Asher is ready to travel home

Dad and Asher up in the mountains in Almaty

Asher waiting in the Dr.'s office.....

Asher's first camel ride...There are painted camels all over the city.....

It has been a few good days in Almaty and all the paper work is done so Asher can travel home with us. Yesterday we went to medical clinic so they could validate his health for the U.S. Embassy. He was a very good boy for the doctor and nurses; he didn’t even cry when they drew blood. Today we went to the U.S. Embassy to get his immigration documents and an entrance visa to the U.S. Once through immigrations in the U.S. he will officially be an American. So we are all set to travel home and Asher can not wait to see his sisters and brother. Actually we are all looking forward to be back home as one big happy family.

Jen and I are just amazed at how content he is with us; it’s like he has always known us. He is also really showing a true two year old nature. He is hearing “no” from us more than we would like, but some things he just can’t do… like digging through the garbage, touching the hot stove, or playing in the toilet. He has been sleeping pretty good and only got up at 4:40am once. He east almost anything we feed him without complaining, which is more than we can say about our other three darlings. The only issue we are having is how much energy a 2 year old has…. He is wearing us out since we are not spring chickens anymore.

Tomorrow we are going to visit Gorky Park, one of Almatys Cathedrals then out for our last Kaz meal then home to pack. Flight leaves at 3 AM Saturday. We are SO looking forward to getting home. Well… I better sign off… busy day tomorrow…we are pooped!!!!

Blessing from Kaz

J & J

Breaking Asher out of the Baby House…

Like much of our worries in life, our worries about Asher not remembering us was just that, worries, because he remembered his mama and papa and came running to see us. He also remembered everything we have taught him such as high five, tickle tickle, and Jen’s favorite… kisses. God is soooo good!

Before leaving Astana, we took him to his first restaurant and went to the Biterek (Tree of Life), which is their national monument (like our Washington Monument). From the top of the Biterek the city doesn’t seem as big, as you can see the city boundaries and beyond the city all you seen was fields of wheat and corn.

We also wonder how he would react to car rides and his first airplane flight, but no problems except he doesn’t like wearing the seat belt on the airplane. Which of course made him cry, something we have never heard him do either. I think we can all relate to this as no one likes to be trapped or not free to roam around and do what we like. But with some reassurance and a few smarties we were able to get him to calm down and deal with it.

In the few short hours we have had him, he has talked more than we heard him talk in the whole month we had spent bonding with him. He is speaking Kaz so we have no idea what he is saying, but he seems to be very content with us. During the plane flight he was singing, which was absolutely adorable to see and hear. And like most toddler boys, everything is an adventure for him. He wants to touch and see everything and we mean everything. His whole world has just expanded way beyond anything he has ever known and this is where we know God is going to bless us. We will be reminded of all the simple blessings around us that we take for granted everyday.

After a great first day of many new and exciting first for Asher it was time to get ready for bed and why not try the big potty, which he had no problem sitting on, but no luck going. Since we haven’t had a toddler in a while, we forgot not to let him run around with out a diaper… as he was waiting for his bath, he pooped and peed on the floor, but hey that’s what little kids do sometimes. After a nice bath and one of our favorite books, Goodnight Moon, it was off to bed with no complaints or crying and that was for all of us as Jen and I exhausted.
God is soooo good!

Signing off from Almaty.....

Jay, Jen and Asher

Back in Kazakhstan

Well after about 24 hours of travel plus the 10 hour time zone difference we have made it safely back to Kazakhstan and with no travel issues. Yep... no canceled flights, no delayed flights, and no lost luggage! This is a very nice blessing. Although the travel isn't fun, we are very excited to see Asher. The three weeks back in the states went very fast, but it seems like we left him months ago. We did get a very nice update last week when we were told that he has been talking to his friends about his mama and papa. He also was very excited to hear that we would be coming back soon. God is soooo good! That's the update for now... we are off to pick our new son up and fly to Almaty this afternoon.

Rest & Relaxation!!!

The kids with the dunes in the back Zoe with her Daddy!!!

