The Yerkie Has Landed

As you will obviously be able to surmise from this posting, we arrived safely in Toronto late on Friday afternoon and our daughter, Zoe Yerkezhan Yeomans (aka “Yerkie”), is now a proud resident of the great country of Canada - finally a country that matches her shoes.

Our long journey home was…well, rather long. But relatively uneventful, most thankfully. Our little lady has now touched down on three continents and seems quite prepared to stay in the latest one for the duration. She travelled remarkably well, has quickly adapted to her second new home environment since leaving the Baby House less than two weeks ago, and is now readily adjusting to the significant shock effects of the diurnal inversion suddenly thrust upon her system (her night time hours have now become day time hours and vice versa).

For those interested, here is a quick synopsis of our trek home.

On Thursday evening, the three of us went out for a very quick dinner with Catalina and Calin who were briefly passing through Almaty on their return leg to New York after their own successful court date to adopt Yulia and Gabi. After two prior attempts to meet with them had to be aborted due to their somewhat “colourful journey”, our paths finally managed to cross on our very last night in Almaty. They are truly delightful company.

We made it back to our apartment at 10:30 - putting Zoe to bed for her last sleep in Kazakhstan - and finished packing up two months worth of living into our suitcases. With our flight at 3:20am, our pick-up for the airport was scheduled for 1:00am. Sara bravely attempted an hour’s worth of restful “shut eye”, while Julian decided to forego the experience.

Almaty airport provides a mysteriously intriguing labyrinth of security and customs checkpoints. Where someone may have surreptitiously acquired the suspected thermonuclear device in the 5 metres from the preceding luggage scan was beyond us. Note to adoptive families - having a well-behaved, curious, adorable little one with you seems to greatly assist with even the most tenacious immigration official. As with the entire Kazakhstan adoption experience, there was one final fascination with all of one’s official paperwork (with having to have your e-tickets appropriately notarized and apostilled being the final insult).

Zoe remained undaunted during the ordeal of her first 7 hour flight to Frankfurt. Thankfully, there were no real tears (from any of us) and she and Sara managed to sneak in a few hours of sleep - Julian overseeing childminding duties on this rather easy shift. When awake, our young Kazakh émigré decided that a thorough inspection of the cabin seemed necessary - several times over, naturally. Her only source of consternation occurred during the rapid depressurization of landing, but a bottle of apple juice swiftly supplied sufficient consolation to placate the suddenly popping ears.

After a delightful 7 hour layover spent exploring the nooks and crannies of a busy international airport, it was back onto an aircraft for the final leg of our trip. Second note to adoptive families - an adorable little one certainly eases potential processing issues involving overzealous Praetorian Guard Lufthansa check-in officials when in possession of supernumerary, overweight carry-on items (try saying that three times quickly). During the Toronto-bound flight portion, young Miss Zoe seemed to experience an 8-hour adrenalin rush requiring constant motion and attention - particularly from Sara. The last half hour proved the most trying for both Mother and Daughter. Perhaps the magnitude of the entire experience was starting to sink in? Or the lack of continuous sleep in a familiar environment? Who can say? Sleep only overcoming the now thoroughly exhausted Zoe while the taxiing into the gate.

Surprisingly, Canadian Immigration processing was swift and highly efficient. Adoptions are obviously viewed as “happy” cases by all involved. It was very, very nice to receive heartfelt congratulations from several of the officials at the conclusion of our long adoption quest. A very pleasant welcome back to Canada after so long away.

And luckily, both of our suitcases even managed to accompany us to the airport this time around.

Grandma Elaine greeted the three very weary travellers at home. As with the first time in our apartment in Almaty, Zoe wanted to immediately explore her new environment. With her mind willing her on, her body - that had now carried her through 26 hours of travel - finally refused to go along with the plan - surrendering to its overwhelming need for sleep.

For all of us, it is so great to have now returned to familiar territory!

Yesterday was spent exploring the new environs and allowing the now firsttime grandmother to become acquainted with the now first time granddaughter - both seem enchanted with their newfound relationship. Our Young Zoe is happy, cheerful, giggly and delightful. We could not be happier. She seems to have already made a very swift transition into her new surroundings just like she was always meant to be here. And she was. This is her new home. And we are, indeed, HOME! All three of us!

And now we can officially announce that “The Yerkie Has Landed”!

P.S. Thank you to absolutely everyone who has commented or sent messages to us throughout our adoption process. We are so very glad that you have been able to follow our collective ups-and-downs and joys-and-pains on this journey. We promise to keep in touch.

Hugging the Wheelock bunny!

Three generations of Yeomans women.