Medical Exam and Sisters' Office

This morning we got to visit the SOS International Clinic to have Emily checked out. It's a routine visit that all of WPA's adopted kids go through before they leave Almaty. Dima walked us in and dropped off our paperwork for the visit.

The staff at the clinic were all very sweet. There was a nurse that came did an HIV test (similar to a prick from a diabetes tester) and Emily did great! No tears at all and the nurse was so good with her.



Then another nurse came and weighed her and measured her. After a while we were called back to the doctor's office and he reviewed all the paperwork and then examined Emily. He checked her eyes, ears, mouth, temperature, and listened to her breathing and her heart. He plotted her growth on the charts and checked out her medical history and also her vaccination history. We told him about her recent bout with a fever and upset stomach and he said we were fine to stop the meds that the babyhouse had prescribed and he gave us a few more packets of the CMETKA stuff and said we could give them if we had any more troubles. Emily got a clean bill of health and her paperwork will be ready to pick up later tonight.



After this, we were driven to the sister's office (the ladies -- that are real biological sisters -- that coordinate all the legal aspects of our adoption). We signed a few more documents and made sure the paperwork they had done already were filled out correctly. Emily fell asleep in Tom's arms for this visit but handled the busy morning pretty well.

We made one more quick stop at the Ramstore, which is right around the corner from the sister's office. The kitchen and bathroom in this apartment are a little scary on the cleanliness scale so I felt the need to pick up some cleaning supplies and disinfectant. The apartment is nicely laid out, has nice leather furniture in the living room and a comfy bed... but the kitchen seems to be lacking in the silverware department and the pots and pans are a little gross. I could really use some steel wool about now. I've noticed a nasty smell coming from the drains in the bathroom and in the kitchen and the washing machine (which is beside the toilet) also has a stinky smell. Not sure if bleach would help that problem or not... or if I could even find bleach without assistance because most everything is in Russian.

Emily is certainly feeling better today. She greeted me with a smile when I woke her up this morning has been a real trooper during this leg of our trip. I broke out the Baby Bjorn this morning and took it with us on the trip today. It was a huge help at the Ramstore (none of the carts have seats for kids in them) and we also walked to a restaurant around the corner called Stetson's and she enjoyed being carried in the Bjorn for that as well.



She did really well in the restaurant once our food came... she sat on my lap and I think she watched every bite of food and every swig of water that went to my mouth. She really doesn't like being bundled up to go outside or the process of putting her in the bjorn but once there she's fine as long as she doesn't get overheated.

It's a challenge here to keep her on the same schedule as she was on at the babyhouse. We have so many errands to run during the days now that we're away when she's supposed to nap and sometimes her meals are delayed. Overall though she's doing a great job and is proving to be quite adaptable despite the strict schedule she was kept on for the first 8 months of her life. Tonight we stayed up a little later and gave her some play/interaction time since she's hasn't had much of that since she's been with us. She was soooo smiley and I almost got a couple of good belly laughs out of her.



Oh! And I almost forgot to share -- we're expected to be flying home on Wednesday! That's a full week earlier than the original tentative date that we were given when we booked our flights to Kazakhstan. Add into that the fact that we adopted from the last remaining region in Kazakhstan that still grants immediate custody and we're heading home a full 3 weeks earlier than most families!!! Our coordinator and interpreter in Uralsk were surprised to hear how fast we were able to complete our process and hopes that other families don't get their hopes up after hearing about our experience. They say this rarely happens... especially for a family to have pre-court on Friday and court on the following Monday. That's usually at least a week apart.

We have been truly blessed and we can't wait to get back home to Ohio. We should be rolling in to Columbus late Wednesday evening! We're hoping to lock ourselves away for several days to try to get ourselves adjusted to the time change, jet lag and to try to get Emily onto some sort of schedule. I'm counting down the days until I can brush my teeth with water from the tap again instead of using water from a bottle. I can't wait to drink "real" milk that I'm used to from home. We are so spoiled in America and there are so many things from this trip that will trigger memories for me long into the future.