Introducing.........

Maxwell James Axtell! We just got back from court where at about 3:00pm Max became our son. His original name is Maxim (pronounced Maxzeem) but we are changing it to Maxwell. Maybe one day he will go by MJ. Court went pretty smooth and lasted about an hour. We both gave speeches and answered questions. We were very nervous though but then the judge came back in the room and made it official! We are going to get some pizza tonight and celebrate!

The picture above is one of our favorites, it was the first day we met Max. They had him wearing a pink outfit, which is kind of funny, because we thought 'he' would be a 'she' and we brought a ton of pink clothes. (we did bring some yellow and white pj's though for the other photos). We are so excited right now!!!! He is so sweet. Isn't he just adorable?

We will post more photos later, it's hard to do at the internet cafe but we might be able to save some photos on a disc from our laptop and try it that way. We need to sign off again, but had to share the wonderful news about our little boy!!!

Court Date is near

We got our court date for next Thursday. We are so excited and nervous. We hope it goes really smooth. Time is still going by very, very slow for us but we did go to a new restraunt for lunch yesterday. It was a buffet that only cost $7.00 and it looked like an Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland. We felt like we were in a jungle and we walked down many stairs to this dark cave area. The food was a lot of meat and potato type dishes and pilaf which is always good. The chicken is cut in chunks with the bone, I think we are spoiled with boneless skinless chicken back home! We also got some broth soup with potatoes and peas and for dessert we had these cookies with jam on them.
Baby A is getting much better. His little spots are clearing up daily. We just love our play time with him. He is so active now and is such a sweetie-pie. I can't believe he will be our son soon. We waited so long to meet him and our hearts fill with so much love when we look at him. Just seeing him smile melts our hearts.
I have to sign off again with only a few minutes left at the internet cafe. Take care!

(I added a couple more photos from our sightseeing tour.)

Day 15 - Blowing bubbles!

Hello out there. We finally got to see our little guy this Monday. Those 4 days without him was really tough! It's bad enough we still don't have internet in the apartment, but I had to take the batteries out of the clock because I could hear the constant ticking. We feel a little isolated over here. We did manage to squeeze in a sightseeing trip and went up the huge tower (much like the Stratosphere in Vegas) You could see the entire city, it was so neat! We went to 2 big malls and walked around and also went to and 'outdoor' bazaar and an 'indoor' bazaar where you could buy fruit and vegetables. This is similar to a Farmers market.
So back to baby A, he is getting better but it was such a shock to see him covered in the green and purple spots we knew he would have! Yesterday Tim taught him how to blow bubbles with his mouth, like a motorboat. Tim's Dad taught him this when he was little. He is just so cute, I can't get over him. Everyone says what strong hands he has and that he will be walking soon. I believe them! He climbs over us and likes to bounce up and down, trying to pull himself up on us.
We can't seem to open up the comments from the last blog entry, but thanks for all the comments and prayers. Trying to get internet time in is pretty tough. We most likely won't get it in our apartment because they can't run a line to it. We did try to walk on Saturday to the cafe, which turned out to be the coldest walk in History! My legs were purple for hours. Turns out, the Internet was down anyways, so it was for nothing. At least we got some exercise. We better sign off, just wanted you guys to know we are still alive and ok.
Tim & Jen

Day 7 - Chicken Pox, oh no!

Hello again. Today we took Baby A to get his passport photo. He was all bundled up and could barely move. His little eyes peeked out from his snowsuit. We noticed a few bumps on the side of his face and the doctors confirmed he has chicken pox! We figured it was bound to happen as most of the babies in the baby home have it. I suppose it's better to get it here then on the plane ride back. The bad news is we can't see him for a few days, what a bummer! I think that is the first time I almost broke down. We hope he feels better soon as he was getting fussy and didn't feel OK when we left him today. What they normally do is paint this green dye (violet mercurium) on all the spots on their bodies. This is supposed to dry out the sores. Next time we see him it might be a little shock. Maybe we will take photos to blackmail him in the future.....just kidding!
Tomorrow we may go on a tour of the city since we can't go to the baby home. Still no Internet though so we might not post for a few days. Yesterday we stopped at the mall by our apartment and got pizza! Amazing! A little taste of home. I can see us revisiting many times in the future. I should mention that we also had french fries on Sunday. Aaron and Stephanie brought over some takeout noodles and stir fry and french fries. Yummo! The portions over here are pretty small and we learned the hard way that they charge you for water when you go out to eat. We learned to order a liter of soda to refill your small glass instead of paying for each glass. Tim loves his refills, so that works out better. It's hit or miss when ordering diet soda (coca-cola light) but we did stock up at the local market. We also got these 'Wetzel dogs' at the bakery. (a pretzel wrapped around a hot dog) Those are pretty good. They also have Mac n' cheese and popcorn, I suppose we won't starve after all. I will mention the food as we go along so you can get an idea what things are like over here.
Thank you for all your prayers and posts, we appreciate it so much!
Talk to you soon.

