Mechelen, Leuven, and Bruges

We have had two marvelous days in Belgium, where we have been to Mechelen, Leuven, &  Bruges. We spent yesterday with our world-famous tour guide, Emil.  We spent much of our time in Mechelen (pronounced Mickalyn).  It is barely mentioned in our guide book, and it is an absolute gem.  There were three churches.  We saw inside two, and they were magnificent.  Ok, magnificent doesn't begin to describe these churches...  We took pictures, but they will not capture the beauty that we saw.  

 

It was a national holiday yesterday in Belgium--May Day. 

 Mechelen had its town fair, oomplete with a band.  Mechelen 

also has many squares.  We also saw 

women making lace.  It looked so complicated, 

but I was assured that if I could knit (which I can), then I 

can make lace.  It was really so pretty.

We then went to Leuven (looven), which is a university town in Belgium.  It also has many wonderful churches and buildings; however, my top three favorite parts of Leuven: (1) 

the old markt, which had more bars in one single place than I have ever seen--it must be fun to go to college in Leuven; (2) the beguine (sp?), which was a place where only women lived.  It was not a convent, but it was like a sanctuary for women.  It was so peaceful.  I really liked it. (3) the company at dinner.  We had dinner with Agnes family!  We met her sister Ann, and Ann's daughter Ramila.  Agnes' parents, Emil and Magda, were there as was Jean Pierre and Sacha.  Erlan and Sacha were awesome at dinner.

I learned as we were looking at all of the Catholic churches that Belgian Catholics no longer kneel.  Did American Catholics stop kneeling too?  Sorry for my ignorance, but I haven't been to mass in 20 years.

We spent today in Bruges with Agnes, Jean Pierre, and Sacha.  Jean Pierre remarked that Bruges was a bit like European Disney World.  I didn't understand what he meant until we hit the traffic going into Bruges.  There were so many tourists.  Once we got away from the high tourist areas, the city was wonderful.  The canals give it a distinct charm.  Erlan's 3 favorite things in Bruges: (1) the horses, (2) the boats, and (3) the fair!  Bruges was also having a fair for the holiday weekend, and Erlan took a ride on the "Grand Canyon"... his smile said it all.  We had dinner at a local restaurant and had a fantastic time.

We ended the night with a tour of the red light district, complete with scantily clad young women in the windows.  Sorry guys no pictures.  

Brussels

We started our day with a quick trip to the Horta Museum with our friend Agnes.  In case you don't know (and who doesn't know this???), Horta created Art Nouveau.  This is one of the places that I really wanted to see while I was here.  To make a long story short, the museum is only open in the afternoon and we were there in the morning.  A friendly high school student took our picture in front of Horta's mansion (now the museum).   Erlan was none too happy when Ben put Sacha on his shoulders.  He kept saying, "My daddy shoulders!  My shoulders!" He also suggested  that Sacha ride on Agnes' shoulders.  He even told Sacha in the car, "My daddy shoulders!"  I guess that Mommy's shoulders were a poor substitute for Daddy's shoulders.  

We then journeyed on our own around the Grand Place in Brussels.  With the help of locals who 

took pity on the hapless Americans, we made it from Agnes' house to the Grand Place via the local bus system.  I was so happy to have the help b/c we had to transfer busses on the same line.  I don't think we would have figured that out.  Riding on the bus, by the way, was the highlight of Erlan's day.

We made it to two chocolate shops, one restaraunt, and one waffle place.  Ben was the official photographer for the restarant, so a friendly Spanish tourist took our picture.  Erlan took the picture of Ben alone. The chocolates are melt in your mouth good.  If you love dark chocolate, then you will be in heaven in Belgium... at least I am.  Erlan was in overload in the candy shop.  He could not believe that all of the chocolate was  within his reach... He almost pulled over a display.

When we came back, the boys played together and were in bed by 8:30.  We then had tonight with Agnes' boyfriend, Jean Pierre (yes, he's French).  I thought our fellow Aktobe adopters would be interested to see his picture.  The big boys made dinner. 

Tomorrow we are off to Liere and Michelen (sorry if I misspelled) with our favorite tour guide Emil.  We are so lucky to have such wonderful friends.

Belgium

We are in Belgium!  Our trip across the pond was uneventful, which always makes me happy.  Erlan was extremely excited about riding on the airplane.  He also told everyone around us, "Daddy is on a different airplane."  Ben took a separate flight over (b/c the ticket was 600 dollars cheaper).  Erlan & I flew on my miles.  Here are two of the only pictures I took on the flight.  We were on one of the lovely trams in the Dulles aiport, which Erlan thought was great.  He's telling me "No cheese!"  He was too busy enjoying his "school bus ride."  In the 2nd, Erlan is totally engrossed in the Jungle Book.  The ear buds provided by the plane were horrible and didn't stay in his ears.  I must have put them in 100 times during the movie.  It really didn't matter b/c the jack had become unplugged and he couldn't hear anyway; however, he wanted the stupid things in his ears.  Agnes' father met us at the airport and took us to his house for breakfast complete with Belgian pastries.  Delicious!  

