Wednesday: Hitting the Wall - by McP

Yesterday was a frustrating one. After a long day in Esik, we continued to try to work around not having any cold water (which makes a shower impossible and putting steaming hot water in the toilet tank difficult, if not plain weird - let's just say it has a strange sauna effect). I had another moment of low blood sugar, as alarmed by my new glucose monitoring system (the same one that confounded the Transporation Security Administration authorities in Atlanta as we tried to embark on this journey). I just felt generally awful.
Alison pointed out to me that I have been going with less than two hours of sleep a night for almost a week.
In Esik, Cal was exhibiting some of the same symptoms! Cranky for the first time, he let us know that he wanted no more to do with the cabbage soup and minced meat that we were given each day to feed him, but insisted on that interesting thing we brought called a "bottle" that he had not seen much of in some time (and I'm not certain he has ever seen a modern one). The children here, even as young as Cal, are given their drink in a cup. Sometimes it is tea, sometimes a strange pink-colored drink of origin unknown to us. After each bite of food, he would stick his finger in his mouth and look around Alison's back for the bottle. We can't wait to actually start giving him formula so that he can really start growing and get plenty of vitamins and minerals he needs. Toward the end of the session, I put him on the floor to play or crawl. He stuck his finger in his mouth and put his head on the rug, face down, and fell fast asleep. I got alongside of him, and put my face next to his. Minutes later, Alison woke us both up fearing that the Baby House caretakers would not like that we let him go to sleep on the floor - or that I fell asleep at all during a visit. We certainly feel as if they are testing us during these visits, which is a good idea I suppose. I think both Cal and I had those funny marks on our foreheads in the weave pattern of the rug.
So I went straight to bed when we got back to the apartment. Around 3:30 a.m. I woke straight up, but this time after seven hours of sleep! The world was immediately better! The cold water was working! The internet in the apartment was working! I got to take a warm (not scalding) shower! I got to flush the toilet!
We went to Esik today and Cal was in the greatest mood. He must have had a good sleep as well. We spoke to the Doctor and got all of our questions answered. Tomorrow he comes back home with us... that is, to our Almaty home!
Alina and Mac are absolutely excited about finally meeting their little brother-to-be. Alina sent Cal a note that she had written with several time-of-day references to our schedule on Friday, and on the bottom: "KAL COME HOME!" A few weeks of the good life as a citizen of Almaty with my family and then we go to court, get paperwork and passport and then we can REALLY come home, sometime around November 25th.
Life is good!
I will always feel like the luckiest man in the world to have Alison and to have come halfway around the world now twice to find my family. Granted, it is not the way most families come together, but when I watch Alina, Mac and now Cal, I would not have it any other way.
McP