We're Home!!!

What a long strange trip its been...

Sorry we haven't updated the blog in a little while. Needless to say, its been an interesting and eventful week since our last post. The best part though is that we are finally home with our little Taylor after seven and a half weeks on the other side of the world.

Here is a little recap of what the last week has looked like for us.

Almaty was a beautiful city. We arrived in Almaty on Sunday night (August 19th). The next morning, we went to the international doctor and got Taylor checked and cleared for the journey home. On Tuesday we were at the Embassy where Taylor got her Visa, and we got the green light to take her home with us to the US. Unfortunately for us, our flight out wasn't until Sunday, and we couldn't get an earlier flight. We decided to make the most of our week in Almaty to do some sight seeing and reunite with Annette and Kate, who arrived in Almaty on Tuesday night. Below you will see some of the local sights that we visited. We also had the chance to meet the Smith family while we where there. They were from Alaska, and had their three children with them, all adopted from Kazakhstan. The kids were great, and we had fun getting to know this new family.

We got to visit the Mega Mall. The one in Astana wasn't open yet while we were there, so it was nice to finally see the one in Almaty. It was nice. The best part though was the coffee place in the food court. We enjoyed a couple of Mochas.

Everywhere in Almaty were painted Camels. It was pretty nice. Taylor seemed to enjoy them too.

The yellow church was beautiful. It was built with no nails we were told, and was the only structure to survive the earthquakes that leveled Almaty 150 years ago.

We got to visit the mountains and see Medeu, the ice rink that they use to train for the Olympics. Here you can see Taylor and Katie reunited for a fun day out.

This was the World War II memorial. It was very cool to see.

Old friends reunited!

On the last day, we took the gondola up the mountain. The views were breathtaking. At the top, there was a sort of mini-resort with shops, restaurants, a playground, and a lot of caged birds. It was well worth visiting!

The trip home was quite an interesting event. Imagine leaving Kazakhstan at 2:30am on Sunday, traveling for 36 hours straight, and then arriving home in Detroit at 11:00pm on the same day. The first flight from Almaty to Istanbul took about 6 hours, and I will tell you that Taylor was not happy at all about the flight. She would not sleep, and was pretty cranky for the journey. We then arrived in Istanbul where we had our first 6 hour layover. Taylor settled down a bit once we were on the ground, and was much better from that point on. The twelve hour flight from Istanbul to Chicago was long, but we managed to catch a little sleep, and Taylor seemed far more content than she was for the first flight. We were very thankful. Another 6 hour layover in Chicago, and we were off for the short hour long flight home, which Taylor slept through (and so did we).

And since she has been home, she has slept like a baby (no pun intended). We have both been amazed how well Taylor has adjusted to her new home. She is doing great! She loves her new pets, and has already met many family members and friends. A tip for those who will be traveling in the future: We brought pictures with us of the grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, friends, etc., our cats, and pictures of our house. Taylor seemed right at home in her new environment, and took to everyone right away. We think that seeing the pictures for two months prior to bringing her home really helped a lot with this!

Taylor and her kitties.

Taylor's cousin Kayla couldn't wait to hold her.

Here is Taylor with cousins Josh (left) and Nick (right). Notice the cool Kazakh hat that Nick is wearing. He was very happy to receive his souvenier.

To our friends in Astana, we miss you guys. To Peter and Maren, Jennifer, and Denise and Rolando, congratulations on getting your children out of the baby house today! We have been following your journey and can't wait for all of you to get back home as well.

We will update again with more pics and news on Taylor and her new life in Michigan.

Almaty Update

Hey everyone. Just a quick update on us. We arrived in Almaty on Sunday night, and so far everything is going smoothly. Taylor went to the doctor's yesterday and checked out fine. Today, we got her Visa. The only thing left is to come home, which is something we would love to do but can't seem to get out any earlier than the 26th now. We will make the most of the remaining time here.

Sorry this is going to be short, and we may not have another update until we get back home. We are at an internet cafe right now. Unfortunately we can't access the internet at our hotel.

