One more Picture

Just found this picture of Angelica and I love it, so I'm adding it.

Pictures

I just wanted to put a few new pictures on for anyone who's interested. We're doing great and I can't believe how well things are going. I was so scared at first, but things are just falling into place in a truly miraculous way. Much love, Angie

What! I'm posting on my blog?

Well, I don't know if anyone will ever look at our blog again, after my not posting for 2 months, but I just wanted to reassure anyone that does read this that things are going well. The girls are learning English, everyone feels like real family now. We are all attaching nicely to each other and loving each other more and more. The girls have gotten clean bills of health and Angelica had eye surgery, with the result that she can now see in 3-D and her eyes aren't crossed any more. I'm putting a few pictures on here from when the kids were all playing dress up the other day. Two princesses and an army guy! Lots of fun here! Angie

We're Still Alive

So everyone has probably given up on checking to see if I put anything new, but I'm going to post this anyway. :) We are home. Just over a week now. I've never been so happy to be home in all my life. Everyone is settling in nicely. We have scuffles between the kids of course, but nothing major and we're getting things worked out quicker lately. The girls are working on their English. Julia will start school in a little over a week, and we think that will help her considerably. Everyone seems to be on task for attachment and stuff like that. They are doing great and we'll probably update the blog now about once a week or so. Not more than that though, sitting at the computer is not top on the priority list right now. :) If you want to, you can call me. I'd way rather talk than type! Good times! Angie

Almaty

Wow, so I love Almaty. When we first got here, I wasn't too impressed; and then we got to Pavlodar and our translator said, "Isn't Almaty a wonderful place?" And I thought No not really--although I didn't say it out loud. But after 8 weeks in Pavlodar, Almaty is heaven. I'm sitting in a Gloria Jean's coffee shop in a mall using wireless internet and drinking an iced mocha. All unheard-of luxuries in Pavlodar. So we feel we have made it back to civilization. We've all had a stomach virus, though, so we haven't been able to enjoy it too much. But we're getting better and we're only a few days from going home. We're starting to have more of a family dynamic going. It's getting more hectic and more fun. Anyway, we'll see you all soon. Our next post may be from Frankfurt. Love you all! Angie

Tickets Home

We have actually got tickets all the way home! We are leaving from Pavlodar in 2 days and will be in Almaty for 5 days. We'll fly on the 26th at 3 am from Almaty to Frankfurt to Houston to Dallas to Shreveport, and get into Shreveport at 8:30 pm, still on the 26th. Talk about a long day!
things are going well here and we're starting to learn each other some. It definitely gets more normal every day. I think about a week ago, when we had only had Angelica for a few hours, and we've come a long way already! Can't wait to get home and see everyone and eat some Buffalo Wild Wings (first stop in Shreveport!) We love you all and will have some great stories to tell of our time here-but right now we need to go eat some lunch!

Big Family

Well, as expected, the pace of life has gone way up. It has been hard and fun in rapid succession. One big challenge is that I have a 6 year old who thinks she's Angelica's mommy and a 5 year old and a 2 year old who both think they're the boss. So 2 parents trying to parent 1 mommy and 2 bosses... You can see that conflict is inevitable. :) But 48 hours in, I feel pretty encouraged (that could be because we finally slept past 6:30 this morning!) We are having fun, though. Dinner last night felt pretty normal--it was weird that it felt normal too, if that makes sense. I think it's because it was the first meal that both girls didn't scarf their food down in 4 minutes or less. They just ate like regular kids. I am so happy when I look into their eyes and they just smile at me. I'm also a little scared and overwhelmed, but I think that's natural and inevitable. We're like a blended family now. I didn't realize how strong the bond between the girls would be, so I didn't think of it quite like that before, but now I am realizing that we are actually combining 2 families into 1. So we're all learning. And it's a great adventure...

pictures

I know I promised pictures last night, but I was too tired. Then of course I got in bed and laid awake until 2:30. So here are a few, but most of them are on Greg's computer, which won't get onto the internet. I'm also adding our first family picture from picking up Angelica this morning. I'm sure I'll post more later. Love you all and can't wait to be home!!!! Angie

