Tuesday, June 28, 2005

Our bags are packed and ready to go!!

We are scheduled to leave Thursday June 30, 2005 at 12:40 PM. We will arrive in Almaty, Kazakhstan at approximately 10:15 PM July 1, 2005. J and I are SO excited, we hardly know what to do with ourselves.

I know that the flights will be nothing but exhausting for me and I am really dreading the long haul. The two times that I have been to Europe I was unable to sleep a wink coming or going. I have never been able to sleep while on the move. Even as a child, I never slept in the car. It drove my parents batty when we drove to Florida.

Once we arrive in Almaty we will go through the usual airport whohah and then we will meet our coordinator and driver. At that point I am certain that I will be a walking zombie and I will just be thrilled to be on my way to the airport hotel. We will spend (what's left of) the night at the hotel and then the next day we will board a Soviet jetliner (from the rear I am told) and fly to Ivan's region.

If all goes as planned we will meet Ivan on Monday, July 4, 2005. We will then have 14 straight days of visitation and bonding in the Baby Home. On July 18, 2005 we should have our court appearance. If all goes well in court, we should take custody of Ivan on July 20, 2005 when we fly back to Almaty. Once in Almaty we will check into the Hyatt and spend the next 10 days waiting for all of the final paperwork to be completed. We will have an appointment at the US Embassy, where we will receive all of the paperwork for Ivan's IR-3 visa. This wonderful packet of paperwork is what will allow Ivan to enter the US as a US citizen.

After that, who knows what life will hold for us. A lot of joy and chaos I am sure.

I am not sure if I will be able to update this journal from Kaz. If I can, I certainly will! If not, I'll let you know when we are home and what it was really like while we were there.

TTFN!

2 comments:

Gawdessness said...

Excited for you - wishing you a great trip and of course
CONGRATULATIONS!

Anonymous said...

That is thrilling! Absolutely wonderful!