Our new son’s temporary home...

As we prepared for this journey we had read about many different country’s orphanages (baby houses as they call them here in Kazakhstan) and what we read described a very clean but rather plain place with little stimulation. Our experience with Astana’s baby house is very different from what we expected. They are very clean, but they are more like a big home with pictures on the walls, many colorful toys throughout, friendly people that truly care for the children, and a schedule full of activities such as music and organized playing. The only similarity to what we read is the ratio of care givers to children (typically about 1 care giver to about 12 toddlers), which does limit how much they can interact with each child independently. Typically these children are 1 month delayed for every three months in an orphanage, which is about what we have seen with our new son, especially communication. To our surprise he is much closer to his age with fine motor, gross motor, and self- help skills. Here are several pictures of the Astana Baby House…

As you can see our son’s temporary home is not what most people think of when they hear the term orphanages. Although his new home with us will be much better in many ways, I am sure he will still miss his familiar surroundings at first. We are close to sharing more about our new little man, but for now we will tease you a little by just give you a sneak peak…

Thank you for all your comments yesterday, we really appreciate you following along with us on this journey!

Blessings,

Jay & Jen

Our Home Away from Home

Many of you must be wondering when you will see or read about our new son (our kids have asked every day)…

While we have one specially little guy that we are focusing on, it has been difficult to see the orphanage doctor and get all the information we want before making a final decision. Today we finally received most of the information and we will have a conference call with our doctor back in the states later today. Until we make that final decision, we thought we would continue to share other experiences, so today’s blog update will be on our new home away from home…

We live at 19 Barayev Street Apt #29 (still under some construction)…

Security doesn’t seem to be an issue, here are our keys…

… the outside door has an electronic lock on it that takes a special chip to get in (the little black and silver thing on our key chain)…

…we have two apartment doors the first has two keys (the strange looking things on our key chain) and is a door similar to the outside door…

…the second apartment door is more like one of our interior doors in the U.S…

…then you finally get into our entrance way…

…it is custom here to take your shoes off when you enter a home…

…our living room (with one good looking man)…

…our bed room…

…our kitchen…

…some of our groceries…

…our bathroom (two separated rooms)…

…our washing machine…
…Jen is still trying to figure our how to work it???

…and our clothes dryer…

Although it is not home, we do feel very fortunate to have such a nice place to stay and call home…temporarily. It is truly amazing how many things you can do with out and you really don’t miss (like a 42” flat LCD TV, reclining couch, or automatic ice makers). And believe or not only after only a few days, what we miss most, is the sounds of our children (playing, running, and even the fighting)!!!

Feel free to post comments to us... we really do miss interaction with Home....

Dohs-vee-DAH-nyah

Jay & Jen

A Night Out !!!

Tonight we were adventurous.. and headed out for dinner. We went to a restaurant called Ali Baba an outdoor eatery. We had shish-kabobs but no they were not horse. The chicken here tastes gamey but the beef tastes just like home. We have been here 2 days and it is getting a little easier. We finally got our Luggage Yeah!!! I do not think I could wear the same thing for 3 weeks... It’s amazing how you can make do with what you packed in your carry on.... I am still suffering from culture shock but Jay is as comfortable as a can be. He on the other hand is having difficulty with which child to select. Tomorrow is Sunday and there is no visitation at the baby house so I am off shopping with some of the other Moms from the baby house. (even in a foreign country I can find shopping) I have been reading their blogs and it is so nice to connect. Jay is going to hang back and read/watch dvd's. Sunday night most of the families are getting together for a potluck.... it will be nice to converse with other folks going through the same process.

Will update on Monday once we know more regarding little guy!!!! Just a hint he is really cute!!!

J & J

We Are Finally Here!!!!

Amidst several traveling challenges, such as a canceled flight, delays, sitting on the tarmac a few times, and losing all of our luggage, we arrived safely in Astana (Aas-ta-nah) about 11:30pm on Thursday. As we write this update, it is Saturday AM our time and we are getting used to the time difference and a whole new culture. So far we have experienced Kaz grocery shopping, a typical Kaz lunch of mostly meat and rice, and Kaz driving. Here there are no road rules (every man and women for themselves). Since we have been buzzing down highways at 90 MPH, Jen no longer feels like she drives fast. We have a translator named Ainura (Ai-nora) and a driver Yerken with us most of the time. They show us the in and the outs of the culture and make sure we know what we are doing.

We are in a nice apartment which has all the comforts of Kaz living. Today since we are well rested we will try to explore a little of the area. We are off the beaten path a little of the ways so to get to the store or internet cafe is a little of a hike. The area is city living amongst Lots of construction that is going on. They are trying to rebuild the city and you see cranes all over the place. Here the majority of residents live in apartments so there are high-rises everywhere.

