Day 14 waiting - Happy, Happy Birthday (double click for pics)

Diane's Birthday Card...
Kevin's Birthday Card...

Wednesday, August 2--- (Day 14 waiting period)

Privet from KA3ACTAHCKNN. We have a couple of special people out there today…
Happy Birthday to Diane Bickerstaff! Kim started off her “long” birthday with a call this morning. We reminded Diane that she is having the longest birthday possible as it turned 8/2 over here yesterday at 2pm (GA time). We wish we could be there to celebrate your 29th birthday, but we will have to settle for a long distance celebration. Thank you so much for being you and what a special person you are. Happy Birthday again!

Also celebrating a birthday today, Kevin Edwards is turning a lot more than 29 …I would also like to be at his party, so I could find some tools to borrow. Kevin, since we can’t be there, please have the girls (Mary Beth, Ashley and Sarah) give you a great big hug from the Woodard’s. Happy Birthday Kev!

The mornings are starting to get a little exciting around here. We’re deep into the party planning and gift wrapping for the “gotcha party” on Friday. We have most of the gifts purchased and should finish up the wrapping tonight.

Can you believe we are another day closer????? We are on pins and needles as we watch the seconds tick off of the clock. We keep saying all good things come to those that wait. Well, we have definitely done our fair share of waiting, so we now what a great moment that will be when we leave that baby house for the last time with our son. In case you may have forgotten, we pick him up on FRIDAY. Less than 2 days from this post Kazakh time!

We decided on the way inside the baby house that we would enjoy another beautiful day and go outside with Landen today. This was a great idea as we were the only people outside and we could take Landen on little walks around the grounds. While I had him on one of my little walks, he spotted a group of birds flying overhead. I wish you could have seen his face, it was priceless. I was thinking to myself that was probably the first time he had seen something flying like that. The next thought was.... wait until he gets on a plane, he may think he turned into a bird….just kidding, but we are sure to see some interesting looks. Speaking of looks, Landen had plenty of them today. We were able to capture a few of them so I hope everyone enjoys. We stayed outside for half of the visit then finished up back in the music room. Landen was again full of smiles today making it harder and harder to leave each day.

Sergey dropped us off at our attorney’s office after the visit where we finalized a few things: We first discussed that Lena would go with us tomorrow and translate our meeting with the caretakers to find out Landen’s schedule, diet, etc… We finalized the date for our apartment here and confirmed Aeda would meet us at the Almaty airport on 8/10 and take us to the selected apartment there. We wanted to confirm the phone number for the internet ahead of time (trying to keep the blog updated…), so they will work on that. Lastly, we found out that when we meet with Svetlana tomorrow afternoon, she should have the time for the “gotcha party” on Friday. So far, all is falling into place.
After the visit with Svetlana and Lena, we went on a short trip around town where we found an ATM machine in English. This was a nice find, I think…Well it’s time for us to sign off on another day, but we want to again send out the Happy Birthday wishes to Diane and Kevin. Poka, Poka.