Our first weekend home we decided to take the kids up north for a family get away!! We ended up in Ludington for a nice fall weekend. We hiked in the state park to the light house. Then we went up 100 steep stairs to the top.. what a nice view.. We played football with the kids, went swimming and just had some great family time. It was hard being away from them but the end result of bringing Asher home will be well worth it. The kids are excited but I do not think Zoe understands that this will be a big change. I keep telling her she will now be a big sister...

We leave in 11 days which getting on the plane for another 14 hours is not appealing to me... but this will be the last long trip for a while. We have left the suitcases out and have started to fill them..... this time though I will need more toddler things... I am going shopping this weekend for the necessary items to get me through...

Friday night my friends Toni, Carrie and Stephanine are throwing a toddler shower for Asher... it will be fun and Zoe and Shelby can feel involved.

Will post before we depart...I better continue to pack!!!!

Blessings

~Jen

We are Home!!!

Yes we are home and it does feel good and also surreal.. That is the word Jay & I are using. We have no pictures of our return trip home unless you like to see the inside of a plane... 28 hours of travel is not fun
We were gone 30 days and the journey was indescribable!!! We were greeted by 3 eager kids ready to see their parents and once we got home a tub of mail to go through.. We still have suitcases all over since in 3 short weeks we will be leaving again to pick up Asher. The time will fly by as we are getting things ready for his homecoming and keeping up with our 3 kids activities.
While we are gone I am hoping Asher does not miss us too much.. A mom who is still visiting her baby for another week has been sending us pictures of him. Also we have the 1,500 pictures from our trip to go through and have printed...I think we will be putting a power point together so when he gets older something from his country.
We will continue to blog on our return trip... Grand Rapids to Astana leaving October 14th....

Blessings
Jay & Jen

A Special Anniversary!

Well today is our 28th day in Astana and our last… at least for this trip… and it is also our sixteenth wedding anniversary. Although we didn’t celebrate our anniversary in the usually way, it has been an anniversary that we will never forget and we have received many blessings…

We received an early anniversary surprise last night when our travel agent e-mailed us that he was able to get us on an earlier flight than Monday. Jen was ecstatic about this news…

…but also sad as it meant that we only had one visit left with our new son.

We started off the day with our usual call to talk with our children back home which has been a blessing to hear their voices! The time away from them can never be replaced, but we know once they meat Asher that they will realize it was worth it.

We had a very special visit with Asher and an emotional one. Like usual we were greeted by a very excited little boy that pushes through all the other children to make to us with a big smile and gave us hugs.

We spent most of the time inside today, as the weather is very cold, playing with blocks, reading books, giving high fives, kisses, tickles, and a few new sounds…

Our last visit was also with some of the other adoptive parents, so Asher spent some time with his new friend Sabina…

The little time we spent outside was spent looking for birds that Asher just loves to chase around...

...and when they fly away he lifts his little arms and gives us a look like… where did they go?

Asher’s amazing transformation from his first day with us till now is truly the most precious blessing we have received...

After playing a little more inside it was that time that Jen and I was dreading… time to take him back to his room and say good bye.

Fortunately he did not really understand what was going on, but Jen and I had tears in our eyes as we hugged him and kissed him goodbye. We have left him a taggy blanket, a photo book, and his Pooh bear to remember us. We also taped pictures inside his cubby and the care takes will tell him each day that we will return.

Thank you so much for following along with us on the first phase of our journey! We will update the blog when we get home and periodically as we get updates on Asher.

Jay & Jen

There’s always a silver lining…

Well it has been a few stressful days with court being delayed, rescheduling flights, and missing our children in Michigan, but even in stressful times you can find blessings from God…

On the day we were supposed to fly out we had a great visit with Asher. He is starting to imitate us more by doing things like, saying “Hi” and waving, give a high five, say “tickle – tickle” while trying to tickle you, and the best thing he is doing is giving kisses! These milestones might seem small to a parent who has had a child since birth but for our little guy, who has been in the baby house for 2 years plus, this is huge. These kids do not get individual attention and adding all the time we have spent with him it adds up to less than 2 full days. If we would have gone home on Wednesday we would have not seen these milestones, but we were blessed in spite of the disappointment of not going home… We cannot wait to get him home and see how much he grows with his siblings.

