Hello from Almaty!
Well, my life has changed for the absolute better and I am writing as one extremely happy mommy! :-) Words can not describe how wonderful it is to hear Abby laugh and see her smile every day. She has the most precious grin in the world. Every day she learns something new. Her latest tricks include clapping, raspberries, doing one incredible Godfather impression (which is simultaneously dead on and hilarious), and playing with her feet. She loves to eat and I have not found anything yet she does not like. I hope she likes American baby food as much as Russian baby food. :-)
Our first couple nights in Almaty were a little difficult in terms of going to sleep. Almaty is 2 hours ahead of Uralsk (and 11 hours ahead of Atlanta), so we got to go through our first time change. It was funny though because I would be rocking her and look down to see 4 little teeth as she smiled at me. :-) Last night was 100% better as I was able to get her to sleep at 8:00 and she slept until 7:15. Abigail is terrified of baths. I had read many children who live in orphanages are scared of them (she has never had a bath before - they give only sponge baths in the baby house) but we will get through that with time I know. Aside from baths, she is incredibly happy. She is still very reserved around strangers and will only stare. No smiles for people she does not know.
Our time here in Almaty has been fun. We went up in the mountains on Saturday. Talk about beautiful. We ate at a ski resort outside with one of the most breathtaking views ever. Abby loved it but mainly because she got to eat up there. :-) Sunday afternoon we got together with another family. Baby Jasmine is 9 months old (1 month younger than Abby) and is such a cutie. The babies had fun staring at each other. We went to eat dinner that night and Abby did great (and this without a high chair or stroller!). The place we went to was a Scottish restaurant and I think she was busy staring at the Russian waiters wearing kilts. I know I was.
Today we had Abby's medical appointment with the doctor here. This is required for entry into the U.S. They weighed her at 18.9 pounds but they weighed her with ALL her clothes so I know she is not quite that big yet. They said she was 28 inches too. Big girl!!! Everyone said compared to all the other babies her age here, she is huge. That's my girl! The doctor was interesting. He barely acknowledged Abby at all but then the "examination" was minimal.
After the medical we went for a walk in the park and then ate lunch at Mad Murphy's. Such good food for me since I was able to order meatless. And Abby had a high chair so all was right with the world.
Our apartment here is very nice. I have a bedroom, living room, bathroom, kitchen, and a room I have designated as the ironing room (no, I'm not ironing here but that is all that is in the room). There is a "crib" but I use that word in its loosest sense. It looks like a crib that would have been used in 1945 and has only 3 sides. Yes, and Abby is pretty smart about that empty side. :-) At first I pushed the crib against my bed (since they are roughly the same height) but she just crawled in my bed so now she sleeps in bed with me. Fortunately when I put her to bed she is asleep already so I don't think she is aware I am even sleeping with her. I will have to worry about that when we get home.
Well, Vitalii is walking Abby so I need to go check on them. :-) We are doing great and looking forward to coming home. Tomorrow we are going shopping in the morning and then to the Embassy in the afternoon. We will be picked up from the apartment Wednesday morning at 1:30am to make our flight to Frankfurt. We have a 7 hour flight from Almaty to Frankfurt, a 4 hour layover in Frankfurt, and then a 10.5 hour flight to Atlanta. Adding in driving time to the airport, and it is a 24 hour trip home.
I will try to post tomorrow! Cheers from Kazakhstan!!! :-)