Mother's Day

It has been a wonderful and difficult last two weeks. How do working moms (and/or dads) do it! It is so hard to leave Maksim everyday. I wish that I could be with him every moment. Today we had a BBQ and even roasted marshmallows for smores by the fire.
A definate hit. We having been laying low and giving Maksim a chance to bond to his parents. It is hard to limit contact with our friends and outings. But we know that for Maksim it is best for his progress and attachment.

Maksim is learning English soooooo fast. We are amazed by his progress. Mostly, he speaks in phrases and uses them in interesting ways. "Shut the door" works for a variety of situations. We are glad that we are able to understand what he means. :) He is learning his boundaries fairly well and loves the river, going for walks, ice cream pine cones, ride on machinas,
all different foods, Elmo (eeooow- I don't love Elmo), tickling, chasing, dancing to Bluegrass (yeah!) and books. He doesn't like when something he likes is over. We are making progress on accepting "the end" of things.

"Neee-yet the end"
"Yes, Maksim, the end."

Our dog is doing okay. But today is her 9th birthday and she is feeling a little like the ugly red-headed step child. She has many of her old priviledges but some our our attention is directed toward her little brother. And boy are little brothers annoying. Sometimes she cries at us when he is finally asleep and we are all snuggling in our room like we did before HIM. Poor baby. We do love that girl.

Well, Happy Mother's Day to all of you Mother's and waiting Mother's out there. Good thing that there is a Father's Day. Papa needs his props. We are especially thankful for him and the hard work he does, too.

Doing Great!

Mom started back at work. It has been quite the change to our schedule. Maksim has been a little upset by it, but it is necessary and so we are all trying our best.

I just wanted to share a couple pics.

Maksim's first ice cream cone was a hit. He called it an ice cream pine cone. For those who don't know, Ice Age is Maksim favorite (and only) thing on TV. He loves it and quotes it all the time. There is a part where Sid the sloth feeds pine cones to the Rhinos. Pine cones have become quite the cool item in our house.

Pine Cone!!!

Momma's turn
Pine Cones are GOOOOODDDDD!!!


Tooo Funny! Who knew kids where this f...ing cute!!!

Update

OK. OK. I'll make an update and will try to update as often as I can. But between work, sleep, Maksim and Dad, I've barely had a chance to check my email.

It has been VERY busy around the Woods household in our first week at home. Lots of visitors and lots of things to see and learn about. In spite of everything, Maksim seems to be settling in quite well. We are making progress toward attachment and getting to know each other.
He loves trucks and any other kind of machine. He loves Audry and Shamma and wishes Shamma loved him. Audry is trying to get used to him. She can't figure out how a new addition to the herd gets to eat 3 times a day plus snack!! Where is my second breakfast???


Bringing home a toddler has been a real eye opener. Gone are the times when we'd kick back by the fire quietly gazing at the stars. (Great, but a little boring. In a way, we miss it.) What we have gained, though is sooo much better. Maksim keeps us laughing, keeps us on our feet, and keeps us NOT kicking back. It is so much fun. Sure there are times when he is a big stinker and a little mischievous. Sure he throws a tantrum when things don't go just his way. But mostly he is a sweet little boy whose fear and pain will subside. Tiny bits are already being melted away.


This morning around 5:30, Maksim woke up and wanted to come and snuggle his Mom and Dad in their bed. Whenever he wakes up early we do this - mostly so Mom can get a little more shut eye. When he saw me he said with his tiny little sleepy voice, "There she is! Loubish Mama." No prompting. :-) And he wrapped his arms around me and closed his eyes. My first REAL I love you! I didn't know it would be in Russian.

Man - are we thankful for this little boy!

In other news, I will start back at work on Monday. I am torn between wanting to be back and wanting to stay at home with Maksim. I know I'm going to miss that sweet little voice telling me "good morning!". What about snack time and our walks??? But...we've gotta live. Darn money. :-) Dad is going to be off full time to care for Maks until the end of the semester. It's only a few weeks. But, it is already very difficult for Mom to stay at the computer when he calls me.

Maksim

I didn't give you the gift of life,

but in my heart I know the love that I feel is

real as if it had been so.

