12 Days and Counting!!!

So here we are , twelve days from Liftoff!!! Hahahahaha! We are doing well, chipping away at our 3 pages of lists, and hopefully we are not forgetting anything. In twelve days, whatever is forgotten will have to remain forgotten and we can then relax and enjoy the ride. I have been thinking to myself that it is nice this time to not have to worry about strollers and diapers and "stinkies" on the plane!

In a funny twist of fate, we have friends in our small community who are also leaving for Kazakhstan this week to adopt a beautiful little girl, and we wish them all the best. Unfortunately they are in and out of Almaty at different times than we are so we will not be able to get together with them.

We are looking forward to meeting new friends in Bishkek, friends who we have corresponded with and for whom we are bringing things to Kyrgyzstan. It should be a wonderful time in many ways even if we exclude the adoption! But of course, that will be the very, very best part.

When we return we will be home for 2 weeks and then Toktogul and I will be heading to NY to visit with Dr. Boris Gindis for a psycho-educational evaluation. Dr. Gindis is a specialist in evaluations for internatonally adopted post-institutionalized children and when he is done with his two days of testing we will have a 25-30 page report which will help us evaluate the best grade placement in school for Toktogul, as well as help us figure out social and emotional development. Living where we do in rural Colorado, we have don't have access to specialists and have to travel not matter what we do. We have heard wonderful things about Dr. Gindis and reading his web site was very, very helpful and I recommend it to anyone adpoting older children. You can find it at www.bgcenter.com along with a vast amount of information.

So, bags are going to begin to be packed today, more items will be checked off the list, and hopefully within a few days we can sit back and relax a bit before traveling!