Happy First Birthday, Sofia!!

Well, we have made it to Almaty, and insanity still hasn't set in, believe it or not!! We said good-bye to our friends who still have another 3 weeks in Kostanai, Lori and Reid and Baby Victor, took some photos of all three babies together, and then we got on the small, Soviet-era airplane for a very loooong 4-hour flight to Almaty. During the flight Sofia was cranky and tired and just wanted to be on the floor, so I paced up and down the small airplane for 2 1/2 hours with her in my arms. And all that time lifting her up above my head so she could touch the lights on the ceiling since the floor was filthy and wet, while the stewardess gave me dirty looks even though I was not in her way and never asked her for anything. As you can imagine my arms were jello by the time we landed, and I was exhausted. Sergey (our coordinator's husband) picked us up and we immediately went on an errand for the Embassy.

We checked into the Hotel Kazzhol at about 5pm and Sandy, Helen and I walked to the chidren's mall about 6 blocks away to buy Karina a stroller, and then it was off to the grocery store to buy baby food and baby needs. We believe that the grocery store's AC was broken, because it must have been in the 90s in there while we shopped. We couldn't believe it, and we were all sweating. Sofia and Karina were troopers, actually, until midway through the shopping and then both just lost it and screamed all the way back to the hotel! We were all exhausted, stressed, sweaty, disheveled, annoyed, and just so ready to be in our homes and into our beds!!

The Kazzhol Hotel is ok -- has AC, elevator, and receptionists who speak some English, and there are even high chairs at the cafe!! (Amazing how after being without, how little things like a high chair can make my day a better one!!) It's much like a Holiday Inn. We were very thankful to be out of Kostanai and in Almaty, but nobody slept that well on Friday night, and on Saturday morning Sergey was back to pick up the girls' birth certificates. Then we were finally able to relax a bit for a day and a half.

Yesterday, Sunday, Sofia turned the Big One, but she was too tired and cranky to celebrate, so this morning (Monday) while having breakfast I gave her a slice of cake and sang her happy birthday at the hotel cafe. She didn't really know what to do with that brown thing in front of her, so she did . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . NOTHING!! As I found out, The Countess is very picky about her cakes, and I guess I'll need to go 'lighter' with the color of the cake next time!! (Thanks Sandy and Helen for the adorable 'Sofia' bib, and the fun book, and thanks Lori and Reid for the colorful and fun doggie!)

After breakfast we were picked up by a Mrs. Lilly to be taken to the clinic to have the girls examined by a doctor who was western-trained. Both Karina and Sofia passed with flying colors!! Sofia was measured and weighed, and is on the 50% scale of the American chart for both. Her health is very good, and unlike what the original hospital chart says about her at birth, she does NOT have paralysis of the right side of the body! It is my understanding that Russian and Kazakh doctors are trained to believe birth is damaging to a child, so every child has some type of CNS damage or other. Well, both Karina and Sofia are absolutely healthy in all aspects.

Mrs. Lilly, by the way, is married to an engineer who makes $300 a month. She has two sons, Dmitri, a pilot, and Viktor, a neurosurgeon. The pilot makes less than $300 a month, and the neurosurgeon makes about $90 a month in a government-run hospital. The government believes that the people who are being treated are the ones who should pay!! How absurd is that when the people's average wages are about $250/month?? It is very sad. These young men, in their early thirties, cannot marry their fiancees because they can't afford to buy (or even rent!) a place to live. Then, if that weren't enough, today the dr. at the clinic told us his sad story. He has moved here from London to work at the clinic, and his family is still in London waiting for him to send for them. He, however, has yet to be paid anything. He has been here for 2 1/2 months, with no wages, and the Embassy will not process his paperwork quickly enough, so he can't even open a bank account. He is ready to pack his bags and go!! It truly is very sad what goes on in this country, and my heart goes out to the people who can barely make it over here!! I am reminded every day how blessed I am to be an American.

Tomorrow we have our appointment at the Embassy, and on Wednesday we go back to pick up the finalized paperwork, including Sofia's passport and all other documents. And Friday we are on our way to America. But of course, given my experience with the short flight from Kostanai to Almaty, I'm more than freaked out -- I'm dreading every moment of that journey home, which is an 8-hour flight to Amsterdam, another 9-hour flight to Detroit, and then another 5 hours to Los Angeles. I just hope that the antihistamine the dr. recommended works on Sofia and helps her to rest, otherwise I don't know how I'm going to make it back in one piece!!

By the way - and some of you already know this! - I loooove bows in little girls' heads. Dominique was unusual in that she allowed me to place bows, hair pins, clips, hats, or whatever on her head, without ever complaining and never taking anything off. So, we had to give it a try on Sofia, poor little thing!! And here it is, a whole 3 seconds of it! Just time enough to take a photo! Oh well, we will just have to keep on trying them on . . . .