We had a lovely time last night at dinner with the other families. Of course, we were there, as were the Kaplans, the Chinns, Deb and Jeremy Slater from Canada, and two single moms from France, Marie and Marion (Marion just arrived to Karaganda today and will start bonding with her child tomorrow). As we predicted, everyone else got positive verdicts, too! Actually, I think we wore down the judge because we later found out that everyone else was only in their hearings for about 15-20 minutes! The food was wonderful (Sean and I both had lamb and James had his usual chicken and french fries). The drinks were great, too. Over the course of this trip, I think I have made a new cherry juice and vodka fan out of Cindy Kaplan! After dinner was over we took a taxi cab back to the apartment which was humorous, in itself. We shared the cab with the Chinns, who happened to have their address written down. They showed it to the driver, and he new exactly where to go. We, however, did not have our written apartment address with us - yes, us, the ones who normally over-prepare for everything! I guess once court was over we let our guard down - haha! Anyway, once the cab driver dropped off the Chinns at their apartment and we didn't get out of the car, the driver looked at us like, "what the heck are you still doing here?" So, Sean used body language and what little Russian he knows to give directions to our apartment (which was close-by, anyway). Too funny!
This morning we went to the notary's office to sign court documents before a short visit with Michael. As I said in yesterday's post, there is a 15-day waiting period before the court's decision goes into effect. So, one day down and 14 more to go - but who's counting? This afternoon we all went to visit Michael again, the last time our family of four will be together for a little while. He was so vocal and responsive today, giving us so many smiles and coos and giggles. It was so incredibly hard to leave him at the end of our afternoon visit, to put him down for his nap today knowing that he will wake up tomorrow looking for us and we won't be there, and for us not knowing exactly when we'll be back to bring him home. I cried as we were saying goodbye, and Zina, Michael's favorite caregiver, tried to make me feel better, as did Cindy and Deb and Jeremy. I feel like I'm leaving a piece of me here in Kazakhstan. We're sure that he will be taken care of while we're gone, but knowing that doesn't make leaving him any easier.
So, we are now finishing up our packing to come home. This will probably be our last post in Kazakhstan. We are flying out of Karaganda tonight and will finally land back in Houston 32 hours later. Yes, I said 32 hours - that includes all 4 flights and all our layovers, so I'm sure we'll be thoroughly exhausted by the time we make it home. James was a great trooper on the way coming over here, and I hope he will be the same way going home.
Pics from last night's dinner:
A couple more pics from around Karaganda on our way to the notary's office:
Belated Happy Birthday to my sister Marilyn!
(sorry, but couldn't get either boy to smile)
One more Karaganda sunset for the road...
Thanks again to everyone for all your love and support! We'll check back in once we're stateside.
