This week we celebrate our first year together at home, but we will still consider Thanksgiving Day as our anniversary since it was on the eve of that day last year we finally made our way home. National Adoption Day also happens to fall on November 17th, just a few days before our anniversary. But before that, we do have a few funny anecdotes to share.
Last weekend was David's first camp out with the Boy Scouts. Bill went along too, dusting off (and squeezing into) his old Assistant Scoutmaster uniform from when our older son Stephen was working on his Eagle Scout requirements. It was a bit colder than usual and there was even some light rain Friday night when they were setting up, but overall things went well. At least until Saturday night's dinner... It was already dark when dinner was being cooked, so David didn't notice that the "water" he was adding to the stew had a slight color to it. Fortunately, the stew was still edible, and one scout said that it reminded him of German Potato Salad since it had a slight sweet/tangy flavor. It won't be added to our outdoor cookbook though...
While Bill and David were roughing it, Cathe and Kate were back home appreciating the warm and dry conditions while discussing a little about impressions of a first year at home. Cathe asked about things the children might have heard since we had heard about all the rumors kids shared about people coming to adopt them just for body parts (sounded like one too many slasher movie plots...) and all that. Kate didn't miss a beat when she told Cathe that she never believed those stories since we were too nice, but she was worried that we might be trying to poison her and David with green beans... You really have to wonder what was going through their minds as they embarked on their great adventure with a couple strangers from a far off land.
Another really neat item to note is that one of our favorite programs, The Amazing Race, visited Kazakhstan. Although they didn't go all the way to Petropalvlosk , the stopover was Almaty. We recognized several sights and enjoyed some of the Kazakh heritage displayed with the horsemen, eagle, and apple orchards. Every time they showed signs or someone was speaking, David and Kate strained to recognize or understand anything. What's "neat" about that? Well, we happened to have been in the exact spot where the pitstop scene occurred and had also seen many of the snapshots they show in the opening sequence. After Almaty, the cast headed off to Moscow. No familiar sights there, but they listened intently for familiar Russian phrases, getting a few laughs at non-translated comments...
Here are a few Almaty sights also shown in the program. The Russian Orthodox church was in a couple views, and the statue was where the Pit Stop welcome took place.:
We saw this statue on one of our walk-abouts, which served as the pitstop marker for the race.
Our Almaty apartment was in the small building in front of the new building, which also was shown in a few panoramic shots of Almaty during the episode...
Soon it was time for our family celebration. Our cake man came through once again with a real winner! He is absolutely amazing and goes into great detail to make sure things are exactly right. He even counted the rays coming from the sun in the Kazakhstan flag, no detail too small!
Our first year has been a good one, with its interesting times. We also asked David and Kate to share what they find most interesting: Build-a-Bear Workshop (Kate), Costco (David), and both really like Toys-R-Us, especially since the "R" is reversed into a Russian "Ya," meaning "Me." Applying the Russian meaning, David and Kate have re-named the chain to "Toys-For-Us!" Gotta love their logic!
1 comment:
They certainly have grown in the past year. David is so handsome and Kate is very beautiful. It's hard to believe they are the same 2 kids we saw in Kazakhstan last year.
Laura
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