While we are here we have the luxury of staying with our friends Agnes and Sacha, whom we met through adoption.  We haven't seen Sacha in a year, and he has changed so much!  He was a baby when we last saw him, and now he's a toddler.  He's such a happy boy,  and he and Agnes clearly bring each other much joy.  Sacha is a year younger than Erlan, but he is almost taller than Erlan.  Here the boys are hugging each other good night.  Erlan is behind Sacha.  Notice that Sacha almost blocks Erlan from view.  In the nextpicture, you'll see that Sacha is almost bigger than Agnes.   

We 

did our first bit of sightseeing by walking around Agnes' neighborhood.  You'll notice that parking can be a bit of a problem here.  I'm so glad that I'm not driving.  We are standing outside of Agnes' house in the picture with the red car.  I will need to take pix of her house.  Ben and I both love it.

Today we enjoyed our first day of traipsing around Brussels with our own private tour guide, Agnes' father Emil.  He has an incredible depth of knowledge of Brussels and of the European Union.  He also speaks 7 languages, which has nothing to do with our tour but I think it's an incredible feat.  The pictures that I will post do not begin to do justice to the splendor of this place. I love walking around the city and

 seeing the mix of modern architecture with historic

 building. The red roofed buildings give a quaintness to this metropolis.  

We ended tonight's dinner with some chocolaty goodness.  You'll see that both boys loved it.  When Sacha saw it, he said, "Ooh, la la!"  We walked off our dinner later.  My boys took their color coordinated umbrellas and jackets.

Tomorrow we plan to go back to the Grand Place to look around some more.  I think I will have a waffle and a piece (or two) of chocolate.  As Erlan  would say, "See  ya later alligator!"

Easter Scenes & An Update

Erlan had a big time at our 2-day Easter Eggstravaganza.  We spent Saturday at Aunt Debbie's with my family.  We spent Sunday at our house with Ben's family.  We colored Easter eggs and did Easter egg hunts both days.  I attended my yearly professional conference with dyed fingers.  

Scenes from Easter Saturday

On Saturday, Erlan colored eggs with his cousins.  The older ones were very patient with the younger ones, especially Erlan who liked to take all of the eggs and drop them into the dye.  Erlan really didn't care if someone else had already dyed the egg.  

The adults hid about 100 eggs for the kiddos to find in my sister's yard.  Erlan LOVED the Easter egg hunt.  My favorite part was when I'd lead him to an area with an egg and ask, "Do you see an egg?"  He'd respond, "Nope."  He drew the word out with two syllables as if I were a dullard.

We then had races with the Easter eggs and any other game I could invent that involved the Easter eggs.  We broke lots of the eggs that way.  

As if the kids didn't have enough candy, my niece made rice-krispie treat eggs for the kids to dip in chocolate and decorate with sprinkles.  Erlan decorated way more than his fair share of eggs.  Every time I looked up, he had cut in line again with a new egg.

The last picture is of Erlan putting Mikayla's bib on her.  She looks terrified.  He was closely supervised, and she was in no danger.  I just think that the picture is hilarious.

Scenes from Easter Sunday

On Sunday, we decorated and hid eggs again.  The kids then went outside to play baseball (despite the football like stances, they were playing baseball).  Erlan also took the opportunity to show off his new bike riding skills.

An update 

Without further ado, Erlan's latest tricks:

• He can count to 30.  He misses a few numbers, but he does really well.
• He is using 3 and 4 word sentences regularly.  He was evaluated through Parents As Teachers, and they said his language skills were on track.  He did not qualify for intervention.
• His spoken language has made amazing progress in the past couple of months.  He repeats everything now.  
• He loves to act out the "Itsy-Bitsy Spider"
• He loves to sing.  His favorites are Twinkle, Twinkle; People on the Bus; ABCs; Little Bunny Fu Fu (he does the hand motions for this one too); I wanna be like you song from the Jungle Book (I have no idea what that song is really called).
• His favorite video:  The Jungle Book.  Aunt Amy has Bare Necessities and the I wanna be like you song from the Jungle Book on her iphone.  Erlan knows this and demands that she play the songs for him.  He will act like Blue as Bare Necessities plays and like a monkey when the other song plays.
• He loves to say, "See ya later alligator! After while crocodile! See ya soon raccoon!"
• He has a bicycle now.  We got it at Wal-mart, and he rode it around the store, through the checkout, and to our car.  We walked to Granny Jannie's for breakfast and let him ride the bike.  He figured out the brakes pretty quick.  
• He loves to go "feed cows" with Daddy, and he can identify certain cows by name. 
• He can finally wear 3-T shirts; however, he's in 2-T pants.  
• He loves to pick out his own clothes and to dress himself.  Almost invariably, he will put his pants on backwards.  It doesn't seem to bother him.
• He loves to read.  His favorite book is Ten in the Bed, which is actually a song and I sing it to him every night now.

One Year Ago Today....

It was a year ago today that we met this little boy.

