8/08/08..One Week of Bonding Complete, and the Olympics!!

Leeza waving "Paka Paka" to us as we ended one week of bonding with her. Eva is on the left, then Leeza, then Aigul. These women are amazing. Aigul is really sweet, and she's the one who said I was "fashion forward".


See what I mean about Daddy's girl?


Sean and Rustam having fun playing!! I am so proud of Sean. He is really great with kids. It's so incredible to see him play with all the children. He asked if he can adopt when he's older, like in high school. I told him, in high school, he is not old enough or mature enough to take care of a child. He said, well,when i'm in college then, will you help me adopt?? i want to come back here!!!


Lots of love for baby sister Leeza!!!
A beautiful sight to see walking around the baby house. Tricia and Rustam have been here, what, almost 70 days? Their bond is a strong one. I loved seeing them together. I may have wiped a tear from my eye!!8/08/08 One week of Bonding and the Olympics!

So sorry for the late post today! It’s almost 10 pm Kostanai time and we JUST GOT HOME, after being picked up at 10:45 this morning! After spending 11-1 with the lovely Leeza, we went over to the Wiley’s for an Olympic celebration since the opening ceremonies started today. We were told they started at 2. Then, we got a call (after we had all arrived there ) that said, “Oooh, they start at 6” but all 3 families were already there. So, we had a long afternoon and evening but it was a lot of fun! The boys all had fun playing with each other. Joe and I were proud of Sean, he was really good with the younger boys. We walked to the market and got cake and ice cream, and beer, and we ordered pizza to go from Dolce Vita and Tatiana was our delivery girl! It was a fun! Sean sat there and wrote down EVERY SINGLE COUNTRY in the Olympics!
It took him 2 huge sheets of paper. Honestly, I had no idea that there were that many countries represented, some of which I hadn’t heard of.
The other 2 families here are bonding with their children at the baby home in Rudney. It’s so awesome to see how each child ended up with the perfect family for them. I am always in awe of how this works. Everyone is very happy!!! I really like the families we are here with. They are really neat people!!!
Yesterday was hot, but it rained last night and got down right chilly! Today was just gorgeous, if even chilly in the shade!! When we got to Leeza’s hut, all the kids were still sleeping. There was a cool breeze, and the kids looked so SNUGGLY all in their beds. I felt bad waking lil Leeza up. She always wakes up so happy though! We each took turns walking around the baby house with her. Joe holds her, Sean pushes her in the stroller (fast!!!) and Mommy holds her in the ergo. She loves being outside and just loves looking around. Today, I snapped a picture of a lovely "mother and son moment", Tricia and Rustam snuggling under a tree. It was such a precious sight. You can see it in the pictures, but, it's even better "Live from Kaz!" Tricia is just glowing and Rustam is just such a content baby. It's awesome!!!
It was my turn to feed Leeza lunch today, and I am proud to say I am getting better and less messy. They didn’t give me extra “covers” for her, and she did not end up with food all over her! Practice makes perfect, I guess. Well, not perfect, but at least an improvement! After lunch, I set Leeza on the potty. Yesterday, we didn’t and she seemed so uncomfortable. The kids are so cute on their potties. She was sitting there and I was making her laugh, and she lost her balance and fell back and hit her lil head. I felt so bad!! However, she cried for one second, and then she was fine!! After she “did her business”, we bundled her back up and went into the visitation room. We shared with Rustam and Tricia today—it was a lot of fun. Rustam seemed excited to see new people (he has the BEST temperament—what a sweetheart!!) Rustam liked playing with some new toys, and grabbed a few from Leeza. Sean, being the protective big brother, got it back for her. Rustam and Sean were cute playing together too. We all had a good time. When it was 1:00 and time to clean up, Leeza started bawling! I am talking big tears. I wasn’t sure what was wrong, except maybe she knew it was time to say “Paka Paka” for the day and she wasn’t ready to go yet. (That’s what I tell myself at least!!)
Leeza is going to be a DADDY’S GIRL! She just lights up when Joe plays with her. He gets the best giggles out of her. I love seeing Joe with kids—he just has such a way with them!! I can already tell she is gonna have him wrapped around her lil finger!
I only got a few pictures today. She was moving all over the place. Notice her lovely mismatched outfit. Her and Rustam had matching shirts on!!

Our cold water is back on, so we got to take showers today! All is going well, and the Serra’s continue to be happy in Kostanai. We hear we should have DSL sometime next week. Yippee!!!!