There's no place like home...

So, here we are... still in our original city... the options aren't looking great at this point.
We have decided to come home for now. We are actually very excited to come home (back to our electricity, clean shower where flip flops are not necessary, family, and friends). We are dissapointed at the problems that we have run into here, but... we have to trust that God has a reason for us coming here and going through all of this. There are some options for us, but they aren't available right now, so we will keep everyone posted as to what the future holds. :) We may come back to a different area in the near future, but we'll see... we'll continue to post updates as we know anything...
We'll see you all when we get home. :)
Love ya!
Steph and Brad

110!!

So, the longer we stay here, the hotter it gets. Apparently sometime this week it is supposed to hit 115! That's craziness! So, I don't care what everyone says... humidity or not, that is hot!

We still haven't figured out what our next step is... we are just waiting... as patiently as possible, but it is pretty much driving us crazy (nope, apparently we were not already). Every day that we continue to hear nothing means more money and more time here. The "happy side" is that we are more thankful for our home, family, friends, jobs, and country every day.

A couple of days ago, we went to the zoo with our friends here. I'm even more thankful for our zoo! :) I can't even begin to describe what we saw. We did take pictures, but since I'm not on my computer, I can't put them on here right now. All that I can say is that our hippos, monkeys, girffes, camels, birds, crocs, lions and tigers and bears (oh my!), etc... they are VERY lucky.

Brad searched all over the zoo for a Honey Badger, but he never did see one. I'm pretty glad that we didn't see one... :) those things are scary looking!

So, we remain packed and ready to go... just waiting for a happy phone call... we'll keep you posted. Love you all! Steph and Brad

moving...

So, the request the other day for prayer... here is the deal...

Looks like we are moving to a different region.  Sometimes a door looks like it is open, but its really not... or maybe there was a lesson to learn by walking through it for a bit.  Anyway, we are basically starting over.  We aren't really sure what the next step will be, but we are waiting to hear.  Please just pray for strength, direction, peace, and sanity for us.  We will keep you updated as much as we can... keep reading.  Maybe I won't have to sell all those little girl outfits after all... When one door closes, another door opens... we can't wait to see what God has in store for us.  

By the way... a few of you have wished that you had a way to email us and you do!  Just check with my mom or Brad's mom to get the address... we'd love to hear from you. :)  Please keep the comments coming!  It gives us something to look forward to each time we do get computer access. :)  Love you all!  

One more thing... for more reading fun, check out Teresa's blog!  She's got some FUNNY stuff on there and enjoys picking on Brad a bit, so some good pics too! :)  Enjoy!

Steph

This is how the story goes...

Ok, so... here is what I think... if they are going to turn the electricity off each day (not accidentally)... they need to give me a schedule! So, just about every day the elecricity is turned off (different sections of the city at different times). It is SO irritating! Here is the story when I'm at home and the electricity goes off... it wakes me up because my fan stops making the noise that I require to be able to sleep. I get up out of bed, find my Ameren bill and call them... waiting on hold for as long as is necessary, only for them to tell me that they are aware of the problem and working on it. So, back to here... there is no number to call, it is extremely hot and for multiple hours at a time... they turn the electricity off ... on purpose (I know I said that originally, but just wanted to make sure you get the idea)!

Ok, here's another thing... today we tried to wash our clothes in the washing machine at our apartment... it took 4 hours! Seriously, not kidding... and that was with us helping it along... I kept turning the knob to try to make it stop! I thought we were never going to get our clothes back! :) Fun times in Kaz!

Keep praying for us... lots going on...

News for the day...

So, we don't have much to say today... but, we need your prayers.
There is so much going on with us, we can't really explain right now and we are fine, but... please pray for us. We will post more as we are able, but... for now, please just remember to pray for us. Thank you all SO much!

Is this butter??? :)

Ok, so the grocery stores here make it quite hard to figure out what it is that you are purchasing... I think its so that they can get you to come back when you get home and it's wrong. :) Anyway, we were hanging out with our friends last night and decided to make some popcorn... since you can't just buy microwave popcorn here, it has to be done the old fashioned way. Ok, so on with the story... sorry... So Winston came home with a package and said, "is this butter?" We all laughed! What a funny question to have to ask. It wasn't butter.... it was creme cheese, so we did have to go back... oh well.

So, we moved into an apartment today... fun stuff. So, I was hoping for the internet to be working there, but not yet... so, if you are expecting an email... sorry again. Its just not working out well for us. Hopefully we'll get it back soon. Until then, here I am at a cafe, yet again... to post a blog.

I'll try to post more soon... I have some good pics to post, but ... hopefully next time.
Signing out for now... Steph and Brad.

Gum... grrr!

So, crazy thing about this place... Yesterday went out for lunch. Our bill was 1036 tenge (that's pretty cheap, only sounds expensive). Anyway, we gave them 1200 and they gave us .60 and a pack of gum as change! Are you kidding me?! It was only a 5 stick-er too! So, here is the plan... next time we go to that rest. and it's the same price, we are going to give them 1000 and a pack of gum and see how they like it. :) Our translator can't wait to hear how that goes.

