4/16/2001 10:10 AM

 

It’s 10:10am in Frankfort and we are 2/3 of the way to Almaty. It’s been quite an undertaking getting ready. Peggy and I are both weary from travel already. Peggy did not even go to bed the night before we left home. She was busy packing and preparing for our adventure.

          I’m still not nervous, but I’m unsure of what the trip will unfold.  Even at this point, there are so many unknowns. We have never gotten any medical information on Jacob Valentin. We don’t know if a 2ndchild awaits us.  We’re not sure what to expect in Russia.

          Peggy is in great spirits (although weary) and I’ve decided to be a leader on this trip. Be confident, proud, and decisive.  I don’t walk to walk around a strange hostile land without being centered and strong. If you look weak or afraid, you’ll end up a victim to someone.  I’m sure that being decisive will be important over the next few weeks with the life long decisions we’ll be making.

          On the ride over the pond, we saw the movie “Family Man” with Nicolas Cage.  It was a great movie for us to see at this point in our lives.  We are going through the same decisions as were in the movie, and it was very symbolic and will be a strong anchor to this trip in the future.  Nicolas has a baby boy about Valentin’s age.  He also had an older daughter.

          Peggy just left to buy a hair dryer, and we just finished eating at the airport McDonalds in Germany (Yeah American).  Not really much to report today except for lots and lots of flying.  We’ll be traveling for 22 hours across 11 time zones.

         

4/17/2001 1:00 AM

 

          It’s after midnight and we’ve just arrived at our apartment in Almaty. Our flight got in exactly on time, but we got in the immigration line instead of the Visa line.  After waiting in the immigration line for an hour, we were told to go to the other line for another hour wait.  It took us 2.5 hours to get though immigration, customs, etc.  I was afraid that Nick would not be there to meet us, but he was waiting when we finally left the terminal.  The only time I was uncomfortable was when I went through customs and the guy was asking me about my cash.  He did not speak English, and I had no idea what he was asking.  He finally let us through.

          The apartment is OK, but makes you miss home.  Nick told us that they turn off the hot water for few days after Easter to clean the pipe.  So, there’s no hot water for us.  I had to heat it in a pail. You can’t drink the water. Peggy keeps seeing bugs. She’s getting our bags repacked now for our trip to Semey tomorrow.  We’ll meet Jacob Valentin tomorrow afternoon!  We forgot to bring my contact lens, and Peggy is fretting about that, but we’ll get someone to ship them from home tomorrow.

          Tomorrow we may decide whether to get one kid or two.  I’ve got mixed feelings about the decision.  I’m ok with just 1 child, but if the right one is available then who knows.  More tomorrow…..

 

4/17/2001 9:30 AM

 

Peggy and I just finished breakfast.  We were up before 6, so we slept about 3 or 4 hours. We had some excitement this morning.  Since there is no hot water, Nick gave us a coil to put in a bucket of water to heat it up.  I had heated the first bucket, and I had Peggy come hold the coil while I dumped the water, and refilled the bucket.  I guess you are not supposed to use these things when they are not in the water.  It got too hot and exploded!!  It sounded like a gunshot, and Peggy let out a scream like you wouldn’t believe.  It also filled the house with smoke.  Peggy did not really get hurt, she got some gunpowder burns on her leg, but mostly she was scared to death.  Me too! 

         

          I talked to Nick about getting my contact lens shipped here.  He said it would be better to have my prescription faxed here.  I forget that you can’t just fed x stuff in Kazakhstan like you can back home. The government here controls everything.

 

          We’ll be meeting the other two couples and flying with them to Semey in a couple of hours. - Then straight to the orphanage.  I can’t wait to see Jacob Valentin.  I’m not sure how it will feel if we see Danil at the orphanage L.  We were planning on adopting Danil and Jacob both on this trip, but we received a call a few days ago that said his father had surfaced, and he would not be available for adoption.  We were heart broken.

 

          I’m not sure how I’m going to reconcile my paper versus computer journal.  I like typing stuff up on the PC, but that’s not always as easy using the paper.  Also, once I get to an Internet Café, I’m not sure if I’ll be able to upload my documents to email.  I may have to retype everything to send it home.

 

          The beds here are not like ones we are used to.  They are flat, the pillows are flat.  You sleep under a spread without any sheets, and it’s hard to get the temperature right.  I’ll probably sleep better once I get more used to the time zone.  Not having the hot water was kind of fun this morning when I got to help Peggy wash her hair by pouring water out of the bucket on her head.  I heated up water on the stove since we blew up the other water-heating device.  Shaving w/o hot water was a pain, but it felt great to get shaved. 

 

          Breakfast consisted of bread and cheese, a Pepsi, an apple, and some potatoes that Peggy brought with her.  Everything tasted great! 

 

          Money goes a pretty good way here.  1 US dollar equals about 150 Kazak dollars. I bought a bottle of Visine last night.  It was under $3, much better than paying $10 at the airport.  We are flying on Fat Chance airlines to Semey today.  I’m fully expecting there to be Pigs and Chickens in the airplane with us.  I bet people will smoke on the plane too.  I’ll log in the flight info later.

 

          I wanted to exercise this morning, but I didn’t want to work up a sweat since there was no shower.  I did a few sit ups and stretches, but maybe I’ll get to do some in Semey.  I’ll probably come back fatter and Peggy will come back losing a lot of weight.  I’ll eat because I’m bored, and Peggy is afraid to eat anything due to germs and bacteria, etc.  I’ll pick stuff up of the floor and eat it, but Peggy is washing the utensils with antiseptic wipes we brought from home.  This will definitely prove to be an interesting trip. 

         

          So how to I feel being 4 to 5 hours from meeting my son?  I feel anticipation, curious, and adventurous.  I’m more excited for Peggy than for me.  I can’t wait to get her and Jacob on video.  She’s wanted a baby for so long.  This will fill an empty place inside of her, and will also take our marriage and relationship to the next level.  I’m very excited about becoming a dad.  It will be great to have another person(s) to love in our lives.  I’m not nervous at all. Even though I don’t know if we’ll get one or two.  If Jacob is healthy, etc.  I know that it will all work out for good in the long haul.  We are so blessed to be Americans, to have a beautiful home, and to have a strong relationship based on 15 years of trust and open communication.

 

          More later……

 

4/19/2001 7:34 AM

 

          Yeah, I’m back with the land of the living.  I got so sick yesterday!  I’ve been on a 36 hour cleanse.  J   I have a ton to update the journal on since my last entry. 

 

          The plane ride to Semey was everything I expected it to be.  No pigs or chickens, but this looked like a plane that had carried a few of them.  It was a 36-passenger jet that must have been 50 years old.  Every seat was packed, and it was weird they way everyone just put all they extra carryon stuff in the aisle.  The stewardess had to run an obstacle coarse every time she moves through the cabin.  It was a 3-hour flight, and I had to pee really bad.  I finally decided to fight my way through the luggage to the bathroom.  Oh my god, it was nasty.   I’m glad I was a guy.  All in all the flight was smooth, and we landed in Semey.

 

          The drive over to our hotel from the airport was the most sobering experience of my life.  I’ve never seen such wide scale poverty and depression.  We drove for 30 minutes, and never saw anything that looked as good as the worst part of any inner city ghetto in the states.  It looked like the cites you see on TV where nuclear testing was done. The roads were amazingly bad.  Not only were there millions of potholes, but also it was as if the land was never leveled out in the first place when they paved it.  It has more ups and downs than any roller coaster. Also, you can see debris in the streets EVERYWHERE.  When a tree falls in the road, nobody moves it.  When a part falls off a car, it stays there.  Trash and concrete everywhere.  I’m glad I came here after paying my taxes,  because it gives you a great appreciation of our government and all the things we take for granted every day. 

 

          Our hotel is very nice by Kazak standards.  Clean, it has a good restaurant, and the staff is very friendly. No one here speaks English except for the guest. You can’t do anything w/o a translator here.  Our translator Larissa orders our supper for us every night, and we order breakfast at the same time. Today is the first time I’ve eaten anything in the last 36 hours. 

 

          We left from the hotel to go to the orphanage!  I was very impressed with the orphanage.  It was clean, well staffed, and they had a good assortment of toys and such for the kids.  As soon as we arrived, we were taken directly into a room with about a dozen toddlers and Valentin was one of them!!!! 

 

          He’s so cute, and he was very afraid of me a first.  He warmed up to Peggy quickly.  There are no men that work in the orphanage so kids are normally very apprehensive of us guys.   We played with them for 3 hours and also played with all the other toddlers.  Valentin also got a haircut while we were there the first day.  They really mind the staff well.  He sat very still for his haircut, and just watched everything.

 

          Valentine did not laugh much the first day, he was very quiet and  reserved.  He watches everything.  His favorite toy was a musical Mickey Mouse.  All the children fought over it.  One of the little girls, Natasha, took Mickey from Valentin and he pitched a big fit. Reluctantly we left around 6:00 and went to an Internet Café.

 

          We only took a moment at the Café, and mainly I sent a note home to have my contact lens shipped to me.  The Internet café was so cheap.  It was about 38 tenge.  Which was about 30 cents to use the PC for 20 minutes.  The power of the American dollar here is amazing.  In the fancy restaurant here a the hotel, we can order dinner for 2 with drinks, and tip for about $8. 

 

          We left the Internet shop and returned to the hotel for dinner.  I had Beef Botulism stroganoff.  I went to bed fine, and work up at 7:00 sick as a dog.  I’ll describe this in more detail in my next session.  It’s time to go downstairs and head back to the orphanage.