Goodbye and Birthday Parties

So yesterday we got to pick up Julia and she's here now. Actually here, I mean, sitting on my lap while I am typing. Which obviously makes me lots slower. But, hey, I'm not complaining. Not about that, anyway. I am complaining that the judge forgot to sign our final judgment before she left yesterday and obviously had the day off today and so we not only couldn't pick up Angelica today, but we will be delayed 2 days now because of it. So we had tentative tickets out on the 24th and now we will have to go back to the 26th. Grrrrrrrrr. Anyway, we had a good party at the orphanage and we had a great birthday party here with all of our English speaking friends. We left for Kachiry at 8am. For anyone who has read about steppe and wondered what that is, I took my last chance of photographing it and so I will post steppe pictures. It's the pictures of nothing. That's the steppe. I always wondered what steppe was until I got here, ever since I read a book set in Tsarist Russia. Then we got to the orphanage and they gave Julia a dress for a birthday present, which is just as pink in real life as in the pictures. Some of her friends got up and sang and some of them recited poems. Then she got up and recited a poem about being a big girl. But the whole time every time she looked at me she would ask, "Doma?" which is "Home?" She didn't want to hug anyone or tell them bye or anything. Some of the girls in her group were crying. One, named Galia, was so sad, I wanted to take her too. She is a cutie. Anyone want a 6 year old? Because then they could hang out together in America. Anyway...
Julia started crying about halfway back to Pavlodar. She's an emotional avoider. She doesn't like to say goodbye or anything that is sad--she just ignores. A survival strategy I'm sure she's needed. Not to mention this is a very "keep it all in" kind of culture. But she cried for a couple of minutes and then stopped and we went to Doner for lunch and had fun. Then we had a nap and then we went shopping for stuff for her birthday party. We had a riotous birthday party here--I was scared someone was going to call the cops b/c the kids were so loud. All boys and her. But she had fun playing hard with the boys. No girly-girl last night, just crazy loud running around with the boys. Anyway, I am gonna go. This post has taken me about 45 minutes, during which time, I have had 2 different kids on my lap, a brother/sister plot to clean out the tub with the mop and a pringles can, and a pinecone flushed down my toilet. Now this is LIFE! I'll upload pictures tonight. Love you all! Angie

Almost There!

So I had a comment asking if the lack of posting was because I had my hands full now. I'm sure that will be the case in a few days--we get to get Julia on Wednesday and Angelica either Thursday or Friday--but for now, we really haven't had much to say. We've not even been able to go to the orphanages for the last few days, so we've just been pottering around town. Yesterday was Nazarbayev's birthday (he's the president of Kaz) and today is Capital Day, which is the 10th anniversary of when Kaz changed it's capital back to Astana. The celebrations downtown were nothing like as big as for the Holiday of the Protection of Children! We didn't even find any huge cotton candy. :( Nicholas did get to ride a donkey, though, and he thought that was cool. I have also included a picture of a marajuana plant, which are everywhere in the city here. We think that is pretty interesting.

A cool fact--we get to pick up Julia on her birthday. Isn't that kind of fun? I'm feeling so much more laid back now than I was a week ago. I think it's because I know I'll have my girls here in just a few days and we'll be able to start learning how to live like a family. I have been feeling like the usefulness of the orphanage visits is past and we're just wasting our time and money here now, but once we get to have them, that won't be true anymore. So I'm feeling lots better about life now that I'm just 2 days from having Julia and 3-4 days from having Angelica. We did get to visit Julia on Friday and we had a great visit and I was happy to see that she didn't act like she was in the orphanage again, which is something I was afraid of. Anyway, I'm sure we'll put up some pictures of Julia's birthday/goodbye party Wednesday night. Until then, we love you all and can't wait to see you all again! Angie

Boredom has set in!

We are bored. We had such a great time with Julia that now everything is kind of boring. But we're on the final countdown to getting them. On Wednesday we will get to pick up Julia. And on Thursday or Friday we'll get Angelica and then we are just waiting for paperwork to come home! Not much to say, though...

Found a great restaurant. With fajitas! Yum Yum!

It was 102 degrees in Pavlodar yesterday! Hooray for a/c in our apartment!

That's about it. Love you all! Angie

Still here...

