Freezing in Moscow

We're in Moscow, and we're FREEZING! I can't even explain how cold it is here (though I hear Denver is having some cold weather as well). But it's a Christmas wonderland, the food is amazing, the city is huge, the buildings are beautiful, and we're having a good time. Our little boy was actually born in Moscow, and he lived in an orphanage here for almost a year before getting moved to Kyrgyzstan. Tomorrow we plan on visiting the place he first lived. More Moscow posts will come, but I need to get to bed now!

Bye Bye Little Boy

We said goodbye to our little boy today. It was so hard to do, even though we know he's in good hands and we'll hopefully be back soon. We left a picture album with him showing some of the fun things we've done together over the past ten days (bowling, cars, tea time, etc.). We hope his caretakers will show it to him often and remind him that it's his Mommy and Daddy in the pictures and that we're coming back for him.

It was a special day to be at the orphanage, because our son's group was putting on a Christmas program for the rest of the kids. So when we showed up, our boy was dressed as the most adorable little jester you've ever seen! He was the only one with this costume, whereas the rest of the kids were dressed the same as others (bears, fairies, sheep, etc.). He didn't really have a specific part in the program, so we're not really sure why he got to be a jester, but it was adorable. The program included all of the kids in his group and lots of caretakers. They really went all out with costumes, decorations, a script, and music. Though we couldn't understand the language (it was based on a Russian fairytale), it was fun to watch. And our son really enjoyed it. He sat with us during most of the program, though we had him go join in a couple of group songs where they held hands and danced around the Christmas tree. We totally felt like "those" parents...snapping pictures like crazy and videotaping and waving at our kid from the audience. Ha-look what we've become in a matter of days!

After the program, we helped him change back into his regular clothes, and then we just played in the main room together for one last time. We looked at the picture book, wrestled, played with a balloon, and shared lots of hugs and kisses. When lunchtime rolled around, we had to let him go. He waved goodbye and sat down to eat. We peeked through the crack in the door for as long as we possibly could. I didn't want to leave!

As for when we'll be back, we've heard all sorts of things, varying from three to eight weeks. The latest we've heard is that government workers are on vacation until January 20th. Then the paperwork takes two weeks to process. So that would put our court date in early February, but who knows? All I know is that it can't come soon enough!

We're now in Moscow for a few days. I looked at pictures and videos of our boy over and over on the flight here. It'll be hard to wake up tomorrow morning and know we're not going to see him. It's nice that we have this Russian New Year's trip to distract us for a bit before heading back to Denver. I do miss Molly, but I hope we can head back to Kyrgyzstan again very soon!

Horsing Around

On our last night in Kyrgyzstan, we ate at an awesome restaurant named Supara out near the mountains with our driver Aziz and our new friend Mary. It was a great way to celebrate the amazing time we've had in this country. Traditional Kyrgyz food was served in a yurt structure by costumed servers. I was brave and ordered besbarmak, which means "five fingers," because you are supposed to eat it with your hands. It's the national dish of Kyrgyzstan, and it included noodles with mutton and horse. Yup, I ate horse. Horse lovers, don't hate me! It wasn't too bad actually; it kind of just tasted like beef. However, I did not touch the sheep intestines or other unidentifiable things on my plate. Zack tried a bit of that and was not impressed! The chicken and mutton kebobs were delicious, and we all had some good laughs over tea and lepyoshka while trying (or avoiding) new foods.

We're so glad we've gotten to experience some of this unique culture and beautiful land. While certain parts of it remind us of other places we've lived or traveled, in other ways it's unlike any place we've been before. We can't wait to come back!

Not Quite Goodbye

Today was the tenth day with our boy, and we made the most of it. He definitely knows us now, and we actually got a video of him running up to us when we arrived. He smiled like crazy and gave us lots of hugs. Officially, this should have been our last day together, but since our flight doesn't leave until 5:30pm tomorrow, we get an extra morning with him. So I'll leave being sad until then. 

Because today is Sunday, there was a much smaller staff on duty. Only one caretaker was in charge of the whole group (about 15-20 kids) for awhile. The main playroom wasn't open, so we stayed in the group room for the first hour or so. The kids were watching a Russian cartoon, but once we were there, some of them were pretty focused on watching us play with our boy. It was so sad; they were looking longingly at us, and you could tell they wanted some attention too. When the caretaker stepped into the other room briefly, they'd all start toddling toward us like little zombie children! We tried to play with some of them and hold them, but our boy started getting a little possessive and pushing them away. It just makes you want to take them all home. We brought them little candy canes, and they loved getting all sticky while slurping on those.

After a bit, we went outside, and our boy had fun popping bubbles that landed on the ground, touching the snow, and getting pushed on the swing. We had a little bit of time in a smaller playroom before we had to go, and we built (and knocked over) towers of bricks and stacked rings. He also thought he was pretty funny when he ran into the adjoining room and peeked at us from the doorway. We wonder if he's ever been allowed to go in a room unsupervised before!

We've packed up our suitcases, including way too many toys and souvenirs for our boy. Tomorrow, there's some sort of show at the orphanage at 10am. We'll stick around until noon, but then it'll be time to say goodbye to our son. We'll be leaving him with a picture book of fun times we've had together, some clothes and a blanket, and hopefully lots of great memories until we can be together again.

Bubbles and Mountains

It was a beautiful, sunny day today, so we spent part of our time with our son outside at the orphanage. He liked popping the bubbles we blew and walking around in the snow. However, there was a stray dog trotting around, and anytime we got too close to it, he started crying. We'll have some work to do to get him to like our dog Molly! He recognized us again when we arrived and came right over to us. In the playroom, he was a bit all over the place today, playing with a little bit of everything. Our time with him went by way too quickly. Luckily, our flight doesn't leave until 5:30pm on Monday, so we get to visit him for an extra day. That's good, because it means tomorrow is not our last day with him!

