Pasha crawling outside

This picture was taken a few days ago- moments before Pasha ate his first blade of grass, and then threw it up, along with his breakfast, in Grove's hand. Live and learn!

Pasha's first outing out of the baby house

Today, we had to take Pasha to get his passport photos taken. This was his first time in a car, first time out of the baby house, first time any where since coming to the baby house at one month old. He did great! In the car he was very quiet and just looked out the window. At the passport place, he was completely relaxed- he looked around a lot, smiled at everyone and played. He is really brave. On the way home, he fell asleep in my arms in his ergo carrier against my body. Today is his 10-month birthday and it was the first time for him to fall asleep in my arms. A very sweet moment!

A little culture in Pavlodar.....

On Saturday, April 28th, our friend Igor took us to the Pavlodar museum, which is sort of a natural history and history museum combined. It was really interesting, given all the different cultures and ethnicities that have called Kazakhstan home. We got to see bones of a wooly mammoth, and posters from WWII calling for people to join the russian army to defeat the nazis...after the museum, we went to a play at the Chekov theater. The theater is beautiful (think Lensic but smaller) and the play was wonderful. It was called "Funny Money" and we didn't understand a word of it, but it was hilarious all the same- great production, great acting, and the crowd loved it! Igor explained as much of it to us as he could at intermission. It was a fun day. I felt quite at home with Igor wearing the hat we gave him! We are really happy we met Igor our first day here in Pavlodar. He has really shown us around. He leaves for the USA (Ohio) in two weeks on a work program for the summer. This will be his second trip to the US as a student. He is a great guy, very smart and funny and his English is excellent! We hope he can visit us in NM this summer. This is Grove and me in front of the museum.

Pasha at ten months (sporting his new hat made especially for him by Susie McMeans!)

Everyone in the baby house thinks Pasha and Grove look just alike. I'm thinking so....They are very cute together! Pasha loves his new hat!

Thank you Susie! Doesn't the top picture make him look like he is already at home in the southwest?

Pasha's "digs"

Here is the other part of Pasha's current world, the room where all the babies in his group sleep. His crib is the one in the middle. There are 10 cribs in this room and 10 babies in his group aged 6-9 months. At ten months, Pasha would have moved to a new group today. But they are keeping him here since we are springing him in just a few days.

Our old "digs" and our new "digs"

Here are some photos from inside our stairwell at our old apartment, and a few photos from our new apartment. We love our new apartment- its very nice and comfortable and we have DSL! This is where we will bring Pasha once we take him out of the baby house on Thursday. We will stay here about another week and then head to Almaty. "We're moving on up....."

Our little Pasha

He is a happy little guy!

More Pasha

Pasha "on the bottle" and really relaxing with his new dad.

home sweet home

There are only 4 american words anywhere on signs in Pavlodar. Two of them are "Irish Pub"- a place here we love to eat (mostly because they have an english menu), and the other is in this picture. Speaking of which, we are currently scheduled to be home May 15th! Only three more weeks....

Tanya's surprise birthday party

Thanks to Trina and Kevin for hosting a surprise 22nd birthday party for Tanya. There are 3 american couples here right now (including us) who are adopting children- here we all are with Masha and Yegor (Kevin and Trina's kids), Svetlana, Tanya and our driver Sergie. Can you spot the Americans?

We are officially Pavel's parents!

On April 17th we went to court and the judge approved our request to: 1)adopt Pavel, 2) change his name to Pavel Eliot Young Burnett and 3) be listed on his birth certificate as his mother and father! So, its official.....sort of. The order doesn't take full effect until 15 days after it was signed, meaning not until May 3rd. So- Pavel stays in the baby house until May 3rd, and we continue to visit him daily. Court went more smoothly than we expected. There is a new judge and we had heard she was tough. Fortunately, we have the greatest lawyer in the world and she knew exactly what the judge would require and ask about, etc. So, our "hearing" only took about 45 minutes. Grove gave a great speech about why we wanted to adopt from Kazakhstan, why we wanted to adopt Pavel, our experience with the baby house and the procedure we had followed. All I basically had to do was stand up and say "I agree with everything my husband says." Then, the director of Guardianship and Care testified in our favor, a representative from the baby house testified in our favor, the prosecutor asked a few questions and then recommended a favorable ruling, and Svetlana gave a killer closing argument. The judge then took a 45 minute "recess" to make her decision. When she came back, she read her decision in our favor and that was that! Court was very formal and we were nervous beforehand so we are glad this part is over! Huge thanks to Svetlana and Elena (our translator for court and all our official documents)- they are both so wonderful and we all celebrated with champagne afterwards. We told Pavel all about it today but he was really more interested in being hung upside down by his feet! Kids these days!.... Here are photos of Elena, Svetlana and me after court in front of the court house and me and Grove- the new parents (notice my good luck necklace!)!!!!

Pavel's world

Here are some photos from inside the baby house. We can take photos of where he lives, but not of any of the other kids. These pictures show the two big cribs and play room where Pavel spends his time when not sleeping. This little table is where they feed the kids and have "school." Notice how clean and organized everything is! The two women with Pavel are two of his (and our) favorite caretakers- they LOVE him, and he loves them. There are currently 9 babies in Pavel's group. The caretakers are amazing women and they really love the kids. Here is a photo of us with Nina, the Director of Guardianship and Care. She is a wonderful woman and testified in our favor in court. Finally, here is a picture of our friend Trina, and her new son, Yegor. She gets to take Yegor out of the baby house tomorrow, and her husband, Kevin and she will get to go home in a week with Yegor and his sister, Masha- congratulations to the new family!

Pavel at nine and a half months...

Pavel loves balls, chilling with his mom, and drinking! No cup is too big....

Jenny's night out with the ladies- the Banya (russian bath house)

Svetlana (our attorney), Tatiana, Trina and I joined Svetlana and her friends at a russian bath house- it was a blast! Women only- and a little more raucus then 10,000 waves. We had food, beer, steam baths, dry saunas, body treatments, cold plunge, thrashing of ourselves with hot birch limbs and leaves, turkish bath rest areas, and most importantly, Karaoke! Thank you to Svetlana for a wonderful evening...it was divine and I felt fabulous (or "kife") afterwards. My karaoke debut was "Take it Easy" by the Eagles (greg- I can hear you groaning) while the bigger hit was "Bahama Mama" sung by everyone.....the big wooden crate is an individual steamer that you get in naked and sweat like crazy. One of the russian women joked that the reason it felt so good was because there was a really nice man inside there! Hey- I didn't say it- she did!

WE HAVE A COURT DATE

We have a court date! At long last, we will go to court to adopt baby Pavel on Tuesday, April 17th. If the judge approves us, we have a 15-day waiting period until we can take Pavel from the baby house. Then, we have about one week of additional paper work, meetings, tests to get both in Pavlodar and Almaty before we head home. Our best estimate right now is that we will be home by May 12th (mother's day) and hopefully a few days earlier. We had so much fun visiting Pavel today. He is reminding us more and more of Lily.....very happy and very busy! Some photos from today's visit!

Happy Easter and happy spring from Pavlodar!

Pictures at sunset on easter sunday on the Irtysh River (and a few pictures of Pavel!) We are still waiting for a court date- cross your fingers we get it this week! We'll keep you posted....