Nurlan from Uralsk

That was the subject title of the email I received from a woman in Marietta, GA. This is what it said:

“First of all let me say I that don’t usually email people out of the blue…. ;-) but I felt this was important enough.

We are preparing for our second trip to Uralsk and I ran across your blog link on ‘Kazakh Adoptive Families’ website. While looking through the blog I thought I recognized your son. We were in Uralsk in Sep/Oct 06. My son, who was adopted at almost 3, was at babyhouse #1. His best friend was a 4 year old they called Naury. While looking through your blog, I saw pictures of your son and I believe it is the same boy. In fact I am about 95% sure (as is my husband), which is why I’m sitting here with goose bumps!!

I would love to communicate with you and see if this is actually the case. I’ve attached a couple pictures of my son with his friend Naury. Please take a look and verify for me whether you think this might be your son. I have more pictures if you would like to see more. My son’s name was Bauyrzhan (pronounced Bore-zhan) but they called him Baury for short. (He’s now Charlie…)

Thanks! Please let me know…”

And to my big surprise, here were the pictures she sent.
No doubt about it, it's our Garrett when he was four. I even enlarged the one photo and there was that identifying permanent scar near his left eye. Aren’t these two the sweetest? I was so excited—it had felt like I had won the lottery. Apparently, Naury, Baury and another boy, Israel were best buds. Anita (Charlie’s mom) and I both agree these boys need to see each other soon. Mostly, because we feel like Garrett is Charlie’s long lost little brother. Anita has pictures of “Naury and Baury” in his bedroom, so Charlie immediately recognized Garrett from the blog.

Coincidentally, another family (The Trawicks) were also there in the fall of ’06, adopting their son Jonathan and remember “Naury” and have pictures and stories to tell. They live in Georgia too—only 45 minutes away from Charlie's house, so we figure a reunion is in order here pretty soon. The other boy, Israel we found out is back with his father in Uralsk. Sadly, the likelihood of finding him is slim at this point. Here are more pictures, Anita shared with us.

The reason this picture is so dark is because it's a picture of a picture found hanging on the wall at the baby house. It's the closest thing we've got to a baby picture. Garrett's in the second to last row towards the center; Baury/Charlie is dead center. We're guessing Garrett to be around 3 here. All these babies look like deer in the headlights, don't you think? Horsing around with Anita and Baury.Testing his lungs with his old buddy Israel.
More cute shots.
Group shot. Naury is the handsome fellow wearing a traditional Kazakh hat.






Various shots of caregivers, medical directors and the orphanage grounds—all important pieces to Garrett's past. And last, but not least, his handsome buddy Charlie today at five years old:
Thank you, thank you, thank you Anita for finding us; we're so grateful for the photos and the stories you've shared with us thus far. Can't wait to hop on a plane and reunite the "long lost" brothers—and how fortunate that we're able to do so. My dream is to one day find Israel. Now wouldn't that be something?