For us to have each other

is like a dream come true.

No, I didn't give you the gift of life.

Life gave me the gift of you.

-unknown-

Dom Mali Dom

Home Sweet Home!

We finally made it to California after about 24 hours in planes and airports. Our trip to Kazakhstan was the best thing that has ever happened to us. Of course, it was also a long gnarly trip.

Maksim was very good on the airplanes and slept for much of the time. Thanks Terri! He had about a total of 1 hours worth of crying or screaming but for the most part just loved the adventure. My sister and her family, my brother, my mom and her husband and my dad were all there to welcome us home. It was so great to see everyone. Of course we all cried and hugged and Maksim jumped straight into Grandpa's arms.

Oak View is so beautiful and green and the sounds of birds fill our ears. Yeah! Luckily there are no horns continually honking. Our animals were very happy to see us and follow us around. We cannot thank Nana and Papa Jon enough for staying in our house for 63 days and taking care of everything. THey had to fix a leaking water heater, deal with a leaking roof. They also did a bounch of projects like installing shelves, staining furniture and Papa Jon made a wonderful copper fish for the front door. We love it! I don't know how you can ever repay someone for such a gift. We will be forever grateful. And now I am speaking in cliches.

When we got home, so much weight and worry was lifted off of our shoulders. Maksim settled right in. He was pretty scared of Audry Bear (our dog) a first. But after Shamma (our cat) swiped and scratched him he decided that Audry was pretty cool after all. He keeps saying "Shamma no, Audry da!" as he motions with his hands what Shamma did to his hand. Sooooo funny. Now he is kissing, feeding, loving, hugging and chasing Audry. He keeps us laughing and amazed. He is sweet and smart and loving. What an amazing treasure.

Thank you to everyone for following our blog and making comments. Your words, thoughts and advice kept us going when we thought there was no end.

It was ALL worth it.

Horse sausage - Yum! Thanks to Bulgan for bringing the sausage and baulsak. Very tasty.

Celebration dinner at Soho on our last day

Cousins finally united.

Engine room of the New Salt. My boys love machines! Almost as much as Mom.

Family Day

Our official Family Day is April 19th. We decided to use today as our gotcha day because we finally arrived in the USA. YES!!!! An interesting coincindence (if you believe in that sort of thing) is that today is the 7th anniversary of Auntie Anna's death. We all miss Anna terribly and are happy that we all can use this day as a celebration for our family.

We know that her spirit is with us.

Still Here

Well....We are getting closer to coming home. I know many of you are wondering what the heck could take so f****** long over there. Ya, so. We wonder, too. We should know for sure our travel dates by tomorrow.

On the parenting front, we have been staying to a pretty tight schedule so that Maksim knows what to expect. This is helping his behavior issues ALOT!! Thank goodness for the good advice we have received. He is a very sweet and smart little boy. Maksim's temper tantrums are not too fun, though. But we feel blessed, lucky, and tired.


We went out to lunch with the Gaines family. It was really fun to meet their 2 boys.
After lunch we visited the Russian Orthodox Church. They were celebrating a day where you use willow branches to heal pains and sicknesses. It always happens one week before Easter. The Russian calendar is one week behind our Christian calendar. So next Sunday is Easter. Anyway, it was very interesting. Inside the church, the father was spraying each persons willow branch with holy water. I was observing and got a good shower, too. We walked around and a man was playing the saxophone. Oh my gosh! Could the saxophone be Maksim's instrument? He is soooo musical. He learns songs very quickly and loves to listen to music. When he heard the man playing he was drawn. He walked right up close and listened for 5 minutes without barely moving. It was really cool. The man even let Maksim touch his sax for a few minutes. Cool!



Here are some cute pics of the last couple of days - of course I think they are! And just so you know it is not all fun and games for the little guy, there is a pic of a tantrum. He was soooo mad.

Hiking in Beautiful Kazakhstan

Bulat and Bulgan took us hiking today to cheer us up. We were kinda bummed out yesterday because we don't know when the heck we will get to leave Kazakhstan. And they had just the right idea. We love the mountains and hiking. You should have seen Maksim's face and cries of glee as he hiked around the waterfall. Absolutely precious.

