DeMichieli Family

On Our Way Home. Writing this on the best plane ever. It’s over ½ way to Chicago. Ah bliss. It’s almost 8:00 p.m. Almaty time, but sun is streaming in the windows here. Weird for sure. God Bless En Route Travel and the ticketing Gods and Goddesses. Not only did we get confirmed on the earlier flight out of Frankfurt but we got bulkhead seats both flights, so Sam can lay down and almost stretch out. It’s about 3 inches too short for him, but he makes do.

Got up at 11:00 p.m. and took showers. Luggage down to lobby. Gee, we were all there on time ☺ To the airport and then a wait before boarding. We sat and made fun of Ingrid and Volba. The woman has no common sense.

The flight went smooth. Sam slept thru big part of it. Love that bassinette.

Got to Frankfurt and got ready to make camp for 4 hours. Well, seems Charlotte and Dave asked us to join them in the business lounge. Awww. Isn’t that cool? So we got to kick back – Todd got ice and I got Diet Coke – and relax and unwind. We headed out to find our gate. Flight around 9:20. got on and found we had bulkhead seats again Then to make it just the best, no one else sat in our little row of 3 seats. Bliss. Honest. Sam is messed up. You know the boy NEEDS his sleep, and it has been sorely lacking the past 24 hours. Should get to Chicago about 11:30 at night Almaty time, but noon in Chicago

Last day. All of us are so looking forward to leaving. Charlotte and Dave are packed and counting down the hours and minutes. Anita, Beth and I run to the Green Bizarre for souvenirs.

We all leave to go to US Embassy --- which is actually the US Console office at 3:30. Very easy process.

Get their info packet and Sam’s (all kids) passports and Visas. Ahhhhh, it’s going to happen. Really.

Sonia tells Dave (and he tells us) that we need to go to the Luftansa office to get stickers on our tickets, since the date changed. There is an office by the Hyatt. Todd, Sam and I go with Dave to the ticket office then we go into the Hyatt for dinner. $4.00 for a Diet Coke, gee, just like home already. LOL Back to hotel to call Saralee, pack, and wait for midnight. And yes, there was a party in the Restaurant so we had that nice bass beat to keep us company while we waited.

Sam can pull himself up in his crib --- has to pull up on toes, so Todd says his calves are developing before his eyes.

He pulls himself up to end tables and our beds and of course to toilet and the shower stall base.

He can make the Indian sound – hand over mouth but he smacks too hard with his hand, looks painful. He can clap and wave hi and bye. Big vocalizations are “Ahh” and “Da” and he says something that sounds like “again”.

Gloomy with Rain, and it even Hailed. Spent time with Charlotte (who is getting more bitter as days pass) Dave, Joe and Sally. Saw some hail too.

Sam got constipated. Figure it’s because of his lack of liquid intake. Dave and Charlotte gave us 1) Pedialyte, 2) Jello, 3) Fruit cups, 4) Dried fruit (pureed). And that took care of the dilemma.

The little Twirp drank the Pedialyte out of a Playtex bottle. Good Grief.

At 8:45 Saralee called to tell us we were confirmed on the 10:10 flight out of Frankfurt on Saturday. Hooray!!!

We think we will be the first of our group to leave Frankfurt, but the last to arrive home.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

FLIGHTS

Luftansa #647 330
Leave Almaty 3:20 a.m. 20 A & C
Arrive Frankfurt 6:15 a.m. Bulkhead
6 hrs.45 min.

#430 747
Leave Frankfurt 10:10a.m. 43 A & B
Arrive Chicago 12:05 Bulkhead
8 hrs. 55 min.

United #7786 Leave Chicago 2.55 p.m.
Arrive Indy 4:00 p.m.

17 hours flying time.
~23 hours traveling
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sam is out 

Sam slept in until 8:30. Woke up wanting to play.

Today he clapped his hands and did the Indian noise with his hand to his mouth. Lots more pulling up and cruising, but dislikes holding our fingers and walking.

