New count -- Day 18

Finally decided to switch over to counting the days by # of days in Kazakhstan. As you can see, we're up to 18 now, and probably another 10 days +/- will pass before our feet touch down on US soil. But hey, at least we're past the mid-way point, so we're getting closer!



We actually learned our court date today! Next Weds, 11/19, we will go to court at 10am to have a judge determine if we are fit to be parents to Borya and Julia. He will review a year's worth of paperwork which includes several sets of fingerprints, many dozens of documents signed by notaries and secretaries of state, medical clearances that declare we're not about to drop dead any time soon (though Fred loves to walk around clutching his chest, as if the actual act of being in Kazakhstan could indeed kill him), pictures of our house, our family, DNA samples (OK, now I'm just making stuff up). He will listen to statements Fred and I have prepared, review our journal entries and dated photographs that prove we have truly been visiting with our children over the last two weeks instead of sitting in a Kazakh cinema watching movies in Russian and inhaling the surrounding cigarette smoke. He will ask both Borya and Julia if they want to be adopted by us and move to America. He will ask the children if they want to change their names. Borya has told us he will tell the judge, "Yes, I want to change my name, but I can never remember what it is". And then we will all bite our fingernails to the quick and hold our breath till we're blue in the maddening anticipation of hearing the most beautiful word, the one we've been waiting so long to hear ..... da.

So to sum things up, if we are deemed capable of parenting these two wonderful children, we will fly out of Ust Kamenogorsk that afternoon and stay overnight in Almaty. The next day we will spend running amok signing more doc-oo-ments. We will get a few hours sleep, then take a 4:10am flight out of Almaty, lay over in Frankfurt, and arrive back in Philly Fri eve, 11/21. Fred and I will be so happy to be home again. We miss our kids terribly. Bella will be glad to be home, too, though she certainly has been wringing every drop of pleasure that she can from this trip to her homeland. Yesterday while shopping, she looked up in one of the market stalls and saw a pink furry creation at the very top row that just called her name. So now when she bundles up to head out into the snow, she puts on her pink snow boots, her pink coat, her pink gloves, and like a cherry on top of an ice cream sundae she smothers her head in a gigantic pink fake-fur/shearling Russian style hat with ear flaps and just a hint of bling. Our little Ust native ....