It took about 30-40 minutes to get to the trailhead. Then it was about an 1 1/2 hour hike to the bottom of the waterfall. It was pretty much straight uphill. Papa carried Maksim in the backpack. It was treacherous and muddy and then snowy. We were for the most part dressed for the occasion. Mom's shoes were Dansko slip ons - not the best. The funniest was Bulgan. She wore 3 inch stiletto spiked boots. And she knew where she was taking us. This was a hike for experienced hikers - for sure. Slippery and steep.

We almost gave up making it to the waterfall but Bulgan urged us on. It was sooo worth it. When we got there we had a picnic lunch and took some pictures. Maksim got out of the pack and walked around with huge eyes and a grin on his face. He would just giggle out loud with glee. That is the only way to describe it. We had so much fun.

The way down was a little more trecherous and each of us had a spill. It was really funny. Maks' shoe fell off into the creek. Bulgan slid about 20 feet down the side of a snowy hill. She stopped herself just before plunging about 5 feet down into the creek- scary but not really. Bulat's shoe got slurped into the mud and fell off. Somehow he held his balance while we dug it out. Then almost at the bottom, yup, Bulgan's heel broke off. We were laughing hilariously. Soooo much fun and laughing. Just the right medicine.

Only a few more days. We will make it. Thanks Bulgan and Bulat!! What a beautiful day.

Camera issues...

We are stuck in Kaz. It is hard to be pleasant sometimes. These are the things that make us happy:

Maksim's laugh when we chase him in the park. THE GREATEST!!
The park and many tulips across the street from our apartment.
Knowing that our dog is waiting for us patiently.
Our family because they call us and write us and tell us they love us.
Sleeping Maksim (what is it about sleeping babies?)
Emails and posts from home - so what are you all waiting for??? Just kidding. Not really.
Knowing that there is something more powerful than us in the Universe.

Sorry no pics. I know it sucks to read when there are none - but battery issues have gotten us down. We lost our rechargeables in the move to Almaty along with several of Maksim's shirts. Hmmm...

We are making great strides with learning to become parents. We are making some strides with Maksim's attachement to us. We are eating well in Almaty.

Some pics soon. We may be able to come home by next Wednesday. Not sure. We will know by tomorrow(?) Yeah right. Who knows when we will know, really.

Physics Students!

Hello everyone!

I hope that you had a great spring break. 2 weeks must be nice but hard to get back to learning.

Today you were supposed to learn about resonance. This is a complicated subject but is very cool! Resonance phenomena can help describe many different things that we observe everyday. First we have to realize that everyday objects have a special frequency that they vibrate at. This is called the natural frequency of an object. It is just the amount of vibrations that an object will have if it is forced to vibrate. Any easy way to think of it is imagine if I was dangling my keys. You would immediately know that it was my keys that were making the sound. The reason you know is because keys always make the same sound - because they vibrate at their natural frequency. Now resonance occurs when another sound or vibration is acting at the exact same frequency as the natural frequency of the object. This will cause the object to vibrate without touching it. Really, the sound waves coming in push on the object at the same frequency that it "likes" to vibrate at. So this sound waves pushes and pulls when the compression and rarefaction regions strike it. When it pushes and pulls, the object begins to vibrate at the same frequency. We call this resonance. Ms. Yoshizumi showed you a cool demonstration of this. If you didn't think it was cool something is wrong with you!!! Really!

So....here are some answers to your questions

3rd: An opera singers voice can break a wine glass through resonance. If she sings at the exact same frequency as the frequency that the wine glass likes to vibrate at (its natural frequency) then it will start to vibrate. The vibrations become so large (big amplitude) that the glass cannot withstand the changes and it shatters. Resonance!! Why is the sky blue??? The sky is blue because the molecules that make up the sky (mostly nitrogen and carbon molecules plus water) are the exact right size that they scatter the photons coming from the sun that are blue and violet. The other photons are absorbed or reflected so we do not see them. I have a very cool demonstration to show this. Perhaps I will get the chance to let you see it. Why is the sky blue!!!

