May 21, 2005 Update
We are so excited as we write this letter because we have so much to share! Most importantly, we are happy to announce that on Friday at 2:30 p.m. Kazakh time we met our baby girl for the very first time! (We know many of you are dying to see her so you can download the attached picture before you go any further.)
We arrived in Astana at 11:00 a.m. and were quickly taken to our apartment where we are going to spend the next month. After only a half an hour, we were escorted to the baby house and waited in the lobby for what seemed like an eternity. Finally, we were ushered into the director’s office where our coordinator and interpreter spent several minutes talking about us. After the director asked us some questions about our jobs and our desire to adopt, she picked up the phone and made the call to have our baby brought in. A few minutes later the door burst open and there she was, grinning from ear to ear and bursting with excitement. We both started crying right away as we reached out for her and took her into our arms. It felt so wonderful to finally hold in our arms, the child who we have been dreaming of for so long.
After we met her in the director’s office, they told us that she needed to be fed so they took her back to her room to eat and left us in the waiting room. As soon as we were left alone, we asked our translator why the orphanage director had been calling our baby, “Alueshka”. She told us that it was a pet form of her name, “Alua”. At this point we were very confused because, as many of you know, we had been told that her name was Aida. (Later, we questioned our coordinator about it and he said that Alua’s mother’s name was Aida and must have been accidentally put down as the baby’s name.) This shook us for a while and we scrambled to figure out what we would call our sweet little girl. We decided that we really wanted to keep her first name of, “Alueshka” as her middle name. We also felt the desire to give her a new first name, so after lots of thinking and discussing, we came up with the name Kaitlyn Alueshka Lockwood.
Kaitlyn Alueshka is the sweetest and happiest little girl who completely melts our hearts every time we are with her. She is just now six months old and is petite compared to many other babies. She has the most wonderful, kissable cheeks, beautiful brown eyes (with a hint of green), long fingers and toes and a full head of black hair. We have now been able to visit her at the baby house two different times, and each have been completely miraculous experiences.
We have so much more to share about all the things we’ve experienced in the last few days, but we’re trying to keep these e-mails short, so if you want to read more (and see tons more pictures), you can check on our website which will be updated shortly. Just click on the following link or paste it into your browser; www.thelockwoodhome.com/adoption
We hope to be able to send updates and download e-mails every day at 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. pacific time. If you would like to write to us, just use this address and we will get your message within 12 hours. Also, if you know someone who might want to receive our e-mail updates, please have them e-mail us and we’ll be happy to include them as well.
Thank you for your continual thoughts and prayers. God has been so gracious to us by not only giving us a daughter, but also by providing so many encouraging friends and family members.

May 23, 2005 Update
We’ve been so blessed in the last couple days to get all your e-mails. Thank you for the encouragement! We are trying to write back to all of them, but sending e-mail from hear is very hit & miss; sometimes they go fine, but often they bounce back for the strangest reasons. We’ve found we just have to keep trying over and over again till they finally work.
Since we last wrote, we haven’t been able to visit baby Katie, but we have been experiencing some of the culture. On Saturday night, we went out of our apartment for the first time without our interpreter; a huge step for us! The reason we ventured out was because we had met another American couple (Jay and Kenda Gardner) who were adopting from the same orphanage. They were about to catch a flight home and had all kinds of leftover food and items that they gave us. It was so nice getting pointers from someone who had already done it all. If you want to see pictures from their trip, check out their website; www.littlegardner.com.
On Sunday (which is Saturday in the U.S.) we began the day with a wonderful time of prayer and scripture reading. After that, our friends Jen and Jesse came over for a while to see our apartment and exchange clothing (their Anelle is a little larger than Katie and we had each brought some large and some small outfits). It felt so strange having company over, but at the same time, it made our apartment feel more homey.
Later in the day, Erken and Dinara (our coordinator and his translator) picked us all up and took us on a tour of Astana. None of us were expecting anything more than our daily trip to the baby house, so this was really a treat. First, we went to a tall monument that overlooked the city (very similar to the Seattle Space Needle). About twenty stories up was the observation desk. It was inside a giant sphere with transparent panels (from the outside they looked like gold, but inside they were giant plates of glass). It was wonderful seeing the city and surrounding areas from a birds-eye view.
After the monument, we drove around the city and saw all the new development. The government has lots of money (apparently from oil exports) and are constructing hundreds of new buildings, parks, etc. Once we finished the driving tour, Erken and Dinara took us to a complex that reminded Sarah and I of Epcot Center at Disney World. It was a large building filled with exhibits recreating cultures from around the world. We saw replicas of Athens, Lady Liberty, China, and even a rodeo. Inside this building was also a wonderful aquarium that we went to. It had fish from all over the world (many we had never seen before). Apparently this aquarium holds the world record for being the furthest away from the ocean.
Following the aquarium we walked outside and went to an enormous model of the country. As you walked around the paths, there were replicas of important buildings and industries in that area. Even though it was not to scale, it gave us a great understand of the geography and culture of Kazakhstan. Erken and Dinara did a wonderful job of explaining everything to us and helping us to learn about the country and its history.
On the long walk home from our big day out, we got a chance to talk to Erken (through Dinara) and learn more about his line of work. It was nice having the time to begin a relationship. Erken is a very professional, wise coordinator and we feel 100% confident in his ability to help us adopt Katie.
Right now we are very excited because it is Monday and we are headed to the baby house this afternoon. Right now it is raining which means that we might be able to spend our two hours with Katie inside. This may seem strange, but whenever the orphanage workers allow the children to go outside, they make sure to bundle them up in lots of clothes and big hats, even if it is 90 degrees outside! This means that except for the few moments in the director’s office, we have not seen anymore of Katie than her cute face and long fingers. Hopefully we’ll also get the chance to put her on the floor and play with her. There will be lots of fun new pictures to share in 12 more hours.
Speaking of pictures, we have updated our website with lots of new things, including pictures from the first three days. In another 12 hours, we hope to post the rest of the pictures since we’ve been here, so check back tomorrow (7 a.m. PST).
Thank you again for all your prayers and support. Without all of you, this process would be very lonely. We can’t wait to put up more pictures so you can share the Joy that Katie brings us.

