Another tooth for Liam

Our poor little guy. He cut another tooth today. His bottom left. The two on the top are going to come in any day. They are nice and red. We are using Baby Orajel like crazy and Infants Tylenol. He is having a tough time going to sleep during the day. He is sooo tired and won't give in, he is obviously in a lot of discomfort.

We try to keep Liam busy playing with his toys so he forgets about his teeth. He is now getting up on his knees when on the floor. He doesn't go anywhere but at least he gets the idea. The military crawl might be a thing of the past soon. He can get from one side of the room to the other in no time flat.

Keith got to go out for a little bit today with Ian. They went to the Golden Market for some things but no baby formula. You never know where you can find things. One store for diapers, one for formula and just because it was there last time doesn't mean it will be there again. Wouldn't it be great if everything was in one store.

Liam has been sleeping through the night, which is great. At least, he is getting some sleep. He only has one more day of the Zithromax and then he should be good. He will feel sooo much better.

Despite his discomfort and lack of sleep during the day, he still finds time to giggle and smile. It doesn't get any better than that.

Happy Birthday CeCe


Loves his medicine

Getting ready for bed

Liam on the mend

Liam slept 12 hours last night. Unbelievable. He did wake up at 4:30 for a short time. We gave him a little bottle and he immediately fell back asleep. Thank goodness. He is alot better today. It is definitely the Zithromax that is upsetting his stomach. He was fine this morning and as soon as we gave him his medicine he had stomach pains. His chest sounds a lot better. The medicine is working but unfortunately, it is giving him alot of gas. Poor little guy.

He is crawling/creeping/rolling all over the apartment. It is soo funny. Today we had him just in his onesie for about a half hour and he was loving life. He was free of all his clothing and creeping all over the apartment. Of course, he likes to go for all the things he shouldn't. The computer cord, the hanging wash, and still his favorite; the wipes bag. Why play with the toys we brought when there is built in entertainment available throughout the apartment.

Tracy and I went out today for about 3 hours, with our interpreter. We went food shopping and then went to the mall. I bought Liam a bigger Russian Winnie. This one sings the theme song to the cartoon here. He loves it. I don't know if he likes it because it makes noise or if he recognizes the Russian. Keith and Liam did some male bonding while I was gone. All went well.

Love everyday with this little guy

Liam on the move

About to attack the laundry

Russian Winnie

Rough day for Liam

Our poor little guy. He was definitely not a happy camper today. He woke up and had a good morning but was miserable for the rest of the day. Unfortunately, he only slept for maybe 1 hour the entire day. He was grabbing his ear and his mouth. He is drooling out of control. I think his top teeth might be trying to make an appearance. He also had a bad gas problem today. I know, too much information. But I thought I would share. I think maybe the antibiotic might have upset his stomach. Something sure did. We had alot of action at both ends.

Tonight at around 7:30, we decided to give him a bath and wind him down. He hated the bath and had a major melt down. I thought all children loved the bath. I think Liam will too once he feels better. We dressed him for bed and and headed to the bedroom. I don't think I was even in the bedroom yet with him and he was fast asleep. We will see if he makes it through the night. It is not looking good though. He is coughing and waking himself up. Poor little guy.

Something interesting happened today to Keith. He and Ian were going to the baby store for some supplies and on their way out they were approached by a police officer. He asked them for their passports and escorted them to his little police van where they were joined by 2 other police officers. There they sat for about 20 minutes waiting for their passports to be returned. After two calls to Olga their passports were returned and they were on their way. The moral of the story is; we can not go out without our interpreter. Apparently, there has been alot of crime here and they have the right to ask anyone for their passport. It is just a little uneasy. We are really ready to come home.

This has been a long day. Hopefully, tomorrow will be better.

Guess who dressed me

Have you seen my sock?

Getting ready for my bath.

Liam has a tooth

Today Liam slept until 6am. I fed him, we watched some cartoons, the day was looking good. Then, he was wheezing, his breathing was fast, he wasn't sleeping and he was whining a bit. Not too bad though. He wanted to be held all the time. We sent an email to our IA doctor back home and she said to a have a doctor listen to his chest in the next 24 hours. We called Olga to see if we could see a doctor at the babyhouse and she said a doctor would come to our apartment. Can you believe it. The doctor came and said Liam had a bad case of bronchitis right before we came and he still had a little congestion left over. We brought an antibiotic from home that we will begin tomorrow.


On top of his little chest congension, he cut a tooth. He should be miserable. He was unhappy most of the day but still had moments where he was happy and smiling. He cut the bottom left front tooth and his two top ones look like they are ready to come through at any minute. Our poor little guy.

He also is holding his own bottle and definitely creeping forward on his belly. This is really unbelievable considering where he was three weeks ago.

Hopefully, Liam will feel better tomorrow.














Sleeping with my leg up



Hanging with my Dad

Holding my bottle

First Day Home

We went to pick up Liam today at 9 am. We met with the Babyhouse director and she went over Liam's health issues and wished us well. He still has conjunctivitis in both eyes. We have prescription drops from our IA doctor and we started using them today. He just layed there and let us put them in. He is such a good baby. The director came into the playroom to make sure Liam was dressed warm enough before leaving the babyhouse. They really care about their children.


It was pretty sad leaving. The doctor and some caregivers came in and they all told us how much they loved Liam and what a good boy he is. The doctor started crying, so then I started crying. It is sad to think he is leaving the only place he has ever known. To make matters worse, we are leaving the babyhouse and there are little children on the bottom floor watching us as we leave, from the window. I have never seen any children at this window before. My heart is breaking at this point. We are walking away with Liam and the children in the window are just staring at us and waving. Tooooo sad.


