We Made It (Barely)!

Well, we finally got here. Our flights went well until we were on approach to Almaty. There was a thick fog and they wouldn't let us land so we had to circle the airport. Then we got word that conditions had improved so we started our approach...only to be told that we had to circle again because conditions had worsened. This went on a few times but on our third approach we finally got clearance to land. The fog didn't look so bad from up in the sky but it was actually very thick. I could barely see the tip of the plane wing from my seat. Taxiing into the airport had me on pins and needles since we had seen at least 4 other planes circling and I was convinced we were going to cross paths with a landing jet. We found out this morning that we were the last jet to land and the others that had been circling go rerouted to Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. Whew!

Ice and snow are on the ground. We stayed at the Hotel Almaty last night and it is all you would expect of a former Soviet Republic hotel. We were just happy to have the firm mattress on the bed and plenty of covers because we couldn't figure out the heating system. I think it has something to do with running the hot water because this morning when I got up to take a shower the hot water heater in the bathroom was freezing cold but once I started running hot water in the tub the bathroom's hot water heater warmed up. There is also a funny little door above the toilet that I thought would be some kind of medicine chest. I opened it to find a bunch of plumbing pipes and cut-off valves...and another door behind the pipes that was partially open so we had a great view of our neighbors' bathroom!

There is a HUGE 22 story condo development going up right next to the hotel. Very Western and interesting with all the amenities--pool, fitness center, etc. I'm sure it will give the highrises on Turtle Creek a run for their money.

Jim's Russian is impressing the locals although we had a hard time buying postcard stamps at the post office a few minutes ago.

We take the overnight train to Taraz tonight and go to the 'baby house' tomorrow! It might take us a while to figure out internet access once we are there. I hope to be able to post photos, too.

Thin Mints

We are only a couple of hours from departure! We packed everything last night and had plenty of room but thought the bags would be over our 70 lb. weight limit. So we put them up on the bathroom scale and found out we were 10 lbs. under limit on each bag! So I had to let Jim take the hardback copy of Michener's "Texas", which seems to weigh about 10 lbs.

I just sent Jim on a fool's errand to Target for some last minute stuff so I could secretly pack our remaining 2 boxes of Thin Mint cookies. Shhhhhhh...its a secret. I figure if we get in a bind in KZ we can either use them as a bribe or sell them to the highest bidder for extra cash.

Tellers With Tact

When you adopt a baby from Eastern Europe you have to take over a wad of cash to pay for the in-country orphanage fee, lodging, translators, drivers, train tickets, etc. The Kazakhs prefer their cash in US Dollars; $50s or $100s; crisp and clean, no marks, tears of creases. So I contacted our bank to go about getting the perfect cash for our trip. It was a harder job than I thought it would be.

I specifically told them that I needed new bills. Upon arriving at the bank on Friday I was informed that they can't get new bills, they generally 'recycle' what they get from their customers and would pick out the best bills for us. So I left the bank with a bunch of money, 80% of which would not pass Kazakh muster. Thankfully, our bank has lobby hours on Saturday mornings. I arrived at my usual branch at 9 and went to the teller who had given me the money the day before to see if he had any other newer bills to swap with me. He said he didn't and couldn't. I asked if they had any cash and he said they didn't. Yes, AT THE BANK! No cash. It was more a matter of unwillingness than inability. So I went on to Branch Number Two.

At Branch Number Two I explained to the teller that we were going to adopt, I had to carry major bucks in US cash and I wanted to exchange my 'subpar' bills for crisp new ones. This teller reluctantly riffled through the money in her cash drawer to pull out a few decent 50s and 100s. While we were doing this she asked why I had to carry so much on me so I explained a little bit about how it worked, paying the in-country adoption fee, etc. And Ms. Tact blurts out, "You're going to buy a baby with cash?!?!" Then CPS broke through the doors and carted me off. No, seriously, I realized this wasn't going to work.

At Branch Number Three I walked up to Jessica Aguilera's window and explained the situation. I was amazed when she not only started going through all her cash but also got the other two tellers on duty to do the same! She was able to set me up with about 1/2 the money we'll need and was so awesome to work with. I'll be going there this week to get the rest of the money. Woohooooo! Persistence pays off and you sometimes are able to find a diamond in the rough. Thanks, Jessica! Now I'll be able to buy a baby with cash :)

UPDATE: More brand new cash was located at Chase Bank. Also, big thanks to John and Grand Bank for arranging the balance of the cash I needed to take with me!

Eight Days Away

We leave in 8 days and are doing final preparation for our trip. We went to Half Price Books today and I bought a couple of crossword puzzle books. I'm hoping they last! I am going to raid some friends' 'libraries' this week for reading material. And we have to give a special shout-out to Kevin and Emily for letting us raid their DVD collection and, most especially, for the loan of their ipod during our trip. Jim was grinning from ear to ear when he got it and has been busy loading it up.

We also found out that the wife of Jim's college roommate has family in Taraz. She (Natalia) is from Russia and lived just south of Kazakhstan for a time while growing up. We are hoping to meet her relatives while we are in Taraz.

Sam was sick last night. We're hoping we don't catch what he had. It would make for a very unpleasant plane ride!

Treasure

Last Sunday (the 30th) I was invited to share our adoption story at all three worship services at church. Let me back up a bit...on January 9 our church gave out a grand total of $14,000 to the members and gave us all the challenge of using that money outside the church walls to help people in any way we liked. We were to report back over the following 3 Sundays by dropping a note describing what we did with the money in the collection basket. I decided to try to grow our money (I got $10 and Jim got $3) by donating a bunch of our unused and unneeded "stuff" to charity and working out the value of our donation and pooling it with the church money. I also returned a bunch of "stuff" to Target and added that to our fund. My plan was to use the money to buy medical supplies for the orphanage in Kazakhstan.

We were overwhelmed by the generosity of our church! After speaking, people we had never seen before were pressing money into our hands so that we could buy more supplies for the orphanage. We started with $13 and we now have $1500 to use! I have been in touch with a Christian aid organization in Taraz. They work with the orphanages and are going to send me a list of things that they need. There is also the possibility that we could underwrite corrective cleft palate or eye surgery for a child. We are so excited to see this project come to fruition and are amazed by God's perfect timing--in our adoption, our church's new missionary focus on Kazakhstan and the outreach challenge we received from church, all coinciding in bringing supplies to the orphanage!

Our Timeline

A popular subject on message boards is how long it takes to get the dossier together, translated, and through the system. Here is our timeline for the 'major' events in the life of our dossier:

Early/mid June--start talking about adopting
June 30, 2004--homestudy interview done
July--doctor appointments, references, background checks, etc. to complete homestudy
July 12, 2004--BCIS fingerprints done
August 17, 2004--homestudy complete
September 13, 2004--I-171H received
September 24, 2004--dossier complete
October 1, 2004--dossier sent to translator
October 15, 2004--dossier out of translation
October 20, 2004--dossier sent to Kazakhstan Consulate in New York
November 23, 2004--dossier sent to Kazakhstan
January 10, 2005--dossier clears Kazakhstan government Ministries
February 4, 2005--Letter of Invitation received!!!

And just in time for us to book 21-day advance purchase tickets. Woohooooooo! Go Team Kazakhstan! We are scheduled to arrive in Almaty on February 28.