May 26, 2005 Update
It has been a few days since we last wrote an update letter. As soon as we got here and set up an internet account with the local dial-up, we realized that sending e-mail from overseas is somewhat spotty. When we write e-mails they almost always bounce back with the strangest and most obscure reasons. We finally decided to just send most of our outgoing e-mails through another e-mail account (klockw243@aol.com) since they go through more often. Luckily, we’ve been receiving all your e-mails at our normal address so feel free to continue writing to that account. We really love the encouragement!

If you have been on the website lately, you’ve probably read the same information about our e-mail problems as well as the note saying that we’re only going to be posting updates on the web now. While that is still true, we have had many people request that we explain some of the procedures and customs that we have to follow in Kazakhstan, and that we give a timeline of how long each step in the process will take before we can bring baby Katie home with us. With that in mind, we decided to write this e-mail (we hope that it works when we try to send it). We’ll keep posting our shorter daily updates on the website with the pictures, but in this e-mail we want to give some more in-depth information.

The big question that everyone seems to have right now is “when does Katie get to be with you 24/7.” This has also been a big question on our minds so we made sure to ask on the second day we were here. As it turns out, we will not be able to bring her home until the end of the 15 day waiting period which is after our court hearing (a total of 30 days is required by the Kazakh government). We had heard of many couples bringing their children home right after their court hearing, but, as our coordinator explained to us, since Astana is the capitol of Kazakhstan, everything is done by the book.

During the 15 day waiting period, we are only allowed to visit Katie for 2 hours a day, Monday through Saturday. We hope that towards the end of the visit we can convince the orphanage to let us come more often, but as of right now, we will be on the same schedule until the end. Because of this, we would appreciate your prayers that our court hearing will be held immediately following the first 15 day bonding period so that we can start the 15 day waiting period as soon as possible.

Once we have fulfilled the entire 30 day requirement, our coordinator tells us that we can leave Astana right away. In fact, he said that we will probably pack up and check out of our apartment in the morning, then go pick up Katie at the orphanage and head straight for the airport. From there, we will fly to Almaty where we’ll spend two days filing our paperwork with the U.S. Embassy and taking Katie to get her “western” medical exam. Finally, we will be on our way home (minus the 20 hrs. in the air and the 14 hrs. of layovers). We are really looking forward to stepping off the plane in San Francisco and introducing Katie to all of her new friends and family!

Another question we have received from many of you is, “why do they make the babies wear hats and bundle them up so much?” Honestly, we really don’t know either. From what we have heard, the orphanage workers are afraid that the babies will catch colds if their ears are uncovered or if they’re wearing anything less than two or three layers. This has been quite comical to us since many days it is 80 degrees outside and they will still put Katie in a snow suit! As you can imagine, she often gets too hot because they also tell us that we have to keep her in direct sun. To our amazement, this trend seems to be a part of the Kazakh culture; every time we see babies in the park or the market, they too are covered in thick clothes with a full hat on their heads. We can’t wait until we get to decide what our little girl wears (or doesn’t wear).

We hope that we have cleared up some of your questions and have given you a clearer picture of where we are in the process. Next time we send an e-mail to everyone, we will try to write more about the culture, the city and its people. In the mean time, we hope that all of you are doing well and are enjoying spring back in the U.S. Thanks again for all the kind letters of encouragement; they have really helped us stay connected with everything that’s going on back home.
In Christ,
Kevin, Sarah and Katie
PS: We will continue to post daily updates and pictures on the website. If you have any problems with the website, or think we should add something, please let us know.