Isa’s
link….
Tuesday, 12 October 2004
Hello
Isabelle, hello friends,
Almost ready now. Everything’s packed…I think, behaving pretty cool…I think. Only 2800
minutes to go! We re-arranged the suitcases though, I’d
packed too much stuff, kicked out the things that I hopefully won’t miss. We
will fly from Almaty to Aqtobe on saturday
instead of friday so we will probably have to wait
till monday to visit the orphanage. I hope that I
will be able to post on the site as soon as we’ll be settled. This is the last
update before we go and tomorrow I will clean up the site, get rid of the silly
pics. On general demand, I’ll leave Dimitri’s picture on the site to please the ladies….and
some guys…
I want to
thank everybody for sending us encouraging mails and good luck wishes.
So, dear
Isabelle, I hope you’ll have a safe trip home in a couple of weeks and I hope
the Kazackh internet is reliable so that you can
follow our adventures.
Big big hugs and kisses from all of us!
Only 2795
minutes to go….
Sunday, 17 October 2004
Dear Isa, dear friends,
I’m sorry I
didn’t update the English version sooner, but it were some hectic days over
here. Everything is fine, we have a beautiful daughter and I promise to give
you all the details tomorrow. I had some difficulties posting the pics on this website. There is a better picture on my
back-up site: http://www.greatestcities.com/users/fannyhendrickx
Monday, 18 October 2004
As
promised, the update on what happened so far.
We had a
nice flight last Thursday and we arrived in Almaty at 11.30 pm. Lan did great,
we were lucky to have 8 seats for the 3 of us, so we improvised a bed and Lan
slept for a couple of hours on the plane. But that night, in the hotel, he was
so confused with the time difference that we had a rough night. We were not
able to fly straight to Aqtobe on Friday so we stayed in Almaty. The weather
was cold and on Friday it started to snow! Our coordinator, Lyazzat, asked us
to be ready at 6.30 am on Saturday to catch our flight. For the second time in
a row, Lan refused to sleep, crying, he was exhausted
and so were we. He fell asleep around 5 am and than we overslept…We woke up at
6.45! The way we rushed, packed, it must have been like Benny Hill kind of
comedy, without washing up, without food for Lan,
diaper, we rushed downstairs. Our driver drove us to Almaty airport, we arrived
just in time, checked in (we had to bribe the desk employee because of the
excess of weight) Ran to the gate to board….the flight was delayed because of
bad weather conditions…at least for 1 hour. I changed Lan’s
diaper in the waiting lounge, tried to feed him. Lan
screamed like hell and an official airport person brought us to a private
waiting room. They kept delaying the flight and we had to wait for 3 more
hours. At last we took off at noon, a nice flight, extra seats for Lan and arrived in Aqtobe after 2.5 hours. Tanya our
coordinator was waiting for us, we collected all of our
luggage. She told us we were expected in the orphanage. Good news! But we were soooo terribly tired, after 2 nights without sleep, we looked like zombies, but also the excitement of
meeting our daughter, lots of mixed feelings. Than Tanya told us our apartment
was not available and we had to check in at the Samal
hotel for 2 nights. She drove us straight to the hotel, Danny had a big
argument with the hotel clerk because they wanted to charge us 219$ a night, so
he said no way, than they lowered the prize to 138$ for the same (luxurious)
room. We left our luggage in the hotel and drove with Tanya to pick up the lady
from Ministry of Education and than straight to the orphanage.
The
director arrived soon after we did and they let us into his office. They started
to talk, in Russian, looked into files. Tanya said it was really important to
choose a healthy child, we agreed but were left out of
the conversation. Then they proposed a girl named Lana, 15 months old. They
asked if we would like to meet her. Of course we would. Another
long discussion, in Russian. Suddenly Tanya said that there was another
Kazakh girl in the baby house, another building of the orphanage complex. We
left the first building and drove to the baby house. There we met the head of
the orphanage, this lady took us into her office and again they started to
talk. Then a file was put on top of the desk, we noticed the picture of a tiny
little girl with a gorgeous smile. They told us her name was Asel,
she was born February 28th 2004, perfectly healthy, Asian (or
Kazakh) looks. Where we interested in this girl? So many thoughts are crossing
your mind, it’s going so fast, you have to take a really important decision and
you are not able to think straight, your heartbeat is at a dangerous level. So
we simply said yes, show us this girl.