4th: The highest and lowest frequency is a vague question. I wish that I was there to hear you ask it. Do you mean that humans can hear? If so, many humans hear on the range of 20 - 20,00o Hz. That means that anything that vibrates with these frequencies, we can hear. Have you heard of a dog whistle? These whistles have a very high frequency. Too high for most people to hear, but dogs can hear them. I have heard of some people that claim to be able to hear them, too. What about you? Do you mean the frequency that light waves have? Light waves have very high frequencies. They are caused when charges (we haven't learned about this) like electrons vibrate very fast. But, alas, I don't know if I am answering your question.

5th: Vibrations sound cool because the parts in your ear are exactly the right shape and size so that they vibrate when sounds come near them. Music is a vibration that many of us love. Although some people's taste in music we may not find pleasing. I for one, like country music and punk rock. What kind do you like? A pendulum can start swinging all by itself because of resonance. It makes a sound -even though you cannot hear it - and this sound's compression and rarefaction regions push and pull on the pendulum to make it move. It is kinda like when you are on a swing. If you move your legs just right, you will start to swing higher and higher. Do you know what I am talking about?

Thanks for your questions. I am stuck in Kazakhstan and do not know when they will let me go ( if ever). I sure miss my dog, my mom, my sister, her kids, and even Uncle Punk.

Please continue to learn and be NICE to Ms. Yoshizumi for heaven's sake!!

Great Couple of Days

Life has been pretty good in Almaty. After Maksim's adjustment to his temporary new apartment, things have been pretty fun. We have walked around alot. We have eaten alot. We have gone to the play area at Silk Way City. We have completed our medical appointment for the Embassy Interview - our last step before flying out of here. This is a pic in the waiting room. What a happy boy! He LOVED the playpen. Should we invest in one?? LOL
We have even visited the mountains, twice! Today, there was a guy there with an eagle that he would let people take pictures with (for a small fee). The bird was magnificent and maybe a little hungry! Maksim was napping so we took picture with the bird without him at first. Once he woke up, we snapped a few next to the bird.

We have met some really nice people in the last few days and feel happy that people (other than whom we have paid!!) are friendly.

Of course, we really miss home and wish we knew when we will be able to fly out of here. We are waiting for Maksim's exit visa. We hope that we get it by the end of the week or our trip will go into it's 9th week. Yes, you heard us, 9 weeks!!!

Thank you to Nana, Papa Jon, and Auntie Elizabeth for getting the house toddler proofed. We thought that we had already done this - but you know - we didn't know what a toddler was really like.

Cross your fingers for us. Pray for us. We long to be home.

Some pics (finally)

Sorry again for short and boring posts. Being instant parents to an active toddler is taking a toll on my internet time. :) But here are a few pics.

This is a picture of our apartment complex in Ust by the Oolbah river where we would walk. Finally, when we would walk he would take a much needed nap.
This is the helicopter at the playground in our apartment complex. Much of the toys were unsafe by US standards, but the helicopter seemed too cool for Maksim to pass up!

At lunch time, we went to an indoor playground. Maksim had a lot of fun riding a coin operated train. He played for a good while and got sooo sweaty. He was quite a happy boy! Doesn't look like it in the pic. :)

Here is a picture of the view from our balcony yesterday. Yesterday it was 70 degrees F. Today we woke up to a blizzard. Almaty is a beautiful and modern city. We went up to the mountains today. It was snowing too hard to get a good view but it was white, beautiful, and Maksim got in a little nap.

Almaty

Phew! We made it to Almaty on a 2 hour plane flight. It wasn't too bad for the first 1 1/2 hours. He was happy, silly, funny and cute. Then ... well something different happened. He screamed "schelone (green)" at the top of his lungs. Over and Over. Yikes. Really it was only for about 10 minutes but it was pretty gnarly. Mom's and Papa's hair nearly fell out.

But we arrived and he had fun seeing the city and going to the grocery store. It was a real grocery store with lots of american foods. I couldn't even think I was so excited. I am making mexican food for dinner (chicken soft tacos!!!). So excited. Bulgan thought I was a big dork. It is definately more expensive in Almaty. Probably costs twice as much at the grocery store.

