September 22: Diapers 2

Liam continued to throw up a couple more times during the night, and was obviously very unwell. We decided in the morning that I (Brian) should go alone to Essek to deliver the second half of the diapers and the last three Bundles. Vanessa and mom would stay here to tend to the sicklies.

We also arranged for a trip to the International Clinic again around 4:00.

I took off with Irina, Genne, and Mira to Essek. It’s a shorter drive, and not so out in the middle of nowhere. We had to wait a few minutes when we first got there, so I took a few pictures of the grounds outside and some children playing in a little area off to the side. It was first time I’d experienced any kind of draw of children to me at one of the orphanages. I had anticipated that going to the “Baby Houses” would be difficult emotionally because I had expected to see other, likely older children outside playing. I figured it would be like movies or whatever I’ve seen where they’d all be calling to us, wanting to come home to America and be our children. Maybe I was being patriotically arrogant, or naïve, but until I was taking these photos today, we hadn’t seen any children who seemed to care about us at all. These kids were all wuite young, and didn't know America or even the concept family (not rationally, anyway) from anything. But still, they just all started heading to the gate of their play area to come greet me. The woman in charge of them called them all back, and all was quickly as it was. But I felt kind’a bad.

Once we finally went in, we again made a small pile of boxes in a meeting room, opened the top box and made a simple display, and waited for the director. This time, everything was much better received. She was clearly very grateful for the diapers, but she was also excited about the Bundles. Through Mira, I explained what they were, and she, like yesterday’s Director did, said something about a Kangaroo. But this time, she asked me for a demonstration. She had a nurse go retrieve a child, and asked me to put the Bundle on. I misunderstood and started putting it on myself. After everyone laughed at me, I wrapped up the nurse, and put the baby in it. She seemed very happy with the idea, as was the director. Perhaps they were just being polite, but I don’t care. It felt much more rewarding than the previous day. The Director then, through Mira, thanked me, and wished our new family much success, and said she was sorry they didn’t have the girl we had wanted. I thanked her for what she does and her wonderful work, and we were on our way back “home”.

Our appointment at the clinic wasn't for about 3 hours, so Mira, Josie, and I went up to get some pictures developed for court and for her passport. As we were waiting, some guy in the store with a very nice digital Cannon 35 MM camera started taking pictures of me with Josie in the Bundle. He took a couple dozen and then asked if I wanted to see them. I did, and ended up asking the employees there to print a couple for us. We could see several other pictures on his disk of me and Mira told me that several were of politicians and some famous Kazakh writer. Apparently, this guy works for the local paper and was getting some pictures or proofs printed for his articles, or something like that. I don’t suppose he’s doing anything with the pictures of me, but I found that interesting. When we left the shop, I asked Mira if she thought he was taking our pictures because Josie was so cute, because the Bundle was so unique, or because he’s not used to seeing a guy carrying a baby. She said she suspected the latter. Clearly, if we start selling these, men here will not be our target market.

We killed a couple more hours sitting around and attending to sick children. Liam is messed up, miserable, and quite hot. Josie is not nearly as bad, but still quite congested and running a little hotter than we think she should.

The doctor at the clinic said she’s got a mild bronchitis, and the fever is somewhat low. There’s no need for antibiotics yet – we wonder if a more western Dr would have leapt directly to antibiotics – but said a cough syrup for now should be enough, and some sea salt drops for her nose to help it heal. It’s quite raw.

Liam’s fever is also not as high as we thought. She wasn’t too concerned, and said he just has a virus, and there isn’t anything to do but let it run its course. She gave us the cough syrup, and then wrote a report for each child. We’re hoping she can make them look like at least one of them needs to get home ASAP so we can use that in court in asking the judge to waive the additional 15-day waiting period before the 10-day period of getting her passport and papers in order. I don’t get it, but whatever. Technically, we’re supposed to be here for 25 days after court – assuming we’re approved – but we’re hoping to start getting her passport, and papers immediately after court. Our fingers are crossed.

That was basically the day. I went to the store to get groceries so mom could make dinner, and the day wound down.

I suspect most of the rest of the days here will be similar to this afternoon – maybe one meeting or task related to the adoption, and then filling time. Hopefully, when everyone’s feeling better, we’ll start planning trips to touristy and other interesting things around town.