 

4/19/2001 3:41 PM

 

          It’s great to be feeling 100% better.  I was so sick yesterday.  It’s the first time I’ve been sick in over a year, and it was not fun.  I did not eat for over a day, and I lost everything I had in me. 

 

          Yesterday morning Peggy went to see Valentin by herself.  I was in my room sick, sick, sick.  It’s funny, I’m Mr. Health Nut, and I’m the one that gets sick.  I think it probably was not from the food or the water, but probably from the shots I had on Friday.  I got 2 hepatitis shots, and some other shot.  That’s a big jolt of toxins into my system.  Add that to the jet lag, stress, excitement, and the food, and you have a recipe for disaster.  If you ever want to hear a funny story that I won’t print, ask me sometime about my down time…  J

 

Peggy had a great visit and came home so happy.  She took some great video, which I really appreciated. Yesterday afternoon, I went to the orphanage even though I was still sick.  It wasn’t easy.  We went to another orphanage to look at some older children.  We met a child we really fell in love with.  His name is Sasha.

 

          The orphanage say’s he’s six, but he looks closer to 4.5 to me.  He very playful and athletic, but also very small.  We are going to meet with the orphanage doctors today and get more information on Sasha.  He may be #2.

 

          The visit with Valentin this morning was Awesome.  He loved me today, we played and I got him to do a big belly laugh when we were riding the motorcycle.  He was not afraid of me at all today.  We played outside and inside.  It was a great visit.

 

          The most traumatic moment of today came when we were outside playing with Valentin.  Another group of orphans came outside, and one came running up to Peggy and jumped in her arms.  She pulled up his hat and notice it was Danil.  The boy that we originally picked out, but cannot adopt.  She started crying.  It was quite an emotional moment. 

 

          Time for me to get ready to run back to see Sasha again.  More later….

 

4/20/2001 7:47 AM

 

          Getting ready for another day.  We went and met with the head doctor at the older orphanage yesterday.  We reviewed Sasha’s medical history.  Nothing too out of the ordinary here.  He tested positive for TB, but has been X-rayed and shows no sign of TB.  Our main concern is his size.  He’s very small for a 6 year old.

 

          We then asked Larissa if we decided to adopt Sasha if we could get the same court date.  She called Olga and found out that this would add at least 2 weeks to our trip, and these 2 weeks would be spent in Semey waiting for a court date for Sasha.  This blew us away, and really made us go back and rethink what we were doing.

 

          We had a long talk last night and this morning, and decided to just adopt Jacob Valentin at this time.  We really didn’t want to have such a huge difference in our children’s ages, and there’s no way I could be out of work that long.  Also, I did not want to come back and leave Peggy in Russia to wait out the process.  (We gave this some consideration)

 

          We’ll meet with Olga and Larissa this morning and explain this to them and start moving forward with just adopting one on this trip.  But we decided that another adoption trip may be in our future 2 to 3 years down the road.

 

          We’ll also talk to Olga this morning about buying things for the orphanage with the funds that all our ALLTEL buddies donated.  We collect almost $800, and that will  buy a ton of stuff over here in Semey.  I’m hoping to buy some swing sets and see saws for the playground.  There outside toys are pathetic.  Peggy wants to buy things for their health like new clothes, disinfectants, etc.  I hope we’ll be able to do both.  We have no idea what we’ll be able to do until we meet with Olga and the orphanage director. 

 

          We didn’t get to send anybody updates via email yesterday because it was some kind of Moslem holiday, and the Internet cafes were all closed.  We’ll get updates out today.

         

          That reminds me of our biggest excitement yesterday.  While talking with the head doctor, she asked the couple we were with why they wanted to adopt from here instead of America.  This started a 10 minute argument / discussion in Russia between Larissa and the chief doctor.  It boiled down to this.  The head doctor does not like any Kazak children being adopted out of the country.  She also did not like the fact that the Kazak boy being adopted is Moslem and the couple from Ohio (Terry and John) are Christian.  It’s amazing how many people here do not want these children adopted. 

 

          We won’t have a problem with Valentin because he looks like us, and he’s ½ Russian and ½ Kazak.  Terry is very worried about her court appearance because the judge with be Kazak and feels the same way, but Larissa told them not to worry.  100% of their international adoptions have gone through.  The judge mainly gives the Americans grief and asks a bunch of questions, and then approves the process.  Larissa said that if you give the wrong answer to the judge, she’ll correct it when she interprets for us.  So we have a built in filter to make sure things go smooth.

 

          One great thing about making our decision is now we’ll be able to spend a lot more time with Jacob Valentin.  We had a great visit yesterday.  We’ve only been able to visit him once a day since we’ve been orphanage hopping, but that won’t happen anymore.  I’m also much less stressed about taking home one child than two.  We may have been biting off more that we could chew.  This way we can give Valentin the time he needs to get adjusted to American life.  (and us too)

 

          I’m going to try to hook my PC up today at the Internet Café.  If I’m successful at this, then I’m going to share my journal with the folks back home so they can see what we are up to…

 

 

4/21/2001 8:20 AM

 

          Well, I was partially able to hook up at the Internet Café.  I plugged my PC into their Ethernet.  I copied the TCPIP settings and proxy settings, and got the Web working.  But I could not get email from my PC to work.  I think their DNS was messed up, but who knows.  It was a pain for me to try to navigate through a Russia version of Windows to read the settings, and there was no one at the café that knew about their network settings.

 

          On the bright side though, I was able to copy my journal and attach it to a hotmail message.  So I got it out to some of my friends and family.  I’ll try to do the same thing again this afternoon.

 

          We got our court date yesterday.  We are going to court for the adoption next Tuesday at 2:00.  We’ll be the first to court for the three couples.  It was an interesting day.  The judges are giving Larissa and Olga a hard time this trip.  According to Mary Jane, they do this about once a year when they get ready to raise their fees.  They give us a hard time, we fork up some money, and they let us go.  It’s extortion, but what can you do.  This country is so poor, that you really don’t mind leaving money here.  I’m tipping everyone, and I’m tipping about 3 times what I should. Some of them try to give it back, but they always keep it, and you know they appreciate it.  Even a dollar bill US$ is a big deal here.  When you see this place, you want to just go around passing out money.

 

          I told Peggy that I’m getting bored with the routine here. It’s like the movie Groundhog Day.  We do the same thing every day, eat the same food.  It’s not meeting my need for Uncertainty / Variety at all.  Let me describe our typical day.

 

          Awaken around 6:00 even though you don’t want to get up until 7:00 or so.  Peggy gets up to shower and turns on BBC, which is the only English channel on TV.  I moan and try to take a nap.  We take a shower in the bathroom, which has no shower curtain, so the bathroom gets soaked every day.  At least we had new towels today.  Our breakfast arrives between 8:00 and 8:30,  the hotel has 8 breakfasts we can order.  We place our order before the Interpreter leaves every day.  We have not found any of the 8 that we like yet.  I drink a cup of hot tea, and Peggy a cup of coffee, which is the highlight of the breakfast.

 

          We meet the other couples in the lobby at 9:00 for our first trip to the orphanage.  Our driver has gold teeth for his 6 top teeth.  The teeth are like one long plate of gold, not 6 separate teeth.  He looks like Jaws from the old James Bond movies.  He is a very jolly fellow, plays the music way too loud, and his favorite driving pastime seems to be scaring pedestrians.  We’ve almost hit 2 since I’ve been here.  But he watches out for us like a bodyguard, and he’s sweet too.  He bought us all ice cream the other day. 

 

          We arrive at the orphanage around 9:05 and walk inside.  The entry foyer smells like sour milk, and then we go to Jacob Valentin’s room that smells like urine. It seems to be getting worse,  I don’t know if I’m more sensitive, or if maybe the shampoo the rugs every week or so to get rid of the pee smell.

 

          We play with Jacob for a while, but it’s very boring playing with the same toys.  We really like when we get to take them outside.  Even though the playground is bare.  Yesterday we played in the sand with buckets for a while.  It was rainy in the morning so we did not get to go outside, but in the afternoon it was nice.  We spend from 9 to 11:30 with Jacob, then meet the driver. 

 

          We then go to lunch as a group.  Usually we eat at the same restaurant, but yesterday we at back at the hotel since Olga and Larissa were at court trying to get our dates.  After we eat, we return to the hotel.  We then read, take a nap, etc.  Yesterday, I went jogging for a few minutes, but it’s a little unnerving when you’re running around by yourself in this environment.  I took enough cash with me to give to someone if I got mugged, and I took the Walkie Talkie with me so I could call back to the room if I had any problems.  I did not have any problems at all, and I’ll probably do that again today, because it’s the most variety of my day right now.

 

          After our rest, we go back to the orphanage from 4 to 6.  This is usually a good visit because we get to go outside.  (No smell).  But Jacob was cranky yesterday, and cried a good bit. I took some more video.  It’s 8:50 now, so I need to run downstairs and meet the gang.  I’ll finish our routine later…..

 

4/21/2001 4:50 PM

 

          I’m in the room with the toddlers now, trying to update my journal while keeping them off the keyboard.  I’m using my sound card to play some music for them.  (Enya).  It doesn’t seem to be calming them though.

 

          Now back to our routine.  We return to the orphanage from 4 to 6  Usually we get to take Valentin outside, but I don’t know about today since he’s sick.  We play with them, and we usually bring in a new toy every day.  Today we bought a Mickey Mouse Beach Ball.  It’s a big hit.  All the kids are fighting over it.  We play with them for a couple of hours and then head outside between 5:30 and 6:00.

