July 14, 2010 "The Fantastic Four!" Part 1

Livea
Our visits to see our littlest girl have now been moved to the afternoon for about 3 hours a day. Yesterday Miss Livea was "full of herself!" I think she giggled more than anything else. Everything was a big game to her and she loves for us to bark at her like puppies and try to "bite" at her little legs :) This always brings a big smile, laugh, and arms wrapped around our necks.
She is very smart. She seems to understand what we tell her. She will put away her toys when we ask (although, yesterday, she told Dean "no, no" with her head when he directed her to put a toy on the shelf:) I really don't think she knows what a Dada is yet. We took our littlest one for a walk yesterday and came across some birds feeding on the playground. Within just a few minutes Livea was saying "Bird!" She now has about three English words: Button, Ball, Bird.

Dining
Our group is unique I think in that everyone likes to explore the area and seek out interesting places to eat and activities to experience. Of course, ordering is always a challenge as most places do not have English menus. Someone usually ends up mooing like a cow or flapping like a chicken to order their dish:)!



The Fantastic Four Part 1
That is the name we are giving our group! We may even make our own Fantastic Four video to share soon. Our group has encountered some completely unexpected challenges since we arrived! Being with this particular hilarious, unpredictable, pure-hearted, and extremely intelligent group has been one of the biggest treats of our lives. It is interesting to share that we are all from total opposite areas of the US with different political and even religious views. States represented from our group are Alaska, California, New York, and Tennessee. Our common ground: our adoptions process and finding our children here in Karaganda, our desires to do right, our eagerness to share in each others' good qualities, and respect for each others differences.
The Fantastic Four Part 2: Identity Revelation! (of course, Strong Man has already been revealed!)

Some of the pictures posted here are from our recent visit to Astana, the capitol of Kazakhstan. While there, we got to visit the President's Palaceand an exhibit of Bears each of which represented an individual country. Astana is nothing like Karaganda. All the buildings are newer and they actually have rain, neatly kept grass, and flower gardens. We had a good visit!