Dossier - check!

I've been very bad about blogging this summer, mostly because I've been on a very important mission to assemble a new dossier for a second adoption.  For those of you unfamiliar with my strange adoption lingo, a dossier is a collection of "official" papers such as marriage licenses, birth certificates, sworn statements, etc. that all must be notarized, apostilled, and translated before sending to the foreign country of your choice to be read and scrutinized by the officials in charge of approving foreigners for adoption.

The first step was getting a completed home study from our social worker, which we did in June.  Next you send that to US Customs and Immigration Services for approval.  That takes the longest.  Then you scurry about for the next month or so getting reference letters, doctor's letters, employment letters, bank letters, fingerprints (send those to the FBI), print a bunch of sworn statements, sign and notarize. 

We got our USCIS approval last week, finished up with the rest of our documents over the weekend, and after scanning them all over to the agency for review, I was given the green light to FedEx them over for assembly and preparation for the apostile step.  Our agency takes over the paper work process from here and now I just wait for phone calls and emails that alert me to the progress like:

• Sent your dossier for apostile
• Got your apostilled dossier back
• Sent you dossier to translation
• Sent your translated dossier to Kazakhstan Ministry of Education
• Ministry of Education approved and sent your dossier to Regional Authority
• Hey, we have a referral for you, want to see a picture of your potential kid?
• Can you be in Kazakhstan next week?

Exact communication there at the end gets vague, but you get my point.  Since Kazakhstan hasn't been processing adoptions for over two years and ours is likely the first dossier to get presented, we have NO IDEA how long the last four steps will take, so now we just wait.

tic toc .... tic toc .... yeah, not so good at the waiting. 

At least I've found some activities to keep me busy in the meantime, like:

• Empty guest room of all furniture (books) and repaint/decorate into a mermaid room for Miranda.  We did make $125 off six bankers boxes of books last weekend.  Hopefully we will make some progress on painting over the long weekend.
• Remake Miranda's room into nursery for new kid.
• Find, purchase and make room for new King Size bed for Ben and I.  Move current Queen Size bed into nursery for now.
• If new King Size bed requires purchase of new dressers and end tables, which is likely, clean out and organize back yard shed to make room for current dresser and end tables to be stored.
• Work - oh yeah, I have a job that will get insanely busy with auditors around September 30th.  Yea auditors!!
• Blog about Kazapalooza (it was only back in June), post video of Miranda's swim show-offs (cute, but not a lot of "swim"), take some pictures/video of new dance and soccer classes that start in the fall and blog about that ... I'm sure there is more here I could be doing.
• Work - my job also gets super busy in January so I probably will go radio silence then, but at least I will have other things to think about than the ...

WAIT.  ugh.

Kulak Tesu

When were were in Kazakhstan in 2009, we looked for as many books we could find that had an English translation to bring home.  One of the books we found is called Kazakh Traditions and Customs.  Many of the customs are more oriented to small babies, marriage and funeral rites.  We did find one that we have been waiting until this day to celebrate.

Kulak tesu

Every four-yeared girl had her ears pierced, and a silk thread was put into the holes.  Later on it was replaced by small silver earrings.  The ear-piercing was regarded as an obligatory peculiar practice for the girls, having the same importance as boys’ circumcision.  That is the reason why people say ‘kulak tesu – kyzdyn sundeti’.  When a girl becomes adult enough to get married, she wears earrings with reproductive motives expressed in the shape of the sun, stars, or new moon, and various pendants have the form of seeds, petals, and grains.

Today Miranda is four years old and in honor of the Kazakh tradition Kulak tesu, we had her ears pierced.  We had done previous reconnaissance at the local mall* and she was well versed in the process.  Zoo goo (sanitizer), dot, pinch, pinch on the other ear, all done.  She did great and only looked slightly nonplussed according to Ben who could see her face during the process. 

I've incorporated some silk thread into her birthday dress and we started with 14K gold earring just in case of a metal sensitivity, but we already have two sets of beautiful silver earrings for when we can change them out eight weeks from now (thanks Grammy & Aunt Karen!). 

*I really wanted to get a real piercer to do her ears with a piercing needle rather than the mall method of having the earring do the piercing, but I was unable to find anyone who would do it because she was so young.  I explained all my reasons, cleaner piercing, faster healing, less trauma to the earlobe, more sanitary piercing supplies.  But the youngest they would do at any place I called was 13.  That just didn't work for us, so the mall was all we had.