 

          Next we head to the Internet Café so we can check in back home. We usually have only 15 to 30 minutes here since Larissa is waiting on us to take us back to the hotel to place our dinner orders.

 

          Back at the hotel, we do the same groundhog routine.  Into the restaurant to place our dinner and breakfast orders.  John has “the pot” every day.  I eat something different every day, but it is all about 50% butter.  Way too rich to eat, and we are all tired of the food. 

         

          Larissa helps us translate the menu and it usually takes us 3 couples about 15 minutes to place our orders for dinner.  We all meet in the dining room 30 minutes later for dinner.  The couples fuss about petty stuff, and Peggy and I smile at each other.  We talk about the day, and how much we hate the orphanage, the smell, etc.  Dinner takes about a hour and a half then we head back to our rooms. We close Groundhog Day by reading a bit and then hitting the hay.  

 

          We had a great time at lunch today. We ate at the SAME restaurant again, but then we went to the open-air market here which was amazing.  It was like the worlds largest garage sale.  Stuff was cheap. We bought some clothes and toys, but that’s about it.  There’s an inside portion to the market which is like a mall with temporary walls.  It was full of amazing clothes.  I was looking for a full-length leather jacket (like in Matrix), but I did not find one.  They had hundreds of other jackets, coats, clothes, etc for a great deal though.  Today was our most fun lunch to date.  We did not even have any hotel time between our morning and afternoon visit.  Yeah….  

 

          It’s almost time to leave the orphanage for the Internet Café.  I’m going to get my email ready now…..

 

4/24/2001 8:17 AM

 

          Today is court day, and if all goes well, today will be Jacob’s “Gotcha” day.  We just finished breakfast, and I have about 30 minutes before I need to head down to the lobby.

 

          I did not journal the last couple of days, but it was pretty much the same with a few exceptions.  On Sunday, we had a really nice break at lunchtime.  Larissa drove us to a Pine Forrest and we sat in a gazebo and talked for a while.  It was 20 minutes or so from the hotel, so we got to see a lot more of the city.  Peggy took a lot of video along the drive so we can share what it looks like.  There a lots of tiny log homes, homes jammed together, and many of the people look like they just walked off the movie set of Shindlers List.

 

          We had a great time, when we left the Forrest, I wanted to go back to the Bazaar, but the other couples wanted to go back to the hotel (wimps).   Since we had 2 drivers for this outing, this was not a problem.  We went shopping, and did not buy anything.  All this money burning a hole in my pocket, and we did not spend a single dime.  I was looking for a long leather coat like in Matrix, but the only one I found was around $350.  Way too much. 

 

          When we left the Bazaar, we had a special treat.  Larissa asked if we wanted to see her church.  She’s Russian Orthodox, and we went the her cathedral.  It was so beautiful inside and outside.  The inside was so beautiful it’s hard to describe.   Lots of gold, pictures of saints, candles burning, etc.  Larissa got three candles and lit one of them for us and our new family.  It was very touching.  I gave her a $20 bill and told her to donate it to her church.  She thought that it was “so much money”.   It’s easy to forget that $20 is 2 weeks pay for most people in Semey.

 

          We did not get to go to the Internet Café on Sunday, because it was another holiday.  (They have a lot of those here).  We did make it back yesterday to check, and we had email from Norma, Mom, Nola, Runelle, Aileen Lewis, Bill Germanson,  Bobbie, and Debby Reed.  I don’t know if we’ll go today since it will be so crazy.

 

          We’ll be the first to go to court at 2:00, then the Punteri’s at 4:00, and the Calin’s at 5:30.  I believe we pick up our kids tomorrow morning and fly back to Almaty tomorrow afternoon.  That is assuming that we can get our 3 separate judges to “make immediate” their decision.  By law, we are supposed to stay here is Semey for 14 days, but the judges can waive this with their discretion, but they do not have too.  Larissa and Olga have been having a big problem with the judges this trip.  Usually they have one judge that does all the adoptions, but there has been rumors of corruption so they are making several different judges do the cases.  They don’t know these judges at all.  We are supposed to have a woman judge.

 

          Yesterday, it was the same Groundhog Day with a few exceptions.  Larissa and Olga had to hit the courts, so they dropped us off at the hotel for lunch.  Peggy and I walked up the road to a Turkish café and ordered cheeseburgers (I don’t know if they were cow or horse).  (This was a challenge).  We also got fries except they placed them inside the burgers.  (No telling what I told them when we tried to order.)

         

          We ate supper in the hotel, and after supper, us guys watched a DVD, while the ladies either slept or worked on the gifts for everyone.  Peggy also worked on a photo album for the judge that will show her where Jacob will live, etc. 

 

          Jacob was feeling better the last 2 days, he’s been smiling and laughing a good bit, and his cold seemed a little better.  We have not been able to take him outside for the last few days because of his bad cold.  You can hear him wheezing when he breathes.

 

          He did make a weird, funny noise yesterday.  We heard this noise that sounded like a frog.  We thought he was chewing on something rubber, but he’s just grinding his little teeth together.  He’s cutting another tooth, and with that added to his cold, he’s been a little fussy, but not too bad at all.

 

          Sunday, we also got to take Jacob and Max to another room in the orphanage, which was really nice.  It had lots of new toys, plus we had the kids to ourselves.

 

          It’s time to head downstairs for our big day….  Wish us Luck!!

 

 

4/25/2001 1:16 PM

 

          Well our court day is over, and all three couples made it through OK.  It was by far the most stressful day to date.  But it was also a very, very good day in many ways. I’ll pick up where my last journal left off.

 

          We went to see Jacob at 9:00 and around 10:00 we got to meet with our orphanage director – Natalia.  She’s been on vacation, so she’s been out the entire time we’ve been visiting with Jacob Valentin.  She brought us in and ask us if we had any questions.  The doctor had answered most of our questions, but she did fill us in on their daily routine.  This was a big help.  We also learned that many of the kids in the orphanage are anemic since there is almost no fruit, no juice, and very little vegetables for them to eat.  She said it was just potatoes, potatoes, and potatoes.  She said that the orphanage survives from one American family to the next.   This opened an excellent segway for us to discuss our gift from our friends.

 

          We told her about some of the things we were thinking about buying, and she had some great ideas too.  She wanted to buy the children a VCR to watch cartoons and videos.  We thought this was a great idea.  She also showed us some of the floors in the orphan rooms that needed tiling.   We decided to giver her the first $100 yesterday, and the Calin’s also gave a $100 and they went out and bought all the tile, they purchased a huge case of soap for cleaning, and enough screen for all the orphanage windows.  These were all things they really needed badly.

 

          Today we are meeting with Natalia at 2:00 and we’re going to buy the VCR, a few tapes, and then give the rest of our gift for them to use over the next several months.  They’ll send us a breakdown of what the money is used for, and this will buy the children vitamins, medicine, clothes, and so many things that they need.  The $800 gift will go so far here.  It was amazing to see how much stuff they purchased yesterday with the $200.  They bought enough tile for both rooms, the screen and the soap.  Then they took us down and showed us what they had purchased.  We took video and photos for our friends back home so they can see what was purchased with their money.

 

          We went back to the hotel where we were supposed to meet with Larissa at noon to be prepped on what we were to say in court.  At 1:00 we still had not heard from Larissa, and we were all freaking out.  We finally tracked her down on the cell phone, and she was with Olga trying to get our paperwork ready.  They were having a problem with faxing some of our paperwork.   She did not get to the hotel to pick us up until around 1:45.  (Our court was scheduled at 2:00).  Then we went to pick up the Director of Education.  We did not arrive at court until about 2:05. 

 

          When we got there, we had to wait some more because our attorney had not yet arrived.  Everyone was nervous.  We all had new judges that Olga or Larissa had never worked with before and we did not know what to expect.  While we were waiting in the hall, Olga and Larissa kept on telling us things we should say.   They were doing this the entire time we waited, and there was no way we could remember half of what they were telling us to say when we got up to make our speeches.

 

          We finally got into the court about 2:20.  It looked nothing like our courts.  Cement floors, sparse furniture, dark rooms, and lots of street noise coming through the windows.   First we were asked to state our name, address, job, and date of birth.  Then we were ask whey we wanted to adopt. I did most of the speaking. Next they asked us why did we choose to adopt from Kazakhstan.  Peggy did a great job of answering this question by telling about how we had talked to people who had adopted from Kazakhstan, and how well the orphanages treated the children, etc.  I was very proud of her.

 

          The worst part of our ordeal was that we asked the judge to make her decision immediate.  This would let us return sooner, and not stay in Semey the 14 days that are required by Kazak law.  Our judge did not want to do this at all.  She pulled the law books out and showed us that the law said we had to stay here 14 days.   I told her that I had very little vacation, and I did not want to have to leave early and have Peggy and Valentin travel alone.  She was very stoic, and it was not looking like we were going to get an immediate decision.  Olga told her that many judges did this, and that since we’d be in Almaty for 10 days getting the passport for Valentin, that it would be OK to make her decision immediate.  She said the law is the law and then took a recess to think about it.

 

          As we waited in the hall, Larissa did not think it looked very good for us to get an immediate decision.  She told us that the judge was young, was a woman, and was afraid she’d lose her job if she did not follow the law to the letter.  About 10 minutes later we were called back in.  Our attorney got up and made the same requests that we had made, and we awaited the decision.  The judge said that she supports our decision to adopt, she supports changing his name to Jacob Valentin Fulford, and she supports making her decision IMMEDIATE.  We were jumping for joy.  