I forgot to
mention that meanwhile Lan was behaving like an angel…
So we moved to another room. There was an American couple visiting their little
boy. We waited for a couple of minutes and then a nanny brought Asel. I know it
will sound like the biggest cliché when I say that it was love at first
sight…and this beautiful girl gave us a big smile, showing just two teeth. It
is so difficult to express our feelings, I even didn’t
manage to explain how we felt in my own language, so I think you’ll just have
to imagine how this very special moment was. An immense joy, the minute you
pick up the child, you feel that it belongs to you, even if you didn’t carry
her for 9 months, gave birth, knew her from day one.
Only adoptive parents can fully understand what I mean.
While we
were enjoying our daughter, they gave us some medical information, I must say,
I was hardly paying attention, it was so obvious that she was ok. We are only
used to Lan, who can’t sit, walk, talk. This little
girl is moving like a 7 months old should move. I was
observing her like Leonid would assess a patient, feeling the bumps on her
head, looking at her chest, her neck. (for those who
don’t know, Leonid is Lan’s therapist) So, this girl wont
need any pumping!
And she is
well fed, chubby cheeks, legs. It is also obvious that the children are in good
hands, they are used to getting lots of attention, kisses. I noticed her nanny
was crying. I felt sorry for her but this meant that Asel was loved and taken
good care of.
The head of
the orphanage asked us if we were sure of our choice. We totally agreed and
said that we wanted Asel to be our daughter. They asked us (3 times)
‘are you sure?’ and we said yes, da!
Because if we wanted….we said NO, this is our final decision. For the last time
they asked us if we would like to meet other children and for the last time we
repeated NO, njet! We had such a good feeling about
Asel and still I was thinking ‘what if we had met Lana, in the first
orphanage?’ I’m glad we didn’t ask to meet both children because I would never
be able to choose between the two of them.
Anyway, we
left the orphanage with such a good feeling, we forgot all about being tired.
That night Lan had a good night sleep and so did we,
dreaming about that little girl.
On Sunday
we had our second visit and when the nanny brought in Asel, she smiled at us.
Now, when she smiles, the eyes are gone, you can only see two enormous cheeks,
like a hamster. We played on the floor, Lan examined
his sister and she was really curious about Lan and rolled over to him. She
loves to sit on the lap, walk around on dad’s arm, putting all the toys in her
mouth. Sadly, before you know, the nanny shows up to take her and we have to
say goodbye.
For now,
there is only one visit but we hope to be able to see her twice a day.
Sunday
evening, we were sitting in the restaurant (extremely bad food, by the way…)
discussing the name we would choose for Asel. We agreed to keep Asel as her
second name and finally also agreed on her new name. And NO, we won’t tell it
yet, you’ll all have to be patient before we release it.
So, today
we went to visit Asel at 10 am and I had permission to give her juice from a
bottle. She loved it and for the first time I was able to feed my child without
having to fight and struggle. Now, don’t get me wrong here, I DON’T mind
fighting with Mr. Lan, I’m used to do so and I never blame him for struggling
like a grizzly bear but this was such a nice moment and Lan was watching this
idyllic scene and smiled, probably because he didn’t had to drink juice….He can
learn a lot from his sister about drinking and according to the way she looks,
she can eat like a lion. So finally there will be an ideal balance between our
two children and Asel will compensate Lan’s disgust of
food.
This
afternoon Tanya, our coordinator, showed up at the Samal
hotel and said that our apartment was ready, so we quickly moved all our stuff
out of the room and went to the Sultan Complex. We finally were able to unpack
all the suitcases instead of camping like gypsy’s. The
apartment is ok, there is no kitchen but I can heat Lan’s
food in an electric water boiler and we do the dishes in the bathroom. We went
to the supermarket to buy drinks and food. Because the weather is nice,
sunshine and rather warm, 15C° (don’t know about Fahrenheit) we went for a walk
in the neighbourhood and Lan enjoyed being outside.
It’s almost
11pm, tomorrow I will try to get online. I have to
apologize, I don’t have an English spelling and grammar control, so there will
be lots of mistakes but I’m sure you’ll forgive me…
Bye for
now!
