1st day outside and it was a Bittersweet Experience!!!

April 23, 2010

Our 2nd trip to Kazakhstan and we are now allowed to bring the kids outside, however we choose not to bring Dylan out until our observation day was over. Since we had a lot of catching up to do before the judge and everyone else came to observe us, we decided it was better to stick to an easy daily routine for him to get familiarized with us as much as possible. We tried to go out yesterday but the strange doctor came to see us and told us not to go out because Dylan was starting a cold. It’s so hot outside and they still have the same mentality that they will get sick if they go outside and they still have 2 layers of clothes and the kids are still hot and sweating!!! So today FINALLY we took him out for the 1st time and it was a nice experience except Fil and I got the SCARE OF OUR LIFE!!!! We are slowly getting to know his eating habits and slowly introducing him to new foods. Well we really don’t know what they eat except for what we see here and there. But we understood the hard way that the kids here are so afraid of not having enough food that they put everything in their mouth all in 1 shot. We gave Dylan a piece of banana and he put it all in his mouth. We now watch what we give him in fear that he can choke.

That afternoon after lunch Fil decided to shave his hair with the clipper he brought from home. He did it outside while Christoph, Nathalie and I were all sitting in the yard watching him shave his head without his shirt on. All of a sudden while Fil was half way done the clipper blew-up!!!!! We started cracking up of laughter and as Fil was opening the clipper to see what happened Medet our driver and our lawyer came in our yard to talk to us… It was really funny and Fil was so embarrassed!! When they left I told Fil, “it’s not that bad if you keep your cap on” Well you know Fil, god forbid there is one hair out of place and he responded, “MARY I’M NOT STAYING LIKE THIS”!!!!! He then called Vera our coordinator & translator and explained to her what happened and she started to laugh, he told her he was going to a salon and if he could call her from the salon so she can explain what happened. So Fil and I went to the salon and as we walked in I told her nyet ruski, (no Russian) so she pointed at me and did the gesture cut my hair and I said nyet and pointed at Fil. Fil took out his cap and she started laughing and she called another hairdresser to come in and she started laughing too. I told Fil, “The hairdresser understands it’s to shave the remainder of your head” But he HAD to call Vera so she can explain to the hairdresser what happened… I think he was very embarrassed but we ALL had a nice laugh on his behalf. It cost him 200 tenge, about $1.00!!!

That night we went to have supper with Christoph, Nathalie, and the Americans Becky and Jeremy!!!! Becky and Jeremy have been here since December and went to court April 12 and also had the same lawyer as us. Our observation day with the judge was on the same day as Becky and Jeremy and it made it a little easier being in the same room at the same time