We met the Cotuna Family☺ for dinner at the Italian Restaurant at the Ramstore. Great food and so wonderful to see them again. And we got to meet Joshua and Hanna.

Sam loved all the activity. He never said a word until we got back to the room.

All energetic and played until 9:30 when he put his pacifier in his mouth, laid on his back, looked at Todd to say “done now”. Put in bed and he was out.

International Medical Exam ($87 and can use credit card) 

Aiser "bed". The bed at the Irtysh were more comfortable. 

The washing machine. LOL 

Sam slept until 7:30 a.m. Woke up happy and fine.

Saralee called. Adrian confirmed the 5:00 p.m. flight – the one with the 11 hour layover. Oh man.

Did some wash in the bottom of the “shower cabin”, and put on pipes to dry.

Beds are box springs only. And short. Ugh.

As you can see, Goodnight Gorilla is a favorite 

JR, Sam and Sally all eating 

The boys hanging out 

Our 13th Anniversary. Not so great. We learned instead of being able to leave a day early on Thursday, we actually leave a day later – Saturday. Oh God, NO! There are only three people in the country that can sign Visas. And the guy was out of town until Tuesday and counsel offices are closed on Wednesdays. So much for the cash we paid for the plane ticket. Sigh.

Charlotte and Dave offered to watch Sam while Todd and I go to dinner. We were so appreciative. They are such nice folks, we are so lucky to have them as friends on this crazy trip. Sam did not nap in the afternoon so we decided to eat in the hotel restaurant. Sam did cry when we left but stopped when they gave him a cracker. But I felt the love. I did.

So, for dinner we complained and bitched about having to stay longer. The waitress got our order wrong (we were one of 2 tables). So I only had soup.

The nicest part of the day was when we went to pick up Sam, he hit the floor, and crawled over to us with a huge grin. Now that’s attachment.

Then we called Adrian at EnRoute Travel. We can get to Frankfurt on Saturday, but getting from Frankfurt to the States is the problem. We are waitlisted for the flight we want at 10:00 a.m. and for the 5 p.m. flight. That would be an 11 hour layover in the Frankfurt Airport. We really dislike, oh hate, the Frankfurt Airport.

Was on the phone with Saralee too, since I had told her the night before we would be home a day early. Ugh.

Gave Adrian at EnRoute Saralee’s cell number.

Saralee emailed Kids First so they would know the despair that the DeMichielis were feeling. We love to share you know.

Inna called me. She had been out of town the week before. She was very upset that we were not leaving early and in fact were delayed. She had called Adrian already to check too. We decided #! stay waitlisted for Saturday #2 look at other airlines #3 look at Sunday flights. We would HATE to stay yet another day in Almaty but an eleven-hour layover is just a horrible proposition too.

I then called Saralee, (yes again) to make sure we were all on the same page. During our conversation Sam woke up crying. He cried and screamed for hours. He would not be consoled. Bad night for all of us.

Soul of Politics (unfinished)
Orson Wells
Mind Hunter
Me Talk Pretty Some Day

J. D. Robb in death
Remember When
Dead Famous
Undead and Unwed
No Second Chance
Trouble with Magic
Shadows
Charlie All Night
No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency
A Girl’s Guide to Vampires
Sex and the Single Vampire
The Trouble With Harry
Men in Kilts
Kane and Abel

The DeMichieli's escape the Aiser for dinner 

Sunday, Sam has left the building. Shhhh, don’t tell. We went across the street to the Astana International Hotel for a dinner of cheeseburger, fries, and hot tea. He was stunned at “outside.” He was great at the restaurant too. They have no highchairs here. Culturally you sit them on your lap and feed them. It’s not very efficient or logical.

Went shopping again and visited a Russian Orthodox church that was built with no nails. Odd.

Sam was in a great mood again this evening, his best time is like 5 to 8 p.m. Big grins, laugh, moving around. got some great pictures of him playing and laughing.

We call him “jelly boy” because he seems to be made of Jelly.

