Daughter Aliya pictured here with her new daddy, Steve, and mommy, Amy.

The Nelson Family

Note: Below are excerpts taken from Steve and Amy Nelson’s personal weblog. They are CWA adoptive parents detailing their adoption experiences at a baby home in Kazakhstan.

In the Beginning
The beginning of our story starts with a long beginning. From the moment we miraculously resolved our ongoing discussion over having a fourth child, the solution became easy: we would adopt. Within days we were registered with an experienced international adoption agency, and had mentally committed to reams of bureaucratic paperwork and a trip to Guatemala. Then within weeks, our agency emailed us to tell us that Guatemala’s adoption program would be in a holding period. Our agency was honest—the wait would be long, unpredictable, and there were no guarantees. Within a few short days our agency announced the launch of a new program—in the country of Kazakhstan. This created an “aha!” moment for both of us, and the leading of God to move in that direction. We learned the process would not take nearly as long as cutting through all the red tape in the newly renovated Guatemala program. We made a call, and switched our registration from Guatemala to Kazakhstan.

Our First Surprise
“Expect the Unexpected.” That’s what we’re told over the course of some 20 months as we prepared for this day. For the last three months, we’ve heard that we are expected in our child’s region on January 6th, when the baby house can begin introducing us to children. On Sunday morning when we arrived in Almaty, they had scheduled our tickets for Monday night to fly to the region. We planned to stay longer in Almaty to visit with friends, but when one of the new friends we met called to translate with our facilitator, she said there is no reason to wait until Thursday. If we come on the ticket they gave us, they will take us at 9:45 a.m. Kaz time on Tuesday morning to meet the orphanage director, and then the children. So I write now from a hotel room in the region and in about two hours, we’ll leave for the baby house.

Our Child’s Baby Home
Hi everyone. Well the day is over—we are exhausted mentally and physically. Steve and I believe that we have made our choice. We will also meet with the orphanage doctor tomorrow to get medical paperwork and discuss if there are any problems or questions. Assuming there are no surprises in her medical history that need to be reviewed by a doctor here, we will post our news tomorrow. I am literally falling asleep at the keyboard. It’s hard to believe how fast things have moved, once they started moving.

Our Tiny Addition
We would like to introduce you to our new daughter!!! She is as of yet un-named (American that is) as her mom and dad can’t seem to pull that aspect together!!
She is the bald cue ball we referred to yesterday—and her given name is Goolnaz (pronounced as it sounds). She was the first baby girl I (we) laid eyes on. She has bright dark gray eyes and 2 tiny teeth poking through her bottom gums. She is the tiniest thing you have ever seen. Her birthday is May 11, 2004. We met with the doctor today and (hold on to your seat) at almost 8 months, this Nelson weighs in at 10 pounds! She is not underfed or malnourished she is just a tiny peanut. She is strong though. Yesterday she was playing on the blanket in the playroom and she suddenly rolled onto her belly and went up on all fours and took off crawling. She just took a few “steps” but this was up on all 4’s. We all laughed because she really looks too small to be able to do that. She cannot yet sit unsupported, but that will come soon. She has no health issues to speak of and her doctor told me she has never even had an ear infection!! I said “sign me up!!”

She is generally quiet and when she does cry it’s this little “wah”. She’ll have to beef that up to make it in our busy household. I’ve gotten to feed her a “snack” both yesterday and today. What a fun time. I feed her in her room (not the playroom). She gets a BIG bowl of cream of wheat style cereal with some sort of bread in it.

The caretakers are awesome. They will come up to a baby and burst into a flurry of Russian while poking, squeezing and tickling the babies. They ALWAYS get smiles out of the babies. Another cool thing is how they’ve taken to Cassidy. I so wanted the adults in this process to enjoy having her around and so far, it seems to be the case. One of our drivers, Anatoly, always keeps the heat in the car on high. We adults are always dying of the heat. I’ve finally figured out that he keeps it that way to keep the “baby” warm.

Now we will settle into the routine of visiting her at the baby house twice a day. We go from 10-12 and then again from 4-6. Since you can’t leave the room, it is always fun when you get to go to the baby’s room and feed her. It gives a change of venue and of pace. And sadly, a chance to see the other babies who are being so well-cared for as they wait for their chance as well.

We spoke at length with her treating pediatrician today, who has cared for her since she arrived on day ten. In fact, her doctor actually transported her from the maternity hospital where she was born to the baby house, and has cared for her these past seven and a half months. We learned that she was her birth mother’s first child, and that she was born in a hospital in a village about a half hour outside of Karaganda, and her mother left soon after the birth. She was born at between 35 and 36 weeks, at 5 lbs. and 44 centimeters. We know little else about her family or background, but hope to learn more.

Our many visits with her over the next three weeks as we wait for court will give us many more chances to post, to provide photos, and to brag of God’s goodness to us in blessing us with a daughter that we have long dreamed of—we see her as the fulfillment of many many days of hope.

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