The Weekend Before Court

Saturday’s visit at the baby house started out very well. The preschool and toddler age kids were all in the music room again. They were singing Christmas and New Years songs and 2 of the little kids had birthdays. The birthday celebration was cute. They drove the kids around the room by the other kids in a Little Tikes car, then some of the big kids came up to the birthday girl and made toasts – some sort of wish for the birthday child. Hope wished one little girl "to grow up to be a big girl and be beautiful". That's our princess - always concerned with beauty! At the end of music class the 2 birthday girls got a small present. After music, the rest of the visit was rather chaotic. With 2 families that have children, and 2 of those children being boys, visiting in the playroom at the same time it is just too loud to really have a good visit and Hope won’t talk much or very loudly so it is especially difficult to visit with her. I think tomorrow we are going to ask to visit in the music room instead so that she actually gets to visit with us and we don’t have our nerves completely frazzled before court.

It looks like winter is really here to stay. When we got outside on Saturday it seemed much colder than most of the other days, the wind was blowing and we were getting pelted with little stinging snow/ice crystals. We asked Zhanara how long winter usually lasts and she said there is snow till around the end of March. We also found out how blessed with some unseasonably warm weather our first couple of weeks we really were. Apparently, there is frequently snow at the end of October or beginning of November. Today it was 12F. Monday it is supposed to be 1F. I’m so looking forward to going to court in a skirt! For the most part we had a very lazy Sunday. It was a nice change of pace. Aside from our usual Sunday apartment cleaning, we played games, read books, had some computer time and just generally hung out. Mike ventured out to the Ramstore after lunch because we were running low on water again and even our food supply was starting to dwindle. When he returned he informed us that it had snowed a little again last night (we’re discovering that it seems to snow a little every night!), but that lots of people were out and there were people ice fishing on the river and kids sledding down the river embankment. He thought we could manage the stroller in the snow so we bundled everyone up and headed out to the river walk to show Tim the ice fishing and go to Neighborhood Café for pizza. Unfortunately, by the time we got to the river walk most of the people had left so we headed in for dinner. After dinner I finished the grocery shopping while everyone else headed home. When I left the Ramstore, yes, it was indeed snowing again. Now I know what makes the “sparkles” in the snow that Tim likes so much – the little icy snow that we get every night. The “sparkles” are much less beautiful when they are pelting you in the face while you carry bags of groceries home! Today’s pictures are of some of Tim’s architectural masterpieces from the last few days. He’s really into building things right now. He made a house out of the toys he was cleaning up on Saturday. He’s also been building fortresses in the living room with the sofa cushions, stool and water bottles.

The last few days the kids have been giving us a small preview of what it will be like to feed 2 teenage boys. It’s amazing what Tim and Matt are eating these days. Matt is doing a pretty good job of keeping up with Tim and some meals I think he eats more than Tim. At dinner, the 2 of them polished off a pizza (a little smaller than a small pizza at home) themselves. Now, these pizzas have very thin crusts so it’s not quite like a pizza at home, but it’s still a lot of food for 2 small boys. I just hope that Tim doesn’t outgrow his jeans before we get home because he’s already just about worn through the knees of his sweatpants since we’ve been here and we only brought 3 outfits each.

A couple of people have asked what happens after court so here’s a rundown of our tentative timeline for the rest of our time in Kaz.

• -Court – Monday, November 27
• -15 Day Appeal Period (During this time, anyone can challenge the adoption ruling which would open up a whole new legal can of worms, resulting in additional legal proceedings, etc, but this rarely happens) – November 27-December 11
• -Final Adoption Decree Signed – December 12
• -Processing exit paperwork – Kazakhstan passport, exit papers from several government agencies, English translations of all the paperwork and notarization of all paperwork – Approximately 2 weeks, December 12-26
• -US Embassy Immigrant Visa-related paperwork in Almaty – 4 days – SOS clinic physical, passport photos (for visa), Embassy paperwork & visa processing – December 27-January 2
• -Fly home – January 3
  
  

We’re hoping that we can get all the Kaz exit paperwork processed by December 22 (but they have a 2 day holiday that week, too, so it’s doubtful). If we can get to Almaty late on the 22 or early on the 23, and have our SOS clinic appointment on December 23 or 26, we could, in theory, make our currently scheduled flight on December 29. Keep your fingers crossed for speedy processing of paperwork in Astana. Of course, first, keep your fingers crossed for a positive decision at court tomorrow.