LIFE with LEXIE

Day 9 of Bonding finds us without electricity or the Internet at the apartment. Now we do have hot and cold running water as of 2 days ago but the toilet doesn't flush unless you fill the tank up with water. We only figured that out yesterday after 48 hours of the toilet not flushing at all. I'm sure I don't need to go into detail about how pleasant it was to come home to that. The landlord finally showed up yesterday morning and told us (through Zina on the phone) that the "technical water" was not working so that is why the tank wasn't filling up. He was going to check with the neighbors to see if their technical water was having problems too and if not he'd send over what I'm going to assume is a plumber or maybe a technical water specialist. Still no word on that but we've actually gotten used to filling up a bucket from the tub after we flush so I'd rather have the Internet working and live with the toilet not flushing. Well actually we need the electricity the most since it will be unbearable tonight if we don't have the AC plus our ice will melt and we won't even have something cold to drink to cool us off. Last night it got so hot that we moved our mattresses out to the living room under the AC unit (it's high up on the wall right below the ceiling) to get as cool as possible. It definitely wasn't cold but it was better than the bedroom with no circulation at all. Lexie is worth it all but I'm going to reminder her how much we "suffered" to get her when she's a teenager and hates me for making her come home at curfew.

Enough about our problems. Yesterday was National Children's Day here in Kazakhstan so Happy Children's Day Cody, Mackenzie, Brooke, Dylyn, Damian and any other kids that are reading along. That meant they didn't want any foreigners to be at the Baby House so I only go to see Alexis in the afternoon. For the first time she was crying when I got there and her nurse said she was crying for most of the morning. She stopped when I picked her up - which of course made me feel great - but poor baby she was covered with bug bites again. I'd be crying too. So we stripped her down when I got her to the music room and wiped her off (I'm not sure if they ever get full baths or just are sponged off) and then let her lay around naked for the 2 hours I had her. I didn't have anything for bug bites for babies but I had Boudour's Butt Paste so I smeared it all over her. After awhile she seemed to relax a little. She was fussy the whole time and never her cheery self. I don't blame her one bit. I'd be fussy too if I had been bitten all over by bugs and had no relief.

This morning she was her old self again which was great. She had more bites on her neck but the rest seemed a little better. I also got to feed her porridge and her bottle again this morning after a little bit of arguing with the weekend staff. She is much stricter - thanks for the warning Stephanie - but she let me after I refused to leave and the other nurse seemed to tell her that I had done it before. It is close to 100 today but we went outside where there was a nice breeze so it must have been only 90 in the shade. Life is good. She is certainly worth all the hassle but I really want to get her out of there. I know she doesn't know anything different yet but I do and it gets harder every day to leave her there. Yesterday we heard that court might be sooner rather than later because the Baby House Director is going out of town on the 15th so she is asking the court to see us on the 12 or 13. That would be amazing since our bonding is done on Thursday the 7th of June and the 12 would be that Monday. Then I could at least bring her to the apartment while we wait for the new birth certificate and Kazakh passport. Say a little prayer that we go to court on the 12th.

I'm going to end for now since it takes so long to upload the pictures and I have a bunch of new ones. Also if I have time I'll be posting some pictures and journals from the first week here. They are very detailed, I just can't help myself, but I want a good record for Alexis when she's old enough to want to know about her birth country. We miss everyone and hope everyone is enjoying there summer as much as we are.

I just finished downloading the pictures and they are a mixed bag. Could she be any cuter in the yellow hat? One is of her eating her first cookie. She didn't do very well as she has no teeth yet but she got messy and had fun. The naked one is yesterday with her bug bites on her tummy after we put on the Butt Paste. Anyway, I'll try to send more tomorrow.