Such a different thought process... what can I say??? A month sure is a long time! We miss you all lots, but really are having a great time!

Between the folding of the underwear, electricity going out at random times each day, and packs of gum for change... we sure are looking forward to coming home!

Hopefully we'll post some more later today... later we will be heading to our new little friend, Sophie's... to play with her and her family a bit. :) Oh, and going to look at an apartment today... hopefully that works out. Then we will have constant access to internet (well... as constant as constant can be here. :). Love you all! Steph and Brad and... tbd.

O where is my hairbrush...and shoes...and underwear???

Funny thing about our hotel...the cleaning crew comes in and TOTALLY cleans the room. They fold our clothes straight from the suitcase and put them on the shelves in the closet!! They put all of our shoes neatly by the door, and I pity the fool that puts too much misc. stuff on the nightstand. All of that and they only leave one towel when they're done...and you know how Steph is about wanting to share towels with me!! She only uses her towel once a day at home, let alone after I've used it!

And yes, they folded my underwear and put them in the closet.


We're going through the "bonding period" now. We visit the baby house once a day and get an hour or two to play with the baby. (Thanks for the name ideas btw!!) Right now he loves Steph and he's not so sure about me yet. Unless he's in a great mood he'll kind of look the other way when he sees me. (Alright Grace, go ahead) The babies haven't seen many men before, especially not ones as scary as me!!! Everyone says all the dads have had the same problem, but he'll get used to me soon enough.

brad and steph

One more new post....

This next one goes out to Misty...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MISTY!
Sorry it's a little late... we got a little confused on what day it was...

Since Alia won't work anymore...

We need some help from you! Can anyone help us think of some boy names for our little guy? We need names and what they mean. We've been doing some searching, but when we look at him nothing seems quite right just yet. Sorry, you'll have to help us without being able to see him. Here's a hint, Ethan, Caleb, and Luke are three names that are being considered (although, that crazy Davis family I married into, named a dog Caleb and are having some problems with a baby being named the same... although, it was a long time ago... what kind of name is Caleb for a dog anyway?)! You know I love you all... just had to throw that in there for fun. :) So... help! Bring on the ideas for us!

Some pictures...

These are some fun pics of our day of fun around town. A huge fountain by our house (where people let their kids come and swim), places we love to eat, some new friends that we have met here, the Mega Mall, and traffic here (on a fairly good day). :) Enjoy! Make sure you read the blog that was posted previous to this one... it's the news you've been waiting for.

Anyone want to buy some cute little girl clothes?

Well... we are sorry to keep you all waiting. We've tried to update as much as possible without the info that everyone has been waiting for... but at last, we have the info! We have our baby!... well, not physically with us for a while, but we know which baby is ours. Here's the deal... just when we think we have everything figured out and we are in control, we are reminded ... yet again... that we aren't in control, but the One who is... knows exactly what He is doing and what we need. :) Anyway... Here is what we are able to share on here... 18 months, 18-19 pounds, very tall, very huge and beautiful eyes.... our little boy! :) Yep... boy it is.
What am I going to do with all those little girl clothes??? Well, I have girl shower gifts for the rest of my life... and, I might keep a few because who knows what the future holds. All I know is that I have a little boy and he pretty much stole our hearts the first moment that they brought him in to us. So, looks like Micah might have someone to start a fantasy league with someday. ;)
Of course... our little boy will know that life isn't ONLY about sports... (Brad says, "whatever", but I'm the mom and... well... you know. :)
So, we've had quite a roller coaster ride here, but now we know why we came here. We can't wait for you all to meet him. Oh, yeah... no name yet... we are working on it. We didn't really have a plan b when we started, but now... it's in full effect... a plan b. :)
We have some great pictures of a day that we took to ourselves to just relax, run around town and have fun. We'll be posting those as soon as possible. If my battery lasts now, it might happen now, but we wanted to be sure to get this one out there.
Keep reading... we'll continue to put more out here. We still have a long time here and REALLY enjoying keeping in touch with you through this. Keep posting those comments!

Address

We met two American couples here, and we went last night to this cool new cafe called Address. Yes, Address - written in English. Who knows, right? Anyway we had some great conversation and great chicken kabobs...mmm... Stephanie finally ate something!!

No new news yet on the baby...please keep us in your prayers. We'll try to get some more pics and info on here soon.

BTW, nice comments. Keep em comin'

BTW again, Brian and Bryan...how do you feel losing to a guy not even looking at his team!!!! ;-)

Will it blow? Here we go!

