Thursday, December 21, 2006

 
Home Just Over Two Weeks
Our transition with Rosa in our home has been going very well. After getting a few needed shots, Rosa eagerly started school. She is in the third grade with children her age. The teacher and class was very excited to get Rosa in the class.

The school is combining some of the school district's ESL (English as a Second Language) program and main classroom integration. So far it is working out well.

Rosa is reading well in English. She is getting more confident speaking in English and her vocabulary is growing daily. She seems to understand just about everything. A couple of days ago we were driving to the mall to go Christmas shopping and I asked her what she did in Kazakhstan for Christmas. As best as she could describe, she said that the girls received dolls and the boys received balls and that they all got fruit. She said that they sang Christmas (or maybe it was New Years) songs in Russian and in Kazakh.

Speaking of Christmas, Rosa has really embraced how we do Christmas here. She is enjoying the Christmas tree and the presents that all of us have been leaving under the tree for family members. She was excited to help buy and wrap presents for family members. We got this picture taken at the mall on one of our shopping trips. Rosa is with her younger sister Megan, who is also adopted (2001 from Ukraine). Posted by Picasa

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

 
Home at Last!
We arrived in Salt Lake City at 10:35 PM on Tuesday December 5. Amazingly, we left on the same day in Almaty, but the day ended up being much longer than 24 hours for us.

Here you can see us in the baggage area waiting for our luggage. Unlike the trip to Kazakhstan, all of our bags made it to us on this trip.

In the short amount of time we've been home, Rosa is doing very well with her new siblings. You can see Megan is very excited to have an older sister. Our two boys are as well. Along with Megan, they spent much of the car ride home talking to Rosa. They were up this morning helping her with breakfast and showing her around the house.

We'll have a lot of things to do this week including getting Rosa registered for school and getting her some clothes.

Now that we're home, I won't be posting daily to this blog, but I will try to do some periodic updates on Rosa's development and transition.

Buck Gashler, "Papa" to Rosa Jillian Gashler Posted by Picasa

 
The Flight Home
Rosa was up at 5:00 AM and much more animated than me when we left our Almaty apartment for the airport at 5:30 with our coordinator.

Our flight to Amsterdam was at 8:10 AM and Rosa decided to stay awake the whole flight. She spent her time watching an assortment of TV shows, cartoons, and movies using the KLM on-flight entertainment. I know it would have been much more enjoyable for her if there were anything available in Russian.

She didn't sleep until the flight to New York and that was only for a couple of hours. She also slept most the flight home from Cincinnati to Salt Lake.
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Unlike her mom, she doesn't appear to be a big fan or airline food. Posted by Picasa

Monday, December 04, 2006

 
Last Post in Kazakhstan

Right after breakfast this morning Rosa began packing. She's as excited to get out of here as I am. It didn't take long to pack. Jo Ann took one of the big suitcases with her a week ago along with a carry-on bag so with all of the stuff she brought home, there wasn't a lot to pack.

We went to the supermarket and bought some stuff for lunch, along with some Kazakhstan chocolate. The chocolate is actually pretty good here. It's dark and a little bitter, but I prefer that kind of chocolate anyway.

Rosa has really learned to like ramen noodles. Luckily, they come in a microwave-safe bowl at the supermarket, so I can make them in the microwave. The microwave is the only thing in that kitchen that I will dare touch. And this was after about a half hour of detoxing it with some Lysol wipes.

We're supposed to get Rosa's passport with visa today after 4:00 PM. Our coordinator will be picking us up tomorrow morning at about 5:30.

Sunday, December 03, 2006

 
Slow Sunday

Nothing much going on right now. I haven't heard from our coordinator about Rosa's visa yet, but I didn't want to bother her on the weekend so I'll call her tomorrow.

Rosa continues to impress me with her English. Her new thing is to say "wow!" at Christmas ornaments and decorations. She also says "this" a lot. "This" can mean anything from "this" to "that" to "those" to "them" to "there." I have been trying to teach her the difference between "this" and "that." I think she'll get it soon. I spent a few days with her on the days of the week and she has them down really well now. She knows that today is Sunday, tomorrow is Monday and that we're out of here on Tuesday. Well, that's assuming there is a U.S. visa in Rosa's passport.

I can't say I'm going to miss this place. Unlike Ukraine, when we were there in the summer, I've seen Kazakhstan in the fall and winter and it's sort of depressing looking. I do think there are parts of the country that are pretty. I saw some of that when we were flying from Uralsk to Almaty, but what we've seen while on the ground is nothing special.

I'll probably post one more time before we head home on Tuesday.

Saturday, December 02, 2006

 

Ramstor Visit

Because we had nothing to do today, Rosa and I took a cab to the famous Ramstor located on the other side of town. I guess some Americans really like it because it has a large Wal-Mart-type of store in it, along with a mall eatery. There is also a small skating rink.

There is a Dunkin Donuts there, or rather, Dunkin Donuts are sold at a burger place. I convinced Rosa to try a donut and I've now found something else Rosa doesn't like. What kid doesn't like donuts? Actually, she liked the lemon filling, but not the cake part.

So trying to figure out her food likes and dislikes has been interesting. Tonight we went to the cafe in the Silk Way mall that was such a big hit yesterday and even though Rosa ate everything last night, she didn't want the same thing tonight. So I ordered quesidillas. Once I scraped off the onions and mushrooms, she was OK with them. She also ate the fried hot dog that ended up on the plate I ordered. I ordered something that I thought was a hamburger, but I was obviously wrong. She also ate most of my fries. It's a good thing I had eaten donuts before or I might have been hungry after dinner.

It's been snowing today. It doesn't seem to clear up the pollution though when a storm comes. I'm guessing they don't have strict emission laws here for cars. Speaking of cars, you see many here with the steering wheel on the right side of the car, but they still drive on the right side of the road.

Christmas or New Years ornaments are going up everywhere.

Friday, December 01, 2006

 
The Embassy Visit

We went to the embassy today. It's in a high rise in another part of Almaty, right next to the elusive Ramstore that we've heard so much about but have not been privileged to visit. For the most part, the appointment went well. I was told that I had done everything right with the paperwork. However, I was not given a visa for Rosa to enter the U.S. because of a combined screw-up on their part, and a broken Internet line at the embassy.

In a nut shell, they were given a hard-to-read copy of Rosa's passport and guessed on her birthdate. It turns out that they guessed wrong, and when they went back to correct it with Washington D.C. via the Internet, they found out that a construction crew had severed the Internet line. They were unsure when it would be back up, but they could not issue the visa until the correct information was in the database in Washington D.C.

This setback is OK with us right now. I'm sure they'll have things fixed by Monday. But there was one guy in the embassy that had a flight early tomorrow morning and his new son didn't have a visa yet. I wonder what he will be doing.

I met a few parents in the embassy whose spouses had already gone home. Amazingly, all of the husbands were completing the adoptions and the wives had gone home. There was one guy with three older children who had been here since September 23rd! And I thought our ordeal was long! He was in limbo because he couldn't pay for the embassy fees for his three children because he planned to use his credit card and, of course, the Internet was down. The last I heard he was trying to find an ATM.

Rosa is doing well. We found a nice cafe where she actually ate her entire dinner. I think we may be coming back to it again.

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