On Friday evening we visited the baby house and meet with the director. She asked us a list of questions and wondered why we would want another child when we already have three. After the questions we were shown a few little guys. All are cute and unique in there own ways. We got to interact with one in particular. We took him outside played on the play set. Unfortually all the toys that we brought to interact with our son are in our luggage which is still lost and may not show up until Monday when the next flight from Frankfort arrives in Astana. More than the clothes, we miss all our snack food that I packed. Today we will visit the baby house in the AM and get more info on him and come to a decision. This is the part that Jay is struggling with, but he knows that God will continue to guide us on this adventure.

So that is the scoop on our adventure so far... the journey continues and we will update you soon...

Were Leaving on a Jet Plane....

Well in less than 24 hours we are headed to Kaz... Between packing and getting kids organized for school this week has been a whirlwind... Hopefully by the time we get on the plane I can relax and let go!!! By our calculations we will be in Astana Thursday PM and Friday head to the baby house and meet our little guy. We will try to post as often as long as internet connection cooperates. We are also checking our e-mails too... A big Thank you in advance for our family and friends who are taking care of our kids in our absence. We appreciate all that you do!!!

Were almost Packed and Pooh is ready to Go!!!

Here is the Pooh bear we have been sleeping with the last 7 months... He should be broken in by now!!!

Were Off

Well today I officially booked our airfare... We fly out of GR on the 22nd at 1:15 PM. First stop Chicago, then Franfurt Germany and finally to Astana Kazakhstan. We will finally arrive Thursday evening late. I am hoping to take some sleep aid for the flight otherwise I will probably drive Jay nuts. We are still working on the kids sitautaion will know more on Wednesday once Shelbys v-ball tryouts are done. Well I better go and start packing... I'm sure I will be packing and unpacking for the next week...



~Jen

LOI Is Here !!!!

We received word tonight that our LOI has arrived and we can travel ASAP... Yeah!!!!. so now the busyness of packing and getting travel arrangements need to be done. Once we have made travel arrangements we will let you know. We are hoping to go the week of August 19th but have to wait to see what flights are available.

Were off to Kaz Soon!!!
Blessings

J & J

Waiting is Hard!!!!

This is a blog you can follow if you choose as we Travel to Kazakhstan to bring our son home. Some of you might not know but we stated the adoption process September 29, 2oo6. We are working with an agency called All God's Children out of Portland, Oregon. Some of you might wonder why are the Straw's, who are always on the go busy themselves a little more... Well. We have always felt our family was not complete. And I am a believer of divine intervention. Hayden out of the blue one day asked when we are going to get our little brother. He did not ask just once but a few dozen times. So with some prayer and research we decided international adoption was for us.

This adoption journey has been a faith leap for our family. We have been challenged with time lines, patience and trusting on the unknown to finish this journey. We will travel to Kaz for 3-4 weeks for mandatory bonding with our son. We are traveling to select (which is the preference for this country) a toddler boy age 1-4 yrs old. We have to bond with the child for 14 days and then a court date is set. Once we go to court and the judge agrees that we are to be his parents we can come home. That will be the hard part. We could stay in country but after the court date there is a 15 day waiting period to make sure all the P's & Q's are in the right place.
Our return trip will be approximately a month later and will last a week. We will get the child's passport, visa and visit Almaty where the US Embassy is and bring him home. To some who is not familiar with adoption this sounds like a long complicated process, which it is. If anything this process has taught me to give up control. Well not entirely but it forces you to be in the passenger seat.

We are in the Wait Mode... we are waiting on our invitation to travel. Once we receive that we can officially pack our bags and leave within a week or two. Once we get to country this will be our communication with family and friends so feel free to join in our journey. I would ask that you keep our children in your prayers as they will be left with family and friends. I was hoping to travel this summer but I again am not in control.

A few facts on Kazakhstan besides home country of Borat!
1) Size roughly 4 times the size of Texas; the 9th largest country in the world
2) Border Countries: China, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan
3) Independence: 1991 (from Soviet Union)
4) Ethnicity: Kazakh 53.4%, Russian 30%, Ukrainian 3.7%, Uzbek 2.5%, German 2.4%,
Uighur 1.4% other 6.6% (most children in the baby homes are Eurasian or Asian)
5) Language: Kazakh, although most everything/business is in Russian.
6) Literacy rate of 98.4%
7) Astana became the capital in 1997 (this is where we will be traveling to)
8) Cuisine: Meat (horse meat sausage)
9) Kazakhstan economy is larger than those of all the other Central Asian states combined,
largely due to the country's vast natural resource and a recent history of political stability.
The country possesses enormous fossil fuel reserves and plentiful supplies of other
minerals and metals. It also has a large agricultural sector featuring livestock and grain.

We will post as developments occur hopefully have some good news soon!!!

(:

Jay & Jen

Our travel papers and toys to take!!!!