He did very well in the car, considering he just sat on my lap. They do not use car seats here. They are trying to make it a law, but not yet. The car seats are so expensive here in Uralsk. I think this was the first time outside for Liam. He looked a little scared and did not move or make a sound until he was in the apartment and we were taking his snow suit off.


We have had a good day so far. We are trying to follow the babyhouse schedule. He has eaten, pooped and napped. All in all, things are going well. He loves his new walker. He stands up in it and watches the cartoons on TV. I don't think he has ever watched anything on TV. He loves playing with his toys. but most of all he just likes to be where we are. He was in the kitchen, when Keith was cooking, and he was in the living room with me for a while. He likes to know there is someone around and we love knowing he is around.


The presents to be handed out in the babyhouse.


Last time Liam is brought in by his caregiver.


The doctor saying goodbye



With the Babyhouse director.




Liam in his new snowsuit








Leaving the babyhouse



Looking at the children in the window.




No carseat?



Liam in his new wheels.

And then there were three!!!!

Yes, the day has finally come. We can now say we are the proud parents of Liam Joseph . After almost two years of waiting and endless amounts of paperwork, we are parents. Yeah!!!

Court lasted a little more than an hour. Most of that time, the judge was talking. He was explaining the process, our rights, going over documents and asking questions. Keith spoke for about 15 minutes and that included translation. He did an excellent job and did not seem nervous at all. Me on the hand, forget it. As soon as I stood up to speak, I forgot everything. Good thing, I did not have a lot to say. After the judge went over every piece of paper in our file, the other people in the room had a chance to speak. The baby house director spoke about Liam's health and backed our petition for immediate execution. The Ministry of Education spoke about our bonding process and also backed our petition and then there was a representative from the records office that confirmed Liam's birth records. Next, the prosecutor spoke and gave her opinion. She also agreed with our petition for immediate execution. We then waited about 15 minutes for the ruling. The judge came back in; read alot of legal stuff and told us our application for adoption was granted and our petition for immediate execution was approved. What a relief.

The Forkashs were waiting to go in next. When they came home with their good news, we all went out for a celebratory lunch at the Chagala Hotel. We had a really nice lunch. We then came back to the apartment and waited for a call to go to the records office.

While we were waiting for the call, we put together all the presents for the caregivers(12), the babyhouse director, the doctors(2) and the inspector from the Ministry of Education. We will bring the gifts tomorrow when we pick up Liam, as it will be the last time we are at the babyhouse. Now our house will have the baby in it.

We waited all day and then got the call to go at 6pm. We went to the records office and signed for his birth certificate and adoption certificate. Both certificates are now on there way to Astana for Liam's passport. We had them in our hands for maybe 5 seconds.

Unfortunately, we did not get to see Liam today. We will be leaving to get him early tomorrow morning and bring him home. Too exciting.

New parents in front of the Court House

All out to lunch

Signing for the adoption and birth certificates

The birth and adoption certificates

Olga the facilitator and Olga the translator

The Day Before Court

Today was pretty busy. This morning the Fergusons left. We went over to say goodbye and help as much as we could. It was sad seeing them go. Soon, it will be us.

On our way in to see Liam, I saw some children playing outside the babyhouse on the playground. It was -two this morning and probably around zero when we went for our visit. I went over to take a picture of the children playing and they all hid from the American. If you look at the picture, you can see a little boy on the top, ducking. Pretty funny.

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Poor Liam, his eyes are still not better. He kept scratching them. He clearly was not happy. We asked them to put the drops in both his eyes. We played for a good amount of time and then he was done. He just wanted to be held and then he snuggled in. It was probably the last time we will see him until we pick him up on Tuesday. They are not sure if we will be able to have a visit tomorrow as court is in the morning and then we have to go to the records office in the afternoon. Hopefully, we will be able to sneak a quick visit in. We'll see.

After our visit, we went sight seeing. First, we went to the maternity hospital where Liam was born. He was born on July 16, 2008 in Maternity Hospital #2. We took a lot of pictures to show him when he gets older. It looked like a decent hospital from the outside. Bigger than I thought. It was kind of ironic that there was a family outside leaving with their new born son. They were all on the stoop taking pictures as we were taking our pictures.

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On the way to our next stop, we approached railroad tracks. A rail road worker crossed right in front of our car. We thought this was weird since we were driving and could have hit him. What we did not know is that there was a train coming and the crossing lights were not working. Olga let out a yelp and Misha stopped. We asked if they have gates at crossings and she said normally. It was a little scary at the time, but we all laughed.

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Our next stop was a cool Russian Orthodox Church. It is only 10 years old as the original church was destroyed. The new church is interesting because it looks like a log cabin. The inside is beautiful and very ornate. In Russian Ordthodox Churches, there are no pews. Everyone stands during the Mass. The altar is unbelievable. Not at all like the Catholic altars. There were beautiful and very old pictures everywhere. I'm glad Misha brought us there.

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Our last stop was to the village where Liam's biological Mom lives or lived. We wanted to take some pictures to show Liam where he came from. It is a small village(suburb) in the country. The village is right next to a river, which is now frozen. People actually drive their cars on it. I guess there is too much snow on it for ice skating. We are so glad we had the opportunity to go and see this village. We are pretty sure Liam will be asking about his background when he gets older.

We have been practicing our speeches for tomorrow. Obviously, Keith has a lot more to remember than me. It is to bad we can't bring in notes. Hopefully, everything we be fine and by lunch time tomorrow we will be the proud parents of Liam Joseph Izzo.

See the children hiding inside

Maternity hospital #2

The train we were up close and personal with.

Russian orthodox church

The altar

Frozen river that runs through village

Our favorite chips