April 12th

We thought we were going to meet with the social worker today, but like most things in the workings of Kazakhstan judical system, nothing is ever a certainty. That’s a very frustrating concept for most Americans and type-A personalities like myself, still every day gets better with Sam. I think we’re quite certain his name will be Sam. He looks like a Sam to us, mostly we call him Bull, as he will eat everything and anything and nothing seems to slow him down or frustrate him. Our son now possesses two distinct personalities, that of an orphanage child and that of a young child becoming part of a family. Today we went to a park with a man-made lake and run down amusement park. The park wasn’t open yet, but it was good for the boys to get to run outside a bit. The lake reminded me of Altus except that it wasn’t 100 degrees and this lake was full of trash. It was nice to see people out taking walks, running and riding their bikes. Still Vitalik was stoic, our translator Ika was with us. Even though she is very kind, I think he still associates her with the Orphanage and thus will not become the same little boy we love to see and play with from 10-1800. As soon as he entered our apartment our son emerged. Laughing, smiling, and speaking much more. He now loves to play the “boo” game with Ian and Papa and will of course, roar, like a lion, just like his brother. I’m so glad the stoic boy leaves once he comes to stay with us during the day, but I feel bad that as soon as we get ready to go back to the detsky dom, the stoic Vitalik arrives once again. It really makes me wonder about leaving him for the 3 or so weeks. As much as I’m ready to go home, the thought of him building all of his walls back up to defend his sweet little self, just tears at my heartstrings. They told us Vitalik had a bath yesterday so when it was time to have Ian take a bath, we weren’t certain if he’d want to bathe or not. As soon as Ian clothes were off, Vitalik wanted to join in. They love their bath time, just bonding as brothers and practicing pouring water into coke and diet- pepsi 1 liter bottles. It’s also nice to see Ian want to have things done just for brother or simply to share with brother and Vitalik is always good to return the favor.

Oh, we tried to have eggs, bacon and cereal last night for dinner, but the eggs just looked and smelled different, so I once again made up my dinner to-go food bag and set it outside of the garbage can and sure enough it was gone in the AM, just like the beef salami. Our bacon was SO good, I can hear my rabbi denouncing me already, but I can’t help it, I love bacon and shellfish. Tonight we may just go out again or have some muesli, bacon and fruit, our new staple. I also wanted to thank everyone for sending us email and little messages via our blog site. We love reading them each morning and it’s very frustrating that our internet is so slow that we can barley get our blog published and check our home email account in under an hour. We do appreciate you reading about our adventures and sending us notes from home. Janiece, I promise to wake up earlier and send you an email. Beth and Jeff, we really miss our neurotic Baby-Dog coming to greet us each morning. And to the family member of the Hunt Adoption Blog, we hope Karina, Riley, and Mom and Dad are doing well and will be stateside soon!! Also, I hope the 3 older girls from Livinski are homeward bound and I’m hoping the parents of Aidan and Liam are on their way back to Kazakhstan from Austin. PS. I love Shiner Bock!!!