Kazapalooza Pic

Once again, it is time to send in pictures for the Kazapalooza slide show.  Since this poll was so popular last year, I thought I would run it again.  You have a week to vote on your favorite picture of Miranda.



Swingin' High

Easter Surprise

Flower Girl 

Strapped In & Ready!

Atlanta fun

Our faithful blog readers probably recall that we were in Atlanta briefly last month.  Other than the, let's say, interesting accommodations, we had the opportunity to see the Cooeys and the Nichols, worked in a trip to the Aquarium, and as always, a visit with Noah and his family.

Miranda loves having the run of the house at Aunt Nancy's.

Mitzi and Sharon were teaching Miranda to play bridge with cards that had Miranda's picture on the back.  However, Miranda was really much more interested in trying on ALL of Aunt Sharon's jewelry.

We lost all of our pictures of Miranda and Noah from Christmas, so we tried to make it up on this trip.  For those of you familiar with Dora the Explorer, at the end of each episode she asks her viewers to share their favorite part of the adventure.  When we left Noah's house that night Miranda volunteered "My favorite part of the adventure was when Noah took off his pants!"  Yeah, wasn't really expecting that.

As always, our trips to Atlanta are too brief and we have so many family and friends in the area we don't get to see everyone, and even those we get to see, we wish we had more time.  

Happy Nauryz!

2012 Nauryz flowers, this year with no stitches required.

Hiatus Interruptus

I make no guarantees that this blogging hiatus is over. We are one busy family. I did finally get around to scanning our professional beach photos taken at Kazapalooza. These were taken by a local Tampa photographer Karen Harrison.

Maybe later this month I'll download and post some of the other photos we've taken since June. It is likely to happen since there is only room for another 25 photos left on my memory card.

Kazapalooza 2011

This weekend we took a family vacation to sunny St. Pete's Beach, FL to attend Kazapalooza. Our itinerary went a little like this:

Day 1: Meet new Kazakh friends at check-in, unpack bags, dinner, play on beach, sleep.

Day 2: Wake-up, talk non-stop about new friends also born in Kazakhstan, go to beach, meet new friends, go to pool, meet new friends, lunch, nap, mini-golf, meet new friends, have dinner with new friends, go to pool, meet new friends, sleep.

Day 3: Wake-up, pictures on the beach, meet new friends, bid on raffle items from Kazakhstan, lunch with new friends, nap, pool, meet new friends (and some that are now becoming old friends), dinner, pirate show, play on the beach with new/old friends, sleep.

Day 4: Wake-up, pool, meet new friends, lunch, check-out, meet new friends in the lobby, leave for the airport.

There were 130 families with kids from Kazakhstan in attendance and we were still meeting new people when we were leaving. Miranda had a ball and likes the sand, is weary of the ocean due to waves, and LOVES to "swim" in the pool. Good thing swim lessons start later this week. Here are some of the best pictures of our trip.

Miranda was always on the look-out for the resident swans.

Walking on the beach with her new treasure, a drink umbrella.

Swimming with Mommy.

A little put-put?

Hangin' out

Climbing Monkey

Swimming with Daddy

We got some professional photos on the beach in this dress, but here's a preview from our balcony.

Collecting sand and water with one of our new friends.

Rinsing all the sand off their feet after a fun night on the beach.

Next year's event will be somewhere in Ohio, which sounds somewhat less appealing than a beach in Florida, Miranda had so much fun with all her new friends we will likely go again next year.

Kazapalooza

In June we are going to FL to vacation and attend Kazapalooza, a reunion of families who have adopted from Kazakhstan. I'm trying to decide which incredibly adorable picture of Miranda to submit for the slide show. Please help by voting below.

Garden Cutie

Bunny Love Wind Blown

Which photo should we submit to the slide show?

Nauryz 2011

Today is the Kazakh new year holiday of Nauryz. Like last year, we prepared by doing some spring cleaning. This weekend we filled the back of my car with donations for goodwill. We also went bigger and better with this year's Nauryz flowers.

This year's Nauryz bouquet (more on this in a future blog post).

For dinner tonight I made Plov, another traditional Kazakh meal. I borrowed this recipe from one of my online friends from the Kazakh adoptive community. Maureen has two beautiful boys from Kazakhstan.

Plov

3 Tbsp Olive oil
2 carrots grated or diced
1 onion chopped
2 large chicken breast cubed
1 ½ c basmati rice
6-8 cloves minced garlic
2 c chicken stock
1/2 c water

Sauté carrot and onion in olive oil. Add chicken and a lot of pepper and brown. Wash and drain rice. Layer rice over mixture. Add stock and water over rice. Bring to boil. Set to lowest heat. Cover and cook about 30 minutes. Spread garlic over top and steam 5 minutes. Remove from heat. Rest 5 minutes. Stir in garlic. Salt if needed.

