Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Getting Closer!





We heard from our adoption agency yesterday (Thanks Karen!) and discovered that our adoption of "T" should be final tomorrow or Friday!!!! Yea! Can't wait for that all-important email to arrive! We also were given a tentative travel date of May 24th to arrive in Bishkek, but we are not booking tickets yet until we are confirmed with the court process completed. However, it does give us a target date...and we have been excitedly checking out hotels online, flight prices (Gulp!) and making plans.


I think we are almost as excited about seeing friends in Almaty as we are about adopting! We have two "adopted" Kazakh daughters there, Salta and Ayana, and we have not seen them in almost 2 years. They came to America and visited us for a month, and we had the most incredible time getting to know them, seeing our country through their eyes, and learning things about Kazakhstan and it's culture that we never could have learned otherwise. During that month we grew to love them very much, and they us as well. Matthew sobbed for over an hour after they left Denver International Airport and asked if we would ever see them again. Happily we are now able to say "yes"!


Salta was our interpreter when we adopted Josh, and she was only 16 at the time but had a great command of the language. She and Ayana are both excellent students in college in Almaty. While they were here we took them to Las Vegas, Denver, camping and shopping, shopping, shopping! They have kindly offered to help us after our coordinator leaves Almaty to return to Bishkek so that we can remain in Almaty for a few days, and I can fly to Petropavlovsk to visit our sponsor daughters there. Speaking no Russian we would be LOST without them and unable to add this extra time to our trip. I know that the girls and I will be up talking long after the boys are asleep, just as we were when they were here, and I will treasure that time with them. I also think it will be nice for them to show us "their" Almaty just as we showed them Montrose! But nothing, I am sure, will compare with the sheer delight they had at visiting Walmart :-) 1:00 AM in the Cosmetics Department with grins on their faces a mile wide! Although the Ramstor in Almaty will probably look pretty good by the time we arrive there :-)


Above are some pictures of my "Saltusha" and "Ayasha"!!! Love You Guys! See you soon!!


5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh yeah! My husband and I have not booked tickets yet either, but are planning on flying out of Chicago via Turkish Air to Bishkek on or around May 23! Please let us know if we can help you with anything at all.

Anonymous said...

Cyndi, I am so excited for you ALL. I just cant wait for your whole family to be together. I loved seeing the pics. The boys are just so handsome and "your" Kazakh girls are such Kazakh beauties! WOW! You and your family are sooooo blessed! I am so very happy for you! Cant wait to follow along on your trip. What a special time for your family.
Love,
Heather Wood mommy to Grant and Allyson

Cindy LaJoy said...

Jamie: Great! Maybe we will meet one another. Email me privately at CyndiLJ@aol.com and we can chat about hooking up when we are there.

Heather: We too are excited for all of us to finally be together, and curious about what he will be like. I am so glad you will be following along with us on the blog, it is so nice to share it all with friends who really understand what it is like!

Cindy

Michelle said...

I am so excited that you have actual dates to look forward to. you have been waiting for court and travel such a long time! What fun to spend extra time in Kazakhstan. A great start to the summer!

Cindy LaJoy said...

Thanks Michelle! At first I was a bit disappointed to be traveling a bit later than we first thought, but it works out great because both my older sons (that sounds so cool!) will be done or almost done with school. It does feel like we have been waiting forever, but all is good and we will have an AWESOME trip, I am SO glad we are all going together!

Cindy