We already miss Semyone and Lena. They are awesome. But we are very lucky to spend time with Bulgan again. Bulgan is really funny. She tries to pull jokes on me. It is cool. I like teasing makes me feel at home. She bought us a house warming gift - a beautiful purple hyacinth. It was really sweet. Poor Bulat had to carry our gnarly luggage up to our apartment. He was very kind, too. Not to mention that the view from our apartment is amazing.

Thank you to everyone for all the advice about our son. Your words and thoughts really have given us strength. Maksim will need this from us. We are willing to give it.

No pics -dial up sucks. :)

Sorry Everyone

OOPS!

We apologize for leaving everyone in the dark. We have been so busy that as soon as there is a moment we fall asleep. I haven't even been checking my email!! Boy were there alot of people wondering what had happened to us....

I just wanted to tell everyone not to worry and everything is going okay. We are really homesick and can't wait to get to the USA!! Tomorrow morning we will leave for Almaty and spend a week or 2 there waiting for Maksim's paperwork to be done. Nothing about this adoption process has been easy - especially the wait. Wait, Wait, Wait!!

We are having some issues with Maksim centering around food and language. He is frustrated that we cannot understand his sentences and requests. We are frustrated that he cannot understand ours. Each day he has some tantrums that we cannot seem to calm or help. But each day he learns some more things and we make progress. We learning how to help eachother feel good in the family.

Any advice from you parents out there?

Sorry for the lack of updates! I cannot promise they will be more frequent. :)

Nap Time!

Good and Bad news. Good news first - we are going to Almaty on Friday! Bad News - we can't leave for home until probably April 16th. I am supposed to be back at work on April 10th. I don't know if we can push the time sooner - we are going to try. Can't wait to be home.

Yeah! We got Maksim to go down for an hour nap and that made sooooo much difference. We knew he needed to nap before -we were just unable to get him to. He woke up all happy and smiley and snuggly. We spent the rest of the afternoon playing, playing and playing with a madrushka doll (those stacking Russian dolls), and watching ice age (again). It is so funny because he tells us lines from it even when we aren't watching it. He is sure picking up English fast! Anyway - short post - because I am tired. Yeah Yeah I know! But here are some of the pics I couldn't get to post last night. Nevermind blogger sucks!

Maksim!

We have had some exciting couple of days. Not to mention crazy, wonderful, tiring, happy, sad, fun, and scary. Yesterday, we went to a ski resort. It was cold and there was some great snow. It was kinda like Utah must have been in the 1950's. There was just one lift or should I say a tow rope and a few buildings. I didn't even see the cashier. Jason and I were sad that we hadn't come up to try it before picking up our bundle. Actually, Mom tried to talk Papa into it but he wouldn't. Then we get up there and he tells Lena- man I wish someone would've have told me about this. Of course he must have forgotten Mom's pleading. ;) We ate lunch and talked to a couple of doggies. We sure miss our Audry Bear.

Maksim was trying to push all of his Papa's buttons.  He would do everything that
Papa told him not to do.  Dangerous things like eating HUGE bites of stuff to
choke and putting smaller toysin his mouth, pushing the buttons on the DVD
player,hitting the glass doors- even redirection wasn't working.  It was a little
frightening.  So I took him into time out.  He was crying big tears and scream-
ing (just a bit - actually whenever his voice is too loud - I just remind him and
he screams with a whisper) Then I remembered something I read about kids
that are grieving the loss of their caregivers.  It was just like they described.  So
I took him to the computer and we looked at pictures of the kids and Mama
Tanya (his favorite) and he stopped and stared for many minutes.  The comp-
uter would try to move the next pic and we would put it back.  Jason and I were
both were tearing up thinking about it.

It must be really scary for him to not be able to communicate with us in Russian.
It must be frustrating that these dummies can't even understand a simple
sentence.  It must really suck that all we do is say all this stuff he can't understand.
On top of it he has been "abducted" and can't see his friends or his Mamas or any
of the things he knows.  