Tuesday, 19 October 2004
Hi Isa,
Before
going to the orphanage, we stopped at the office of the public notary to sign
some documents. It took us just 10 minutes and we arrived in time to visit our
little angel. We can’t see her this afternoon so we try to enjoy these few
hours with Asel, playing, dancing, and every single thing we give her, she has
to taste it.
I noticed
her upper gums were feeling pretty hard so I think she will have some new teeth
soon. Again she liked the apple juice a lot, asked for more.
Much to soon, visiting time was over. We drove to the supermarket
to get some food. Shopping in Kaz is really weird.
You see a lot of stuff but most of the time you can’t figure out what it is and
when you try to ask, nobody is able to translate the labels. So, poor Danny had
to put reindeer yoghurt in his coffee, I really thought it was plain milk…
Tonight we
went to Alex, the restaurant just in front of our apartment. No English menu,
only 1 girl spoke 3 words of English but we had a nice meal, it was much better
than in the Samal hotel.
I just
finished reading my mails, it’s so nice to receive
some news from friends and relatives. Most of our friends are trying to guess
what name we gave our daughter. It’s not Jana, or
Wednesday, 20 October 2004
Hello
Isabelle, hello friends,
Today it’s
raining, temperatures are still nice. This morning we slept till 8am, we had to
wait till 3 pm to visit Asel. Again, she was happy to see us, smiled when her
nanny brought her into the playroom. She enjoys sitting next to Lan, watching him and she is so attentive to noises, the
sound of our voice, new toys and most of all, when I open our bag to take the
juice or yoghurt, she starts to wiggle and smile. I’m not used to feeding a
child that wants more food, who is checking out if the cup is really empty…
Some of my
friends and relatives asked me, when we decided to adopt from Kaz, why we needed to stay that long, why it is necessary
to visit your child during 2 weeks before going to court. To be honest, I wish
I could go home as soon as possible but on the other hand, it’s not such a bad
idea these visits. The child learns to know you, slowly. When we went to
Over here,
they let the children enough time to adjust.
Tomorrow we
will be able to visit her twice! I promised to give a tip about her name, just
look at the main page, you’ll see a flag and a #, that’s all for now…
Dear
Viviane, would you please email me to let me know how Isa
is doing in
Lots of
love from Kaz to all of you!
Sunday, 24 October 2004
I’m sorry I
didn’t update the English link sooner. Things are still going well over here. Lan is really doing well, he love’s the visits to his siter. By the way, we decided on her name. It’s going to be
Zoya! It’s a Russian name and it means ‘life’. It suits her perfectly!
When the
nanny brings her into the playroom, she starts to smile and it’s obvious that
she recognize us. And when I take the bottle with juice or a yoghurt out of our
bag, she starts to wiggle, opens her mouths and makes funny noises as if she
would say ‘hurry, hurry!’
Today we’re
allowed to visit twice. I just fed Mr. Lan and he’s taking a nap. Danny is out looking for
bread.
We just heared that our court session will be next Friday. We still don’t know if
the judge will wave the two extra weeks. If she takes in consideration the fact
that Lan is severely handicapped, she might let us go
home sooner but I don’t expect her to do so, just hoping it. Normally they only
make exceptions if the child you adopt is sick and needs medical care. Our Zoya
is healthy, but maybe the judge will rule in Lan’s
benefit.
My dearest hus band just came home with our
lunch. Kazach bread is not very yummy, but the cheese and sausages are ok and
Danny is an adventures type, he brought some weird looking cake…
The weather
is rainy, but not cold. The streets in Aqtobe look like swamps, muddy, no way you can keep your shoes dry.
It’s almost
time to go back to the orphanage. Lan just woke up, we
had a nice lunch and we are looking forward to see our little angel.
Tonight
I’ll try to post new pictures.
Friday, 29 October 2004
Dear
Isabelle,
Today is
the big day! In one hour we will go to court. We truly hope the judge will show
some consideration and allow us to go home sooner than the law predicts.
So, burn
those candles, cross those fingers and toes!!!! Isa,
send your special magic smile to Kaz and I’m sure the
judge won’t be able to resist it!
I’ll keep
you posted!
Friday, 5
pm
YES YES YES !!!!
