Delays

Well, we are still in Almaty.  Alina's passport wasn't ready so we had to reschedule our departure.  We had the embassy appt. yesterday and got her passport and visa there.  We are scheduled to leave tonight at 3:15am.  We will arrive in Boise, Idaho at 8pm on the 31st!!  We are very excited to get Alina onto US soil.  She will officially be a US citizen when we land in Denver!

These posts have been short this trip, but I am planning on telling the whole tale after we get back home=)

Sunday in Almaty

We all woke refreshed this morning. It is nice to have all the amenities a big city has to offer.
The Hotel Kazzhol is very nice and not too expensive. They have a large business center that charges 400tenge for 30 min online. It is a little pricey for me, so we found an internet cafe that charges 350tenge for 1 hour. The breakfast buffet also comes with the room and is really very good. The beds are fairly soft and the room has a small fridge too.

This morning we went for a walk to get Alina's passport photos redone. She was too smiley in the other ones they had done in Taraz. We found a large department store that is very like a mall. It has an internet cafe on the 3rd floor and a large grocery store on the first floor. There is even a Claire's Boutique=)

We are going to have a very easy day today and relax. We are still feeling a bit tired from the long night we had waiting for the train. The train was nice in that we could relax and lay down. We had a two bed compartment. I had Alina sleep on top of me (she really likes to cuddle and prefers to be touching me). The bathroom should be used sparingly. It is pretty gross. We went in armed with wet wipes. To flush there is a pedal on the floor you step on and a hole opens up and you can see the tracks through it. Yuck. We weren't sure when to get off the train, and were surprised when a lady came by and shooed us out saying "Almaty!" We stuffed things back into suitcases and started to get off. A man came into the car we were in and introduced himself as Nikolai. He was there to help us. He took us (the Robeys were with us as well) to the hotel and went through our documents. Later, Oleg came to help us fill out more documents for the embassy appointment.

That's about it for now! Alina is getting anxious to get moving so we are going to go to the grocery and then back to the hotel.

We made it to Almaty!

We are here!  Our train was 6.5 hours late getting to Taraz.  We didn't get on until 4am.  We headed to the train station at 9:30 pm but were told it was 3 hours late.  So we went back to the hotel and they were nice enough to give us our rooms for a couple of hours.  We took a nap then headed back to the station at midnight.  We were then told it would still be another 3.5 hours.  We decided to wait there this time. 

I will save the story of the train ride for later since my minutes are about to run out=)

The hotel Kazzhol is very nice!  We were pleasantly surprised=)  We are all doing well, though Alina had a fever yesterday and is sniffly today.  We go to her medical appt. on Monday and then to the embassy on Tuesday!

Heading to Almaty

All Alina's documents are finally done! We are going by train to Almaty tonight and will arrive in the morning. We are really looking forward to the train ride rather than going by car. We will have a 4 seat compartment that changes into 4 beds so plenty of room!

Alina woke very happy this morning and didn't give us the usual fussiness. I think she is more sure that we are going to be there in the morning now when she wakes up. I didn't even get a protest when I started clearing the breakfast stuff away after she finished eating. Hopefully this lasts! With all the changes ahead of her I wouldn't doubt we will see a bit of the fussiness return.

I am hoping we will have computer access in Almaty, so I will try to post there about the embassy appointment and doctor's visit.

Bye for now....

Alina

Alina is doing great! She has been full of smiles for my mother and I. Our only problems have been with eating. She eats great, but doesn't want to stop=) When we finally take away the food she has a little tantrum. I can usually get her out of it by picking her up and taking her out of the room. We are going to have to work on letting her know that there will be more food later and not to eat herself sick.

Sorry this is short, but my time is pretty full right now=) I will try to get pictures and more information when I return home. We are awaiting the return of our passports and we will be able to head to Almaty! We will be taking the train there.

Thank you everyone for all the well wishes!

We have her!

Mom and I went to the baby house this afternoon at 3 to pick up Alina and bring her to the hotel. The car ride back to the hotel was interesting as we didn't have a carseat and we were swerving around all over the place. I was trying to keep Alina from bouncing around too much. She was a bit scared. When we got to our room at the hotel she started relaxing more and playing with her toys. I think she is getting tired though, and so are we=) It will be an early night for all of us.
More tomorrow....

Home again!

The girls and I went to visit grandparents in Salt Lake City last week, then took off for our 2 day drive home. We arrived on Tuesday the 14th. I leave for Kazakhstan tomorrow the 17th! I managed to get all the laundry done from our 3.5 month stay in Idaho and everything is put away. I am even packed and ready to go! I am so excited that finally we are bringing our little girl home!

I will try to post while in Kaz, but since I won't have my laptop there this time I will be using the hotel computer. Hopefully I will be able to figure out how to use it=) Not sure if I will get any pictures posted until I am back home again, but I will try. We will be back in the states on July 29th.