Promenade-where the grocery store is in Almaty, 3 blocks from the Aiser. 

Holy Cow, he slept until 8:30 this morning. Guess that happens when he is up during the night. He had a big breakfast (us too) then back to the room and he wanted his bed. Took little nap then played on the floor, then we offered food and he ate most of the jar of broccoli and rice and finished off the 2/3 full jar of apples and oranges in the fridge. LOVES the pieces of fruit. Favorite “meal” jar is “Rice with carrots and veal.”

Going out today (me, not Todd and Sam) to go souvenir shopping with the translator and others from our group. Then hope to hit the internet café, and bring back dinner for Todd and I.

Good shopping. Went to outside bizarre then the Tsum and back –oh quick stop to buy water. Then I ran to Promenade for groceries, quick internet stop and got a pizza.

Sam was sleepy and cranky. We are in our “prisoner” routine. We get up and go down to breakfast. Come back to our room. One of us goes out for “recreational” time outside. We spend a few minutes “yard time” in Charlotte and Dave’s room. Then it’s back to our room. We are usually sleeping by 9 p.m. Yeesh.

BIG party in the hotel last night. Heard the beat of the music and Sam did not sleep through it. He is also congested and coughing so that does not help any. He was up four times during the night. Not a happy camper for sure.

Anita and Theo Contuna are here in Almaty!! Apartment across from Ramstore.

playing with the bestest toy....a cup 

I am just wiped out 

Well for a speaking voice that doesn’t carry, he can wail with the best of them. Boy does he make himself heard when he wants to be heard. Not his best day today. BIG, teething things going on in his mouth. Lots of them coming in at once. Sound familiar? Plus little fever too. Might have an ear infection going not sure enough. The stuff that comes out of his nose and Joseph’s nose is just not human.

OMG, he just did the cutest darn thing we’ve seen. He is in his crib. Talking softly, rolling around, playing with the puppy blankie and we see his hands appear – one on top rail, one out the side, and then his head pops up over the edge. Can only see his eyes, but you can tell he is grinning. Then he lays back down. Such a sweetie.

I escaped today to the PROMENADE Shopping Center. Very nice. I spent some quality time at the TROY internet café.

Out of Ust. Barely. Big snow storm and WIND. Couldn’t believe it, but Ingrid was late heading out of the hotel. Good Grief! Alfiya had to go up and roust her. Ye Gads, the one time you would expect everyone to be super early. Grrrrr. Sam and Sally were still in the orphanage’s sick room. Sam was totally layered and bundled. Hard for him to hold up his head. So, so hot. He is built for travel. Slept. Then woke up at airport, then asleep before the plane (prop) took off, then out for basically the entire flight. Woke up for about 10 minutes in order to guzzle down a bottle.

No seat assignments on flight. BUT kids went on first. Poor little Peter was terrified.

Sam was awake at the Almaty International Airport, but dozed off again on the trip to the Aiser Hotel. About 45 minutes drive. We stripped him out of his two snowsuits and let him play on the floor. He loves the full length mirror on the closet, the baby is just adorable you know. He bumps his head into it too. He also loves the bathroom tile floor.

He found the shoe shine stuff and loves tossing the round doo-hinky into the bathroom – cool sound on the tile floor.

The 2 hotel people found this note from the hotel funny. Um lots of english speaking people around, can't you ask them to proof read maybe?

“Dear our guests!
The hotel “AiSer” don’t take any
responsibility
for left things, jewellery, money in
rooms.
The hotel has a safety box a storage room.”

Almaty Hotel Aiser 

Sam and Sally are relegated to the “sick room”. So we got to sit and observe.

We went to a “hospital” store and put 45,000 tenge toward an electronic baby scale and a tall medicine cabinet. We went to a tiny souvenir shop and while there, Elena stopped by with all the birth certificates and adoption certificates. So…did we get our kids at the mall? We had a celebration dinner with Janet and Melinda, Charlotte and Dave, and Anita and Theo. Anita also took us to a very nice souvenir shop. Woo-Hoo. We came back and packed.

