Apartment Life.

Good news and bad news!! Which do you want to hear first?!?...

Ok, good news… Since we took her back to the apartment on Tuesday Leah has been fantastic, she is better than we could have even hoped for! She is sleeping really well and food entry and exit is going according to plan! We have also seen wonderful progress with bonding since it has been just the three of us back here, she gets so excited when either one of us come back into the room after being away for a bit.

Ok then, now the bad news. Leah’s passport has STILL not arrived it may come today but we won’t know till later on, either way our flight home on the 22nd is now impossible. Our best hope is now somewhere around the 27th - 29th March. Also little Luke was taken into hospital yesterday with an extremely high fever, he is much better now but will have to stay there for at least 5 days.

The walls have been kinda closing in on us over the last day or so, we are cooped up in a small apartment, paranoid that Leah will get sick again and longing to go home! Its hard to understand why its taking so long but as we look back over this whole process we can see clearly the hand of God guiding us according to His time not ours, if we had come out here when we expected then we would have never met our Leah so we have to believe that He is still in control and that all this is happening for a good reason, as I have already mentioned one positive thing to come from this time is how much Leah’s relationship has improved with us even over the last two days!

This whole process is not for the faint hearted but ultimately so very worth it!!!

Farewell to Bill & Dana Spyker who return to Chicago today, remember you three promised to come visit us in N Ireland soon!!!!!!

Pray that her passport will come today and we can fly home next week.
Pray that Luke will recover soon.

Philip, Amanda & Leah



The Spykers, Nels and Davidsons

Much Better...

Since our last post we have moved to an apartment, its wonderful to have a little more room and be able to cook our own meals, its also a lot cheaper than the Shiney River. The Nels moved at the same time and are in the same block as us, they’re on the second floor and we are waay up on the fifth! Luke is a lot happier in his new roomier surroundings and we’re sure it will be better for Leah as well.

News on the Leah front is also good, thanks to all who have been praying for her! Her first night in hospital was pretty terrible for her, she didn’t eat and didn’t sleep the entire night, she was also, um, how can I put this delicately…. all backed up for about 3 days!!

Thankfully she is a lot better now, she slept well last night for the first time in 4-5 days, she also napped through the day. She is eating really well again, we found out that she LOVES mince meat and mashed potato! Apparently I was reared on mince and spuds so she must be taking after me!! We are still hoping that she will be able to be released tomorrow, the only thing really bothering her now is her gums and she still has a bit of a cold.

22nd is a possibility for our return to Northern Ireland though there are still a few outstanding documents which we need for this to happen so we would appreciate your prayers that the necessary docs will be here in time, to say we are looking forward to going home is to make an understatement of quite epic proportions!!!!!

Philip, Amanda & Leah


p.s. Congratulations to Amanda’s Mum and Dad, Marie and Billy on their 40th wedding anniversary. We are only 33 years behind you!!!



“I’m sick and all mummy can do is text”!!!



Turns out nappy changing isn’t that hard after all.



“Which one’s Charlie again”?!?

Spoke too soon...

Leah obviously didn’t read the script!! She was meant to come back to the hotel where we could begin our life of idyllic bliss together, she may have even managed a ‘night night mummy and daddy’ by her second night!!

However, what actually happened is she contracted a viral infection almost immediately, had a fever of 39 degrees (for the benefit of our Americans readers that’s very high) and was admitted to hospital again this morning.

We were worried that it was a reoccurrence of her ear infection which would have meant more anti-biotics but thankfully this is not the case, the doctors are actually quite happy with her, her temp is normal again and she should be out by Monday.

The first night with we knew something was not quite right but we put it down to the fact that she was in a new place with new people caring for her. The next morning however we knew that is was something more serious, she didn’t sleep, didn’t want to eat, didn’t want to play and the only thing that would stop her from crying was when we rocked her in our arms, even when she fell asleep as soon as we stopped rocking she would cry! 48 hours of taking it in turns to rock her was kinda tough. She has also only had one dirty nappy in the past 3 days which is probably a major reason why she is so distressed, the doctors are aware of this and will be able to help her.

Amanda is able to stay with her in the hospital which is great for Leah, I wanted to stay also but was told it was not allowed, they were actually amused that I wanted to, “Kazakhstan men would not want to do such a thing” they said!!

I can visit for over 6 hours per day which is not too bad, pray that all will go well for Amanda and Leah. We would like to go home now thank you very much, there has been a slight delay with Leah’s passport but it looks likely that we will be flying back home on the 22nd March.

Pray that Amanda and Leah will be preserved and protected in a strange place for them.

Philip, Amanda & Leah

Liberation Day!!

been a long time coming but at 1.30pm this afternoon we were finally allowed to take Leah from the baby house back to our hotel!!

