Even More New Friends!

Wednesday, June 14th

Well we had more fun today. We got together with Brett, Karen and their son Nathan (Marat) for a little show me your games session, so a good time was had by all and then had lunch upstairs at Marina’s. They are loving the good food we have been having the pleasure of for the last 6weeks.

We also got a phone call from John and Robin a couple from California that have been in Kaz for 8 days adopting their second child from here. She is the sister to their other daughter Olya (another Olya). They did not know she was here when they adopted before 4 years ago. They decided to host another child last Summer from Kidsave and this girl, who looks just like a brunette version of their daughter Olya turned out to be Olya’s sister! They have been contacted by The Oprah Winfrey Show and might be going on sometime when they get back which would be great for Kidsave and all the other kids looking for homes in America.

Anyways they were getting together with two other families from Atlanta for dinner at Mario’s Pizza and invited us. We of course checked our busy schedules and found we did have time to do that. So funny! We had a good chuckle with that one.

In the mean time we met Nastya at the bus stop at 2-ish and took Brett, Karen and Nathan
along to meet a lady they knew through Brett’s brother who adopted a child from here last year. She was his interpetor and her name is...Nastya. (a common name here) That is now three Nastya’s in our life here. It was only their second day here and we already had them on the bus! They got broken in quick! When we arrived at the Zoom we started looking for their friend and I asked them what she looked like. They did not know so I asked them if she was Russian or Kazakh? They said they did not know that either. Our Nastya leaned over to me and said,”With a name like Nastya she would have to be Russian!” I think I made a little Russian faux-pas! We all laughed! Sure enough when she came, she looked Russian.

Russian people look different from the native Kazakh people even though they were both born here. The Kazakh people are described as “soft Asian”. They look somewhat Chinese but with a little darker skin and their eyes are not as narrow.

We split up with us with our Nastya and them with their Nastya and did a little shopping. I finally found some light weight Summer tops that look like they will hold up to some washing without shrinking and Sasha found a lightweight shirt too. It is funny to find some Summer stuff today of all days when it is actually pretty chilly outside! We do know however it will warm up again. We also picked up a few Gameboys and some games for Andrey and the orphanage. Sasha and Stella are so sweet. They have volunteered to play the games and Gameboys in the interim time before we take them to the kids to make sure they are good and working properly! What great kids we have! Really they are great!

We shopped until the very last minute and then headed over to Mario’s. Nastya accompanied us just to make sure we arrived safely. It is just a short walk from the Zoom. When we walked in we saw a large group that had to be Americans and we were right. Elaine was there with her two adoptive daughters whom we had met last Summer at Kidsave and another couple from Atlanta, Pam and Robert and their two sons. They have one son and are adopting the other, an adorable, somewhat shy 7 year old. John and Robin came in shortly after us with their two girls. We all ordered Pizza and drinks and after we ordered our waitress brought us our bill for us to pay before we ate! Very different! The pizza was by far the best we have had here. It looked like real pizza and tasted really good. We will be back I am sure.

We had ordered our food and after a short time two chicken pizza with mushrooms arrived. We noticed Sasha and Stella were not really interested in eating and wondered why until about 10 minutes later when chicken and fries came for both of them. We did not know they had ordered it but they ate every bit…except for that bad, bad chicken fat that makes Sasha’s skin crawl.

It was great to talk with everyone and share stories. We are planning to get together again and go bowling or maybe swimming. That will be great for us all. We were seasoned veterans and almost citizens as far as they were all concerned. They had lots of questions about what there is to do and it did not take long for us to share about that. We really feel blessed to be in our apartment with prepared meals and so close to Marina. We can really see God’s hand in our provisions here.

We have truly had a wonderful time here.

The kids played Gameboy and had a great time but we can see that too much Gameboy for Stella is not a good thing. We can see a co-dependent relationship forming!! They were ready to go to sleep and there were hugs and kisses and good night sleepin’.