Day 19 - Farewell to our American Friends (double click for pics)

Sunday, July 16---Day 19 Visitation 4th extra day

Today has been the hardest day yet for us on the trip. We did not get to visit our son and our friends are traveling to Almaty tonight. We wish them the best of luck with their new family and are so glad we had a chance to get to know their incredible family. It will be different without them here. To continue some other news, our dog Bailey will be undergoing a surgery for her ear tomorrow. She will be staying at the vet for a couple of days to rest, so please keep her in your prayers.

Since it was the last day with our friends, we met them around 10:30am and spent the afternoon with them. It’s tough to see the girls losing the only friends they have in Kazakhstan. We took them to the slide we found yesterday and let them play there for about 30 minutes, then it was off to get some lunch. We went to the café above the bakery (fyi - same place we get the chickens and Kim’s cake). They have an American menu, but when the wait staff can not speak English, the menu could have been from Mars. This café is fairly small and we were in the middle, since we had a large group. For the first time here, we felt as if we were in a fish bowl with everyone looking at us. There were 3 younger men across from us and they were getting into watching us. I had the defense mode going (Newton, you would have been proud), so everyone had a duty to get us out of the café safely. I am going overboard here a little bit, but they did enjoy getting into our conversation and when I said “hey”, they laughed and one of them said “hey” back. Not sure what they were up to, but no harm done. We had an interesting lunch, pancakes. Not your typical pancakes, but one’s that are filed with mushroom/onions or chicken/onions. Both were very good and worth a trip back. Even Rylee loved them.

After lunch, we decided to re-visit the fair. Again, this was a good time for all the kids as they rode the horse and buggy, played some games and got a stick of cotton candy. We were again treated to the joy of watching Ellia doing some first. Cotton candy, horse ride, kids four wheeler rides, and many other things made for our entertainment. It’s amazing to watch this child learn from his new family and respond to them.

It started to rain, so we headed back to the apartment. We dropped by our friend’s apartment for the last good byes, exchanged emails and wished each other the best of luck. The girls took it hard, especially when they did not want to go. That shows you how much they have enjoyed each others company. We stayed for about an hour, and then headed out again. The weather was still a little rainy, so Rylee got to use the poncho Mom had packed. We stopped by the baby store on the way home and got two little outfits for Landen and the shoes for Rylee’s Halloween costume. Yes, they are high heels and she loves them. These are the “in thing” around here for the little girls, but Mommy said when we go home they are only for play! We then made our daily stop at the little store down stairs for some water and milk (we go through 5 liters of water per day). We are now in the room and “fixin” some diner and planning tomorrow. We find out in the morning about the court time for Tuesday. If we have an early court time, we will spend the afternoon with our attorney and prepare for court. If it is going to be late on Tuesday, we will prepare Tuesday morning. Either way, we will only have 1 visit on Monday or Tuesday. After court, we will have approximately 14 days until he will be with us full time. We are ready!!!


Until tomorrows update, Poka, Poka.