 

          Both other couples had very easy judges, and it appeared that we got the only one that was worried about the immediate decision, but we all got to adopt our boys yesterday!  Today, we’ll pick up the paperwork, and also give out the gifts that we brought everyone.  I believe we’ll be heading to Almaty tomorrow.  It’s time for us to go and meet Natalia and buy a VCR for the kids.  Thanks so much to all our friends that supported us in this journey……

 

 

 

 

4/25/2001 9:26 PM

 

          Well, I was wrong, we are not going to make it back to Almaty tomorrow. We’ll fly there on Friday morning.  Today, we met with Natalia and we went to the Bazaar to buy clothes for the children.  We bought a lot of clothes for the bigger kids at the orphanage.  Natalia told us that Americans bring clothes for the little kids, but never for the bigger kids.  We bought overalls, dresses, shorts, and tons of leggings for the big and little kids.

 

          Peggy and I were really glad to see the new leggings purchased.  Jacob has been wearing them every day, and the ones the kids wear have so many holes in the it’s unbelievable.  We probably spent less than $40 on clothes, and we got a ton of them.  It’s amazing to see all those toddlers without any diapers on. They cannot afford them at the orphanage so there are lots of mistakes on the floor every day.  (Hence the smell)

 

          Natalia gave $100 to the psychologist to go and buy videos, we’ll see what she bought tomorrow.  Also, she wanted to buy shoes for the kids, but she sent one of her workers to a factory to buy a lot of shoes.  Also, there is a druggist that will open up to sell medicine to the orphanage tomorrow. Natalia was great about being very detailed on where the money is going, and she’s going to send us a letter to describe exactly what was bought for the kids.  We both felt very good leaving the money with Natalia. 

 

          When we got back from the bazaar, we spent the afternoon with Jacob again.  We saw some new stuff this time.  There was a new child in the group, and all the kids beat up on this new kid.  Every time that Jacob got close to the new kid, he would jump on him and bite him.  The caretaker was having to protect this kid from the other children.  It was amazing to see that children under 2 years of age would already fight for turf.  Jacob Valentin can be a bully in addition to being spoiled.

 

          Also, I just wanted to go on record that Valentin is spoiled even before we got him.  Larissa told us that he’s the only fair-haired child in the class so all the caretakers love him a spoil him.  Larissa says that he is spoil-led.  And he is…. When he does not get his way, he waves his arms and shakes his hands and starts whining / crying.  Usually they give him his way.  We’ve got some interesting behaviors we are going to have to work on.

 

          Tomorrow we go back to the orphanage at 9:00, and then we’ll meet with Olga and Larissa at noon to sign our paperwork.   At 3:00, we’re going to meet Natalia so she can show us all the stuff that the workers bought.  The VCR, tapes, etc.  We’ll also sign the final paperwork and Pick up Jacob Valentin.  Tonight is the last night he’ll spend in the orphanage.  He’ll stay in our hotel tomorrow night, and fly back to Almaty early Friday morning.   We’re making progress!

 

 

4/28/2001 2:03 PM

 

          It’s been a couple of days since my last entry, and so much has happened.  On Thursday, we went to see Jacob twice, and we met with Natalia at 3:00 to sign papers.  Even that was stressful,  Olga did not have our birth certificate yet, so Natalia did not want to release Jacob to us until Friday. 

Since our flight was scheduled for 8:30 Friday morning, this would have delayed us another day.  Olga finally promised Natalia she’s bring a copy of the certificate to Natalia the next day.  

 

          We had to get the birth certificate from the office of official records, which was closed on Thursday for some reason.  Larissa knew someone that worked there, and got her to meet us at the office around 7:00p.  We got Jacob’s certificate, and then returned to the orphanage to pick him up.   After waiting for our driver for a LONG time, he was running the Punturi’s around.  We finally left the orphanage with Jacob.  Peggy had him dressed up like a little man,

 

          Jacob’s first night at the hotel was a little traumatic.  He’d ridden in the car twice that day, once to get his passport photo made, and then to the hotel with us.  He did not know what to think about all the new people around, and his new surroundings.  He was a little cranky, but mostly he just played in our hotel room and had a pretty good time. 

 

          We did not get him to bed until around 10:30, he was wound up.  But I went to sleep right away.   Peggy did not get much rest that night, she just watched him all night  J  I think she’s just amazed we really have a son!  We are so happy and blessed.

 

          We got up too early on Friday for Breakfast, and we left the hotel for the airport at 7:00.  We gave Larissa her present, and I gave her a $100 tip.  She was awesome.  Our flight was another small old dirty jet, and Jacob was screaming his lungs out while we were trying to take off.  Most of the babies on the plane were crying.  We lost his earplugs in the chaos, but he did not seem to have any problems with his ears.  He slept the first 1.5 hours of the flight, and was in a good mood for the rest of the flight. 

 

          We landed in Almaty, and the weather was so warm, and everything was so green.  We were in heaven after being in Semey for 10 days. Larissa (the other one) met us at the airport without Nick.  Nick had to return to America for some reason.  Larissa was cranky and she cannot talk English worth a flip. 

 

          We went back to our 5thfloor apartment (lots of steps) and got settled back in.  It’s funny,  Almaty looked so bad when we landed, but now after being in post Nuclear bombed Semey, and eating the same food every day,  Almaty is like vacation land.  There’s over a million people here, lots of restaurants, and the mountains are viewable from our apartment. 

 

          We went to the American embassy to register our invitation letters, but that trip was a joke.  We did not have a blank form that we needed, and we could not fill out the immigration paperwork until we get our adoption paperwork from Olga.  The Embassy is closed on Tuesday for May Day.  (Lots of holidays here), so it will probably be Wednesday before we return to the embassy again.  The embassy is where Larissa got snippy with me.  I ask the embassy when would they be open next week, and she told be to “settle down, this is my job”.  She is not getting a tip.

 

          Jacob had his first bath last night, and he loved it.  He is so happy all the time.  He plays with everything, and anything he finds is a prize.  Yesterday it was the empty 2-gallon water jug, today’s grand prize has been the broom.  He slept 10 hours straight last night! 

 

          It rained all night last night, and when we woke up this morning, all of the trees were covered in snow!  It was beautiful, but it thawed quickly as the day warmed up.   Today was our first truly lazy day where we don’t have anything on our agenda.   Peggy played with Jacob while I lazed around, then we ate breakfast.  We went walking looking for a restaurant around noon.  We have a small map, but we have 2 problems.  First, we don’t know where we are on the map, and second, the Street names on the map are in English, but the signs on the road are in Russian.  We just went walking.  We found a small place right across the road from our apartment (after a 40 minute walk) and had awesome Pizza and coke for 574 tenge.   It was the best meal I’ve had in a long time for $4 for the both of us.  (Make that the 3 of us,  Jacob loved the Pizza too)

 

          It’s 2:30 now, and we’re both getting our journals caught up.  Jacob is taking his nap.  He hates to go to sleep.  He screams like we are killing him for about 10 minutes, and squirms like a mad dog.  Then he sleeps like a baby.

 

          The Calin’s should be here by now,  their judge was slow in releasing the papers, so they had to stay in Semey an extra day.  We’ll all probably go to dinner somewhere tonight. 

 

          I feel better than I’ve felt since I’ve left the US.  I had a nice hot shower this morning, (hot water and a shower curtain)  and it felt so good.  I slept 10 hours with Jacob, and I had some great food today and last night. I don’t know when we’ll be returning yet  once our paperwork is done here, we fly to Moscow.  I think that will be interesting and fun too.

 

          Mom called last night, and it was great to hear from her.  It was our first contact with home other than email.  She was going to try to fax my prescription to Almaty, since my lens have been lost in space.  I may go the entire month with a single pair.  I hope not, my eyes are starting to bug me again.  It was good to get a Maddie check (we both miss our little dog), and find out how everyone is doing.  It will be great to get Jacob home and show him off to everyone.  He’s really having a great time, and bonding with us so well.

 

 

5/1/2001 9:09:37 PM

 

84 steps…  That’s the number of steps we navigate each time we enter or leave our apartment.  But that’s OK, with as much as we are eating here….. we need the exercise.

 

Today is May 1, May Day which is a big holiday over here.  After eating Pizza, Salad, and cola for lunch we walked over to the park where a huge May Day celebration was going on.   There was lots of folk dancing and music with all the authentic Russian and Kazak costumes.  Peggy took a ton of video.  She figures that one day Jacob will want to learn more about his heritage.

 

We’ve been in Almaty for a few days, and here’s our agenda.  Eat breakfast, Play with Jacob, Eat Lunch, Go for a walk, take a nap, eat supper, watch TV (we have one channel with English movies and one channel with English sitcoms.  That’s about it every day… eat, walk, sleep, eat,  and shop every now and then.

 

Our apartment is in a great place in downtown Almaty, no matter which way we decide to walk, it’s pretty, and there’s something interesting to look at. We visited the Almaty museum one day,  Peggy really enjoyed it.  We’ve also been to the RAM store 3 times.  Today we went just to use the Internet café.  I was able to hook up my PC, but I was not able to do anything but browse the web.  I have not been able to get my Outlook email to hook up, or my Lotus Notes since I’ve left the states.   My mailbox is going to be full. 

