Officially Officially Officially Mommy and Daddy!!!!

January 27th, 2011

Dylan finally came out of the baby house today!!!!

Our Very Own Son

Born not from our flesh,

but born in our hearts,

You were longed for and wanted

and loved from the start.

Conceived from a blessing

sent straight from above,

Our very "own" son

at last home to love.


Your Adoption

On the day you were adopted
You were placed in our lives
And born into our hearts
In a very special way.

We played with you,
We dreamed of you,
We prepared for you,
We waited for you.

And when we finally held you
For the very first time
It felt like you Belonged to us Forever!!

xoxox mommy and daddy love you very much Dylan xoxoxox

Our New Apartment

Our Apartment - 2nd Floor with Metal Fence

Living Room

Bedroom

Washroom: Tub, Sink and Washing Machine

Toilet
Fil jokes around saying the toilet is so small
you need to back up to get in.

Dining Room

Closed balcony with Kitchen

January 25th, 2011

We moved out of the Interlink apartment on January 9th into our new apartment. We had to move out because a director from the US at Interlink was coming and that apartment is mainly used for Interlink staff. We are very grateful to have had the opportunity to spend almost 2 months at the Interlink apartment. The apartment was very clean, bright, spacious and very comfortable.

We now moved downtown Taraz and it’s very convenient because everything is footsteps away. We moved on top of a jewellery boutique in a 4 storey apartment building and we are on the 2nd floor. The apartment is not exactly new but we are very happy because it’s clean, spacious, affordable, centrally located and most importantly we feel secure here.
The apartment consists of 1 bedroom, a very spacious living room which is very good for Dylan, a washroom with a bathtub and shower, a sink and washing machine, a separate toilet, a dining room, and a closed off big balcony which is used for the kitchen that has a sink, stove, fridge and cupboards.
We have lived in Kazakhstan in total of over 7 months now and have had 4 different homes. We really didn’t mind moving at any of the times because it gave us something to do. Pack, unpack, clean before leaving and clean the new place and get used to the new place as well.

Vicki helped us move out and into our new apartment and when she saw we were missing some things at our new apartment she left and quickly came back with everything we needed to help our stay here a lot more pleasurable.
She brought us A COFFEE MACHINE, 3 warm blankets, comfortable pillows, cups, knives, a pot, movies, a rack for clothes to dry, cutting board, and a bowl.
Thank you so much Vicki for taking such good care of us!!! We can’t wait until you come to visit us in Montreal so we can spoil you too.

January 22, 2011

The Picasso's on Duty!!

Mausoleum of Khodja Ahmed Yasawi

Camels outside the Mausoleum

Our apartment in Shymkent

January 20th, 2011

Today we went to visit Turkestan. Turkestan is about 2 hours away from Shymkent. In Turkestan we visited the Mausoleum of Khodja Ahmed Yasawi and the museum.
Women must cover their heads when you enter any Mausoleum, Mosques or Orthodox churches.

Mausoleum of Khodja Ahmed Yasawi

The mausoleum for Khodja Ahmed Yassawi is an architectural beauty. It is rightfully recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage site. It truly fits in the league of Samarkand and Bukhara along with the other Timurid architectural heritage. Construction was started by Tamerlane in 1399 but abruptly broken off in 1405 with Tamerlane’s death. Therefore the front of the building nor the interior were ever finished with the grandeur that could be predicted from what was already completed.

The dome is 37 meter in diameter and the largest in Central Asia. Not surprising since this was the last project that Tamerlane had started and he was known to looking to exceed the grandeur of his previous construction projects with each new building.The north side of the building is the most beautiful with the ribbed dome above the mausoleum. The rest of the building was designed to not only house the mausoleum for Khodja Ahmed Yassawi, but also a guest house with a kitchen to feed the guest, a mosque, a library and many other rooms.

Today the mausoleum is a destination for worship and pilgrimage. Families make the trip from afar to come and pray near the grave of Khodja Ahmed Yassawi, completing their pilgrimage with a counter clockwise tour of the mausoleum praying and touching the walls hoping it will help make their wishes come true.It’s also a favorite destination for newly weds who also come to pray and receive blessings for good luck and happiness in the marriage.

