Preparing for the next step...

Now that we have a court date, we're moving into the next phase of our journey. We're distributing the “thank you” gifts we brought from home to our adoption staff here. (Our drivers are getting Red Sox caps...of course! Our buddy Arman got a Red Sox cap, a Salem t-shirt, and some cheese powder so he can make American mac & cheese for his family. For Alma, we're still thinking of the perfect gift...but it's looking like an unlocked Blackberry might be just the ticket for someone who has to organize all the details that she has to keep track of!) We've already bought gifts for our kids at home (No, kids, I'm still not telling you what we got, it's a surprise.) and also some souvenirs and mementos to bring home from our 3rd adoption adventure.

It's Saturday here; the weekends can hang heavy without much scheduled but we're keeping busy today We've been to the notary's office to sign more documents and with our friend Yulia's help, we've booked our flight from Ust-K to Almaty for Thursday and changed our Lufthansa reservations for our flight home from Monday to Friday. We also were able to buy books for Aniyar and Madiyar with Yulia's help. We even have plans this evening; our friend Olga has invited us to her home for supper. It will be a real party with Yulia, Jenya, Olga, Andrei, and the two of us. I'll be taking pictures as usual and posting the pictures later. In the meantime, here's a pic from the last time we ate at Olga's house in the summer of 2007...remember what a great time we all had?
We'll also be visiting at Yulia's again tomorrow; I'm very excited that I'll get to meet Yulia's deaf cousin who I've heard so much about! Aren't we lucky to have such wonderful friends?

Tomorrow, we will meet with Alma briefly to prepare for our court appearance. We still don't know what time court is on Tuesday but I'm sure someone will tell us when it's time for us to know...in the meantime, I'm practicing my deep calming breaths....again.