Our First Day of Visiting!!!

We didnt' sleep much the night before and we were downstairs at 9:30am waiting to be picked up at 9:45am. By 9:50 we started to worry that we were in the wrong spot since there was still no sign of our driver. While Michael waited with our bag, I went up and phoned Aliya. She told me the driver had phoned at the last minute to say he couldn't make it and they had been scrambling to find another, but were now on their way.

When we arrived we went to Kaz's room to pick him up and then got to spend the next 1 1/2 in the play room with him! It went by very quickly. We took many pictures and video we wish we could share with you right away.(We are not supposed to and are afraid if we break the rules, they could stop the process.) (And we have looked at the video several times since we got back to the apartment!) The more we see of him the more we are sure he was meant to be ours. At the same time it is still very surreal and the only way to describe it, is to say that we are so used to being aunt and uncle or friend that we keep waiting for his mom or dad to come into the room. As I read this it doesn't quite explain it but it is as close as I can come. We are also scared to get too hopeful just incase something goes wrong along the way, although we are probably just paranoid. Kaz was just as happy as yesterday, and we even got him to laugh out loud! All too soon it was time to take him back to his room for his nap. It was hard since we were ready too take him home as soon as we picked him up!

Whose hand is whose? - they didn't say we couldn't show his little arm!

There were two other families in the play area with us, both bonding with daughters, and both firls just a little older than Kaz (one is twice his size, the other smaller!- both seemed very serious next to our smiling, laughing boy!). They (the parents) were all from the U.S. and had almost completed the two week bonding period. (We ran into one couple at the "good old" Ram store and they invited us for supper on Friday night with them and a few other couples.)

We asked Aliya to come for lunch with us incase we need help with the menu, but it turned out to be a business lunch (buffet)! We enjoyed it none the less. We saw a little more of the city on our walk back.

Aliya and Jennifer after they stuffed themselves full!

As mentioned, we went to the Ram store again to pick up some "fruit tea" for Kaz. The aisles there are so narrow that even the small carts are tricky to maneuver past each other. Michael ended up getting his jambed with another woman's and had to lift his out of the way to allow her to pass! It is interesting to see they carry some familiar products but in different packages - for example the 2L pop bottles are taller and narrower! (They have the same shampoos, air fresheners, pringles, tide to name a few.) Some of the other items we want to buy are a little harder to figure out. Milk is rarely refrigerated (Jila helped us with that one) but at least the most of the price tags have tiny printed English on them! We also found buying eggs strange!

It is hard to get used to the way they post their prices and the money (Tenge) since 1 USD is worth 121 tenge and prices are listed in hundred or thousands and you carry around 1000 dollar bills! (for example, pepsi costs 165 tenge and MGD costs 155 tenge!) Michael read on the plane that the 10000 tenge bill is the best in the world when it comes to not being able to make counterfeit. Here is a sample of the currency, as you will see it is very elaborate. They also have 2000, 1000, 500 and 200 bills.

Pictured here is a 5000 tenge bill and a 100, 50, 10 and 1 coin

Just when we thought jet lag was no big deal, we got hit hard today and were so tired that we slept for three hours this afternoon and wanted to keep sleeping!