Another Great Day with Ben

We had another great session with Ben today. We have discovered that he really LOVES animal cookies. We break them into crumbs and he licks them off my finger. He usually comes to us with 3 to 4 shirts and at least 3 pairs of pants; we quickly take all the excessive clothing off and let him have feet without socks. I think this maybe the first time he has ever been without socks and he loves it. In each of our sessions with him, he loves to say dadadadada, all the time. I was hoping that maybe one of my boys would say mama first, but nope.

Let me also say that I am sorry for any typos or misused words in this blog. We get very little sleep here. We have all the time in the world to sleep, but cannot. There is a cat that meow’s all night, and then there is cujo (we named him) that lives downstairs that barks. Then the bed we have is a full size and is only a mattress, they do not have box springs here. The bed is lumpy and very worn out. Usually one of us sleeps in the bed and the other on the couch. The couch is like sleep on a layer of bricks. This is the reason we get NO sleep. We both really miss our bed. Yes, we know we are very spoiled American’s and we are really ok with that and miss home terribly. At this point I would feel comfortable being on the show survivor , I could do it.

Dear Shana, We sincerely apologize for ever saying you were a bad driver! Our coordinator has been driving us and we both have gotten car sick in the short 15 minute drive. This does not mean we are willing to ride with you again, just saying you are not the worst driver.

We know everyone wants more pictures of Ben and we will be posting them tomorrow evening Kazakhstan time/ Tuesday morning U.S time.

Our Trip To The Bazar

We went to the bazar today, which is a cross between a flea market and a Wal-Mart disturbation open air center (if there was such a thing). They had everything from meat, produce, baked goods, socks, underwear, fabric, blankets, winter coats,shoes, DVD’s, just everything you could ever want. It was isle after isle of stuff crammed into the bazar. The good thing was our coordinator took us , so it was easy for us to shop. We told her what we wanted to purchase and she took us to those items, otherwise we would have been there for days!

There was a very sweet old Kazakhstan woman who made the most beautfiul shaws . She was in her late 70’s and we must have been the first American’s she had ever seen. We commented that we had such fair skin and then asked if it really took 14 hours over the ocean to get to Kazakhstan. We later went back to her and purchased a shaw for 1,800teng or about $15. After I gave her the money she held my hand and said bless you and have a safe journey. She was what you think of when you think of the older women in Kazakhstan. Looking back we should have taken her picture.

One week in Kazakhstan

First, let me say if I have lead anyone to believe that this is a fun adventure or wonderful vacation, I have led you wrong. We spend 85% of our day here in the apartment. Then 5% going to the market everyday, gives us something to do. The last 10% during the weekday is spent at the baby house, the highlight of our day. I have read two large books , and Mike has also been reading. The TV is all in Russian or Kaza expect for the Germany station which is only sometimes in English. We did have CNN International for the first couple of days , which was like a life line for us , but it is now gone. Our coordinator did bring us some movies and sessions of Everyone Loves Raymond, which appears to be a big show here in Kazakhstan. We have internet at the apartment which is only dial up and we pay about $1/hour. To get high speed internet we have to go to resturants. The food….well we are trying new things. We do cook a lot at the apartment mainly grilled cheese and pasta.I know lots of carbs. I just want a really nice baked potato and some meat I know. Yes potatos are popular here, but the ones at the market just do not look that great.

We noticed on Friday more of a miltary presents on the weekend than we did during the week, so we decided to stay at the apartment most of Saturday. Today, Sunday we are going to the bazar (big open air market). This should be an interesting experience.

Another day in Kazakhstan

Another cold winter day in Kazakhstan. We discovered in our bonding session with Ben today that he loves electronics (know you would be thrilled grandpa) and we showed him pictures of Nolan on Mike's iTouch. We also gave him broken up animal cookies and man did he love those! I think he would have eat the whole box if we would have let him. Will post pictures from the session sometime this weekend.

We ate lunch today at a new resturant, they claimed to have a cheeseburger. Well it looked like a cheeseburger, but we are 100% sure it was not made from a cow. Mike did not like it so much , but I thought it was pretty good. At dinner tonight Mike tried lamb for the first time and it was good. Mike also tried a milkshake today, he said the ice cream hide the fact it was not cow milk that it was made with.

The snow and ice are starting to melt which makes walking around town much easier.

The baby house is closed on the weekends. Our coordinator will be taking us to the barzar on Sunday. This is where we are hoping to get somethings for Ben to always have from his homeland.

We will know on Wednesday our court date for the following week, right now it looks like we maybe able to come home 2 days early.

Baby House - Second Bonding Session

Today was our second bonding session with Ben, and what a great time we had. They keep him in many outfits at once. Under his once piece outfit he had on footed sweat paints and two other shirts. We quickly took off the extra pants and he started to crawl. He can get up on all fours and rock back and forth and go forward a bit. He wants to crawl so badly.

We have learned that he is ticklish on his ribs and loves to smile. I kept trying to get him to say mama, but no all he wanted to say was dadada. Mike was thrilled.

We have offically told our coordinator that we would like to adopt him. We have to take pictures everyday and start a short journal of our experience to prepare for court.

I have uploaded pictures of life in Kazakstan and by popular demand more pictures of Ben to enjoy. The people in Kazakhstan are very nice and we seem to be getting along ok without speaking Russian. Thank goodness for picture menus!

Pictures of Ben

We have spoken on the phone to our ped and via email and feel much more comfortable about Ben's medical information we were given.

If you would like to see him, please go to www.kodakgallery.com/littefamily

We get to see him again today from 2-4pm. We will be posting more pictures of Kazakhstan tonight (our time) /tomorrow morning East coast time.

By the way we made sweet tea yesterday and it was just like home! The burgers turned out great!!!

Christmas in Kazakhstan

We did not get to visit the baby house today, it was closed for Christmas. This is the first time ever the government of Kazakhstan has given workers the day off for Christmas. New Years is the big holiday here in Kazakhstan.

We will be going back to the baby house tomorrow afternoon, our visits are from 2-4 pm.

Everything is fine. At the store here we call wal-mart (does not even compare) we found ground beef. It was very expensive $7.70 a pound and I have no idea if it was ground chuck, ground round, etc. We were just excited it was cow. We did pretty well communicating with the lady at the meat counter, there was a picture of a cow. We pointed at the picture and the ground beef and she nodded, and we made hamburgers tonight, yummy!!