Soy Far Soy Good

How’s that for a cheesy title? Can you tell I’m getting tired over here on the other side of the globe???

As expected, the internet connection is mediocre at best. I just paid 400 Tenge for 30 minutes of internet and it worked for about 8 of those minutes. I’d ask for a refund but the lady at the front desk is the same one that suggested we “go for a walk” when I complained about having a baby in a smoky room. So something tells me she wouldn’t be eager to hand back some of my Tenge.

We’ve had Caleb on the soy formula since noon yesterday and everything seems to be going ok so far. He has had a much better appetite. We had been giving him around 4-5 ounces every 3 hours and he sometimes would refuse the bottle or only drink 2/3 of it. Yesterday he drank over 8 ounces in less than an hour so clearly he is a hungry boy who has come catching up to do. At this point we are feeding him as much and as often as he wants!

Overall, he seems more content and just has the normal baby fussiness… nothing horrific. He slept from 8:30pm to 5am last night and only woke up when his diaper was wet or dirty, and I think he ate once… it’s kind of a blur! Bryan and I realized we should probably be writing this stuff down so we can tell our doctor when we get back. We ate breakfast in the hotel restaurant (no fork thievery occurred) and Caleb fell asleep in his stroller. Going to breakfast is hard work! Here he is asleep with his baby iPod that his Granny got for him, which has proved to be a lifesaver as it puts him in a calm baby trance:

This morning I went with Zorya to the US Embassy. It is in the business center of Almaty so it was neat to see that part of the city. Almaty is so much bigger than Bishkek! Zorya likes to point out the different things in Almaty that the Kazakh people take pride in and also tell us about Kazakh history, so that has been interesting to hear as we drive along. At the US Embassy I dropped off all of Caleb’s paperwork. It included his original and new birth certificates, Kyrgyz passport, adoption decree and other adoption documents. The Embassy indicated the documents looked good, so they will process them today. Tomorrow we will all go back at 3pm for our interview where they can ask us questions about our documents and ability to provide for Caleb. Hopefully there will not be too many questions! If all goes well, Caleb’s visa should be ready on Thursday.

We planned to go to dinner at a restaurant that Zorya recommended but Caleb is running a fever which we suspect is related to either teething or his tummy troubles. Luckily we have antibiotics for him so we’re going to go ahead and start those to see if it helps.

It’s about 7pm now in Almaty and Caleb has had a big bottle and some medicine and is now sleeping. Hopefully the night will go well and he’ll start to feel better.

We will probably only get the chance to post one or two more times before we leave to COME HOME! We are thrilled to come home but dreading the long flight. I keep telling myself it is a necessary part of the process – something we only have to do once – and praying that God will help Caleb to feel okay on the plane and only show his lung strength a few times!

Here are some pictures from the day...

Caleb hanging out with Daddy... it's tough being a baby!

Hanging out with Mommy in the room