We are
officially the proud parents of Zoya, Asel Janssens!!!! And we are allowed to leave Aqtobe on Sunday
morning!!!
Write more
in an hour, have to feed Mr. Lan some orange potatoes!
Big
kisses!!!!
I’m sorry I
was not able to write sooner but it has been hectic over here.
The court
session went well. Isa’s magic smile did the trick. Thank you Isabelle!!!
After
everybody held their speech, Danny, me, the head of the orphanage, the prosecutor,
the lady of the Ministry of Education, all in Russian, the judge kept quiet for
a couple of seconds, we were holding our breath and then, she spoke and our
translator said ‘congratulations, your petition is granted, and the decision is
final so you can leave Aqtobe on Sunday’
What an
immense relief, but we realise that this is exceptional, that normally we would
have to stay two more weeks. I do now that our contact did her very best to
convince the judge of this exceptional case and we are so happy that they allow
us to go home. After court, we had to rush to the public notary to finalize the
paperwork and to get a new birth certificate for Zoya and the official adoption
certificate. Then, Danny went to the travel agency to buy us tickets for our Almaty
flight. We will have to stay for 1 week in Almaty for passport and visa for
Zoya before flying home.
So,
tomorrow we will pick up Zoya at the orphanage and that will be one very
special moment too! For the first time we will be the 4 of us, the family will be
complete. I still can’t believe it.
I don’t
know if we will be able to use the internet connection tomorrow. We will try to
post more next week but we booked an apartment instead of an
hotel room and I don’t know if we will have internet. Anyway, the minute we
will arrive in
Now I just
want to thank a few people.
Besides my
family and Belgian friends I would like to thank:
Isabelle,
for being so brave and to support us through this journey just by thinking about
us a lot, Viviane and Michael too, thanks for the support.
Deana and
Tim, for the encouragements and useful info, so sorry we never met.
Maria and
Girls, for your support in that nerve racking waiting period.
Paula for
translating one very
important letter!
All the
members from the Alternative group, thanks for your support. Members
from PAKK and Aqtobe- mailing lists.
Beckie….hang
in there, your time will come!
From Aqtobe
with much love and kisses to you all!!!
Fanny,
Danny, Lan and Zoya
Sunday, 31 October 2004
We are
still in Aqtobe…..
Yesterday
we went to the orphanage to pick up Zoya. It was a wonderful and very special
moment. We drove back to the apartment to feed Lan.
Zoya was a little bit confused. New environment, new smells,
new family. So she decided to look around, to play, to eat, but NOT to
sleep. Both children were keeping eachother awake
from that nap that they both needed sooo much. So we
packed and at 6 pm, Danny stayed home with Lan and I
went with Zoya, Tanya and Sveta to ‘celebrate’ in a restaurant. It went all
very fast, the food, the speeches, Tanya gave me a Kaz
newspaper and on the front page: a picture of our family and an article on page
5 (she is a freelance journalist). She also gave me the official papers: original
new birth certificate, adoption certificate. I put all the documents into the
newspaper not to wrinkle them. Than we left, in a hurry, I took Zoya and my
bag, Sveta took the newspaper. When I arrived at home, I wanted to show the
article to Danny and suddenly saw that the birth certificate was missing! We
looked everywhere. Called Tanya, she looked in her car, called the restaurant
but the waitress said she didn’t see our document. We drove back to the
restaurant but other guests were sitting in our private dining room and the
manager didn’t want to disturb them. She promised that she would turn the place
inside out, after the guests were gone. So we returned home, finished packing.
Zoya was
still confused and had a difficult night and so did the rest of the family.
Tanya told me not to worry too much, we could fly on
Sunday to Almaty with a copy of the document.
So, this
morning we were ready at
It is so
stupid. I am convinced that somebody found the document and just kept it. Was
it the waitress, the manager, another guest? We will never know.
Tanya tried
to ‘convince’ the people of the restaurant by promising a 100$ reward, but till
now, no news. She even contacted the local television to launch a search for the
lost certificate but I don’t believe that someone will return it to us.
Bad luck,
but…that’s life! We have an adorable little girl, and this can’t spoil our
happiness! So we’ll stay here, open the suitcases and ‘camp’ for two more days
in Aqtobe!