We can't wait to see everyone. Wish us luck that everything goes smoothly from here.

To our friends in Astana!

To all our friends in Astana. Annette, Kate, Jennifer, Peter, Maren, Rolando, Denise, and Soraya, we feel truly blessed to have met you all. We will miss you and we will keep you in our prayers. We hope a safe journey to all of you and your lovely children. We wish you all the best and hope that we will all get together soon. The friendships that we have formed will be with us forever, and we will think of you all often. Hope to see you all soon!

Annette and Kate, we will see you in Almaty on Tuesday. Kate, until then, listen to your mom!

Warmly,

Maegan and Tony

The Taylor Report - Week Ending August 18th

Hey its me Taylor again, with my weekly report! All I can say this week is....


WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON?!?!?!?!?!?


When I was just a little baby (not old like I am now), I was brought to the baby house. I didn't like it at first, but since I have spent practically my entire life there since, I've gotten kind of fond of it. The best part for me of course was when my new Mommy and Daddy starting come to visit me 6 weeks or so ago. I thought to myself, this is a pretty good life. I could do this for a while.

But then...

Suddenly I was taken from the baby house and brought to some strange new place. There were new noises, new sights, and I was pretty much scared out of my witts. My cool new Mommy and Daddy were with me all the time, which was nice, but where is my crib? My playmates? It was all too much, so I cried - for two days straight!

Soon though, I began to get introduced to new things. It started to become pretty cool being out of the baby house. I like music a lot. I am a big fan of air conditioning too. Who knew that you could be cool on a hot day? Go figure. Best of all though was my introduction to the joy of TELEVISION!


Now whatever this TV thing is, I have to say it is pretty awesome! And cartoons! Boy do I love cartoons. I could spend 16 hours a day in front of that TV thing. I sure hope that's what Mommy means when she says that I am going to get a lot of 'exercise' when I get home. I think that must mean TV time!



Daddy is letting me use his laptop to do my Taylor Report today. It much easier than the way I used to have to do it. Bribing the people at the baby house to publish my articles was getting old. I would have to be all cute and everything and give kisses just so they would send out my weekly report. Now, Daddy lets me do it for nothing. I still give out the kisses, but now its because I want to.


One more week and I will be going to my new home. From everything I have heard, the plane ride will be really easy. That's what Mommy and Daddy keep praying to God about. I hear them when they think I'm sleeping.

Well that's all for now. Love and Kisses to all!


Love, Taylor

Getting adjusted

After a couple of extremely rough days, Taylor seems to be getting better adjusted. So in addition to her change of environment, which was making her very cranky, our little one is now on several different medications to help knock out the fever and throat infection that has been bothering her. We took her to the doctor yesterday after we noticed her symptoms. Now, with her medications and some good old fashioned TLC, she is starting to act like her old self again.

So here is an update on the last few days.

Wednesday: We tried to go out to lunch with some of our friends here. Taylor was not too happy about it. Above you will see her sampling her first french fry. Believe me when I tell you this was the only happy moment of the outing. It was good to get out though.

Thursday: We went to the doctors (back at the baby house) and had a play date with Katie. She seemed to really enjoy being reunited with her friend Kate, who was taken out of the baby house on the same day that Taylor was. We spent a couple of hours at Annette's (Kate's mom), and Taylor really had a lot of fun. Taylor went right to bed when we got home too.

Today, so far she has napped for a full two hours. It was wonderful. When she woke up, it was bath time! She seemed to really enjoy the water at first. We had some screams at shampoo time, but all in all it was good. Since then, she has been very playful and happy (for the most part). We are going to try another nap here in a little bit.

Thanks for the outpouring of ideas. The music was a great tip. She seems to sleep better with some music to soothe her. Josh Groban has been the primary choice.

Only a couple of days left in Astana, and then we are off to Almaty for the week. We were originally planning to fly to Almaty on Tuesday, but it turns out we are ahead of schedule, so we leave Sunday. We will still be coming home on the 25th. We hoped to move that date up too, but it would have cost too much on such short notice.

