A Day of Learning

Hi, Everyone! Yesterday I took the day off the blog since Mike worked pretty much all day (aside from the few hours in the morning at the Baby House) and hogged the computer. It was actually ok though, because Alex wasn't well -- Mr. Montezuma came to visit him and they didn't get along very well! He is much better today, though.

Today Sofia turned 11 months of age -- she was born on July 9th, 2005. She is very strong, and can stand on her own for a few solid seconds before sitting down. I bet that another month and a half and she will be walking everywhere. (By the way, for those of you who asked, the clothes she wears are from the Baby House -- we are not allowed to bring anything in to put on her, or to feed her -- they are very strict, and when we take her away on June 20th, she leaves everything behind -- we bring clothes for her to change into.)

Then she decided she wanted to learn about animals, so Alex gave her a lesson on Chicks and Horses, and she enjoyed that very much. That wasn't enough, so she learned all about Teddy Bears, and she liked that so much she gave one of them a big hug! She is very affectionate. (OH, OK, so she was actually chewing on the bear, what can I say!. . . )

After that very important lesson, we went outside today to enjoy some sunshine with Sofia, and outside we found about 10 babies and 6 toddlers with their caregivers. Those children are beautiful, and our hearts went out to all. To me it was a bit emotional -- for those of you who know, Nina was amongst those children and she is doing well. How we hope and pray that they will all be adopted and be given a loving home!! We were allowed to take some photos of those children, but we are not posting them. Here are photos of some of the caregivers, though. They are wonderful people and we appreciate them very much for all they do.

But, here are The Big News: last night we learned that according to the Judge (who is new in the adoption sector) I will have to stay in Kazakhstan for the remainder of our journey. This came as a big shock. Mike and I expected to return to the US for a couple of weeks, and I was planning on gathering the baby's suitcase with food, formula, diapers, medications, etc. and returning to pick up the baby in Kostanai and then to Almaty for Embassy paperwork etc. Well, it's not going to be that way. Mike and I have our court date meeting with the Judge on June 19th, then we have one day of papersigning followed by picking up Sofia from the Baby House on the 20th, and then we all fly to Almaty on a four-hour flight on the 21st. There Mike will help me settle in for about a day and a half, buy a small stroller, clothing, baby stuff, etc., and then if all works well with flights availability he will return to the US with Alex and Dominique on June 23rd. I will have to stay back with Sofia for about 3 weeks or more, and hopefully be home by July 15th. I'll be myself with Sofia in Almaty, but hopefully only for about 10 days when Sandy and her mother Helen return after they fix their visa problems. How about that?? I'm still a bit stunned and still digesting this . . . .

I guess the biggest lesson I've learned from all this is the following, folks: when you go on a trip. . . . . . don't EVER leave home without touching the roots of your hair, because you never know when you may be in a foreign country without your trusted hairdresser for almost 2 months !!!! . . . No one is going to recognize me when I get off the airplane in July -- I'll be a brunette with blonde ends! Oh well, I was getting tired of being a blonde anyway!!

That's it for today. Hugs, miss you all and Das Vedanyah!!