Well we had a pretty frustrating morning here in Aktobe. Basically we finally made it to the baby house this morning a little late, mostly because we had fresh snow. Then we arrived to find out no visit, for reasons that we still don’t understand. After numerous phone calls back and forth between us and our team here and after 1 ½ hours of just standing at the entrance to the baby house we were finally picked up by a taxi driver and returned to our apartments. We arrived back to our apartment still not knowing if we would have an afternoon visit or not. Around 1:30 pm we got a call saying they would pick us up at 3:30 to go visit with Lincoln from 4 to 6pm. Besides being frustrated about missing a visit with Lincoln the rest of our frustration could have easily been avoided if we would have had a translator with us. We pay every day for our translator’s services yet we rarely ever have one. Today when we actually had a problem and could not get anyone to help us made us more curious as to why we are paying for a service that we don’t actually receive.
This morning was kind of like the “icing on the cake” so to speak for us. Living in Kaz is really starting to get old and we are more than ready to come home! This is for certain not an easy trip by any means. We have been comparing our life here to camping in a cabin. We do have shelter and we have minimal amenities. I don’t think either of us will take our comforts at home for granted anytime soon.
While we are waiting to go visit Lincoln this afternoon I have been online trying to get caught up on my emails and some of the other family blogs that I enjoy reading. Eric has been working. We are trying to make it a productive afternoon. We thought about venturing out to go to the super market but the sidewalks and roads are a mess. We figure we got about 6” of snow but it is hard to tell for sure. The snow does make the city look pretty again. We had been on a melt down and everything was mud and ponds.
Unfortunately, our afternoon was pretty much a repeat of this morning. We did get picked up at 3:30 then eventually dropped back off at 4:45. This whole time we did nothing but ride around in the car. More miscommunication! We can’t understanding how this keeps happening or who is at fault. Traffic was horrible today. They do have plow services but not enough for the size of the city. They do the two main roads first then they work there way through the city. Aktobe is pretty small. We could walk from our apartment around the city and back to our apartment within 45 minutes. So being stuck in the car for nearly two hours means we sat and sat in traffic and went no where.
As a way to salvage our day all of us families in town meet up at the business center for dinner. We had salad, pizza & beer. Carlos and Rosa had their court proceeding today so we did have their successful court hearing to celebrate and we needed to say good bye to them because they are leaving tomorrow morning to head back home to wait out their appeal period. They have two kids at home so it was best for them to make two trips. We may have the opportunity to see them again when they return to obtain custody of Maria. We are fortunate enough to have a really fun group of people here to hang out with. It really helps in making bad days like today go by faster.
Tomorrow is International Woman’s Day which is a big deal here. From what we gather it is like a combination of our Mother’s Day and Valentines Day. Basically all women are being celebrated. We should start celebrating this holiday in the USA too! The bad thing for us is we will not be allowed to visit with Lincoln at all tomorrow. We are both so sad we will have two entire days with no Linc. I am sure he misses us as much as we miss him. From what they are telling us now, we should have our one visit with Lincoln on Sunday morning. We certainly hope so we don’t even want to think about going three days without seeing him.
Our Play Group
Joel, Gen & Gabriel
Kami, Eric & Lincoln
Bernadette & Gaia (France)
Agnes & Alexander (Belgium)
Carols, Rosa & Maria (Canary Island)
7 comments:
Stay strong you guys! It sounds like you could be entering a little bit of culture shock. :-)
You ARE going to get through this and you will certainly never be the same. Pretty much every Kaz parent says the process was even harder than they expected.
It must be quite a character building experience to say the least. I've decided to take lots of funny shows on DVD to help us keep our sense of humor when we are losing patience (Scrubs is an all time favorite)
Wishing you good thoughts,
Regina
Oh my gosh you guys that group photo was SO fun to see! I wish that I could see the faces of the 2 little girls also being adopted, but it is fun to see your group.
Hang in there, at least you have internet and beer. :)
Christy
I remember that ready to come home feeling and we didn't stay for one trip. I can only imagine how rough it must be feeling. You are getting so close though, so just hang in there.
Happy International Woman’s Day! Maybe we can get it to catch on here in the states.
Hey, if you get a chance take some pics of your the town and apartment and post them if you can. I would love to see all that beautiful snow. Here in PA we've had a very rainy winter once again! Hardly any snow.
:)
OK just read what I wrote and it's clean I need to go to bed! LOL!!!
That would be annoying! Though it sounds like they may have been busy with court for the other family. In any case, you don't have too much time left to put up with these little annoyances. And, like you said, you won't take anything for granted once you get home! I love the group photo!
Hang in there!! Just think of the memories you are making. You will look back and laugh!
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