Artome poses above as Levi (See Feb.11th) by the big suitcase as we get ready for the first travel day. Both of the kids seemed to know something was up even before we got the luggage out.
It was hard to get them to sit down for lunch, take a nap, or even play with anything except the bags.
Kukla will be lucky to survive the trip to Almaty with all of her limbs intact, let alone the the trip to America. She needs a day of beauty and a new outfit.
Thankfully, the kids have not yet figured out how to work the zippers on the suitcases, or they would be in them, and we would be constantly repacking the same stuff over and over.
Natasha and Nastia stopped by to finish our Karaganda buisiness, and to make arrangements for the 0745 pick-up tomorrow morning. The children's passports are all ready! Artome got a ride in the carry-on.
It's not goodby yet, but we were able to pass on some gifts, and our heartfelt thanks for their hard work on our behalf. Mostly behind the scenes, they paved the way for us through the paperwork, lawyers and various officials to get us where we are today. Thanks again!
Little hands are busy here with cookies and juice, so they are not grabbing hold of evertything else.
After all of the anticipation of getting to this point (coming home) it is sad in a way because we don't know if we will ever get back to Kazakhstan. We also don't know if we will ever see Natasha and Nastia again. We certainly hope so! However, we are VERY happy to be heading back to ur our lives in the US. We can't wait for Katja and Artome to start experiencing all of the things their new life has to offer. We also miss everyone and can't wait to see all of you and catch up on what has been going on in your lives! We will try and update this site from Almaty, but it is possible that we won't be able to. In that case, we will update once we get home! We will arrive in Seattle on Wednesday, April 5th on NWA flight #33 at 2:20 pm. Once we touch down on US soil, Katja and Artome become US citizens!