Day 6 - Baby Axtell crawls

Hello everybody. Sorry for the lack of blog updates, but we still have no Internet in our apartment! They say it will be tomorrow, we sure hope so. We have lot's to report about our little guy. He got his first hiccups the other day. We get to feed him this warm 'fruit tea' during our time with him and he sucks it down so fast he got the hiccups. So cute! Let's see, we also were not sure if he could crawl or not, but yesterday he started out on his knees, rocking back and forth and then zoom, he was off! Now he crawls all over the place. (I think he was waiting a week to show us his real 'skills') He is also pulling himself up. He also discovered the mirror last week! First, he smiles shyly back at himself, next he is squealing like crazy, flapping his arms up and down in excitement!! Mom & Dad get a huge laugh out of it. We got it on film at least once. I think he already knows what a handsome little guy he is. We also had a mystery diaper incident......we smelled something strange so we laid him down to change his diaper. Meanwhile, he is kicking his legs like crazy, happy for the cool air on him as they wrap them up with so many layers of clothes! Well, at this point we are a little nervous, I must admit, I have changed maybe three dirty diapers in my life, and Tim only one........moment of truth........we open up the diaper, and nothing was in there! This of course made Baby A laugh and giggle as he knew all along he fooled us. Just gas, I guess! What a trickster.
Today is a warm day in Kaz, -30c degrees! Oh yes, it's true. Our faces feel like icicles are forming if you stay outside too long. We get by though. This weekend we had Aaron and Stephanie over on Sunday for dinner and to watch Spiderman 3. We had a nice time and also got to discuss the upcoming process with them as they are almost through and should be leaving at the end of the week. On Sunday you don't visit the baby house. We are still a bit homesick, but we are catching up on our sleep. If you count going to bed at 6pm and waking up at 2:00am every night and then getting up to watch TV or movies. We also had one last lunch with our friends Aaron Stephanie and their new son Ayan. (photo of the Hamilton's above) They are heading to Almaty and then home. We ate these meat potstickers at a chinese resteraunt that Tim and I walked too. (actually I popped the meat out and gave to Tim to eat) We wish you guys all the luck in your future!

Tim & Jen

Meeting Baby Axtell

The day we had waited months and months for, was finally here!! On Tuesday morning, we arrived at the baby house. After being shuffled to many rooms, we were waiting in an office for what seemed like hours. We briefly met another American family on their last day. It was nice to meet another couple in the process and who spoke English! It was too bad they were leaving and we couldn't talk with them. Next, we were called into another office with the Director of the home. We sat on another couch, waiting and waiting until the big moment. They asked us if we were open to adopting a boy, and we said yes. First came in the boy, we had an instant connection. I know that sounds cliche, but we looked into his eyes and we knew! He is so precious. We can't post photos until our court date, but he has blond hair and brown eyes and he smiles all the time! (he is Russian) He is 8 months old and his birthday is April 22! Tim's Dad and Jen's Mom's birthday is on April 14th so we will have 3 special birthday's that month! We held him only for a little while and then they brought in a girl. She had the traditional Kazakh look, with these cute little chubby cheeks with dark eyes and dark hair but we knew that little boy had us! I know, some of you have bought us girl clothes, but we saved receipts and tags, so hopefully we can take those back. We will donate some of the clothes to the baby house. After we talked business about paperwork, we got to see baby A again. (I also can't say his real name or the name we may choose to name him) We get two hours a day from 10:00am-12:00pm. The time goes by so quickly though! Before we knew it, we had to take him back to his crib and leave.
Later that day we went to look at 4 apartments. The last one we saw was the nicest as well as the safest. We will take some photos and upload on the next blog. We still had to go back to the hotel one more night because it was already getting so late in the day.

Day 2
Happy Birthday to Jen's Dad! We went to the baby home again today to see our baby boy and we also met another American couple adopting another boy. We went to lunch with them. They have been here 5 weeks so they know about the in's and out's of Kaz. It is wonderful getting to spend time with them and trade stories.
We look forward to our visit each day with baby A and are getting some great photos which we will share soon enough. He just loves it when Tim blows on the top of his head. He also loves when we do the airplane with him. I can't believe what a happy baby he is! Today we fed him some fruit tea in a bottle that the caregivers gave us. He loves that stuff!
We are hoping to get the internet hooked up in our apartment by tomorrow. Our American friends, Aaron & Stephanie were kind enough to let us use the internet in their apartment so we could update the blog. Talk to you soon.

We made it!!!!

So, after leaving Denver at 2:30pm last Saturday, we flew to Amsterdam. The flight was not too bad as we had our own tv screen with new movies. We watched Nanny Diaries, Pirates 3, and Spidey 3. I forgot what it was like to have a nice meal and breakfast on a flight, what a treat. Not bad at all! Having a layover in Amsterdam for 7 hours was pretty rough, that is where the pictures are taken. You could stretch out on the chairs and sleep if you wanted though. Next was our flight to Almaty. We finally got a little bit of sleep and got through customs pretty quick when we landed. Once we arrived in Astana, our coordinator and translator were waiting for us. They wisked us away to lunch where we had 'chicken crepes' which tasted like chicken burritos smothered in cheese, yummy! We went to the hotel where we stayed two days and we were just about to go to sleep when we discovered that one suitcase was missing! We somehow managed to get a hold of our coordinator who doesn't speak English, so she could call our translator to call the airlines. Our suitcase (with all our baby items and gifts) was luckily at the Astana airport. Whew! Boy, were we tired! We slept off and on for 12 hours, waking up every once in awhile. All in all, the travel was not too bad. We were also very excited about the next day, where we would go to the baby house and meet our Angel!!!