Watch Out America- Here We Come!

Hey everybody! Guess who's going home this week! Yup, the three of us families in the photo. I am so excited! I just realized that it's labor day weekend there in the States. I hope everyone is having a great weekend and enjoying an extra day off. Things here have been good. We are very very slowly figuring things out with our guy and getting a bit more sure of ourselves in knowing what to worry about and what not to. And he's getting a lot more comfortable with us too. We had another uneventful day today for the most part. Get up, go for a walk, spend the day eating and sleeping in the blazing heat of our apartment (it's cooler than outside at least). Oh and we had Gulsanna and Baheet come by to fill out some paperwork for his embassy registration. He is totally and completely obsessed with Gulsanna- he wouldn't leave her alone and kept crawling over to her feet and fussing to be picked up. I think he likes her more than I do and I think she's great. But instead of just another walk and then bed tonight, we met up with everyone at our friend, Soraya's, apartment to have a farewell dinner (and her court date was today so it was a celebration for her too- yay!). Everyone pitched in and we had a really nice time seeing everyone one last time. And I think Rinat really enjoyed it a lot. He seems to be quite a people person. The more activity that is going on, the happier he is. So he spent the whole hour long walk over there laughing and smiling and waving at the traffic and people on the street and then spent the whole 2 hours that we were at dinner happy and playing. Then of course he fell asleep in the Bjorn on the way home. It has been a really exciting, happy time for us here in Kazakhstan and there are really only a handful of people who will ever understand the whole range of emotions that us adoptive parents go through over the course of the almost two months that we are here. From the initial meeting of your child, through the bonding period, to the court date, and crossing your fingers waiting through the appeals, it is more of a roller coaster than anyone can know. It is the people here who offer the support and encouragement to make the whole process so wonderful and let us know that what we are all going through the same feelings. So many thanks to all of the other adoptive parents here in KStan who made it a easier and more enjoyable to be a million miles away from anything and anyone familiar while going through the most drastic change of our lives. Thank you so much to: Meagan/Tony (and Taylor), Annette/Merwan (and Kate), Jennifer/Mike/Sarah (and Matthew), Denise/Rolando (and Claudia), Soraya (and Maxium), Carolyn (and Sabina), Jen/Jay (and Nuzhan). (Did I leave someone out? I feel like I did but maybe it's the lack of sleep over the last week- if I did, sorry). It has been a wonderful and crazy time. And to those of you who are still here in Astana waiting- good luck. I can't wait to hear the happy news that you too are headed home with your baby. And now I'm off to bed. -m