Epilogue, Thursday, June 1, 2006

We had our day in court Monday morning and everything went very smoothly. We picked Sholpan up at the hospital and Rinat joined us at the courthouse with the orphanage director. Everything about the court proceedings was quite positive and without controversy. Sholpan and Rinat had to speak to the court and tell the judge that they wanted to go and live with us in the USA. The judge seemed pleased with all their responses to his questions except when he asked them if they could speak Kazakh and then discovered that they could speak virtually none.

It was pouring rain when we left the courthouse so everyone rushed off to where they were heading without much in the way of goodbyes. We had time only to rush back to the hotel, pack our stuff, and get in our car for the 6-7 hour ride to Astana. We had long layovers in Almaty, Frankfurt, and DC. We ended up back home at 3am Wednesday, having traveled 48 hours, half of which we spent sitting around airports. The tiny seats on the trans-atlantic flight were completely filled with passengers. It was less than fun.

We have now begun to adjust to life in the eastern time zone knowing full well that Susan and Matthew will make this trip again in just 3 weeks. We hope to have everyone back home by the end of June. Keep in touch.

Wednesday, May 24, 2006

Not such a great day. Sholpan was taken in the ambulance to the hospital and there she will remain. They think she may have pneumonia and are running some tests. Tomorrow we will be able to visit her. We need to get special permission since we at the moment have no parental rights. And we won’t have any until she is well enough to go to court. Sort of a vicious circle! Zarina was not herself today. Her cough is starting to bother her and she is now running fever. The doctor is keeping an eye on her and giving her pills of some sort. Most of the visit was spent sitting in Mama’s lap or working a puzzle with her head down on the table. Rinat and Papa went outside for a while until a thunderstorm blew in. Then they tried some computer games. Rinat is trying to get the hang of using the touchpad. From the looks of things he is going to love video games. The judge has decided to hear our case on Monday morning. If Sholpan is not well, Svetlana hopes we can check her out of the hospital, take her to court and then check her back in. Of course, there are no flights out of here on Mondays. If we can not change our tickets then we will be leaving straight from court and taking a six hour car ride to Astana to catch the last plane of the day to Almaty in order to catch our 3:10 am flight on Tuesday. Assuming that court does not take very long!

No one was in the mood for photos today. We promise French Maids for tomorrow!