Fabulous Weekend

Hi All- So we had a wonderful weekend with my friend Carson in town and we absolutely adored having her little guy here too- he is SUCH a cutie. Talk about a belly laugh. We spent a lot of time talking about our upcoming adventure, did a little organizing, did a little shopping, went to dinner. It was great. And her quick little weekend actually turned into a long weekend when her flight was cancelled. I have to admit I was really happy to have another day with the both of them. But when I dropped her off this morning, I realized that we only have about 48 hours left before we go. I'm freaking out! Peter the Procrastinator has finally started packing tonight though thank goodness. So I think we will be ready to go soon (we better be, right?). Peter's sis, Ann, is coming in for the day tomorrow to help out and hang out. Peter has a few errands but the only thing I am planning on doing is going to the Textile Museum tomorrow to check out the exhibit on Tent Bands of Central Asia. I thought we might buy a rug while we're over in K-stan so I thought I'd like to learn a little bit about them. And I am dying to see the movie Knocked Up so maybe we'll head to that tomorrow night to keep our minds off of things. That and an Ambien should do the trick. Then we'll wake up and get ready to head out. OMG! -m

Keep the comments coming!

Hi all- I just wanted to say how happy it makes me to hear "You've got mail" and see that someone else has left a comment on our blog (I set it up so that it emails me every time). It makes me happy to know that we are not the only ones who are looking forward to meeting our little one. The only frustration is that I can't reply to the comments. I tried but all I can figure out to do is leave a comment myself. Anyway, keep them coming or send emails if you feel like it. Peter and I read each one and love to hear your enthusiasm! -m

Leaving on a Jet Plane

Happy Birthday Mer!
Plane tickets are purchased! We are flying on missionary tickets which I think is kind of funny but our travel guy said they are the cheapest we could buy. Cheap being a relative term of course since the flights to Kaz are unbelievable expensive ( more than twice as much as either of my trips to India or Thailand). And now we are pretty much done with the bulk of errand running and phone call making and now we just need to pack everything up and go.
My friend Carson is coming this weekend to help us get ready and to spend some time being excited with us. She calls every day to ask "Are you excited yet?" but I think she is almost as excited we are. She is bringing her little chunkster who is about the same age that our little one is so we are doing a dry run to figure out what we still need to get to be ready. I'm sure that there are about a million things that we haven't even though of. Better to figure it out now rather than after we get home, right? -m
ps- My case worker says the baby house people have a baby in mind for us already. Isn't that a weird thought? He/She/They are there just waiting for us.

Paperwork Finished!

Hi all! So I think we are finally finished with paperwork (knock knock knock on wood). We made what I hope is our last trip downtown to the secretary of state. Also, Peter got his last 2 shots today- sitting instead of lying down no less! He's a big boy now. And I finished painting the living room and it's now all put back in place. My list is dwindling... As a matter of fact, I'm going to go sit and veg out for a while... -m

The Sunny Yellow Nursery

I thought you guys might want to see the new color in the nursery. We painted it yellow at the suggestion Aunt Ann. The walls are pretty bare right now but I figure we'll get some stuff in KStan to frame and put on the walls to remind our little guy where he/she came from.

Visa Status

Our visas just arrived! Thank goodness! That's one BIG stress inducing thing to cross off our list. Now we just have a few more things to get notarized/apostiled. And I definitely have to find a pediatrician. Later...

-m

Last Few Lazy Days

Hi all-

Peter and I spent the last couple of days down at his mom's lake house soaking up the last little bit of quiet that we have left before the little one joins us. As I packed up early this morning, I thought to myself 'The next time I pack a bag, we'll be jumping on the plane that leads us to our child.' I think it's hit me that it won't be just the two of us any longer. I am really excited about what is coming up for us, but it's also kind of feels like an end of an era. I guess it has been more than a decade of just us- time to add a little excitement to the mix! Enjoy the one and only photo that I took as we pulled out of the driveway. (I am trying to figure out how to paste in a photo before we get there. I know that is what everyone really wants- to see photos of our little Kazakh).

-Maren