Becoming the 4 McCaffery's

We've created this webpage for our family, friends, and future adoptive families to follow us in our adoption journey to Kazakhstan to become a family of 4. Thanks for reading, we hope you enjoy it!!

Saturday, May 06, 2006

Saturday May 6th



This morning I felt very pampered having Joe cook Sam and I thick, tasty pancakes, pears, bananas, and great coffee, along with a few other families adopting various aged children in different orphanages within Karaganda. Meeting Jo and Agnes and some of the other American couples has been a real G-d send for my sanity. It makes my day 100x better to be able to talk to adults on a regular basis. It’s also nice for Sam to be able to speak a bit of Russian with children in a relaxed environment vs. at the detsky-dom where I believe he felt as if his every move was constantly being watched and in turn could never truly relax or speak freely with us or his “roommates.” Sam woke up this morning at 0530 and was a bit sad that he couldn’t get up and play. I asked him if he wanted to lay in either Sam’s bed or in Mama’s bed and he played the I can’t speak and I’m going to pout attitude so I carried him to his bed, kissed his forehead and said, “night night.” He fell back asleep til around 0830. No toy this morning to greet me as I awoke, he must have been hungry because he was very eager to put my pillow on his chair for breakfast time as our poor little peanut can barely reach the table. When I told him no and tried to explain to him that we were going to eat breakfast at Tanya’s house in broken English and Russian hee got all teary and pouted for about 5 minutes until I told him to get his shoes on and that we were going to Tanya’s papa’s house. The kids and the adults both had a great time at the pancake party and then we hit the Trash Park for about 20 minutes and met Sharon and her son, Ivan and played ball for a bit. It has yet to warm up, which has been a bit frustrating as being outside helps both Sam and I enjoy the day much more. We came home and I gave Sam a bath and then we had a great lunch. Sam’s English comprehension and and spoken word improves daily. I’m hoping Tim will really notice a difference in 3 weeks when we return home. Yes, in 3 weeks from today Sam and I should be on a plane for Frankfurt and then Newark! Everyone keep your fingers crossed. In addition to Sam’s great strides in language, he has made amazing strides in showing emotion, and enjoying love and affection. He gives kisses daily without being asked to do so and it’s good to see him smile and giggle daily. He’s also a ham and I have a feeling he’ll be a real jokester once he conquers the English language. I quasi-watched two interesting programs on BBC World today. I love BBC World on the week-ends as they have great 1 hr documentaries on various topics. Today’s included the growth of Dubai and the Palm Islands and their plan to make the largest hotel and glitzy area, like a super Las Vegas for the Arabic World. It looked pretty cool. Then there was a great story about an Israeli man David Bandiboin. He believes through music, essentially the learning and playing of classical western music both Palestinians in the occupied areas and Israelis have a chance to harmonize and understand one another better. While it’s was a bit on the sappy side, it’s always nice to see/hear about stories where people still use the power of human kindness and compassion to learn and solve issues vs. slander and force. Today Sam was a English talking machine. He kept pointing to pictures in our Russian/English Picture Dictionary and saying, in English Please. It was great to see his quest for knowledge. He also has almost mastered counting to 15 with no help. We took a quick walk to the market to pick up another Nursat Card and get some potato perogi and frozen broccoli and ran into Jo, Agnes, Ryan and Tanya as well as Sharon and her son, Ivan. They were looking for the Assorti Café. Of course Tanya picked up Sam and wanted to take him with them to dinner being the mean Mama that I am, I made him come with me!! While walking home from the store, I caught a glimpse of and elderly women, probably in her 70’s. At first, I thought she was a man, because she had on men’s shoes and a blazer and then I noticed she was wearing different colored gloves and walking in the direction of our giant trash cans and was about to go dumpster diving. I know this happens all over the world but to see it happen in front of you, while you're with your child as your returning home from the grocery store with no real cares in the world was another. I opened my grocery bag and ripped our flat bread in half and simply gave it to her. She smiled and walked on. Sam seemed a bit puzzled and I simply told him some people have “nyet food” and you need to try and help others less fortunate than yourself when you can, just as we’ve taught Ian. I spoke to my friend Anjanette today and things are going pretty well for her clan. I must admit, for as much as I’m ready to leave Kaz, I’m thankful that we have had some extra freedoms that other families have not. While some families have been promised to have a court date within 6 days of their bonding period, others have been told you will go to the orphanage visit 2x/day and go back to your hotel and apartment and go to the grocery store only as needed. They have been told it’s not in your best interest to speak to other Americans a/o explore Karaganda. So, how the heck are these people suppose to tell their children where they’re from, what their culture was like, the positives, the negatives, etc. That seems ridiculous. I’m glad Jo and Agnes have found a “souvenir” shop that has both Kazakh and Russian items for sale, as I would like to get one or two mementos from his homeland. While I’m very happy Sam is growing and thriving on multiple levels, I really miss Ian, his companionship, his conversation, and his sweet kisses and hugs. Today's photo is from the Pancake Party. Their apartment is full of these gigantic stuffed animals that you would win from playing gams at a State Fair or something .

1 Comments:

Blogger Sarah said...

Hi,

I am an adoptive mom, home in Nov 2003 with our then 3 year old daughter. I just wanted to comment on the suvenior shopping. I'm so glad to see you are planning to pick some things up for your son. I had bought our daughter a couple of things and then when we got to Almaty I bought a few more. I didn't really want to spend the money, after a process that was costing me SO much. I have to say though, that I do not regret a single thing I bought and immediately after getting home I realized how I would never be able to go back and get anything like it again. The things really are priceless once you are home. So as you do your shopping, don't hold back, you won't regret the extra $20-$40 whatever it might be you could save, but you might regret not having those momentos down the road. I am SO glad I did that extra shopping in Almaty because I know I would not have been satisfied with the few things I got in my daughter's birth city.

Another tip.......I bought my daughter a small set of stacking dolls that were hers to play with, and then a bigger "nicer" set for a keepsake. She was happy to have the little one to play with and I was happy that she could and I didn't have to worry so much about her ruining it or losing an important keepsake.

I'm really enjoying your blog! Congratulations on your son and I hope the next three weeks go by quickly for you!

Take care,
Sarah

2:49 PM  

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