There were a lot of ‘firsts’ when we made it back to our room, the first time I’ve ever changed a nappy (ok it was only a wet one, I’ll leave the nasty ones to Amanda for the time being till I feel up to it), first time we got to feed her, first time we got to bath her, we couldn’t wait to wash away the orphanage smell!

We then got to spend about 30mins staring at her in her cot while she was sleeping, we were worried she might disappear if we took our eyes off her! At last we truly feel like her parents!!

As I’m typing this she is rolling around our hotel bed playing with her toys and making happy gurgling noises, I don’t care if it sounds a little clichéd but all the trials and heartaches of the last 3 years or so are just melting away!!

Philip, Amanda & Leah

Where on earth am I!?!?!

At last!

Mmmm, that new baby smell!

Just checkin my emails before bedtime.

Hospital - day 4

Its been over 6 weeks since we landed in Kazakhstan, a winter wonderland with beautiful sights and harsh temperatures. Spring has now well and truly sprung and the snow has disappeared revealing the grubby and slightly depressing reality underneath.

There is a non too subtle metaphor for our trip floating around there somewhere but lets move unto a more uplifting subject, Leah!! She was wonderful today, we were allowed to visit for 40mins in the morning and afternoon and on both occasions we were greeted with the smile she normally reserves for the Kazak dolly in the baby house or ‘Leo’ the lion! She is back to being as good as she has ever been and we can’t wait for Tuesday when we can at last bring her home with us!

We must make special mention again of our agency and their staff out here. We have been using Enroute who are affiliates of the ‘Frank Foundation’ and we can honestly say they have been nothing less than fantastic with us. Without Nicole our contact in the US, our coordinator Nadia, translator Raigul and the one and only Victor this would have been an even tougher trip. If anyone reading this is looking around for an agency or if you have already chosen Enroute/Frank Foundation we can tell you that you’ll be in good hands with ‘Frank’.

Pray that Leah’s good health will continue and that she will be able to come back with us on Tuesday.

Philip, Amanda & Leah



Love the hat!

Hospital - day 3

We were praying last night that when we visited Leah today we would be encouraged by how much better she was, thankfully God answered our prayer and we found Leah pretty much back to her normal self this afternoon, I think the nurses who are looking after her were pleased to see how happy she was to see us.

If it wasn’t for the fact that this is a holiday weekend in Kazakhstan and the doctor who can allow her to leave won’t be back till Tuesday she could probably leave tomorrow, as it is we will have to be patient and wait another 3 days before we can finally take her home.

Congratulations to all the American families who arrived a few weeks ago, they had court on Thursday and Friday and were all successful! A few more of Leah’s Kaz cousins finding homes!!

Hope you enjoy the few pics from today with Leah in her orphanage clothes.

Philip, Amanda & Leah



Leah’s home for the last 3 days



Get me outa here!!!!

I love zips.

Leah's Nurses at the Hospital

Hospital

An easy process this is not!!

Dear friends, blog readers across the world, let me give you a brief summary of the last couple of days.

On Wednesday (the day we should have been taking Leah out of the baby house for good) we spent the entire day chasing paper and only made it to the orphanage after 4pm, when we saw Leah we knew right away she wasn’t good, you could feel the heat coming off her from across the room!

Thursday morning our visit was cancelled but we were told we could see her after 2.30. At 2pm our translator Raigul came to the hotel and almost beat our door down as we opened it she blurted out “bad news, Leah is in Hospital, you can’t visit her for 5 days”. After the initial shock had worn off we managed to get out of her that she was no worse but they were concerned that she was not getting well fast enough in the baby house so they had sent her that morning to the hospital were she would get better a lot quicker, we asked to be taken to see her right away but our coordinator here had not even been told where she had been taken but would find out first thing in the morning. Obviously no one had thought the child’s new parents might want to know where there daughter was!!

Thursday evening was spent trying to come to terms with the fact that just the day before we had been named as her official parents and now 24hrs later we had no idea where our daughter was or how she was!!!

Friday morning we found out that Leah was staying in a hospital just 1 mile away from the baby house but we couldn’t visit her to the evening. After an eternity 5pm came and we briefly visited Leah in the hospital, thankfully she is on the mend. Her temperature is back to normal and she has been moved to a recovery room for the next few days, she will be well enough to finally take her back to the hotel on Tuesday. The hospital itself seems to be very clean and well run, we had hoped to be allowed to stay with her in the hospital but this is not possible, we should at least get a longer visit tomorrow.

The last couple of days have been trying to say the least but we know that God is in control and that very soon we will be winging our way back to Northern Ireland!! This whole episode has made us long to be home even more, we take it for granted that we live in a country where we expect to be treated in a certain way and that if we are not happy with a situation you can at the very least complain about it and try to get the problem resolved. Here its more a case off ‘like it or lump it!”.

As I’m typing this blog I’m humming the national anthem and can’t wait to kiss the tarmac at Belfast Airport!!

Philip, Amanda & Leah