Monday, September 4 - The Big Day!

Today was the big day - we were finally able to take Matt home with us! We were all up by 4 AM to catch the 6:30 AM flight from Almaty to Astana. Tim slept almost the whole flight - all the 4 AM days and 11 PM nights are finally catching up with him.

We were met at the airport in Astana by Irina and Zhanara and went straight to the baby house. After finishing the wrapping of the gifts in the car (we couldn't get them in the luggage wrapped without having them look unpresentable) and hauling everything into the baby house we were soon told that we could go up to Matt's group to get him. Tim hurried down the hall after one of the doctors without even looking back. He was definitely excited to meet his "baby brudder Maffuw". We arrived to find that Matt was the only baby in the playroom, was dressed in one of the outfits we had bought him, and was waiting for us in one of the walkers. As soon as I picked him up I got a huge smile from him. Tim came over to meet him, gave him a little kiss and a big smile. Then Mike finally got his turn to cuddle his little boy. He looks so much bigger since we last saw him and has gotten a ton of hair. I think it looks darker, but Mike thinks it's just because he has so much more now that you can't see his scalp so it just looks darker. As we expected, he's crawling all over now and can sit up by himself. He also pulls himself up to standing. We hadn't expected that. Looks like we'll be taking the mobile out of the crib afterall!.

The caretakers had bathed him that morning and gotten him all ready for us. They must have special baby soap they save for going home day because he really smelled good. We took him into the bathroom and changed him into his going home outfit - kakhi cargo pants, a denim shirt and a blue vest with cars on it (so that he looked similar to his big brother). We visited with him and the caretakers for a while, watched them open the gift to the group (some framed pictures with illustrations for kids that they had asked for), took a few pictures and then said our goodbyes. I was really pleased that 2 of my favorite caretakers were there that day, including the one who always seemed to give Matt lots of attention and was always snuggling him and telling him how sweet he is. It's funny, because now Tim tells me "Matt's not cute, he's soooo sweet".

Our first family photo!


Tim plays with his "baby brudder".


Don't I look handsome in my new outfit?


Opening the gift to Matt's group at the baby house.



After we said our goodbyes to the caretakers, we went downstairs to meet with the director. We had a nice conversation with her, although by then Tim was getting bored and was very rammy from being overtired and overstimulated, so it was hard to have too much discussion. Next we went to see the doctors and say goodbye and had an opportunity to ask any last medical questions.

We stopped at the Ramstore to buy food for Matt and had lunch at Neighborhood Cafe and then it was off to the airport to return to Almaty. We discovered in the airport that Matt has gone from being our easy-going, happy little boy that loves to sit on the floor and play ball and crawl around, to being very clingy. We also discovered just how big his lungs really are if you put him down! He's getting a new top tooth and seems a bit stuffy. Plus I think the change of environment and schedule is not doing either of our boys much good right now.

We ended up back at the "Pizzeria" across from the supermarket for dinner because we knew Tim would eat something there. We had a nice dinner and a man (the owner, someone who worked there, a regular?) bought us a bottle of wine to celebrate our adoption. At least that is what we gathered from the game of international charades we played to understand that he wanted to give us the wine as a present. (Americans stick out like sore thumbs over here and apparently adoptive parents even more so.) After much hand-shaking and hand-kissing, oohing and aahing over the baby and patting Tim on the head, we got our bottle of wine. We were really tired and didn't think drinking it then was a great idea, but after a while reconsidered because we didn't want to appear rude or ungrateful and be making some major social faux pax. It was a really nice red wine and we killed most of the bottle. I think this was a good thing since we thought the nice man had left shortly after giving us the bottle, but didn't really leave (with more waving and congratulations, and Bravo) until about the time we were finishing up. After dinner we walked back to the hotel. It was a little chaotic the first night in the hotel, but things seem to be sorting themselves out and at least we weren't up all night with a crying baby like we were our first night home with Tim.