 

We’ve been eating at a restaurant called Soho’s quite a bit.  It’s got an amazingly diverse menu, written in English, and the prices are good.  It’s also only about a 10-minute walk from our apartment.    We ate at Mad Murphy’s Irish Pub last night.  It was pretty neat little pub with American style food.  They also had a really nice yard that we let Jacob play in.  It’s amazing that everyone has grass here, but no one mows it  Nick said that people here just don’t mow their grass.  It looks funny…..  We did see one guy mowing his grass, he had about a 10 by 10 plot of grass in front of his apartment, and he was clipping it by hand with a pair of something that looked more like scissors than grass clippers. 

 

The mountains around here are beautiful, I hope we get to see them before we leave via a tour or something.  Tomorrow, we should have our paperwork in and make a trip to the American Embassy and get our paperwork for the trip home finalized.  We’ll know more tomorrow, Nick is supposed to be back from the states Thursday morning.  If we don’t get things figured out tomorrow, we’ll know for sure by Thursday.  This waiting is a pain in the ass, but as far as vacations go, I’ve gotten more rest on this trip than any vacation I’ve ever taken.   I’m sleeping about 10 to 12 hours every day (counting naps), and I haven’t broken a sweat in a week.

 

I’ll really be needing to cleanse and exercise when I return.  I’ve gotten addicted to colas again, and I haven’t thought twice about eating meats, ice cream, M&Ms, you name it.  I’ll need to go on a diet when I return from Almaty.  I’ve undone all the cleansing I did while I was in Semey J

 

It’s been fun to watch Jacob Valentin bond with us and learn a little more every day.   He laughs a lot now, and jabbers all the time.  We bought a stroller when we arrived, and we’ve put miles on it already.  He was really great when we ate lunch today,  he didn’t cry between every bite like we had been starving him.   But during supper, it was back to orphanage behavior where he screamed if Peggy or me were not shoving in the food fast enough.

 

He does not know the meaning of the word no.  He keeps messing with Electrical cords and he’s determined to pull the TV off of its stand.  When I tell him no, he thinks it’s a game, and he charges back again. I’m sure he’ll learn soon.  (Especially when the TV lands on his head)

 

He also did something really cool tonight. At the orphanage they sit the kids on a pot every hour or so for them to use the bathroom.  The kids don’t ask to go, they just do it based on intervals.  We put Jacob back in diapers as soon as we picked him up.  Tonight we were watching TV, and he went over to a pot and sat down in it.  He then proceeded to use the potty (with his diaper on).  We thought that this was really cool.  It means he’s cognizant of when he needs to go, we should be able to potty train him soon.

 

He went to sleep early tonight, and he’s been sleeping through then entire night every night,   but he rolls, squirms, flips, and jabbers all night long.  That may be normal, I don’t have any experience in this matter.

 

Hey, they just had a big fireworks show outside.  I could only see a little of it from the window, but fireworks are always great.  Too bad Jacob Valentin slept through his first fireworks. 

 

5/3/2001 12:12:00 PM

 

          We just had left over spaghetti from last night for lunch.  Peggy is doing the dishes, and Jacob is exploring the apartment.  We have not heard anything from Nick or Larissa yet today, but we are REALLY hoping we get to finally go to the embassy to get our paperwork completed today.

 

          I stayed up late watching TV, and Jacob went to bed pretty early. I’m going to hit a new Internet café in a little while.  We may go shopping later today too.  It’s difficult being on someone else’s schedule, with no control, or no knowledge of what the agenda is.  We wait around the apartment afraid we’re going to miss a phone call, so it also makes us a little house bound.

 

          A couple of interesting things are happening that are very subtle.  First, Peggy and I are starting to get on each other’s nerves a little.  It’s like we’re on the edge of an argument or a fight, but we really don’t have anything to fight about. 

 

          Another interesting thing is that I’ve been in a reflective, contemplative frame of mind the last 2 days.  It’s like I’ve finally relaxed enough that I can just sit and think about things.  Seeing the people in Semey living in their conditions reminds me how important it is for us to all have hope.  Not only should we continually foster hope in ourselves,  but we should also build it up in others.  The gift of giving hope to someone that tomorrow will be a better day, based on what they do today will be a more important part of my daily routine.  I can do this through ALLTEL, through Team Infocus, and through my friendships.  “We give hope” is a great mission statement for any team or individual.

 

          Yeah!  Nick just called on the phone and he’s going to come over here in a few minutes to let us know what the status of everything is.  Peggy is getting our list of questions together. 

 

 

5/4/2001 9:57:28 PM

 

          A great day today, but a lazy one for sure.  We did make it to the American Embassy yesterday to get our invitation letter notarized, and we got an update from Nick, but it was not as enlightening as we had hoped.

 

          We were told that the critical path for getting back to USA is getting Jacob’s passport from Semey. Olga has applied for this on our court day, but with the holidays over here, everything slows down.  Nick expects us to return to Moscow next Friday, we were planning on going there on Wednesday.  Today is day 20 of our trip, we were hoping for 3 weeks, but it’s going to be at least 4.

 

          Today it was raining when we woke up, so we had a lazy day.  We didn’t go out until 4:00.  We went to a new Internet Café, which was really nice, and then we went grocery shopping at a store around the corner. It was a big pain in the butt.  This store was small and had very narrow aisles,  it was right after work, so the place was crowded as anything.  I had Jacob in the stroller while Peggy got the food.  He grabbed everything in sight, he pulled prices off the walls, dog food off the shelves, and grabbed everyone’s leg that we passed.  It was like going in the store with an octopus.  We didn’t buy anything to cook, mainly snacks, bread, laundry stuff, etc. 

 

          We returned the groceries to the apartment, and then went to get dinner with Terry and Manas, We went to our favorite Pizza place again.  I had a cheeseburger and Peggy got the pizza.  The burger was not too great,  very lean meat that was very cooked.  It may have been horsemeat.  They use a lot of horsemeat here. Not only do they sell it in restaurants, but you’ll see it in the grocery store.  You’ll see horsemeat, horse milk, it’s weird.  When you go to buy milk, you have to look for a cow on the carton, they have horse, goat, all kinds of stuff.

 

          When we left the restaurant it was raining again.  Even though it was beautiful when we left.  We ran home as fast as possible and barely got wet.  When we reached the apartment it started a downpour. It even hailed.  We’ve seen every kind of weather here.  It’s snowed, been freezing cold, been hot as Haities, hailed, rained, but mostly it’s been beautiful,

 

          We came back from dinner and played with Jacob.  He is so fun at night.  He’s sweet and happy in the morning, but he’s a crazy goofball at night.  Peggy had some cream filled pastries, and she was feeding him some of the cream on her finger.  He started biting her finger and laughing his butt off.  We kept this up until we were all laughing like mad.  It was silly and fun.

         

          I think we are going to head to the mountains tomorrow and see what they look like.  Nick said it was not much to see, but it beats just sitting in our apartment all day with just 2 channels of TV to entertain you.

 

 

5/52001

 

          It’s Saturday and we got to do something a little different today (Yeah).  We went for a drive in the mountains and stopped at the world’s largest Ice skating rink. Nick and Serge drove all the couples up to the mountains around noon.  It was a very pretty drive, and we saw several interesting things along the way.

 

          We saw several people camping and cooking on open fires in the woods along the road.  We asked Nick if this was a park.  He said it was not a park, but lots of people used it as one.  Some people lived there as homeless, but mostly it was people getting out of the city for a few minutes in the county.  Nick said that he tried to go there one day for a picnic but the number of RATS made them pack up an go home. (Yuck)   

 

          We drove by one of the bridges that had been taken out by a mudslide in 1973..  There’s always a concern in Almaty for mudslides and avalanches caused by the melting snow. 

 

The funniest part of the trip was watching the inefficiencies of the Kazak government.  One guy stopped us with a roadblock.  Another guy then sold us a token for 100 tenge.  We drove 50 foot up the road and gave the token to another guy who put it in a box.  You had 3 people doing the job that could be handled by one (or an automated tollbooth).  This started us on a lengthy discussion about automation.   We all noticed how un-automated everything in Kazakhstan is.  When we got our Kazak Visa, the process was so manual.  The two people issuing us the visa wrote in 4 different ledgers.  The Visa was hand written.  It took about 20 minutes to issue each visa.  We gave them our Invitation letter, and they looked up a matching copy of the invitation letter in their books.  It was so archaic by our standards.  In the US, we would use a barcode reader to read the passport, and print the Visa up in less than a minute.  I asked Nick about this and he said they did not want to automate because they were afraid of people losing the jobs. 

 

This same mentality is also hurting the kids in Kazakhstan.  It was apparent to us that many of the people in the orphanage (including Natalia the director) did not really want to have the kids adopted (especially by Americans).  We found that Kazak law requires the orphanage to have so many caretakers based on the number of children.  Over the last several months so many children had been adopted by Americans that Natalia was being pressured to let some of her caretakers go.  She did not want anyone to lose their job, so she did not want to let any more children get adopted.  Luckily, Jacob, Max, Danil, and many other kids were brought over from another orphanage.  This gave her enough children to allow more adoptions to happen….. But it pains me to think that children may have to grow up orphans just so a glorified babysitter can keep their job.  This is not in the best interest of the children.

 

Back to the trip….  Since it’s May, the ice rink was nothing more than a big concrete rink, but the scenery was beautiful, and there was a little café that we had lunch at.  There were a few amusement park rides there. We put Manas on a small roller coaster, but he was afraid out of his mind.  We stopped it after one rotation, there was a little kidde roller coaster (train) and Manas went on that ride with Larissa, and I also took Jacob on it.  They both loved it. 

