Getting Ready.....

We are getting ready to travel back to Kazakhstan! It has been so long waiting and now we are down to the wire and thinking where did the time go....

We leave on Friday.....flying from Washington Dulles to Amsterdam, arriving around 730am on Saturday--their time. This time we are overnighting in Amsterdam with Andrew, instead of waiting the 10 plus hours for the connecting flight to Almaty. We plan on taking some tours (windmills, wooden shoes, cheese, Ann Frank House) and possibly a canal cruise if the weather cooperates. Andrew is very excited on all accounts!

On Sunday we will reunite with 3 other adoptive families in Amsterdam. We all fly together from Amsterdam to Almaty, arriving Monday morning, Jan. 26th. This trip we will only go to Almaty (which is where the US Embassy is located). The babies will be escorted by the orphanage doctors and staff on a flight from Karaganda to Almaty Wednesday morning. We can't wait! We will have a couple days to get adjusted to the 11 hour time change and prepare for the babies to arrive! The rest of the families from our group will arrive Tuesday. There will be 7 babies coming to Almaty. Wednesday we will have our SOS clinic doctor's appointment. Thursday is a free day and Friday is our Embassy appointment. We will leave on Saturday, Jan. 31st at 425am--arriving home the same day, with the gain of 11 hours (hopefully that is, as we are flying standby this time around). It should be interesting traveling with a baby that has not been out of the orphanage since she was 7 days old, for 30 hours and with Andrew as well--all on standby! Oh what an adventure! We'll just have to keep our eye on the prize--Home sweet home as a family of 4!

The baby's room is ready.....as is her closet and drawers. Mommy has been, well, yes shopping! This has become my favorite past time since I am home now! I guess it was my favorite past time before, now I just have more time to do it. We made one last trip to Babies R Us this past weekend. We picked up some flannel crib sheets, as this is what she had in her crib in the baby house and we want everything to be as familiar as possible. We also got one of those musical soother things that hangs on her crib and plays lullabies (too bad we don't have a Russian version). Andrew had a underwater sea creatures one with bubbles and loved it. This one even has a light show that projects on the ceiling--baby things have become much more advanced in 5 years. We know it will be a big adjustment to going from sleeping in a room with 10 other babies to having the quiet of her own room.

Also, a heartfelt thank you to my good friend from high school, Laura. She had made for Adelyn, the most amazing, beautiful homemade quilt. Her Mom pieced it together and then Laura had it sewn. We haven't seen each other for a long time, but have kept in touch over the years. We are saving the baby's gifts for when she gets home, so she can be a part of opening them--thank you for sending them! We had to take our Christmas tree down this week. Since it was live, it would not have held up another 10 days, for when we arrive home. We were hoping to be able to leave it up for her and have her presents waiting under it for her.