That's all for now. We will update with more when we can.

Exhaustion!

Let's see. It is now Wednesday afternoon here as I write. That means we have had Taylor for almost 48 hours now. By my calculations, she has been happy for about 3 hours of that time. To say we are both a little tired would be a major understatement. The new environment outside of the baby house has got our little Taylor turned all upside down, and she is not shy about letting us know that she is a little upset about it. And naps... forget it! She does not want to sleep at all. Its been quite a struggle to get her to lay down and finally doze off, which only lasts for about thirty minutes. Throughout the night, about every half hour, she starts screaming again as though she just woke up and realized once again that she is in a strange new place. To the grandparents, all Maegan and I can say is sorry if we ever put you through the same thing. I know you have been waiting to hear that, so enjoy it. The shoe is finally on the other foot.

Our little handful is actually sleeping right now, so I have the chance to post this update. Not sure how many posts will come after this, but we'll let you know what's going on whenever Taylor decides to give us a break.

We are really looking forward to getting home with her so she can begin to adapt to her new environment. The flight, time change, and new house are certain to cause her more tension.

So here is the update on coming home. We finished applying for her Passport today. We will fly her to Almaty, Kazakhstan on the 21st to get her Visa, and we will be there for a few days. Our trip home is booked for the 25th of August. We will be flying from Almaty to Istanbul Turkey (5 hour flight). We will then have what looks like a 5 hour layover. We then fly from Turkey into Chicago, which will be about 11 hours in the air in total. Another 4-5 hour layover, and then we will be home. Our travel agent will be sending us the itinerary later today so that we have the exact times. Grandma Sue (aka babouska) will pick us up at the Detroit airport after our nice long journey home.

And as I type this, I hear Taylor crying again (its only been fifteen minutes since we put her down). Mom to the rescue.

Taylor just turned nine months old yesterday. We think she must be cranky about getting old (haha!). All in all we are very happy and excited of course to have our little girl! She is such a wonderful gift from God.

Sorry for the lack of pictures. We have been a little busy to say the least and have not really taken the opportunity to capture her various tantrums on film. Ah parenthood... Its a beautiful thing!

Escape from the Baby House!!!!!

That's right. Taylor is officially ours as of this evening! We went to the baby house at 5pm today and picked up Taylor for good. No more two hours visits. No more Sundays without her. We get her 24/7 from here on out! From now on, we have graduated to official full time parents. We are very happy and just a little scared.

We were told yesterday that we would be picking her up today, and we have been excited all day preparing for her. Maegan and I went to the store earlier in the day and bought all of her food and formula. We were originally scheduled to go at 6pm, but then had our time moved up so we could get her a little earlier.

The caretakers were sad to see her leave, but you could tell they were happy for her that she was going to a good home. We gave gifts to all the caretakers and said our goodbyes, and then off we went.

Taylor was fine for the car ride. When she got into our apartment however, she began to cry louder than we have ever heard from her before. You could just tell she was very uneasy and frightened by the new environment. We gave her some juice to calm her down (it worked for a short bit), which she managed to throw up all over Maegan about ten minutes later. Needless to say, it was a little rough right out of the gates.

And then the strangest thing happened. It was as though Taylor just snapped out of it, and she was the happiest baby in the world. She ended the night by playing and laughing and pulling herself around the floor to check out all the new sights. She was so full of energy that it took us an hour and a half past her bed time before she would finally settle down.

And so ends our first evening on a good note. Tomorrow we apply for her passport and birth certificate so that we can bring her home. Before anyone asks, we are still working on confirming the date that we will be back, which is not exact yet. As soon as we have our return flight confirmed (we are trying to get an earlier flight than the one we booked), we will let everyone know. I don't want to speculate until then. Don't want to jinx ourselves or anything. Looking forward to coming home as soon as we can.

Love Tony, Maegan, and Taylor!