 

 

5/9/2001

 

          Guess what, it’s another holiday in Kazakhstan!  This one is May 9th, their Veterans Day.  Our passports would have been here today, but the airlines inside the country don’t even run on holidays.  (I think the Pilots are all drunk).   All of our adoption paperwork is hand couriered back and forth by stewardesses, etc. (No Fed X helping us out here at all). 

 

          There have been several factors that have made our trip 4 weeks instead of 3.  These May holidays were a big part.  Each holiday adds one or two days to the process.  Natalia has been another bottleneck.  She will not release Jacob’s paperwork until she has a copy of the passport.  Normally, the paperwork would come to Almaty with us so Nick could get the paperwork translated for the Embassy, but she won’t release it.  (This added another day).  Another factor is the bribe factor.  This entire country (and this process) seems to work on bribes.  Everyone that touches the paperwork gets a little money.  Our passports came back to Olga pretty quick, but there’s only one lady on Semey that can sign the passports and she was on vacation in another city. Olga had to drive to another city and track her down to give here the bribe and get the OK (added another day).  But, the more difficult the task, the greater the reward, so I’m enjoying the process as each day moves us closer to being home with Jacob.

 

          Today Nick drove us over to the largest Park in Almaty where most of the Veterans Day celebration is going on.  Nick dropped us off at 1:30, and was going to pick us back up at 3:00.  Peggy and I ate a quick lunch before we left, but the other couples did not. So while Peggy, Jacob, and I went exploring the park, the other couples went to the Pizza restaurant to grab a quick bite (they thought).  This park was really beautiful, especially today during this celebration.  They have a large bronze monument for the war veterans and an eternal flame.  People were putting thousands of flowers on the monument to honor the veterans.  The flowers and the park were breathtaking.  We took lots of photos and video. 

 

          There was also a Russian Orthodox Church inside the park.  We visited the Church and it was beautiful, but I thought the one is Semey was more tranquil and serene.  It may have been because this one was crowded with people and we had the one in Semey to ourselves when we visited it. 

 

          Everyone in the city wore all their war medals, and uniforms.  It was great to see, but also kind of sad.  First, since these are WWII veterans, they were all in the 70’s.  Most people in Kazakhstan do not live to 70 years old, so most of the ones being honored were pretty decrepit. The saddest part to me though, was the fact that all of these veterans lost their benefits a few years ago with the breakup of the Soviet Union.  They used to get money every month, and special privileges (like our Military PX’s)  like shopping discounts, etc.  Now, the Veterans Day celebration is all they get. Their $30 to $40 monthly checks are no longer delivered. (How sad).

 

          We really enjoyed walking through the park.  We bought Jacob an inflatable dog (that looks like Maddie) for 100 tenge, and Peggy bought toys for Manas and Max too.  The tulips in the Park were beautiful, but I also enjoyed looking at the people.  Most of them were dressed to the nines, and the atmosphere was festive and upbeat.

 

          At 3:00, we returned to the front of the Park to meet Nick, and the other couples had just gotten their pizza.  They can be such knuckleheads.  They missed the opportunity to see something they’ll never get to see again.  I’m glad I wasn’t born a knucklehead.

 

 

5/10/2001 

 

          Today was another Groundhog Day, but Jacob’s passport and paperwork did arrive today.  (hooray).  Nick translated the paperwork, and went to the embassy to make our appointments.  The deadline for a Friday embassy appointment is to get the paperwork to the embassy by noon on Thursday. But Nick did not get the paperwork to the embassy until around 6:00 PM.  He begged and pleaded and got us a Friday appointment.  Lucky for us, he has some pretty good pull with the Embassy.  Otherwise, this would have delayed our departure to Moscow until Tuesday; right now we plan to go on Sunday. (Please, no more delays)

 

          Peggy asked me what I would miss most about this trip, and it took me a while to come up with my answer, but here it is.   Days like today, where I have nothing to do.  Think about it, I’m a type A personality always going a hundred miles an hour.  When else in my life will I be able to laze around all day and not feel guilty about it?  Maybe never.  At home, even if I decide to take a day and do nothing, I’d think about all the things I should be doing, and feel guilty for goofing off.  But here in Almaty,  My job is sitting around, being lazy, doing nothing, waiting for paperwork, and thoroughly enjoying the process.

 

          Here’s my Almaty Job description.  Wake up around 9:00, play with Jacob so Peggy can take a shower, take my shower, ask each other “What do you want to do today?”,  Call the other couples to see if they have plans (they never do), walk down 84 steps, take out the garbage (radioactive diapers inside), up 84 steps, get Jacob dressed, down the 84 steps  to lunch and eat pizza, walk back to the apartment up 84 steps, and put Jacob to sleep, then take a nap with him, wake up, down 84 steps, walk through the park, go shopping and buy some junk, go by the neighbor grocery store and buy water, diet cokes, and M&M’s, (for our midnight snack tonight), walk back to the apartment (up 84 steps). Call the other couples to see if they have dinner plans (they never do), make dinner plans, (probably Soho’s – we can read the menu there), down 84 steps, walk to Soho’s, eat dinner, apologize for your monster’s behavior, walk to bakery, buy fattening, buttery, starchy, cakes for breakfast tomorrow, back to apartment (84 steps), play with Jacob (best part of day), watch TV, eat M&M’s, put Jacob to sleep, watch more TV, eat tomorrow’s breakfast, read some, work on my journal, eat another pack of M&M’s, go to bed around 1:00, sleep, wake up and repeat.  [I was amazed that I only gained 7 pounds]

 

          What else will I miss? The fantastic juice they have in Kazakhstan.  Having a new place to explore everyday, knowing when the phone rings that it’s not a telemarketer, being able to buy ice cream cones for 25 cents, and lunch for 2 for $4.  I’ll miss the shower that puts out more water than a fire hydrant, and mostly I’ll miss all the kids I got to know in the orphanage but had to leave behind (Rosa, Natasha, Madina, Iliman, Arman, Sasha, and little Danil)

 

          What won’t I miss?  84 steps, my 6’ bed with a 1” think pillow and 2” thick mattress with stinky sheets, having to drink bottled water all the time (more on bottled water later), not being able to read a menu, bathrooms without toilet paper (ask me about this sometime), nearly getting hit by a car every time you cross the street, the other couples whining about petty issues every day, being afraid to go out at night, the heavy military presence, having to light my gas stove everyday just to heat up some food (I challenge everyone to go for a month without a microwave), seeing poverty everywhere you look, seeing children begging in the streets. But mostly, seeing people work so hard, for so little, and seeing no hope in their eyes that tomorrow will be a better day.

 

          Kazakhstan has rich people, and poor people, but no middle class. If you’re born in poverty, you’ll probably die in poverty too.  When I visited the large ice skating rink, I asked Nick why someone didn’t turn the rink into a roller blading park, or go cart track, or something, during the summer months.  He told me that to start a new business you had to pay so many bribes and fees that you’d only get to keep about 10% of your profits. Their whole system is designed to keep the rich rich and the poor poor. The President of Kazakhstan was a low level diplomat when the Soviet Union disbanded.  Now he’s a billionaire.  The tax dollars do not get spent on the people, they make the rich richer. Even though we complain about our government, we are so lucky to live in a country that is for the most part “for the people”. America truly is the land of opportunity, but most of us fail to see or appreciate the freedoms we take so easily for granted.

 

 

5/11/2001  

 

          Today we had our embassy interview in Almaty.  It was really not much of an interview at all.  All we had to do was fill out some paperwork that gets sent to Moscow and US Immigration.  The embassy did spend a good bit of time reviewing all of our paperwork.  They called Nick early today and said that there was a question on where Jacob was before he was in the Semey orphanage.  They needed documentation from the Hospital where his mother turned him in.  They wanted to keep us in Almaty until they had this paperwork.  This hospital is 80 miles or so from Semey, and Olga is going to have to drive to the hospital to get the paperwork.  (A Fax copy would not suffice).  Nick spent some time begging the embassy to let us leave Almaty on Sunday, and he promised to have the paperwork to them by Monday.  The embassy granted his request and will let us leave on Sunday with the other couples.

 

          Since today is Friday, we could leave tomorrow morning to fly to Moscow, but we cannot see the US Embassy in Moscow until Monday.  Our apartment in Almaty is $40 a night, and the Marriott in Moscow is $200 a night, so we all agreed it made the most sense for us to leave Sunday.  This way we could do the US medical exam on Sunday and the embassy paperwork on Monday. Then fly home Tuesday  (Yes!)

 

         

5/12/2001   

 

          As I mentioned earlier in my Journal, my need for Variety has not been exercised to my satisfaction for most of this trip.  Today that changed.  I got in touch with a lady named Irina who is a tour guide.  She speaks perfect English, and I called her last Wednesday to see if there was anything adventurous I could do in the way of sightseeing or excursions.  Saturday was my only day that I was guaranteed I had free, and they had a trip planned to hike to the Bolderich glacier.  This sounded like a nice easy hike. 

 

          Irina told me we would take the ski lift up the mountain and then hike about 3 miles to the glacier.  She said the incline would be about 1000’ for the trip.  (No problem, I thought)

 

          Well I got up this morning at 8:00, packed a lunch in my backpack, dressed warm, and walked about 6 blocks to where we were to meet.  I met the group at 9:00, and Irina asked me if I had any hiking boots, I told her no, all I brought with me on the trip were tennis shoes.  She said we’d be hiking through some snow so I should really get some boots if possible.  She had an extra pair with her but they were too small.  She asked me what size I wore, and I told her 10 ½ to 11.  That meant nothing to her (Shoe sizes are different over there).  We drove up the road a few blocks to a friend’s house and she went inside to get his boots.  They were size 42, and they looked somewhat like they would fit.  We then took off to the mountains.

