No court after all...

We never got to Ridder today. Alma was supposed to hear something from the court there; she called them several times and they kept stalling her. Each time she called them, they told her to call back later...by 2:00pm, it was clear that there was no point in making the 2 hr trip, especially since the weather was bad...snow, icy roads, and a late start that would have us returning in the pitch dark no doubt played a part in Alma's decision to wait until tomorrow to take us to Ridder. As a result, we have no news regarding a possible court date or anything else.

Here's Plan B: We're supposed to go to Ridder at 7:15 in the morning to try one last time to get a hearing or at least a new date in the next few days. If that doesn't work, Craig and I will leave Ust on Thursday and fly home from Almaty on Friday. We're discussing alternatives and other options that are open to us and Alma will continue to work on our behalf. We'll leave it to Alma to get us a court date in the next few weeks, then we'll return here for court. We plan to see the boys tomorrow and tell them what's up...it's so hard to leave them hanging this way and we don't want them to think we're abandoning them. They've had more than enough of that in their lives already.

We don't know what else to do...Craig is running out of vacation time and our kids at home need us after more than a month away. We're also pretty much mentally exhausted at this point and it's hard to see things clearly. If we can't pull off a miracle tomorrow, then it's time to go home to rest and regroup, then return to fight again another day.

Today it was in the low 20's here, windy, felt colder than it was. The snow is beginning to accumulate when it's not blowing in your face. Feels like we're in Siberia...no, wait, we pretty much are. There are plenty of clouds in the sky...haven't seen too many silver linings lately, though.