Here in Almaty

I've been in Almaty for 2 nights.  Mom & Dad and I met up in Frankfurt and arrived late Saturday.  We are staying at the lovely Hyatt Regency in Almaty with a picture perfect view of the snow capped mountains. (see photo). 

We spent most of yesterday relaxing and seeing a bit of the city with the two other adoption families, Barb from LA, and Ed and Michelle, with their 2 yr old son, from Chicago.

More later...

 

Leaving on a jet plane

I leave in a few hours.  I'm very excited, but nervous, pensive and a bit freaked out...but very excited :-)  As you can well imagine, I didn't sleep very well last night and now I've got 24 hours of sitting on an airplane seat. Sheesh!

I hope that I'll be able to post and update around Wednesday, maybe sooner.  I won't be meeting Samuel until Tuesday, 5/31, so no photos until then.

Thank you for all your wonderful words and thoughts of support.

Chat soon!

 

 

 

Leaving on Friday, May 27th

My new travel date is Friday, May 27th. Hopefully, no further delays.  Unfortunately, the delay made it such that my cousin, Debbie, won't be able to travel with me.  We are both very disappointed, but such is life.  It isn't looking good for Samuel and me to make it to Italy for my parents 50th anniversary trip with the whole family.  It is a slim possibility that I will be able to get the baby a visa to travel to Italy while I'm in Kazakhstan, but I'm sure that I won't know until the last minute.

My parents will be able to join me for the first week of the trip.  We will meet up at the Frankfurt airport on Saturday, May 28th, and fly to Kazakhstan together.  We'll have two night in Almaty, the main city, before heading off to Ust-Kamenogorsk to meet Samuel and start the visitations.  They will head back to Europe a few days later and I will be solo for the remainder of the trip.  Luckliy, I am part of a group that is adopting at the same time from the same oprhanage:  a single woman from LA adopting a little girl, a Chicago couple with their 2 yr old son (adopted last year from the same orphanage) going to adopt his baby half sister, and one other family (don't know anything about them).

I'm sure keeping my fingers crossed for NO MORE DELAYS!

 

 

Further delays!

Got the word this morning that the trip is delayed until about May 29th.  Between not being able to secure the necesarry paperwork to get a tavel visa and some Kazakh mucky-muck going on vacation for 2 weeks, I am stuck here and baby Samuel is stuck there.

It is quite sad, frustrating, exhausting, etc.  but I'll survive.  I'll keep every posted when I know more.

 

Trip is delayed!

Got the official word today that the trip is delayed.  We had planned to leave on Monday, May 9th, and will be delayed for 2 or more days.  It seems that in order to get a visa I need a formal Letter of Invitation to travel, which has not been produced by the Minister of Foreign Affiars in Kazakhstan yet.  It is a day-by-day wait now.  It is quite frustrating and draining, but I'm sure that a few days delay won't make a difference in the long run...it's only time (waiting) and money (airlines tickets) at this point. Big sigh!