'Twas the Night Before Court....

...and not a creature was sleeping, not even our "mouse".  I guess Melanie's decided the honeymoon is over.  She has given up on sleeping.  This afternoon it took almost an hour & a half to get her down for her nap, and she was up less than an hour later.  Tonight we are going on an hour & a half to get her to go to sleep.  Figures she would save her drama for the night before we have court, when we need our nerves to be settled. 

Corey & Christie came over with Sam again this morning for their visit.  Most of the morning was spent on the phone with Lufthansa trying to get Melanie a seat.  A word to the wise:  you might want to call Lufthansa to get your child's ticket booked as soon as you arrive in Kazakhstan.  We were told that the flight was completely booked.  We considered packing her with the luggage (hey, a little Benadryl, a little water, no problem!) but thought better of it.  David went back & forth between Lufthansa and USAirways (at great long-distance expense).  Right at a crucial moment, he ran out of time on his cell phone!!  Jeepers!  When Murphy talked about things going wrong, he wasn't kidding!!  We are pretty sure she now has a seat.  Phew.  I guess we'll rest easier when we actually have the paper ticket in our hot little hands in Almaty.

David went out running around with Aida while Melanie had her "cat nap".  They went to buy some souvenirs and groceries.  When they got back, they took Melanie and me with them to shop a little more .. and we stopped by to visit Corey & Christie one last time at their hotel.

Tonight Gulnara, our facilitator, came by to go over our "speeches" for court tomorrow.  I feel like we have everything under control.  She also had some paperwork for David to sign for the Embassy, in order for him to leave early.  After a quick supper of spaghetti (again) we are packing, getting ready to make a jack rabbit start to Almaty after court.  We have a 6:30 wake up call, since we are being picked up at 8:30.  Kinda hard for two lazy bums who are used to sleeping in until 8 every morning and not having to be anywhere until 10.  Need to break that habit pretty quick!  Court is at 9:00 Kazakhstan time.  I can't even begin to explain how many hours ahead or behind we are, so you do the math!

Oh .. and speaking of rabbits, I finished "Red Rabbit".  Finally.  Very good book. 

Now, if Melanie would just go to sleep, we could hit the hay ourselves ... wait ... what's that?  Silence!  Could it be?  Yes!  She's asleep!  Wahoo!