We knew that this kid would change our lives, but we had no idea that we hit the jackpot, the lottery, and the Publisher's Clearinghouse all in one shot.  Our journey has been amazing.  Erlan is everything we ever imagined our child to be and more.  He's cute, funny, and smart.  He charms everyone that he meets.  He is Ben's mini-me, and he's got my sweet tooth.  

He has grown more in the past year than we thought possible, going from a baby to a toddler on the verge of being a little boy.  

We are incredibly blessed to have him in our lives.  

25 Random Things about Kazakhstan

"I completed a 25 Random Things list and it made me think of things I’d never forget about Kazakhstan. So, I thought I’d send this to my friends who have had the luxury of spending time in Kazakhstan. List the things you’ll never forget about your trip(s) to Kazakhstan and pass this onto your friends who have been there (and back to me!)."  

Ok, I will refrain from writing the entire list about Erlan except for the first one.  

1.) The first day we met Erlan. He was wearing a light blue outfit. I thought he looked so small and looked like Ben. We fell in love with him immediately.  

2.) Gen & Joel, Kami & Eric, Agnes, Bernadette, Rosa y Carlos. It was nice to meet people who became our friends.  

3.) Bayana and Ceric. I hope I get to see them again some day.  

4.) Camcas! Ben ate them daily for breakfast.  

5.) Erlan's nanny telling us (on Erlan's last day in the orphanage) that we spoiled him and he used to go tell them that he needed to go to the potty and now he just wet his pants. The other nanny just looked horrified.  

6.) The day Ben asked the nannies if we could borrow a coat for Erlan. Bayana told him how to say "May I borrow a coat please?" in Kazakh. Ben hurried upstairs and repeated the phrase. He came back down with a coat reporting that the nannies had burst out laughing when he said it. When Ben later repeated his new phrase for Ceric, Ceric burst out laughing. Turns out Ben had said something along the lines of, "May I borrow a coat old woman!"  

7.) Arrested Development. I bought the series to take with us to Kaz. Neither of us had seen it before, and we were immediately hooked once we started watching it during our layover in Almaty. Now I can't watch the show without thinking of Kaz.  

8.) Celebrating Kaz New Year, going into the Yurt sponsored by Bayana's university, and making toasts with our friends (keep the cognac coming!)  

9.) Meeting Gabe, Lincoln, Sacha, Gaia, and Maria. I hope they know the joy that they have brought to their parents.  

10.) Getting Regina's email asking about Milo. We were so excited that the Ruopoli's were wanting to adopt him.  

11.) Hanging out with Agnes, Sacha, and Agnes' parents in Almaty.  

12.) Taking the train to Almaty from Aktobe. I'm so glad we did that and saw the countryside, even though Erlan had the chicken pox.  

13.) Practicing Spanish with Carlos y Rosa. Who would have thought that I'd be able to dust off my college Spanish while in Kazakhstan.  

14.) The incredible diversity of people that we saw and met in Almaty.  

15.) Walking up to Kok-Tobe and being passed by a bus on our way up.  

16.) Ben helping the orphanage staff during their clean-up days and being told by one of the nannies (in English), "Your papa is a good man."  

17.) Being in Aktobe when the snow melted. It melted so rapidly that there was water everywhere. The potholes were actually small lakes.  

18.) The shoes that Kazakhs wore! They wore gorgeous, impractical shoes that could not have kept out snow, water, or cold. They stared when they saw our boots.  

19.) Giving an interview for Kazakh television. This is not something we wanted to do. The head doctor showed up in the playroom during our visit and asked if we wanted to give an interview. We did not but really couldn't say no. We were asked about adopting from Kaz, why we chose Kaz, and how hard was the process. We told them we thought that Kaz had a rigorous adoption process. We like the mandatory bonding process and though it good for the kids. We also said the process was very difficult. [We were later told by Katya (our interpreter in Almaty) that it was translated that the Kaz adoption process was very easy, much easier than adopting in the US.] We were very close to the end of our appeals period. We spent those last days on pins and needles hoping that the interview would not bring one of Erlan's long-lost relatives out of the wood work.  

20.) The cheese and meat ladies at our local market. Every time we walked in, they would yell, "Ben!" I felt like I was in the Kazakh version of Cheers.  

21.) The pedestrian avenue in Almaty. It was such a nice place to hang out and walk around with Erlan.  

22.) The Russian Bathhouse in Almaty. I still have had my share of naked people.  

23.) Taking walks with Erlan and Ben around the grounds of the orphanage trying to avoid the other children. It was heartwrenching every time we saw them. The little girls would yell at Ben, "Papa! Papa!"  

24.) The children we couldn't bring home with us. There were three little girls that always tried to catch our attention. I would have happily brought them home with us. I still think of them and wonder how they are doing and if they've been adopted.  

25.) Erlan's favorite nanny, Nazipan. I wish that I would have thought to give her our email address and our blog address so that she could check on him when she wanted to. She brought a gift bag for Erlan on his last day with traditional Kazakh items for him when he is older.