 

          We drove the same route as we did last Saturday with Nick, but instead of stopping at the ice skating rink, we continued several miles up the mountain to a ski lodge.  We were met at the lift by a guy that said if we paid him at the top instead of buying a ticket he would let us ride the lift for ½ price.  (Everything in this country works this way).   We rode up 3 ski lifts.  The first two lifts were nice dual ski lifts like you’ll see in the states.  The 3rdlift was a rickety chair that you had to ride by yourself.  It was the first ski lift I’ve ever ridden in that I could drag my feet on the snow a few places on the way up. 

 

          When we got to the top of the 3rdlift, we had some excitement.  I got a glimpse of Bigfoot.  I actually got a pretty good snapshot of Bigfoot.  Actually, they were filming a music video clip up there, and Bigfoot was in full costume. 

 

          We took off for the glacier, but it only took about 5 minutes to discover we were in deep s**t (I mean deep snow).  The top of the snow was soft, so we were sinking up past our knees about every 3 steps.  We decided it would be a cold, wet, miserable 3 miles if we were sinking up to our butts in snow so we regrouped. Our guide pointed to a mountain that was about 90% rock and 10% snow and recommended that we climb it.  I agreed to go with the flow (this was my first mistake).

 

          We were now at 8,000 feet above sea level, the top of the mountain was 11,000 feet above sea level.  To give you a reference point, when you take a private plane over 10,000 feet you are required to breathe oxygen. 

 

          So here’s the scenario, I’m a Florida boy used to breathing at 5 feet above sea level, standing at the base of a mountain at 8,000 feet above sea level. I have not exercised in a month (other than the 84 steps).  I’ve been on a diet of pizza and M&Ms. I’ve got a 50lb backpack with 3 bottles  of water, a thermos full of hot tea, a leather jacket that weighs a ton,  3 chicken legs, Pringles, M&M’s, 2 snickers bars, 2 cups of pudding (but no spoon), peanut brittle, and a change of clothes (I was actually happy about the spare socks I brought).  I also had camera, batteries, film, binoculars and other stuff designed to make my backpack nice and heavy.  I don’t have any sunscreen, I don’t have a hat, I’m with a group of 4 other people who are younger than me, and climb mountains on a regular basis.  I am so prepared!

 

          We start up the mountain and I do pretty good for the first hour.  Then I get really tired.  I have to walk 10 steps, then take a 2-minute break to breathe.  My distance gets shorter and my breaks get longer.  Finally we make it up the rocks to the top of the mountain.  We take some photos, look at the glacier, we even get to hear a couple of avalanches on nearby mountains.  Then we start down the backside.  I’m doing better now that we are going downhill.  We get about a third the way back down the mountain and our guide decides that with the ice, and the clouds coming in quickly, it’s going to be too dangerous to go down this way, so we have to hike back the way we came.  Oh my God, the hike back up the third of the mountain nearly killed me.  I was drying, gasping for air, my thighs were hurting, and I was generally slowing down our expedition.  Finally, Victor, our mountain guide decided that it was going to be easier to carry my backpack than carry me, so he took my backpack.  Wow, what a help this was.  It reminded me of how thankful I was that I lost the 80 pounds I lost in 99. With the 50-pound backpack off my back, I was able to slowly climb back up the mountain.  Irina kept making me drink juice (she said I looked pale, wonder why).  Once we got back to the top, we ate our lunch.  This did 3 great things, gave me an hour rest, replenished my energy, and lightened my backpack. (I ate nearly everything listed above except for the pudding – no spoon).  I carried my own backpack back down the mountain.  (I decided that with gravity, the extra weight would pull me back down the hill)

 

          Actually Victor and Irina took great care of me, they made sure one of them was behind me when we climbed, and they made sure one of them was in front of me as we descended.  They held my hand during the most dangerous parts.  Actually, I only feared for my life twice today.  There were two places during the climb when I said to myself, if I slip, I’m dead. 

 

          When I got to the bottom, I looked like a mess. The seat of my pants were ripped.  My shins were both skinned up.  My pants were dirty, Victor loaned me some ski gloves and I ruined them. They were torn almost to shreds.  I went up the hill on all fours, and I descended like a crab.  I lost most of the weight I had gained over the last 30 days.  I sweated like a pig for 4 hours, but was proud of myself when it was all over.  I climbed all day with a great attitude, I never gave up, and I did something extremely difficult that I have never done before.  This was 10 times more difficult than the River Run, and it gave me a lot more respect for those champions that have scaled Mount Everest and K2.

 

          Back at the apartment, things were much more challenging than at the mountain.  Peggy was trying to pack our bags for the trip to Moscow, and Jacob had been a bear all day.  She was not too happy that I had been goofing off all day, and left her to pack, take care of Jacob, etc.  Welcome to parenthood J

 

5/13/2001  - Mother’s Day  

         

          We met at 5:50 this morning for our trip to the airport.  We were all glad to be leaving Almaty, and we were concerned how our kids would do on the plane. We were also concerned with going though customs.  There were lots of stories going around about how customs would shake you down for money when you leave Kazakhstan.   I hear that they’ll tell you that there’s a 1% tariff on your cash.  It’s hard to blame them.  With the adoption and all, most Americans will arrive with $5,000 to $8.000 in US Currency.  (Peggy and I had even more since we were planning on adopting 2 children.  If the customs guy gets $50 from you, then it’s not much to you, but that’s probably equal to one month of his salary.  Terry Punturi told us that they took $30 from John’s wallet when he left. 

 

          Nick told us to make sure of three things before we go through customs.  First, it is illegal to take any tenge (Kazakhstan money) out of the county.  Second, make sure we claim the cash we are carrying to the penny on our customs form. (They sometimes make you count your money in front of them).  And finally, once we clear customs, come back to the entrance way and wave to Nick to let him know we made it through with no problems.

 

          We had no problem going through customs at all, they didn’t hassle us, count our money, or anything.  They just collected our customs forms and waved us through.  So we were on the way to Moscow. 

 

          Jacob did great on the flight.  He was asleep before we took off, and he slept for an hour and a half.  Then he woke up and played for about 2 hours, then went back to sleep for the remainder of the flight.  You always worry about the young ones being able to clear their ears, but everything went fine. 

 

          It’s also good to be a seasoned traveler, I asked for an aisle seat on the bulkhead and got it.  This way we had a nice little floor area for Jacob to play on, and it was easy to take him to the bathroom when needed.  We left at 7:30 and arrived in Moscow a little after 9:00.  (Three hour time difference).  Travel tip – If you ever fly to Almaty, be sure you use the restroom before you get off the plane, the airport restrooms are hideous).

 

          The drive from the Moscow airport to the Marriott took forever.  I see now why they tell us we have to be up so early for the return trip home.  Driving through Moscow reminds you of many other European cities like Amsterdam or Paris. There are lots of beautiful old buildings, tons of traffic, and people moving every which way.  You don’t feel like you’re in a poverty area or a military zone nearly as much as you do when you’re in Kazakhstan.

 

          We arrived at the Marriott around 11:00, and Phillip (our Moscow coordinator) told us to be ready to go to the American Medical Doctor at 12:45.  We were starving but after getting checked in and converting some $US to Rubles we only had about 30 minutes to find something to eat.  I asked the Concierge where I could get some fast food, and he told me there was a McDonald’s about 5 minutes from the hotel.  My eyes lit up like a kid at Christmas; I danced out the door and just about skipped all the way to McDonalds.  I never eat at a McDonalds in the states, and I’m a vegetarian, but that Big Mac meal with large fries was awesome.  It was so good to get a taste of home, when we were so far away.

 

          We arrived at the Doctor’s office at 1:00, and filled out some paperwork, but the place was packed.  At 2:00 the doctor came out an apologized and told us he had called in another pediatrician.   About 3:30 we saw the Doctor, and that was pretty anti climatic. 

 

          We did get one thing really great done while sitting in the Doctors office today.  Phillip worked with Peggy (and the other couples) to get all the Immigration paperwork filled out, sorted, and ready for the embassy visit tomorrow.  So now we should be ready for the final step in our adoption process – Getting Jacob a US Immigration Visa from the American Embassy in Moscow.

 

          After the Doctors visit, Peggy and I went to dinner with Terry and Manas to the American Bar & Grill.  The food was mediocre, and Jacob was being a devil so this was not the best Mother’s Day dinner we could imagine.  After dinner, we returned to the Marriott.  Peggy asked me if I could find some food for Jacob to eat in the morning.  I also wanted to check email, so I left them in the room and headed out.

 

          My first stop was the Marriott Business center to use the Internet.  $8 for 15 minutes, what a difference,  In Semey I could use the Internet for an hour for $1. But I sent a couple of emails back home, and told everyone when we were expecting to return home. 

 

          After I left the Marriott I walked through the streets looking for a store that sold baby food.  I bought some juice, water, cokes, M&M’s, and 6 roses for Peggy for mother’s day.  I never found any baby food, but we snarfed some extra fruit and granola bars from the Marriott breakfast buffet this morning. 

 

          All in all it was a great Mother’s day for Peggy, and we were in heaven as we lay down that night on our large clean Marriott bed.  It was the first decent bed and pillow I’d had in a month!

 

 

5/14/2001    

 

          The trip to the American Embassy was pretty neat.  Phillip gave us each a card from the embassy that looked really official.  It had our name on it, the appointment time of 2:00, and told us to wait outside the gate with the arch.  As we arrived at the embassy we saw a HUGE line at the gate, but we were pleased to discover that the line was not at the gate with the arch.  We went to our designated gate and were soon joined by other couples with their kids.