So, the plugs here are pretty different than they are at home. We brought several connectors so that we would be able to use all of our electronics, but the first time "trying it out" was very scary. We set out all of our electronic toys in the room and decided which was the least important. :) This was after we tried using the converter and plugging in a surge protector... a loud pop and yucky smell later... we had blown the surge protector. That was fun. After that, we were very worried about blowing something of importance. So, after weighing out all of the options, we decided that Brad's cell phone was the lucky winner! With a quick prayer and squinted eyes, we plugged it in. Nothing... then the cell showed that it was charging. :) Yipee! So, now we are set. Right now we are at a cute little restaraunt not too far from our hotel. So far, this is where we have to go to have internet access (luckily, the food here is good and not too expensive). It is about midnight where you are, but as soon as we got online, my dad was waiting to skype. :) Sometimes he just "knows" when to be where... such a "God thing". So, we were able to chat a bit with them... awesome! Just what we needed right now. Right now our schedule is very... well... there is not one. Each time we are dropped off at our hotel, we are told what the next pick up time will be... Kind of hard to "plan to skype" with family from home. However, it is pretty nice to go from such a busy, crazy, hectic time schedule at home and come here where we have a lot of free time and can just nap, watch tv (which we usually end up napping when we do), or just explore. Although, after a month or so of this... I'm sure we'll be glad to get home. Miss you much, but this is the adventure of a lifetime. We are having fun so far... no news on the one thing I know you are all waiting to hear, but ... there will be as soon as we can. Lot's of love! By the way, I was SO excited to see that Kellie and Leigh both posted blogs (they normally don't do much on the internet)! Way to go! It is great to hear from all of you. Thanks for being a part of our journey.

Shymkent- here we come!

Day 2... We were picked up at 5:30 in the morning and taken to the airport for our flight to our region. It was 1 hour and 10 minutes on Air Astana. They actually fed us the best meal that we’ve had on an airplane in that short time. J The interesting thing about the flight is that when they announced that we were preparing to land, I looked out the window and all I saw was desert… seriously! Mountains and mountains of sand! For a brief moment… well… you can imagine what was going through my mind. Anyway, Shymkent is surrounded by desert, but not as bad as I was envisioning. It’s actually a fairly good size and there is a Mega Mall a few blocks away from us (we’ve already visited… ). We are currently in a hotel room, but will be visiting an apartment tomorrow to see about moving. It would be nice to have a little more room and internet available (thus the long period without posting… sorry about that), but we are very much enjoying the air conditioning here. We’ll see what happens. That’s it for now… we’ll update more later…

Cleopatra’s

Brad and I decided that we needed something to eat and that the hotel food was too expensive, so we ventured out on our own (even forgetting the “Russian for Dummies” book at the hotel). We walked for a little while and passed a neat looking pizza place. We passed it, but later decided to check it out. When we walked in, they were very quick to start talking to us (in Russian) and very quickly figured out that we didn’t understand a word that they were saying. J They went ahead and seated us and they even had an English menu… we were very excited. We ordered a cheese pizza and 2 cans of Pepsi! It was wonderful! Too bad we are leaving here so quickly… maybe on the way back through we’ll stop by there again. We were pretty proud of ourselves.

Hotel in Almaty

Here we are in the Hotel in Almaty! We spent one night here (our first night in the country). My sister would be proud of me… no air, but we hooked up the fans and opened the windows to make it work. Check out the awesome view that we had from our room there.

Tired...????

Well... we are two very tired people...
When we first arrived, we were taken to our hotel and had no idea what came next. With really nothing to do but wait by the phone (in a VERY warm room by the way... no air here and very hot!), we did what anyone would do after 24 + hours of travel... we went to sleep, but that is usually a mistake... we'll find out in a little while when we try to sleep for the night.

Tomorrow's agenda... we leave at 5:30 am to take our flight to our region. It's the big day... hopefully we'll meet our baby. :)

Well, the battery is about to go out on me, so... keep checking back... the next post will probably be the big one. :) And... hopefully pictures of some of our trip so far.

Welcome to Kazakhstan!

It's a good thing we remembered how to login to this blog because everything is showing up online in Kazakh (or Russian... not that we can tell the difference).

Hey everyone! We are sitting in Hotel Kazakhstan! We are here, complete with luggage! Yippe. The flights were great (if a flight can be great) and we are just sitting here waiting for what comes next. We are having trouble with email, but hopefully we'll figure that out soon. More to come as soon as we can...
Steph

Packing...

Steph says..."How do they expect me to pack all that stuff on the "packing list" and not go over weight limit?"

Ahh...packing. When you're going over seas for a month how do you know what all to bring? It seems like it would be simple: clothes for me, clothes for her, but wait!...what about baby stuff, books, DVDs (in English), and what about those packing lists you get from everyone who's been over there already? Just to give some perspective...the link at the bottom of the page has like 300 suggested items to pack!!! What?!? It also says somewhere that you should make sure you don't take too much luggage...I give up! ;-)

Well, our next post will be from across the pond!

brad


Here's the link: (http://kazakhadoptivefamilies.com/packing_index.html)

Kazakstan here we come!!!!!

Stephanie and I just got the call. We're coming to Kazakhstan!! We are leaving July 14th 2008 to go meet our daughter. We don't know anything about her yet...but we can't wait to find out. We're going to Shymkent in Kazakhstan. Take a look at the map. More to come soon!