Bonding Day 6

Hello from Karaganda, Kazakhstan!

We had a really nice day today visiting with Miss Livea. We actually call her by her given name "Anastasia" when we are with her since that is the name she knows, however, everyone else in our group calls her Livea.

She was very wide-eyed and mild today. She seems to be "taking it all in"! We enjoyed walking outside with her and even bought her a new red singing telephone and took it to her for our afternoon visit. She just pushes the buttons over and over to hear the music play :) In the morning visit, she hung onto the little doggy that barks (which my precious Lilliana sent over for her to play with from home!) If you pat the puppies head, it barks and wags its tail! Livea has fun doing that! :)

When it was time to leave and I took her to her room and sat her down, she cried loudly! It broke my heart! I think she is beginning to enjoy her new parents! It will be hard to leave her!

The pictures above show just how mello our sweet little one was today.

Pics of our "Strong Man" early morning work out Coming Soon! The picture above is our entire group minus my sweet husband who is taking the picture. Our group is one of a kind! We are truly growing to love each of the dear parents we are so blessed to be making this journey with!

Thank you for the sweet comments and e-mails!

Until tomorrow,

Janie and Dean

Bonding Day 5

We had a wonderful day visiting with Miss Livea Kara-Ann today! In case you are wondering about the name, Livea is the name we had in mind before we came. We came up with Kara-Ann from her given name, Ann from Anestasia , and Kara (or chara - greek for Joy) and for the city from which we met her - Karaganda.
Yes, We got creative!

The first few days have been rough, to say the least, however, after the jet lag wears off a little and you start to get into a routine, things definitely get much easier! (This little section is for those PAP's yet to come :) Just remember the facts, stay positive, have a little faith!

We are with a group of wonderful couples! We laugh MUCH! We even have our very own "Strong-Man" Personal Trainer planning our daily walks, runs, and 6:15 a.m. workouts! He is great! He and another gentleman from our group were out a few mornings ago sprinting hills, lifting rocks at the top of the hills, doing lunges , etc. Before they knew it, there was another Kazakh resident following along, sprinting the hill and lifting the rocks at the top! Hilarious! Strong-Man has a following! :)

The people here are very nice. The young teens especially! They love to try to communicate with us in English at restaurants and such. We had a good day today!

I'll leave you with a few pictures of our visit with our sweet little one! Then I am off to bed for our 6:15 a.m. group workout! :)

Bonding Day 2,3,4 (Catch up! :)

Thank you for the kind comments! "Livea" is a sweetie! She has definitely stolen all of our hearts! My Lilliana at home is already "in love" with her! She (Lilliana) is being such a big girl! I'm so proud of her!
As for "Livea", she is about 20 months old. At first she would cry when we visited but now she pretty much just clings to both me and Dean! She does not like for either of us to leave her side for a moment when we are visiting. If I walk away she cries so pitifully! I will hate to leave her but it will be ok as she is very attached to her wonderful care-givers! The staff at the orphanage is spectacular! I can not say enough how impressed we are with them!

Arrival and Bonding Day 1...... Introducing....

Arrived Safely!

Hello All! I regret to say that this will be a short post as I am currently under the weather. However, I will post pics and information later about our adoption!

For now, I will just share that we are greatly enjoying our visits with our sweet little "Livea Kara-Ann"

Until Later :) !

J

10 Days To Departure!

Well, we are in the final countdown now and I think we are finally pulling it all together. Our biggest goal this week is to tie up any loose ends and then focus completely on Miss Lilliana and Miss Lindsay. They will be staying here with the help of House Sitters, Dad, Brothers and Sisters.

Dean is actually out right now picking up the "last" of the things we had on our list of things to buy. I am truly blessed with a wonderful husband.

Miss Lilliana is finishing her bath, just chattering away....as always! :) I don't know how I'm going to make it without her sweet little voice ringing in my ears almost nonstop! We are so thankful that we will have access to her via Skype!

Trial Run....

We met with a precious Kaz Adoptive couple tonight for dinner and chatting. We left Lilliana at my brother's home, where she will spend much of her time while we are gone. When I drove up to get her she met me at the vehicle......in the dark. I put her in my arms and she hugged me tight and said, "I thought you might not be coming back."
She had to have known of course, that we were. But she's definitely feeling anxious about our separation - all of our faiths are being tested!

She really is my "cuddle bug"! We love her so very much!