A Night Out! and a day without Tay...

So last night we were able to go out for the evening and see Astana at night. It is absolutely beautiful! Since I was asked to be kind, I will. Sorry but you will all have to wait to see the really funny pictures until we get home. Since we are making this into a book for Taylor, Tony and I thought it would not be appropriate to add too much... Jennifer, I have to leave out the messy stuff...
We met up with Annette, Jennifer, Mike, Denise, Rolando, Gulsana and the new addition, Seriah. We met at Baiterek (which is the big tower you see pictured above) at 10pm and walked around for about an hour. Afterwards, Gulsana led us to a bar and disco! It was great! We ordered food and drinks. Gulsana and Tony had a deal that if Gulsana would do a tequila shot then Tony would do a "yorsh." That is basically a shot of vodka in about a half glass of beer. So, as to the deal, Gulsana did her shot (actually a couple) and Tony did his shots of "yorsh." Mike also did these, and afterwards, Gulsana informed us that it would hit them in "about ten minutes." Yep, she was right! We had a lot of fun drinking and dancing. We ended up getting home around 2:30am or 3:00am. It was a great night!


Today was another day without seeing Taylor. We made the most of it though. We met up with the gang and visited the ethnopark "Map of Kazakhstan - Atameken." This is a miniature 3D map of Kazakhstan. As you walk through you can see mini versions of the cities througout Kaz. Up on a platform was the city of Astana. Our apartment building was even there!

The Taylor Report - Week Ending August 11, 2007

Hey Readers! Taylor Van Sant here with the weekly Taylor Report. This week has been a fun and interesting adventure. The best part of the week for me was hearing all about Mommy and Daddy's favorite movies. I enjoyed it so much that I decided I would reinact some of those films for you.

Here you see my doing my tribute to "Star Wars". I have just defeated Darth Mommy and have restored peace to the galaxy.

Eminem himself would be proud of my version of "8-Mile"

Here I am with my own take on Disney / Pixar's Summer 2007 sensation - "Ratatoulle"

Like a little suspense and horror? No one could forget this famous scene from "The Blair Witch Project"

And another real nail-biter... Here I am doing my best imitation of "Jaws"

"Monty Python & The Holy Grail" anyone?

And last but certainly not least, once again I bring you my tribute to the classic gangster film of all time - "The Godfather"

In other news:

Have you ever been eaten by a blanket??? I have to tell you its quite scary. There I was minding my own business, when all of a sudden my seemingly innocent blanket decided to turn on me.

We were having a perfectly nice time at first, but then my blanket got hungry...!




I fought and fought, but the blanket was too strong...

Soon, all the lights went out. I didn't know what to do! I was frightened for my little life, when all of a sudden...


I was saved! Mommy and Daddy to the rescue! I guess I wasn't really in any danger after all. It was all my imagination. Maybe I should stay away from the scary movies from now on.

Well, I guess that's it for this week's report. Talk to you again next week! Until then:

LOVE, TAYLOR

So we continue to have some hit and miss adventures with the internet. Today was another good day for us at the baby house. It is really starting to cool down here. Today the high was around 65 degrees. With cool weather comes more comfortable conditions in the playroom, and a happier Taylor. Taylor is mimicking a lot lately. She copies us when we make noises. Her favorite is what we refer to as the 'motorboat'. She sputters her lips and makes lots of bubbles. Its very cute. She did some singing for us today too. She seems to be getting more and more vocal with each passing day.

We have received a few questions regarding the current inspection process that is going on at the baby house. The truth is that we really don't know much about it, other than the fact that it has disrupted our normal schedule. We are told that they are reviewing international adoption procedures, though I honestly could not tell you what that means. I don't think we would be told even if we asked.

Other than that, everything is good. We are enjoying every minute we get with Taylor as we count down the days until we can bring her home. We go tomorrow to see her at 2pm, and then we get our usual Sunday break (which is getting pretty hard, we miss our little girl when she isn't with us). Soon... very soon...