Today we had our court hearing and it went very well. Their court sessions are held in small rooms with 3 desks in them; one for the judge, one for the prosecutor, and one for the secretary. In our session we did not have a prosecutor which is a good thing, which means fewer questions. Jay spoke on behalf of us and did a great job giving the judge our family history, why we chose Kazakhstan, and the reasons we want to adopt. The judge’s main questions were you have 3 kids why do you want another??? Families here are quite small and she probably thinks we are nuts!!!! We explained that our family is not complete and we feel strongly a little 2yr old guy is missing. After we said our part she dismissed us to go over the documents and make a decision. She approved the adoption, but did not wave the fifteen day waiting period for any potential family to object, so as of October 8th Asher Douglas Straw is legally our new son. He has been in the baby house since birth and no relative has surfaced so we think we are safe. After the court session we had our picture taken with the judge and he asked for a hug, she was taken back a little, but if you know Jay he is a hugger and she obliged. Jay and I did get emotional knowing that we have finally got to this point in the process after a year long paper trail and a month in country our family will be complete when we get Asher home on October 20th.

We could have never gotten this far without everyone’s prayers, support from friends and family, patience from our children, and God’s grace!

On another side not we will be home 2 days earlier as we were on stand by for Saturday…Yes Blessing seems to be all around us and we are so Thankful!!!
So we are looking forward to seeing our children in Michigan, sleeping in our bed and if you know me a starbucks coffee…

Blessings,

Jay and Jen

It was the worst of times… it was the best of times

Charles Dickens was right… It was the worst of times… after being here for 25 days we hit our first snag in the adoption process… our judge is sick and our court date for today has been canceled and is re-scheduled for Friday. Unlike the states, here in Kazakhstan there is no back up person to do your job when you are sick or on vacation. To make matters worst Jen has come down with the flu and she doesn’t know what she feels worst about… being sick or not getting home to see our kids. We have had almost daily calls to the kids and they have been up and down with emotions. We miss each other deeply, but the last few have been better as we thought there would be only a few days standing between us till we are reunited…

… It was the best of times… as you know we have also been struggling with leaving Asher behind and one positive is that now we will have a few more days to spend with him before we leave. We will need to cancel our flights for Wednesday and re-book them to the first possible - which may not be until early next week.

In spite of the delay we face today we had a great visit with Asher. He is imitating us when we tickle him and trying to say the word tickle. We love his little laugh and his smile as it greets us when we pick him up. He is such a different little boy since our first meeting and continues to amaze us each day. He now likes his Pooh bear and took it outside with us on our walk. We are planning on leaving that with him while we are gone.

This whole process has been a journey of faith and even though we do not understand why this happened, we do trust that God knows why and that it was meant to happen this way. We also realize that any adventure worth taking will have its challenges and rewards. In the end, rescuing our new son from his current environment will be well worth any obstacles we encounter. We appreciate your prayers, comments, and especially for those helping with our children the extra effort you have made to make them feel loved in our absence!

Jay & Jen

Last Sunday in Kazakhstan

As Jay & I look back this month has flown by but while we were in the midst of it…time I must admit did drag. As we are starting to pack for our departure we did see some great sites and meet some nice people. We have taken over 1200 pictures of our adventure and it is not over till we bring Asher home. Tuesday will be an emotional and hard day for us as we go to court and become his parents, change his legal name and the same day tell him Good bye for a month. I will have the same emotion when I see my three little cherubs at the airport Wednesday night. Time does make the heart grow fonder and we truly miss them. So this entry of the blog is to show some of the great sites we saw and some of the friends we met that made this adventure easier in a foreign country.

The river walk a short jog from our apartment...

The Biterek Tree of Life National monument in Astana...

The beautiful gardens by the Presidents house...

Beautifu Muslim Mosque

Some of the Great friends we met in Astana......

