Friday, January 18, 2008

THE GREAT PUMPKINS

So we've discovered that Sept. 4th in Almaty, Kazakhstan is actually Halloween...or at least at the orphanage it is. It was a little chilly out today by orphanage standards...(74 degrees) so they brought Millie and Bennet out in matching pumpkin outfits. There's just no accounting for fashion sense I guess when you're living in an orphanage. This tuesday, (the 5th,) Millie was more active, smiley, and engaged than we've seen her the whole time we've been here. It's like she's really turning a corner and starting to realize that we're here for her. It was another great day visiting with her...she really made our day the way she was responding to us. Our daily routine when we're there with her is...


Go up to the 3rd floor, give them a few diapers to help out as the caregivers start yelling out her name so they can get her ready for us by layering her in 3 layers of clothing. They bring her to us and we walk back down the stairs to go hang out under the trees on a picnic table by the playground for the next 2 hours. We usually lay her on her blanket on the table for a few minutes to play with toys, then I take her over to the swing, or just walk around carrying her and talking to her, then I hand her over to Abby who she almost instantly cuddles up to and falls asleep for the rest of our visit. Day after day after day after day...this is what we do.

On this day we went to the zoo with our translator and had a great time. The main difference between a Kaz zoo and a USA zoo is your proximity to the animals, and your ability to feed the animals pringles as we witnessed a local girl do most of our zoo tour. The high point for me was either being within mere inches of a polar bear, or when I saluted and sang 'my country tis of thee' as I watched the majestic Bald Eagles in their 12x12 cage....(God Bless America.) Ben loved it...I think his favor part was probably the snapping turtles in the fish house. He also seemed to like the bears as well since we were only 3 feet from them.

Tonight we went over to yet another family's house for dinner....BBQ...(once again, God Bless America!!!) For dessert, we were introduced to the cakes of Kaz. They have the most beautiful cakes/pastries here, but they use about 1/4 the sugar, so it doesn't quite hit the old sweet tooth like back in the states!!!! In getting to know them, I found out they met at OBU, which is the college that we used to play at a lot in the early days of the band. Well upon further investigation, they were actually at the 1st show we ever played at OBU, when we opened for Audio A and started our long and fruitful relationship with the one and only Scott Brickell. To take it just a step further, Clint later took a short term trip overseas to Hungary with Awestar ministries which MercyMe got our start with....amazing how small our world really is. They live on the 9th floor of their apartment complex. We've been warned about the trustworthiness of the elevators over here, so you can imagine, of course, that Abby was NOT going to ride that elevator. 9 floors carrying a 2 year old is harder than I would have imagined....especially with a back pack full of cameras etc. Needless to say I was VERY thankful that Abby agreed to ride the elevator back down. I have never been in a smaller elevator. I'm not kidding you this thing was like 3'x4'. It was ridiculous. As soon as we got in, Jake began to read the signs on the wall...they said things like...max 700lbs. No more than 4 people. We had 5 adults, 2 toddlers, and were well over the weight limit...especially after eating BBQ!!!! Fear not...we made it out alive.

Don't forget, we're only 6 days from our court date. Lift us up PLEASE!!!!!!

Love you all....
Mike, Abby, Ben, and our little pumpkin.

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