Hey everyone, it's been a while since our last post. Our internet in our apartment went out, and since we are now spoiled to not having to go to the internet cafe we just waited it out for the most part. It was easier to do without internet for a few days because Julia got to come and spend the weekend with us from Thursday until Monday. We had a blast. There are so many things she's never seen/done. We went to the kid's castle and let her play there and went shopping and baked a cake. she'd never seen anyone cook, or a washing machine; because those things are done in other parts of the orphanage. Her face when she watched the clothes going around in the front-load washer was priceless!!! We also took her to church at the English speaking house church. Obviously she didn't understand any of that! It was a really good 4 days. It was funny--she was like a different child by the last night. I was really sad that we had to take her back, because we were making big steps, both in English and in bonding; but I didn't have much choice and I was reassured by how well she and Nicholas played together and how well we communicated. Also, how quickly she seemed to get comfortable with us. We took her to the babyhouse and had a little reunion with her and Nadia Angelica and I think Julia was upset that she didn't remember her. I keep having to remind myself that these kids are tough--if they weren't, they would not have made it this long in orphanage conditions. But I don't know how long they'll stay tough! The last night Julia stayed with us, she had a bug bite that she had scratched the scab off of. We had been putting medicine and band aids on it for the last few days, but her band aid had come off. Nicholas cut his knee and I made a bit of a fuss over him, getting him a band aid and kissing it etc. All of a sudden she makes this sad face and fake sob/whine sort of noise and shows me her bug bite. Obviously needed some TLC also! So we had to have kisses and band aids for both of them! Not that I mind! As Greg says, if all they need is a little bit of extra fussing over and loving on they made it into the right family with me around! Probably why Nicholas is still a bit whiny for being 5. Oh well, there are worse things! Anyway, all is still looking good and I'm glad to know that we are on the homeward stretch! An update on the family we asked you guys to pray for--they are now through with court and also waiting to be able to take their daughter home. One of the other families is also through, and the last has court on Wednesday. I'm attaching pictures from the museum here in Pavlodar, where they have the bones of a wooly mammoth that they have excavated near here. I also put a couple of me and Nicholas from the river cruise. It looks funner than it was! Also, the first picture I have of all 3 of my kids together. Unfortunately, Greg took the picture, so we don't have a whole family picture yet. Then I'm attaching some from the last night Julia stayed with us. It's pretty easy to see the difference in her face from the earlier orphanage posts and those from that night (and yes she is wearing purple eyeshadow--I've wanted a girly-girl for so long!).
Love you all! Angie

Tentative Dates

We have some dates, and since I know there are people who want to know, I'll pass them on. We will get Julia on July 9th, which is her 6th birthday. Our court decree will become final on the 10th, and we should be able to pick Nadia Angelica up on either the afternoon of the 10th or the morning of the 11th. We will be sitting here waiting for paperwork to go through until about July 20th. Then we will be able to go to Almaty and do our embassy stuff. We should be able to get out of here on July 26th. Which will put us home on the 27th, one week after our original estimate. All of this could change if we have any snags, but it shouldn't change much. Oh, cute story...Nadia Angelica's caregiver was telling us this morning that when she was washing her yesterday, Nadia Angelica said that she wants Mama to wash her. Soon, baby, soon... Love you all, Angie

One More Thing

I don't know how I forgot to mention it earlier, but we received even more good news today...we received a $6000 grant from Shaohannah's Hope Adoption grants. Happy dance everyone!!!!! I think it's a really seriously God Is Good kind of day!

Court Day 2 Continued

Sorry for the extra short post earlier, but we were meeting friends for a celebration dinner. So we had our last bit of court today and the judge asked Nicholas to come to court to speak, and she asked him a few questions and he did really good at answering all of them (thereby earning himself a prize) and was actually just getting warmed up when they were done asking him questions. For those of you who know Nicholas, I'm sure that's not hard to imagine. We heard more testimony from everyone involved and then the judge made a positive decision, but it was just informal because their law states that she has to type up a summation of her decision and read it out to us before it is final. But since she had cases all day, we didn't get to go back until 6pm to hear the final verdict. But we were about 99.9% sure that it was positive. Still it was nice to go back and hear the final summing up and get it in writing. Now we start the 15 day waiting period before we get to take custody of them, but the 15 days doesn't start until tomorrow. So we were excited and saying to Nicholas how great it was that now we get to have his sisters for sure and he was asking, "They get to come home now?" So we're like, "No, it will still be a while before they get to come home with us." So then it was no big deal to him--he doesn't know the difference--they were his sisters who have to keep living in the orphanage before and they are still his sisters who have to keep living in the orphanage. Big deal. Anyway, then we took some of the people who spoke on our behalf in court out to lunch and gave gifts to them. And then we came home and took a nap. In the attached pictures, the judge is the lady in the maroon robe. The doctor from the babyhouse is the woman in the parking lot with the black shirt on, and the lady from the Office of Guardianship and Care is the lady with us in the white shirt. They were all very nice and helpful! The woman with us in the black shirt in the picture with the judge is our lawyer, Svetlana Belogur. If you ever need a lawyer in Kazakhstan, I highly recommend her! Also, I'm throwing in a few pictures from our last visits with the girls and from the Pavlodar river cruise we went on. We love you all and thanks so much for your prayers! There's another family here that really needs prayer too. They have had 4 days of court and have not yet received a positive verdict--the judge keeps asking for things their lawyer is not prepared for. I'm not sure exactly what's going on, but everyone keeps saying how weird it is and unlike anything they've ever seen before. They are wonderful people and we want so badly for them to finish and get a positive verdict tomorrow. Please pray that they will get through tomorrow and that God will go before them and give them favor. I know they have people praying for them back in Florida, but they obviously need a little extra boost at this point. Thanks guys--we love you all! Angie