After we left the orphanage, our coordinator and her husband took us through the mountains. The other two couples are gone now (they came earlier than us and already finished their ten days), so it's just us in town. It was a gorgeous drive. Cows, horses, and sheep walked alongside (and sometimes across) the road, little kids were riding on real sleds with runners, and there were small villages with amazing views. Sometimes we felt like we were back in Colorado. It's incredible to think that just six months ago we didn't know this country existed, but now we're here falling in love with our son and the mountains of his homeland.

In this picture, you can see some people in the distance playing Kok-Boru, a traditional game played on horses. One team tries to get a headless goat carcass into the other team's goal. There were dogs running around as well. Behind them, you can see a Muslim cemetery. The Kyrgyz are officially Muslim, but their religion is heavily influenced by nomadic/animistic/nature-related spirituality and beliefs.

We loved our time in the mountains, and we stopped by another fabulous Kyrgyz restaurant for lunch on the way back to the hotel. We ate delicious shashlik (kebobs)...beef, lamb, and liver. Well, Zack tried the liver one (and liked it). I was afraid to gag in front of our coordinator! We also had fish and the usual bread and tea. It was another wonderful day in Kyrgyzstan!

A Fun Snow Day

It snowed last night! Everything was so beautiful on our drive out to Tokmok. There doesn't seem to be any wind here, so even the tiniest of branches had snow piled on them. Gorgeous! Their system of making the roads safer is interesting. They have trucks full of dirt with guys standing in the back. They take a shovelful of it and launch it out into the street. So there are random streaks of dirt all along the snow-covered road. There are also snowplows of sorts that look more like tractors.



We had a really fun visit with our boy today. He was in such a good mood. We think it was because they had just finished up with a Christmas program (with big bubbles and everything) when we got there. He totally recognized us. When we came in, he saw me, and he got off his seat right away and ran (well, his version of running) over to me. So cute! I picked him up and he gave me like four big hugs in a row, totally unprompted!



We went to the playroom, and Zack found a ladder and swing contraption in the corner that we hadn't noticed before. Thankfully, Zack had a good grip on him, because he was all about climbing and hanging and swinging and such. He had the biggest smile on his face the whole time. He also had some fun rolling around on the floor and just being silly. We were all laughing a lot today. We also learned that he knows how to do a fist bump, and Zack got him to say "Papa" (their word for Daddy).



Mary gave us a horse puppet to use with him, and Zack had fun showing him that while he drank his juice box. Cars were a big hit again. Zack grabs a truck and starts pushing it, and our son always immediately goes and finds this huge red car (it's like the size of him) that he pushes around behind his daddy. It's pretty adorable. We worked on fitting shapes into a box again, played some music with the Russian book, knocked over bowling pins, and drank fake tea. We're definitely learning which toys we need to be sure to have for him at home...a bowling set, a kitchen set, and a huge red car!


When we got back to Bishkek, we tried to go to a restaurant recommended by our hotel, but they were having a private party. After wandering around for awhile, we found another recommended one, and we had a delicious meal with some of our favorite traditional Kyrgyz food. Tonight is pretty low-key. We might watch a movie and just go to bed early. Our days in Kyrgyzstan are winding down.

Merry Christmas from Kyrgyzstan

Christmas morning started out with a beautiful sunrise today as we drove toward Tokmok. I don't think I could have dreamed of a better Christmas present than our son! How can any future Christmas ever compete with this one? Of course, next Christmas, when he's hopefully home safely in Denver with us will be pretty awesome too. I can't wait to take him to see Santa, hang a stocking for him, go sledding, decorate Christmas cookies, put up the tree together, sing Christmas carols, and just be together as a forever family.

When we first arrived at the orphanage this morning, the caretakers explained that he had been sick the day before. From what we could gather, he was hot (had a fever?) and his throat was red (sore?). We know he's been congested, but we didn't know if that was normal for him. The air in the cities here is extremely smoggy and polluted, so we worry about his lungs and breathing. Time to get him home to some fresh Colorado mountain air! An interesting belief here is that if you drink something cold or expose your throat area to cold air, you will get sick. So they put a scarf on our boy before going outside today, and they double-checked the juice box we gave him to make sure it was room temperature.

We spent the morning playing with our boy's usual favorites (cars, blocks, shapes, pretend food, doctor, etc.), along with some new things like stickers, looking in the mirror, talking on a toy cell phone, and hitting a balloon. His Christmas present was a little toy piano, which he had fun playing for awhile. We taught him to clink his cup with ours when we say "Cheers," and when we quack like a duck and flap our arms, he does the cutest shoulder shrugging thing. He's definitely getting more comfortable with us and testing some limits. We had to say "nyet" (no) a few times and take away a toy or two when he started to hit things! But he's still the sweetest little thing and loves to give hugs and giggle. We can't believe our time with him on this trip is already more than half over. 

We spent the afternoon at our in-country coordinator's house in Bishkek having a Kyrgyz Christmas feast. The Kyrgyz do not let you go hungry! We had all of the usual favorites (tea, lapyoshka, soup, plov, fruit, etc.). It was so delicious, and it was awesome to spend the holiday with the other couples who are in Kyrgyzstan for their bonding visits as well. In the picture, you can see Song and Darren, who are adopting a baby girl from the orphanage where our son lives. Saule is our coordinator, and her husband is standing next to her. Haley and Piyush are adopting a little girl from another orphanage, but they are staying at the same hotel as us. It's been awesome having others to share the journey with us. We're hoping that our second and third visits can be coordinated together as well!

Merry Christmas to all. We hope yours is as happy as ours!