 

          A guard came to the gate, checked our passport and our invitation, logged us in, and pointed towards a building and told us to walk that way.   We followed the signs on the walls marked “Adoption” until we entered a large waiting room. We really saw some new families here. All of the adoptions done in that part of Asia, (Russia, Kazakhstan, Muldova, etc) have to come though Moscow to get the Immigration Visa from the American embassy.  It was amazing to see the number of new families there together.

 

          They called our name, and we approached the window and sworn in.  They asked us a couple of really hard questions like “Have you ever lost your US citizenship?” and then ask us to sit back down.   In about 10 minutes we were called back to the window and told that Jacob’s visa was approved, and they gave us his US Immigration Visa.  We were also told that as soon as he enters the US, he becomes a US citizen due to the new Child Citizenship Act of 2000, which went effective February 2001. but that he would still need to get a US Passport and Social Security Number. We were given his visa, and a large sealed envelope that had to remain sealed until we reached the US Immigration office in Washington DC.

 

          We were really happy and relived, this was the final paperwork we needed to return home with Jacob.

 

We left the embassy around 3:15 and asked Phillip to drive us to Red Square.  It was really great to see Red Square after seeing it in all those James Bond and other spy movies over the years.  We were only there about an hour, we took a bunch of pictures, and bought more junk from the vendors. (I have to say that I look pretty sporty in the genuine rabbit fur hat I bought that covers my head and ears, I just don’t know how often I’ll get to use it in Florida  J)

 

          After Red Square, we returned to the Marriott.  Terry wanted to eat at TGI Fridays’, but I wasn’t about to have my last meal in Russia be at a restaurant that I could eat at in the Atlanta airport. The other 2 couples headed for Friday’s, and Peggy and I went exploring.  

 

          We left the Marriott and walked towards Pushkin square.  In Moscow, when you need to cross a busy street, they have walkways that go underneath the street.  When we walked in the Tunnel to cross the road by Pushkin Square, we were amazed at what we found.  There was an entire underground mall of tiny stores located inside the tunnels.  We bought a toy for Jacob and exited the tunnels in search of food.

 

We found a great Russian restaurant that had English on the menu.  It was really cute, and the food was outstanding.  Peggy had Salmon, which was the best meal of the trip.  We ordered Chicken noodle soup for Jacob, and the bowl was so big you could swim in it.  Jacob was good, the service was great, and we have a wonderful last meal in Russia.

 

As we walked back to the Marriott pushing Jacob’s stroller, we went through a beautiful park in the middle of the city.  The flowers and walkways were beautiful, but the highlight of the park for us, was a children’s play area built out of logs. The slide, see saw, swings, everything was beautiful, and gave us some good ideas on some great yard toys to build when we complete our new log home. 

 

5/15/2001   

 

          We are finally heading home after being gone for a month!  We met our driver at 4:45 this morning.  All three couples are on the flight from Moscow to Frankfurt, then we go our separate ways.  It’s been great to have our new friends to travel with, it was good to be able to go to dinner and such with other people who spoke English.  On the other hand, being with the same folks 24x7 for a month can really get on your nerves.  Especially when you are traveling with someone who is needy or a whiner (names withheld to protect the guilty)

         

          We arrived at the airport over an hour before our flight.  It took some time to get my boarding passes, and I was not sure if I had gotten the seats I requested.  The ticket agent did not speak English.  Once we got our tickets we went thought passport control and immigration.  Somehow we entirely skipped customs.  (And our customs forms were all ready).  We went to the gate and it was not open yet, so we fed Jacob some breakfast while we waited for time to pass.

 

          When the gate finally opened, I walked through security and got my first real scare of the trip.  I set the metal detector off, and instead of removing my watch, belt, etc. like I usually do, the guard waved me forward and frisked me.  When he patted down my chest, he ask me “What’s this?”.  I told him my wallet, and he said “Let’s see it”.  I pulled it out and showed it to him and he said “What’s in it?”  I said “Just money”.  He said “Open it”.  I did and he started flipping through the edges of my wad of cash.  He ask me “How much”.  I told him “$3840 US”. He said “Give me your passport and sit over here until we come back for you”.  Peggy had my passport with her, so I ask her for my passport and she handed it over. Guess what, we still had our customs forms in the passport.  The ones we were supposed to turn into customs.  When he pulled those out of the passport, Peggy almost fainted. He looked at the customs forms, handed them to me, and took by passport and left.

 

          I waited for what seemed like forever, but was probably about 10 minutes.  Every thought you can imagine was running through my head.  I was picturing myself in a dark room with a bright light, and someone saying, “We have ways to make you talk”, but he just returned with my passport and told me “You’re free to go”.  Beautiful words to my ears!

 

          We boarded for our three-hour flight to Frankfort, Germany. The flight was not too crowded, and Peggy, Jacob, and I had our own row.  Jacob was traveling on an infant ticket, which means he did not have a seat, so the extra seat in our row was a luxury we really appreciated.

 

          When we arrived in Frankfort we said our goodbyes to our travel companions. We then headed for our departure gate.  It was at that time we had our Germany excitement.  The computer said that our Flight to Dulles was a gate A1.  We started towards A1, and found that we had to go though a passport check again.  This did not make sense to us, but we pulled out our passports, anyway.  Then they ask for Jacob’s visa.  We pulled our his visa, and the guys started chatting with each other in German.  They told us that this visa was no good, that we needed a German visa.  We told them we were just traveling to the US, and did not have a German visa. 

 

          We quickly figured out that A1 was not the right gate.  We were trying to go to the part of the airport that had flights to other parts of Germany.  International flights did not need to go through a passport check.  It did make me realize how lucky we are to be US citizens.  As US citizens, Peggy and I could enter German (and many places in the world) without a visa,  but since Jacob has a Kazakhstan passport, he was not allowed to spend the night in Germany.  It’s great to be an AMERICAN.

 

          The Frankfort to Dulles flight was our longest flight by far (9 hours).  We had requested bassinet seating (per Norma’s instruction) so we had great aisle seats on the bulkhead.  They told us they would bring out the bassinet when the plane reached cruising altitude, and we were expecting them to bring out something that resembled a sleeping bag that would set at our feet.  What they brought was so much better!  The brought out a small bed that attached to the bulkhead about 2 feet off the ground.  We were able to put Jacob in it and still have plenty of legroom.  He went to sleep before we received our meals, so this flight ended up working out great.  (Thank you Norma).  Sometimes it is great to have a sister-in-law that’s a travel agent.

 

          Once we arrived in Washington DC, we retrieved our luggage and went through customs.  (It’s interesting that for US customs, you don’t even have to claim cash unless you are carrying over $10,000).  Customs took less than a minute, and then we went to immigration to give them Jacob’s visa (and sealed envelope).  This process was quick and simple.  In about 10 minutes they had stamped Jacob’s passport, told us that he was now a US citizen and had permanent residence in the US, and that we should get him a US passport. 

 

          This felt so great, after all the paperwork, traveling, money, and effort, we had our son!!  Jacob was ours, was a US citizen, and was on US soil.  It really felt great to be at the end of our adoption process.   

         

          The flight from Washington to Jacksonville was on a United crop duster (small 50 passenger jet) .  It was as uneventful as it was uncomfortable.  Norma and David met us at the airport.  When we arrived home, our family and neighbors were there, our house was decorated, and our dinner was on the table.  It’s great to have family that lives so close. 

 

          Everyone wanted to meet Jacob and give him a squeeze.  We were concerned that he would be cranky and tired.  We had been traveling for 23 hours straight.  But he was great.  He giggled and played with everyone.  Grandma fed him the supper she had prepared for us, and he ate it like he was starving. (Like he eats every meal).   In the immortal words of Dorothy  “There’s no place like home!”

 

 

          Although the adoption is over, parenthood is just beginning for Peggy and myself.  We are amateurs at parenting, but we have lots of experience giving love, and caring for other people.  We are looking forward to the many blessings (and challenges) we’ll see in the months and years ahead. 

 

          I had originally decided to share my journal so our friends at ALLTEL could share in our experience, and see how their donations to Jacob Valentin’s orphanage was put to good use.  I was amazed to discover how many people were following our journey by reviewing my journal.  I hope that you enjoyed sharing in our experiences, but I especially hope that you realize how lucky you are to be living in America.  Compared to most of the world, we live like kings, but we fail to recognize our blessings because most of us dwell on our problems rather than our blessings.

 

          I challenge each of you to start each day with a simple ritual. Before your hectic day begins, take a walk and put yourself in a state of gratitude.  Think of all the things in your life that you are grateful for.  Your family, your friends, your home, your faith, your health, all the things you are thankful for.  I now have many new things to add to my list that in the past I would have taken for granted.  I’m thankful for having safe water to drink, for living in a county where people say “please” and “thank you”, for having smooth roads to drive on, for having a microwave oven, for being able to walk in my neighborhood day or night without fear, for having the freedom to work where I want to work, for being born an American, and I’m so thankful to have a son.  Yes, start your day in a state of gratitude, and you’ll carry something special with you the entire day.

 

          You may never get the chance to spend a month in Kazakhstan, but if you understand that every night, more people in the world go to bed hungry than fed, you understand that you are blessed. Try to find a way to share some of those blessings with others.  We can make a difference.  If you ever doubt it, just ask Jacob.

 

 

Make your life a masterpiece!

 

Jim Fulford