11/05/04-A trip to buy shoes...

If the schedules had remained the way they were originally planned, we would probably be making our way down to Almaty to begin our journey home. Instead, Gma and I still hanging out with our children waiting for the bureaucracy to finish their business. The main reason this happened is that there has been some growing resistance to International adoption in Kazakhstan . As a result, more barriers and longer wait times have been put in place to discourage adoption. While I was browsing the Internet today, I found the website for Kazpravda, the national daily newspaper and surprisingly you could view it in English. On the site, I did a search on “adoption” and I found the article below. It appears to be an editorial directed at the people who oppose international adoptions. To summarize it, Eugeny Kononovich, my new best friend, says they lament international adoption, but ignore the orphans. The writer commends the adoptive parents, especially Americans, for a willingness to take on the “invalid” children and raise them with love. Check out the article. I thought it gives some insight into the situation here.

Kazpravda Article - A Bone of Contention

On the home front, I had another new retail experience today. Grace has begun to pull herself up more and more on the couches. Unfortunately, the floor is slippery and she has taken a couple spills. So Dad decided we need to get her some shoes. After discussing with Gma and deciding we wanted some kind of tennis shoe and drawing an outline of her foot on a piece of paper, I set off in search of children’s shoes. I hit every “baby store” I could think of. The selection was not large. Remember, Grace is very small, probably close to a US 2 shoe size. (Though, that may even be big.) The only shoes most of them had close to that size were slippers. We already have that and it isn’t adequate. By the way, I also took one of her slippers with me. In some stores, the people just looked at me and shook their heads “Nyet” when I tried to mimic the need for a smaller shoe. In one store, the saleslady really tried to help me, but she didn’t have what I was looking for.

In the end, I found myself back at the “ Three Story Mall ”, so named by we ugly Americans because we have not been able to figure out what it is called and well, it has three stories. I was again finding limited selection, even though I did actually find a store where one of the sales people spoke English. Sadly, they didn’t have anything in Grace’s size. I was able to figure out the sizes and realized I probably needed a size 12. Then I remembered the store across the aisle had a large selection of children’s shoes. I was looking at the shoes when a nice lady turned to me and asked if I needed help. At least that is what I think she said. Anyway, I adroitly explained my need for a small shoe with a sole in size 12. Soon, I had four very nice ladies actively trying to help me. First, they pointed to two mannequins to determine that I wanted a girl’s shoe. Then they showed me different kinds to see what I wanted – rubber sole, low top, etc. I showed one of them the paper with the outline of Grace’s foot and she asked me if she could cut it. Now we had a pattern to use. We then used that to compare to every shoe. I soon resolved that I was going to buy shoes in that store just because they were so helpful. In the end, I purchased a very cute red leather sandal for just over $10. Gma also agreed that they were cute. You can see a picture of them in today’s pictures. Sadly, our story does not have a totally happy ending. After seeing the fall off numerous times, we realized that Grace is probably an 11. Man, she has tiny feet. I have no idea how they hold her up, but they do. So, tomorrow, I get a continuation of my adventure as attempt to exchange my purchase. Wish me luck.

We have a few pictures today.