Robertson Adams

Agency

We wholeheartedly endorse the Maine-based non-profit agency MAPS Adoption and their fine Kazakhstan team including Libby Walch. They guided us through each step, provided timely advice and processed our files as quickly as we could have hoped for. Amazingly they helped us know all the costs in advance. We also thank Efrat Horwitz for making the many required evaluation reports; she's with LifeLink in Sarasota, Florida.

Kazakhstan Adoption Resources: http://kazadoptresources.blogspot.com/

Kazapalooza 2009: http://kazapalooza.blogspot.com/

Kazakhstan

Kaz Tourism

kaztourism.kz

Music: The Magic of Nomads

magicofnomads.kz

• Eurasia.net on Kazakhstan
• Kazakh Adoptive Families
• Kazakh Crafts and Gifts
• Kazakhstan Adoption Yahoo! Group
• Kostanai weather
• Kz Embassy in the U.S.
• MAPS Adoption Agency

Kostanai

Google Earth Locator for Delphin Baby House

Delphin_Baby_House.kmz

Kostanai pics via Panoramio (cool!)

http://www.panoramio.com/map/?user=68232#lt=53.197192&ln=63.634465&z=5&k=1&a=1&tab=2"

How to entertain yourself in Kostanai

http://ourjourneytosofia.blogspot.com/2006/06/how-to-entertain-yourself-in-kostanai.html

English verson of Kostanai News website

http://www.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.kostanay.net%2F&langpair=ru%7Cen&hl=en&ie=UTF8"

Almaty

Eric Weiner writes for Slate on his Kaz Adoption

http://www.slate.com/id/2132692/entry/2132693

Blogs

• Welcoming SPW
• Finding Morgan Adams

Here I will try to accumulate a few recommendations for visitors and those new to the South Florida scene.

Lodging

In the south I can recommend the Hampton Inn near Dadeland, which offers van service to several points around South Miami, or the Holiday Inn across from the University of Miami.

I can't say I know the hotels on Miami Beach well enough to offer personal recommendations though I've heard they're fine. My family have stayed at a Days Inn at 2201 Collins Ave (the web site has annoying Flash and Music) and found it convenient and affordable.

Do

• Visit between January and April for best weather

Don't

• Tour the Everglades anytime other than winter.
• Transit by walking through any part of town that doesn't have a book store. That includes all of Brickell, downtown, Little Havana, Westchester and Homestead.

Dining

Tap Tap Restaurant (there web site has been coming soon now for several years!) on South Beach is one of my favorite places to take visitors. They have live music on Thursday and Saturday nights, the food is affordable and the crowd is diverse.

Marlene's birthday at Heidi's Gasthaus from Robertson Adams on Vimeo.

Orlando, Macon, Gainesville, Helen.
For 15 hundred miles we drove round singin.
Bears on Mountains, Jingle Bells and ABC's.
All without boo boos, ouches or scrapes on knees.
With some bugs and lotsa mountain,
We ate well and were not poutin.
Food was egg-y, porky, kraut-y, trout-y,
And drinks sometimes were even alkie.
Next time we'll bike, or fly, not drive.
Cause Gainesville cops got me at twenty-five.
But you do 15 in a school zone.
Be happy it was on vacay-shi-ohn.

We had a little surgery today at Miami Children's Hospital to remove an extra toe that Morgan was born with. She's at the hospital tonight for observation (with Dad & Mom too) and will go home in the morning with a bright pink fiberglass cast on her foot that goes from just below her knee to her (now 5) toes on the left foot. Her doctor says she'll be able to tap dance and kick box again in a few days. Until then, it's Codeine.

M. is about to turn 2 next week and she couldn't be changing more quickly. She asked to sleep in the big (queen) bed Sunday night and has left her crib. She climbs into full sized chairs. She wants to drive the car, not ride in back. She wants to help cook dinner sometimes.

We miss beautiful, friendly Kostanai, and Morgan's caregivers at Delphin and especially auntie Zha

This week, Morgan breezed through her first taste of the International Baccalaureate track (just kidding) at Riviera Child Care Center. Each day opened with emotional drama -- but by Friday, she had adjusted. Caregiver Millie reported that Morgan clapped her hands, smiled during a piano number, ate all her fish sticks and played with both Eric and Caitlin. Morgan hadn't been crawling a lot, but after her first day at school she came home and was slithering all around our tiled living room. We think she's learning from her classmates.

Tomorrow Morgan will start daycare at Riviera Child Care Center, and we've heard nothing but praise for infant caregiver May and her profesional team of baby ticklers.

Morgan clocked in at the doctor's at 21 pounds -- for the third month in a row. She has tried and failed three times to get a urinalysis going because the sticky plastic thingy just won't work on her, but the three stool samples Daddy had to collect left his head spinning. Still need an MRI, X-rays, blood tests, and more bologna than you could find in an elementary school lunch room.