I’ll keep
you all posted!
now Isa, be honest….would you agree that this could only happen
to us? Mmm? ;-)
Monday, 1 November 2004
Hi Isa,
Last night
the kids slept well, both! Today is just another day of waiting. Tanya was able
to recuperate 50% of our yesterday tickets but no news from the lost document.
I keep on ‘reviewing’ what happened yesterday and the more I think about it,
the more I am convinced that the certificate was taken by one of the guests, or
the waitress or the manager (she looked like a ‘business woman to me, know what
I mean?) or the security man took it.
Sveta
shared my thoughts and said that probably they are waiting for us to offer more
money. No way José! Tanya just went with Danny to get a new one.
It’s so
stupid but Zoya is officially ours, no crook can change that!
And the
fact that we have two extra days in Aqtobe, well, we
are really enjoying the discovery of ‘the healthy child’. It’s all so new for
us. She can’t sit still, always on the move, curious, adventurous, wait…one sec, I’ll take her on my lap and show her the keyboard…
Wsruk,n jn ffyt ok, this is Zoya’s
‘handwriting’ , looks like Russian to me!
Yesterday I
went shopping with Sveta to get some food for the kids. Tonight we’ll pack, again.
I hope we will finally be able to leave Aqtobe. It just started to snow one
hour ago…
Monday, 4 pm.
Normally on
Monday all town offices are closed for the public, but Super-Tanya was able to
convince local authority employees to deliver us a new document and we got it!
Tanya did a marvellous job, not only for the certificate but all official
signatures, stamps, apostils and she managed to get in time to the post office
to send everything to Almaty and Astana.
So now,
it’s just getting new tickets. I truly hope that our flight won’t be delayed or
worse, cancelled due to the snow. I don’t want to stay any longer in Aqtobe and
unpack for the third time!
So my
darling Isabelle, no more updates from Aqtobe. I’m not sure about an internet
connection in Almaty but I’ll try to get some news through anyway.
Thanks to
all the Alternative Moms for their mails, even from
Deana, Tim,
I’ll mail you soon. Same for Beckie, write to you
soon!
Maria and
GG (Gorgeous Girls), hope you can travel to Aqtobe, it
would be nice if our kids came from the same orphanage.
Bye!
There’s a
last Aqtobe-picture from Zoya on the other site http://www.greatestcities.com/users/fannyhendrickx
Tuesday 2 november
2004
We got up
early this morning and finished packing. Tanya said she would pick us up at
9.15 am. So at 8, Danny was looking outside and joked “There is frog!”.
Now, when
we arrived in Aqtobe, 2 weeks ago, our flight was delayed because of fog and
Tanya said ‘I had to wait at airport because of ‘frog’. So when she arrived at
the apartment, she repeated ‘there is frog, I will call airport to ask about
flight’ and so she did and no, the plane that would take us to Almaty was on
its way to Aqtobe. So we started to grab all our stuff, both the children, and
drove to the airport. Luckily Tanya was there to help us carry everything and
when we stood in front of the check in desk, the lady said ‘I’m sorry but your
plane returned to Almaty because of bad weather conditions in Aqtobe’
Now, the
Aqtobe airport is like an old train station. I couldn’t imagine us staying here
with the children without knowing when or if there would be a flight.
So we
returned to the apartment…. The girl was already cleaning and was surprised
when she saw us. For Lan, all the fuss was getting on
his nerves and he was showing some signs of exhaustion. Zoya on the other hand
was having fun: in the car, driving, airport, back in the car, back to the
apartment…cool!
After 3
hours Tanya rushed in and said ‘the frog is gone, you have a flight in 45
minutes’ and the whole packing, carrying, dragging procedure started all over
again.
I still can
not understand how we managed to get on that plane but once we passed the
passport control desk, no more Tanya to help us carry all our stuff and the
kids. We had to get on an overloaded bus to get to the plane and even if there
were 3 adults it would still have been impossible to carry everything. So
everybody was waiting for us and I threw one bag to a surprised lady, the other
sports bag to another woman and I put Zoya on the lap of a passenger. She
smiled at him with her famous 2-teeth-smile and this man was charmed and was so
kind to take care of Zoya while we were finally able to enter the plane.