Happy Nauryz!

I'm can't wait until Nauryz falls on a weekend so we can do something a little more elaborate. Another fellow Kazakh mommy blogger has a ton of great recipes and craft ideas, a real Martha Stewart. I would need a week to prepare for her Nauryz feast.

Happy Court Day!

Today was the second anniversary of our court day in Kazakhstan. To celebrate we made a special meal of manti and Margarita pizza. This is the meal Ben and I ate regularly for lunch at a little restaurant next to our apartment during our month in Kazakhstan.

Miranda enjoyed helping to make the manti, but unfortunately didn't love eating them. I used the recipe I found here and had to modify the filing slightly since it is impossible to find pumpkin this time of year that is not pie filing. I used butternut squash instead and it appeared to be an acceptable substitute.


The dough, on the other hand was an issue. First, I had to more than double the water in the recipe. The dough was extremely stiff and I had a hard time getting it thin enough, so the resulting dumplings were extremely bready. But the filing was perfect! It tasted just like we remembered.

Miranda also helped make the pizza. She was more interested in eating the tomatoes than using them to top the pizza, but she mostly topped the pizza all on her own.

The finished products!

Irbi, where are you?

The 2011 Asian Winter Games were in Kazakhstan this year and I'm extremely frustrated with their apparent lack of consumerism. I have done copious googling, searching on Amazon, ebay, and some sites that won't even translate to English, and I have been unable to find anyplace where I can acquire souvenirs online. I mean, look at the adorable snow leopard mascot, Irbi, in his traditional Kazakh hat. Why isn't there a 12" plush version of this I can order for 3,750 Tenge ($24.99) and pay another $50 or so to have shipped to the good old USA? I mean, with the Kazakh adoption community, there has got to be tens of people like me who want the same, right? I'm just trying to stimulate some economy here. I mean, I guess I could have paid about $2,000 for a plane ticket to Almaty, picked up some items and flown right back, but I'm not *that* into stimulating the economy. Alas, alack. I guess I'll keep up my internet search for another couple of weeks, but it's not looking good for Miranda.

Atlanta Visit

Last month we took a quick trip to Atlanta for Great-Grandma Mitzi's 90th birthday party. We had to get Miranda a pretty purple dress since that is Mitzi's favorite color.






While in Atlanta we also had the chance to catch up with Noah and his parents. After a few tense moments over a toy fire truck, Miranda and Noah settled in to having a great time together.

I was really surprised how much taller Noah is since he is only one month older than Miss M.

Chips and Hummus is apparently a fovorite food for both.


The toy du jour was an empty baby pool.

Yummy (messy) ice pops means ...

...fun in the bath.

And after a good, fun day, they were just not in the mood to do any more posing for pictures.

Hockey Fan

During hockey playoffs this year, I became curious about any NHL players that were from Kazakhstan. The best and most well known Kazakh player in the NHL is Evgeni Nabokov, who has been the goalie for the San Jose Sharks since 1999. Since Miranda made it clear last year that she did not share my love for the Redwings and she is really into the Jaws theme song*, we decided to help her embrace her Kazakh roots and allow her to be a Sharks fan.

*Miranda will likely become confused when she learns that the Jaws theme is actually supposed to be scary, rather than a fun game Mommy plays where I walk up her spine with my fingers and tickle her neck to the "da-Dum, da-Dum" rhythm.

Easter Fun

Last year we arrived home from Kazakhstan with Miranda the day before Easter, so we didn't really do anything bunny or egg related. This year we stayed low-key and stayed home.

Miranda checking out her Easter basket after breakfast.

We didn't do an egg hunt, but Miranda did have fun running around the yard with her basket full of plastic eggs. She would drop some, then pick them up, and then drop some more.

I toyed briefly with the idea of torturing our bunny Dana to get a picture of Miranda with a real live bunny. But then I came to my senses since poor Dana is over ten years old which is over 100 in bunny years. I decided that a picture of Miranda in bunny ears would have to suffice.

For dinner I made Lagman, which is a traditional Kazakh/Uzbek lamb stew. I even made the noodles myself, by hand. Miranda LOVED the Lagman which made me really happy since she's been a picky toddler lately. Of course, this stew has lots of tomatoes, red bell peppers and pasta which are currently her three favorite foods. I think she would eat nothing but tomatoes if we let her.