So today, we went back to the baby house for a visit. We took some flowers for a couple of our favorite caregivers and some little candy bar/cookie things for the children. I wanted to take fruit but everyone thought candy would be better. I was half afraid to go back because I thought Maksim might either scream at the top of his lungs and not enter or not want to leave when it was time. Neither happened! He just visited with some of his friends. Hugged and laughed with one of our favorite caregivers and got punched by Alosha in the stomach as he pinched Alosha's arm (nice). We said goodbye forever and headed out of there. Lena and Maksim laughed so hard as she said "lets get out of here quick!" They both ran as fast as Maksim could down the stairs and off the driveway. Yeah! He wants to stay with his Mom and Papa. (BTW - I decided to be called Mom because I couldn't stand it when Maksim says Mama to all the ladies he sees. I am right here!!!!! I know, I know, all ladies are Mama but I can't help but have hurt feelings :)

We went for a long walk to the local grocery store and Maksim fell asleep in the backpack. I was so happy. I looked over at him as we started out and gave him a quick smile. I got my first "I love you" smile back. All the other smiles were "you are so funny" or "this is fun". But THIS smile was a "I am happy and your pretty cool." Sigh. There was some sight seeing and playing and picture taking. One interesting thing at a playground, there was a small collection of "Apache" Indian statues. Strange - I guess we owe that to Hollywood. It took me a second to sound it out in the Cyrillic Alphabet... No Kazakh statues, or Mongols, or... just Apache (?) Questionable history, too, because there was a Tinglit totem pole. Oh well - Hollywood isn't all that accurate.

We are learning some things about being Maksim's parents. We are frustrated with his behavior sometimes. But all in all a wonderful first few days together. Now can we come home, yet???

I have some cool pics, but you know blogger!! :P

Beautiful Garshok!

Too tired to post except for some pics and one story.


Maksim was a doll. We took him to Pizza Blues for lunch and play time. It is a pizza place with a large play area. Maksim played so hard that by the end, he couldn't move anymore. He got stuck in the balls. I pulled him out and we decided to take him home and forego some shopping. We did however need to get him a little garshok - it is a little potty for kids. We thought maybe he could relax more than he was when he had to support himself on the big potty. He was sleeping on Papa while Momma and Lena went into the store to buy the garshok. When we came back out Maksim was awake - still comatosed on Papa's lap - but awake enough so that Lena could show him what we bought. He said (translated)- "Oooohhh a potty! It is beautiful!" What the heck! We all laughed all the way home. Except Maksim. He barely blinked.

First day together

Papa's Pants!!

Today is Family Day! We are so happy to say that we are finally united as a happy family. We had a lot of fun. We learned alot about each other. We are all pooped!

We picked up Maksim, gave some thank you gifts to the caregivers and orphanage director. We asked if we could return on Saturday to bring some things to the children. We were told that "would be fine. Maksim loved his new snow clothes. He told Lena they were "Beautiful Pants". We didn't take any pictures because we were stunned, I think.

He cried for about 2 seconds when we first put him in the car. I picked him up quickly and told him it was okay because Momma had him. He said Horosha (okay) and we left. His eyes were ride and he kept asking Momma for something - but Lena couldn't hear what it was. Our driver Semyone had to attend a funeral so we had him bring us straight home. We were happy to get to spend time with Maksim alone.

First Car Ride

At the apartment, he investigated everything. We had to scramble to put items out of his reach. We thougth we had already done this. Silly parents. Everything was interesting. He loved eveything that we gave him. Even Momma's food was really good. He kept saying It was really funny because Papa gave him a huge bite of chicken before Momma could grab it - it was in his mouth. He chewed on it for a while then looked at Momma with a scared face and spit it into her hand. All the juices were gone so what good was the chicken lump? Jonny knows all about this.

We finally got him to relax enough to watch Ice Age with us this evening. He was like wind up willy the whole time. Sorry Roni Ron! We think you have a new rival! When the movie was over his was still singing songs trying to redirect our attention from getting him to sleep. During the credits. I put him on my lap and rocked him. On the very last note, he was out! Yeah! I was so excited. I looked over at Papa - Now what? We managed to get him into his bed and now we hope he doesn't wake up scared in the night.

Anyway - I forgot to take pics for most of the day - but did snap a few. Family Day was as perfect as we imagined. Complete with pee on the floor, toilet, Papa, Momma, 3 pair of underwear and 3 pull ups. Toys everywhere! Bath time, lots of food. :) I am sure we will all sleep soundly.