Even during
the flight is was wondering if we were finally leaving
Aqtobe but we did. We arrived in Almaty at 7 pm and Lyazzat, our Almaty
contact, booked us an apartment, with a real kitchen, microwave, so no more
cooking in a water boiler!
We were all
so terrible tired and only unpacked the necessary things. Lan
had a rough night, all these changes are so confusing for him.
Wednesday November 3d 2004
Dear Isa,
Today I’ll have
an internet connection! Good, because I’m missing your messages. We decided to
take it easy today, Lan has to catch up lots of sleep.
I just went to the local supermarket to get us some food. Almaty can’t be
compared with Aqtobe, it’s a big ‘modern’ city with European looking buildings,
you can find nice stores, boutiques, there is a mall and you can walk on a
sidewalk instead of slipping through the Aqtobe muddy roads.
Tomorrow we
will ask when Zoya’s visa will be ready and we hope
to get a flight on Monday night. If everything goes well, we can finally arrive
in
Viviane,
could you please update us on Isa, how is she doing?
Give her a big kiss from all of us! Love you all!
Friday November 5th 2004
Yesterday
it was pouring rain for the entire day and Almaty streets looked like wild
rivers, no way you can cross the streets. We called
the embassy and they couldn’t promise us that Zoya’s
visa will be ready on Monday. But we took that risk and booked us a flight on
Monday night. So, if we are lucky we will arrive in Frankfurt on Tuesday
morning but the flight from
I know it
will be difficult because we’ll have to wake the kids at 2 am and especially
for Lan, the last trip from Aqtobe to Almaty was
tough. He is very tired and during the nights he’s restless and had a couple of
bad seizures. He is missing home and I hope he will get through these last days
in
This child
is so amazing, she is so enjoying her discovery journey and this will be a
complete different way for me to be a mom of a ‘mobile’ child. You have to keep
more than one eye on this tornado! But so far, I enjoyed every single second of
it but it also made me realize how Lan is, without feeling sorry for him but
the difference between these two children is huge. I don’t doubt it though,
that they are both very happy and that we are extremely lucky to have them,
just the way they are.
Today there
was a large choice of food in our local supermarket. I bought some smoked
chicken wit cooked rice and hash browns and mixed veggies and only paid like 2$
for the both of us and it was really good. I now go for the Kaz
specialities and so far, we were never disappointed. When we stayed in the Samal hotel in Aqtobe, for the first two nights, we ate at
their restaurant and it was the most disgusting food I ever tasted and they had
the nerve to charge 38.000 tenge for 1 night! (1 $ =
approx. 132 tenge)
Saturday November 6th 2004
Today the
weather is really nice and I went shopping at the Sum, the commercial centre of
Almaty. I had to promise Danny, who was babysitting, that I wouldn’t buy too
much souvenirs but that was a hard promise to keep. I wanted so many real Kaz-items for Zoya and I realized that now is the time to
get it, so I did…
This
afternoon, Danny is going to the Sum, ‘just checking’ he said, but I’m pretty
sure he will bring more Kaz-stuff for his little
princess!
Sunday November 7th 2004
This
morning, at 3.30 am, a bunch of drunks woke up the kids. Just on the other side
of our street there is a bar El Paso, and the later it gets, the noisier the
guests are. Luckily Lan and Zoya fell asleep after
half an hour and we all overslept.
Lan is
feeling much better now, after two good nights. Zoya is always feeling good
especially when mom is preparing food!
Tomorrow we
can call the embassy at 2 pm and I truly hope we will get Zoya’s
visa. After going to the embassy Danny will go to Lufthansa to buy Zoya’s ticket and then we will know when we’ll arrive in
This
morning I went back to the Sum to buy more presents and cool stuff for Zoya but
I had to keep in mind our excess of luggage! I thought I managed quite well in
not exaggerating but back home, when I saw the things I already had and the new
stuff….doh! Too bad!
Tonight
there’s Kazakh chicken on the menu with pasta and tomorrow, for our last day,
we’ll ‘clean up’ the fridge by making a mixture of all the left-overs.
Monday, 08
November 2004
The very
last update from
Our flight
is booked for tonight and we are arriving in
I promise
to keep you all posted on how thing are going once we’re back home and to post
more pics, so just keep tuned to this site!
Lots of
lots of love and cold kisses from all of us!!
Fanny,
Danny, Lan and Zoya