He can crawl. Never would have guessed it. 

After Court, we are all now official parents. 

Now Really Want To Go Home because now we’ve got ourselves a boy. Court went fine for us. It seemed to go fine for everyone. One more day in Ust, and then fly to Almaty, which has the potential to be hellish.

This is an inside joke, but I have to add it.

Seconds To Disaster……
50 seconds to disaster Todd remarked that the judge is too young.
40 seconds to disaster Rich insists he will finish his speech.
35 seconds to disaster Beth bitches about the bathroom in the courthouse.
30 seconds to disaster Dave snaps a quick pic of the judge sitting at the bench.
20 seconds to disaster Ingrid brings up the “missing” white sock…….
10 seconds to disaster Janet mentions to the prosecutor that her uniform looks hot.

THE SPEECH FOR THE JUDGE

Good afternoon Your Honor.
Thank you for the honor of meeting with you today.
My name is William DeMichieli and this is my wife, Michele.

My wife and I come from Indianapolis, Indiana USA, where we were both born and have lived most of our lives.

On April 11th, we will celebrate our 13th wedding anniversary, and we have lived in our current home throughout our life together.

I am a manager of a large retail store and Michele is a full time stay-at-home mother, who works part-time writing post placement reports for international adoptions.

We chose to adopt from Kazakhstan for the simple reason that we have already done so successfully.

In October 2001 we adopted a sonderul little girl from Taraz, who we named Abbie. She is 4 now and she is the most important thing in our lives.

While we were here, we were very impressed with the kindness and grace of the people that we met and with the pride that they take in their cultural heritage. The people that we met made us proud to be the parents of a Kazakh daughter. .

Our families were both very excited to find out that we were returning to Kazakhstan to find our son.

Both of our families are working together to care for Abbie while we are here.

Todd’s sister and brother-in-law adopted a 3 year old girl from Astana in 2002. Sarah is amazing and our daughter considers her to be her best friend.

We hope both of our children attend college.

We feel that it is of great importance that our children share the same heritage. As they are growing and learning about who they are, we look forward to the day tht we bring them back here.

We went to the Baby House for the first time on March 19th. At that time the orphanage Director showed us several children. All of them seemed happy and we were impressed with the quality of care that they were receiving.

But when they brought Kairat to us, we knew that we had found our son and the last piece of our family.

He was so serious, and he closely watched every move that was made. His beautiful brown eyes look just like our daughter’s. We didn’t need to look any more.

We have visited with him twice a day for the past two weeks and he now has a place in our hearts that only our own child could fill.

He is so smart and so funny and so sweet natured.

We simply adore him.

Unless I am very much mistaken, he seems to adore us too.

He is a part of our family now.

We would ask your honor to change his last name to DeMichieli.

His big sister is earerly awaiting his arrival and we now that we cannot leave here without her brother and our son.

We are imploring your honor to allow us to start our life as a family.

Thank you.

Want to go home. Tomorrow we go to the orphanage in the a.m. (10-12 noon) then back to hotel for lunch and get ready for court. First appointment at court is supposed to be at 3 p.m.

The orphanage director gave us these 2 photos they had taken of Sam. 5 months old and 3 months old. Totally unexpected 

Oh boy, we leave this month. LOL. Counting down to the 6th until we leave Ust for Almaty.

Orphanage: the rest of us met with the Director/Doctor today. Todd stayed with Sam because 1) he had head cold and 2) he dressed very poorly. Nothing surprising. Oh wait, there was a nice surprise. We received two black and white “mug shot” photos of Sam at 3 months and at 5 months. He was not very attractively marketed in the photos. But man is he cute now. ☺ He was admitted to the baby house when he was 22 days old. His mom was 18, unmarried, and first pregnancy. Blood tests of mother and child showed no disease and no HIV. He is taking vitamins and iron for his anemia. Director said Sam was a good boy. Liked to play with other kids and they were glad he would have a sister to play with. And that he was going to be a big boy just like his Daddy. Tee Hee