Court Day 2

Everyone please welcome Julianna Faith Pampell and Nadia Angelica Pampell to the family! Fuller details later--right now we're going to go celebrate! Love to all! Angie

Court Day 1

Well, we are through with day 1 of court. Everything went well, but we didn't finish. We simply ran out of time because we are adopting 2 children instead of one. Our court started at 4:30, so we did not have enough time to finish for both girls. We have to go back to court at 9:30am in the morning to hopefully finish things up. Pray for us and we will call those who gave birth to us later today.

Greg

Going to Court

We have court tomorrow at 4 pm. If all goes well, Olga (the director at the Kachiry orphanage) said Julia may be able to spend a few nights with us. That would be so great for us. So we're hoping that will work out. Anyway, everyone keep us in your prayers and keep your fingers crossed for a great court date and quick resolution tomorrow. Blessings all! Angie

Court Date

We have confirmed our court date with our lawyer for Monday June 23rd at 4 pm. The people who had court this week did not go very well, since some of their stuff was left undone. We have been scrambling with our lawyer since she heard about their court session to try to make sure we have everything we need. They have to go back to court tomorrow for a second day of court. Things are expected to go better this time. We are going to Kachiry to see Julia again tomorrow. I'm ready to get them and go home. Pray for us that our court will go smoothly and that everything will be fast and easy the first time. I don't really want to have to have 2 days of court. If all goes well, our decree will be for June 23 and we'll have to wait until the 16th day after that to pick up the girls and start on our way home, with a few days stop in Almaty for US Embassy stuff. I don't know what date that will actually put us on, but very close to our original estimate. Love you guys! Angie

No News Is Good News???

Well, we still don't know our court date. Our lawyer went to the judge today and she couldn't tell her until tomorrow. So hopefully we will find out tomorrow that we have a court date SOON! Please pray hard!!!!! Like prayer and fasting kind of prayer until tomorrow.

We took some cute pictures of Angelica in American clothes today. The top picture is actually a dress and scarf I bought for her here. I think it's adorable!!! Got to visit Julia and Angelica today so we had a good day! Enjoy the pictures and pray for a fast court date! Love you all! Angie

We're Still Here

We're still here, waiting for court. We had a great Father's Day and shopped in the afternoon and went to a house church tonight. It was wonderful!!! We bought stuff at an outdoor bazaar and at a little mall right next to the bazaar. And we all ate lunch at a yummy cafe for less than $5. We felt like we hit the jackpot today! Greg and Nicholas both got shoes and Greg got a hat and some sunglasses. I bought the girls each a dress at the same set of shops the other day and Julia's looks so pretty on her! I haven't tried Angelica's on yet, but I plan to tomorrow. We didn't get to see her on Saturday because we went out to Kachiry in the morning and the orphanage was closed in the afternoon. But we tried clothes on Julia and had a great visit. It was nice and long. And we were out of the van! Hallelujah! We showed her pictures of our house and talked about coming to live there and she liked the clothes we brought. Then we got our pictures developed for court. Pray pray pray for a soon court date and for our I-171H to get here FAST! It's at our adoption agency in Virginia finally! For those of you who don't know adoption lingo-that's a REALLY important piece of paperwork that we need before court. So pray hard! We should find out our court date tomorrow. Until then--love you guys! Angie