Go Bucks!!!

Well there is going to be one more buckeye fan in Michigan.







Asher was very happy when mommy told him that the Buckeyes have won their first two games...



... and very excited when daddy told him that Michigan has lost their first two games!


Our whole family is cheering on the bucks today as they go against Washington and of course we will be cheering for the Fighting Irish too!





Just imagine Asher later this year at our home holding a remote control watching Ohio State beat Michigan...







Jen and I have really missed watching football on Saturday afternoons, it just isn’t the same watching Rugby in Russian, but most of all we miss our kids...

We are counting down the days until we get to see them and until we are able to bring Asher home to be united as a whole family. After our last few visits he has been hesitate to go back to his room at the baby house and while we are gone he has been crying and asking for his mama. This is really pulling at our hearts and wish there was a way to stay or at least have the fifteen day waiting period waved. We asked again today if the court would wave this, but they said that it will not happen. We will leave this up to God, but it looks like we will leave Wednesday and be returning on around October 15 to pick him up and hopefully be united as a family on about October 20. We have only two more visits with Asher before we leave and we know the last one will be difficult for us to part.

As always thanks for your prayers, comments, and support!

Jay & Jen

Under Construction

“Amazing” is the word I keep on using with our driver and interpreter… because the amount of construction going on in Astana is “amazing”. Astana has been a major Kazakhstan city, but every since their president decided to make it their new capital it has been going through an amazing transformation. They are tearing down the old city and constructing a modern city at an amazing rate. The president has shared a vision that by 2030 Astana and much of their country will be transformed. So far we have not been in a part of the city that you do not see some kind of construction. Here a just a few pictures…

Most of this renovation is being paid for by the Kazakhstan oil industry and most of the construction workers are from outside the country…


Like his home country, Asher likes to build…

Also like his home country he has gone through a major transformation in just the few short weeks we have been here. As we mentioned before, the first few days with him were difficult because he was almost non responsive to anything we did. After a week or so we were able to get him to laugh and smile by tickling or throwing him up in air. But the last few days when we smile, he smiles back. He is a picture from day one and one from today…

God continues to amaze us with his blessings and we are confident that Asher will continue to be transformed into a new little man and a very special part of our family. Our court date in next Tuesday the 18th and we will be flying home on the 19th, which will be very difficult to leave him behind for almost a month. We are going to leave him some pictures, a photo book, his blanket, and Pooh bear. Hopefully having these items will remind him of us and when we come back he will remember us and not have to back track.

We appreciate your prayers and comments and are we counting the days until our family is complete….

Jay and Jen

Astana Aquarium

On Sundays there are no visitations to the baby house, so we had a relaxing morning at the apartment and then did a little site seeing. We visited the Astana Aquarium, which is unique becasue it is known for being the aquarium that is located the farthest away from any ocean.

The main entrance was more like a mini mall - it had a few restaurants, video games, different scenes from around the world, and of course souvenir shops…

Once inside the aquarium it was very similar to other aquarium in the states, but one thing that is different is that you need to pay to take picture or video record. Regardless of the cost it is a very nice aquarium and we even saw a famous fish actress inside, but I can’t remember her name???

We tried and tried to find Nemo, but no luck. We did see many other amazing creatures of the sea, here are just a couple…

... Bruce ...

... little dude (Crush's son) ...

... and we met Val, one of our interpreter’s English students, who wanted to practice her English with us. She gave us a tour, was a true delight, and spoke very good English.

After the aquarium Val took us to her Aunt’s Korean Restaurant and we enjoyed a great meal in their VIP room…

Later Jen and I took a nice walk and took in some of the night scenery…

All in all a nice day, but we would have rather spent the time with Asher. As each day goes by and he opens up more, it is becoming harder and harder to think that we will need to leave him here for three weeks. We are planning on leaving our pictures in his cubby and after court everyone will start calling him by his new name. We hope the time we have spent with him and the pictures we leave behind will be enough for him to come running to us when we return.

Thanks again for all your prayers, support, and love you have shared with us along this adventure.

Jay and Jen