. After our activity we came back to the blanket where he would request more cookies. After that bite we got him up to go for another walk and this time he steered Stacye and I directly back to the blanket for more cookies. We were interested in gaining his good graces and getting him to smile so we allowed him to eat the second one while we enjoyed just looking at him. The problem is that he ate the two cookies we brought for him, in the first hour (baby house rules – we can only bring 2 cookies with us). These cookie wafers are only slightly bigger than a saltine cracker. After they were gone he continued to point at the green canvas bag wanting/expecting us to produce more food. When we could not I just gave him the green bag with the empty cookie baggie (and all the other Andrew stuff in it), so he could go through it all and discover for himself that we were not hiding any more cookies. Well he went through it one piece at a time (he can be so focused) and seemed to be okay when he did not find what he was looking for, so Stacye and I took him for another walk and he seemed to be warming up to us again. After this activity when we returned to the blanket he once again wanted a bite of cookie (I told you he can be focused) so we started trying to distract him with his toys. He would take the toys and throw them and shake his hand to knock them out of our hand as we were offering to play. I know he was mad but I took this as a good sign. It took him about 14 days with us on trip #1 before he got mad and he finally cried on day 21.
The real part of the visit for us was just to see him again. Stacye and I were so nervous when we turned into the baby house for our visit. When I saw the care giver bringing him to us it was such a happy relief, which is the only way I can describe my emotion. I just took inventory of him and I have to say he looked good. I do not know if he gained weight but he looks like he did and also he looks tan. And oh yeah he got a haircut. He did not have any hair to begin with so now he has less, it is a buzz and it is very cute. We’ll have to wait longer now, to find out what color his hair will be.
We came back to the hotel room very tired so we took a long nap. Even on a hard box spring it was a great rest for both of us.

We go to court Friday morning. I’m glad we will be able to go to morning court instead of waiting until the afternoon. We want this part to be behind us. We have been approved by multiple government agencies (State of MS, US, and Kaz) but we have to the have the judge’s approval before it is settled that we are Andrew’s parents. We hope she can see how much we want him to be part of our family. We will be discussing concerns/questions tomorrow with our coordinator after our visit with Andrew Thursday in order to prepare for court. Mark and I will need to review our home study and just prepare to give our life story (finances, reasons for adoption, etc.). We have been told that the judge will direct most of her questions to Mark so he will do most of the talking.

We will update soon. Thanks for all of the comments. M & S