Friday, April 9 (the day we THOUGHT we would be heading back home) Bonding is officially over (hooray) so our visits with Kirill now are “just because we want to be there.” We still took pictures of us with playing Kirill with today’s date on the picture just in case 15 days (instead of 14) is needed when we get to court.
I need to go back to our night at the Korean restaurant because we had more laughs last night than we have had since leaving home 24 days ago. When Iger picked us up at the baby house at 6PM we handed him a piece of paper with the name of a Korean restaurant on it, a recommendation from one of the other adoptive couple’s translators. Our American friends were going to meet us there at 6:30PM (20 minutes later). Iger turned off on some dirt/bumpy road lined with a close cluster of not so nice houses and mangy looking sabakas (dogs) and he stopped in front of a two story house and pointed to it. Sure didn’t look like a restaurant to us. Every Russian word we have learned (which isn’t so many) becomes useful at a time like this. I said “smart-tree” (look) and so he got out of the car with us to look inside. The front of the house had people living in it, one of the two side doors had a piece of paper on it with something typed in Russian. Iger pointed to one of the doors, smiled, and turned and went back to his car. I’m so proud of John and me. We were tempted just to follow Iger back to his car and do Ramen noodles and popcorn. Instead, we went in by ourselves, walked up the stairs (hoping that this indeed was a restaurant) and attempted to communicate to our waitress that there would be 6 of us eating. Ha, we can only count to 5 and with all our efforts, the idea that we were waiting on 4 more didn’t translate. No worries – a worker (who has a sister who lives in California, a father in Moscow, and a mother in Uzbekistan), who is higher up, knew maybe 20 English words and with that we were able to enjoy a delicious meal! To order lamb, we “bleated” like a little sheep, for beef, we “mooed” like a cow, and for chicken, we “clucked.” Most of their menu consisted of dog meat and we politely said “nyet,” that we loved our sabakas at home! Actually we had no clue what we ordered but we thoroughly enjoyed the element of surprise – the food was delicious.
We are especially grateful for our night with these friends. Once again, God has provided for our needs. They had all just spent the afternoon in pre-court, where we were to go the next day. They were able to “brief us” with all the questions they were asked by the officials at pre-court (which I think is sort of a trial run before court but without the judge there). Questions like, “why did you choose to adopt from Kazakhstan and not America?” and “What will you do if your child decides to become a Muslim?” and “How have you prepared for this child?” Both of these couples have previously adopted from Kazakhstan so they also were able to give us more insight into what to expect in court. The key is to keep the answers short and to the point, no humor needed, no chewing gum (not that I would), ect. It just feels better going into something more prepared and after our time with these guys we feel ready.
Morning visit with Kirill was good. He is so comfortable with us but still isn’t thriled when we hug on the other kids in his class. We spent about an hour outside, all bundled up. Trying to do the “Let’s go on a bear (meeshka) hunt” song with him but not sure if he gets it. Still wondering how this language changeover thing is going to happen. It’s clear to Kirill that we do not speak his language. He seems uncomfortable making an attempt to say a word in English (just as we are in repeating his Russian). However, he will repeat, in English, “candy” when he wants the candy that is in John’s pocket! We certainly won’t push it for now, but may have to use the “say it in English for a piece of candy” bribe when we get home. I was able to point to the calendar in Kirill’s room and get across to his teacher that our court date is next week and we will be flying home on the 16th and that Kirill would be flying to America sometime in May. She smiled in approval. We can tell that his teachers are very happy for him. We can also tell that every child in Kirill’s class is fully aware what is taking place – Kirill has a new mama and papa and that they do not.
4PM – We walk down to Café Ankara to meet with our translator, Zhanat, to go over our answers with him to the possible court questions. We have a 5PM appointment for pre-court. Zhanat tells us that Gulnara has just called him to say that she is still in Astana and we will not go to pre-court until Monday afternoon. John calls Gulnara to be sure that this delay in pre-court will not delay our court date that must be on or before Thursday since we have moved our airline tickets to next Friday morning (as Gulnara told us to do). She assures us we are still on schedule. We enjoy our visit with Zhanat and decide to spend a quiet night by ourselves.
I can honestly say that we are resting in the One who is in control. We are not anxious. We’re all prayed up and are ready to go to pre-court and court. We’re not expecting “smooth sailing” just because. But we are hopeful and confident in the One who is able.