It felt really good to get away from Taraz for a couple of days because this 2 week appeal is driving us insane. Vera #2 treated us so great and there are no words to describe the world of wonder she has done for us. She kept us busy, entertained and occupied the whole time we were there and we really enjoyed ourselves with her. She is a remarkable and smart girl with a great heart and we wish her a lifetime of success, health and happiness.
Thank you Vera #2 from the bottom of our hearts, you have no idea what you have done to us and we will forever be grateful for your kindness.

Memorial Park

After much hesitation Vera finally decided to get in the freezing water (good job Vera)

Teenagers getting baptized

Babies getting baptized

January 19, 2011

Vera picked us up at our apartment and we went for breakfast. In Taraz there are no restaurants that we know of that serve breakfast but in Shymkent there is. We had delicious Crepes with cottage cheese (equivalent to ricotta in Canada) with some cream and also Crepes with minced meat (beef). They were amazing!!!

We then continued our touring in Shymkent. We visited malls, oil refinery company and park where they commemorated the soldiers that were implicated in a war against Germany in 1941 to 1945. There were a lot of soldiers that died in this war. Last year was their 65th year anniversary and renovated the park in memory of the soldiers.

Orthodox believers celebrate Epiphany by taking a plunge into waters around the world.

On January 19th, the Russian Orthodox Church celebrates Epiphany.
Epiphany is one of the main Christian holidays, one of twelve, which is celebrated and has been since the first ages of Christianity. On this day, the Lord Jesus Christ was baptized in the River Jordan.
The Gospels say that St. John the Baptist, also known as John the Forerunner, who started the practice of baptizing people, received a revelation that the Savior of mankind would come to him to be baptized. Several days later, Jesus Christ came to him. When Jesus was baptized, the Holy Spirit in the image of a dove descended on Him, and John heard the voice of God the Father: “This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased”.
“Christ’s mission was to deify man’s nature – and to sanctify the whole world. By receiving baptism in the River Jordan, He sanctified the water element – and thus the whole of nature.
“On Epiphany’s eve, the Orthodox Church performs a ceremony of sanctifying water. On Epiphany, many people try to dip into ice holes.
The feast of Epiphany has always been especially loved by Christians. In the earlier ages of Christianity, the Church baptized people only on Epiphany, thus the feast was celebrated for several days. Today, the ceremony of baptism is performed all year long.
Russian Orthodox believers observe strict fasting on Epiphany’s Eve. In the morning of January 19, a ceremony of sanctifying water is performed in the churches.

Drinking sanctified water is believed to bring corporal and spiritual health. This water is also used for sanctifying houses and offices.

Today January 19 which is the Russian holiday where people get baptized and re-baptized at church. Vera took us with her mom, aunt, cousin and friends to an Orthodox Church in the mountains. Vera explained to us that this holiday is once a year on January 19 and people get baptized or re-baptized on this day. They drink holy water which comes from the mountains and people also fill up their bottles to bring home. There is a small section they closed off where water is collected from the mountains so that people can get in and get baptised with this blessed water. You must get in this freezing cold water, do the sign of the cross and dunk your head under the water 3 consecutive times. There were also ceremonies for the first ones getting baptized. There were 3 little babies which were about 3 months old and 5 teenagers who got baptized for the 1st time. The priest got in the water and then baptized them one at a time. 1st he started with the babies by taking them and dunking them under the water 3 consecutive times. The babies didn’t even have a chance to cry because the water was so cold and by the time their heads were out of the water it was back in. I felt so bad for those babies but they seemed fine once they got out and into a nice big warm blanket their parents wrapped them up with. Once the babies were done came the teenagers. Once he baptized them he ended the ceremony by him also dunking his head under water 3 times. After all this we attended the 2nd part of the ceremony in church. The women must cover their heads in church so we all had to put on a vale before we entered the church.


After this day in the mountains at an orthodox church we were then invited to one of the moms’ friends house for a late lunch. It was great to be with all these people and they welcomed us and treated us so nice.