Vew from Almaty Hotel Balcony

Day 25-- January 13, 2009

Well…..you can put the champagne on ice. We were told today that the judge is reviewing our documents, and everything looks fine so far. We are tentatively set for approval on Thursday. Yea!

The picture above from our hotel balcony helps us look past some of the challenges!

Aidar had a good day as well. When we arrived at the baby house this morning, guess who was out for the day? Aidar! They apparently had a field trip to an animal show. How sweet. So, John and I went to Silkway City, a shopping mall that is three levels high, but still small compared to those in the U.S. John bought a new tie for court, and I bought a cute pink Kazakh wool hat. (From JH-Cindie made me buy some new dress socks for Thursday, I told her that if my socks we a deal breaker then we were definitely in the wrong place :-)

We went back to the baby house this afternoon, and had a fun session with our little guy. The odd thing is that lately, he doesn’t want to play with any of his toys, but prefers to be held by John, and then just having John catch him whenever he tries to walk away. He absolutely adores John. He is really getting that “male bonding” thing going. I still get hugs and kisses, but John gets the “toss me around” part that kids love so well. Aidar also loves the flashlight. He plays with the light on the wall, under our hands, looking in our mouths, eyes, ears, whatever he can find. Aidar is trying out some English and sign language, but we pretty much know what he is asking for when he does speak. He desperately needs the cleft team’s help. We’re going to try to set up an appointment as soon as we can.

This evening, we ended up having to go back to our original hotel with our translator to get some billing straightened out. Apparently, when we checked out a day early, that was something that they overlooked. We got it taken care of, but I’m afraid that they may make the girl who did our final expenses pay for the extra day. I really hope not.

This is a Kazakhstan New Year from the end of the Soviet era, so someone is setting off fireworks every night.

Mom, I hope Boo is behaving himself. Maybe you can set up a play date with Jamima.

Hope you all are doing well and staying warm. We’re FREEZING here!