(Maureen's Post)
Today we left Kokshetau and headed for Almaty. As I predicted, leaving was bittersweet, as we were glad to be another step closer to home but sad to say goodbye to Inna and Oleg. We will miss them very much.

The Kokshetau airport is very small and old. I had my first experience with a pit toilet here (in a stall). That's what I get for drinking a large glass of water right before we left the apartment. For future families coming to Kokshetau, there's no toilet paper in the ladies room, so bring your own if you absolutely must go. Travel Charmin is a Godsend!

This flight had 5 babies on it: James, Owen Mechem, Garrett Kurtz (three of the five Kokshetau hamsters), and the Sullivan twins from Tschuchinsk, Ryan and Lauren. The Yak-40 that we flew on this time was a newer plane than our last one (relatively speaking), and we had a slightly more comfortable flight. Of course, as we expected but hoped wouldn't happen, James had a meltdown on the plane about an hour into the flight. He cried and screamed for about 15 minutes straight before finally falling asleep. He pretty much slept for the rest of the flight, finally waking up while we were descending. We didn't feel so bad, since Owen Mechem had his turn of fussiness, too, just not as long or loud as James was. Poor babies - so many changes going on at once.

One thing we noticed is the temperature difference here. It's much warmer in Almaty - by almost 15 to 20 degrees. When we left Kokshetau, the expected high temp for today was expected to be 15 degrees Fahrenheit, and the high temp in Almaty was almost at the freezing point of 32 degrees Fahrenheit - big difference.

Once we arrived and unloaded our luggage we were met by our driver here in Almaty, Andrei. He speaks English very well and is very nice. He has a 5-month old daughter, himself. He loaded our luggage up in his Toyota Prado (Landcruiser). The driver side in this vehicle is on the right; we've seen both left and right-sided driver vehicles here. People do drive on the right side of the road here, though.

Andrei took us first by a photo store to get James' picture taken, I believe for his visa to enter the United States. Then we went to the Sisters' office to sign some papers. Then we were off to the SOS International Clinic for James' exit medical exam. James now weighs in at 18.6 lbs and is 25.5 inches long. And we actually suspect that he weighs a little more than that because his left hand and foot were touching the wall when he was being weighed. The doctor briefly went over his medical report with us and told us that James is now in the 50th percentile for his weight and somewhere in between 10th and 25th percentile in height. He then briefly examined him. Of course, this was when James was demonstrating just how much energy he can have. He loves to kick his legs, and when he's very excited he kicks at lightning speed. The doctor commented that once he learns how to crawl that he's going to be very fast, and it will be difficult to keep up with him. Yay.

I didn't expect it to happen, but coming to Almaty after being in Kokshetau for over five weeks was a bit of a culture shock. As Andrei drove us to the apartment we'll be staying in, I was looking around at the "big city" with new eyes compared to the last time we were here when we first arrived, noting how much newer and bigger buildings seemed to be. There were so many more people and lots more traffic. Our apartment is on the third floor of a building and is quite large in comparison to the one we stayed in Kokshetau. The third floor is also the top floor, so no noisy neighbors throwing late-night parties here! This one has two bedrooms. Plus, there's a little grocery store just two doors down from our building. Not a huge one, but at least we could get bread and water. Since it was such a busy day today, we opted to stay in and get settled in. Dinner tonight was peanut butter sandwiches - fancy, yes? Sean was able to get a Nursat I-card for calling cell phones (like our driver's), placing international calls, and accessing the internet. It was just a strip of paper with a bunch of numbers and instructions in Russian. We were too tired to try and decipher it tonight, so we will make an attempt at it tomorrow. Once we do figure it out, we'll post the instructions on how to make cell and international phone calls and connect to the internet tomorrow.

Paka, everyone and love to all!