Kazakhstan - Mountains = Texas

Today was Nauryz. We started with a brief visit to the town square to see all the preparations. It is kind of like our State Fair in that many local businesses come out and exhibit their wares, there are lots of amusements for the kids and there is plenty of food. In fact, except for the mountains, Kazakhstan is very much like Texas: lots of wide open spaces, cows, horses. Here is more proof:



The first time we went to the square he had horns (the bull, not Jim). I guess someone got gored so they took the horns off. Later in the afternoon there were about 20 kids using the bull and its air cushions as a bouncehouse. Thankfully the bull wasn't in motion at the time.

We then went to see Alex who gets more and more excited each time Vera appears in his room because he knows that she is going to bring him to those strange people who talk funny (us). The nannies in Alex's room have told Vera that the whole orphanage is abuzz and in awe of Jim since he gave such a heartfelt and eloquent toast at the Nauryz party held at the baby house Saturday. They say that I am a little shy. They think Alex is a very fortunate baby to have such a loving and kind father--and I think so, too.

After our visit, we made another trip to the Russian Orthodox church for more photos, then back to the hotel. Slava's family came over and we walked around the Nauryz festival and sat down for lunch in a cafe. The weather was perfect so we sat outside and at manty (delicious! just like chines potstickers) and shashlik. We were having a good time talking when Jim slipped away to pull the classic 'Pop' maneuver of settling the tab with the waitress before the bill even gets to the table. He also asked the waitress to add an ice cream to the tab before paying since Zhenya (the youngest daugther) had been wanting one. It was really cute to see her eyes light up when the waitress brought her the dish of ice cream. She was looking all around trying to figure out who had sent it over to our table for her. When we were ready to go, Jim told Slava (via Ulia) that he had already paid. They must have thought that he was joking so Slava went to pay the waitress only to find out that you don't mess with Texas.

This was our last time to see Slava's family before leaving Taraz so we had a sad goodbye. Ulia gave us an envelope that contained their contact information as well as a very sweet letter expressing how much it had meant to her and her family to spend time with us. The feelings are mutual and we told them that we will come back to Taraz with Sam and Alex (and Natalia and Kevin) in the future.

We came back to the hotel to relax and then headed over to the Petersons for dinner. There is a Kazakh family on the 4th floor of their apartment building who works for Interlink and she had offered to cook for the Petersons so they had her make the traditional Kazakh dish bishbarmak. It was very tasty. Sholpan even made the horse sausage from scratch over the weekend and made the noodles from scratch as well, rolling them out of the Peterson's kitchen table. It was very delicious and we ate it Kazakh-style: with our fingers. Very good, even though I skipped over the sheep fat. I'm sure it is delicious, I'm just not quite to that point yet.

Tomorrow at 3:00 is our final court hearing and the judge will decide if we will indeed be Alex's parents. We will visit Alex in the morning and then prepare for that. Jim has almost perfected the parts of his speech that he wants to give
in Russian. So pray that it all turns out OK!