Seeing the Light at the end of the Tunnel...

Last night we had Corey and Christie over for dinner. We put together some spaghetti sauce and pasta, which didn't taste half bad! It was nice to have some visit time with them, as we're leaving on Friday.

Another good nights' sleep for Melanie. She didn't wake up at all. Mom's happy. She makes some "nyum nyum" noises with her mouth; it's almost like she's sucking her tongue. I woke up a couple of times when she started doing that in her sleep.

I'm anxiously trying to finish "Red Rabbit" by Tom Clancy. It's a real page turner, but it takes so long for anything to happen! I'm dying here, let's get on with it already! It's a fictionalized account of the attempt on the Pope's life in the early 80's, with lots of KGB and CIA stuff in the background. I pick it up to read every time I get a few minutes.

Corey came over with Sam this morning ... Christie wasn't feeling well and stayed at their hotel. Melanie's first "play date"! She is so shy around them! Guess that's just stranger anxiety for ya!

After lunch I put Melanie down for a nap and got a few pages of my book read. After our nap, we went to the Baby House to take some measurements for the playground. We paid one last visit to Melanie's groupa, and there were two new babies in the room! They fill up the spaces pretty quickly. One of the new little boy was being dog-piled by a bunch of the little boys and he was just laughing and laughing. One of Melanie's caregivers, Gulistan, followed us down the stairs, kissing Melanie, and wishing us a good life. I don't think she wanted to let her go.

We went to an internet cafe to print out our speeches for court. No problem. Then we came back home and I had a tutorial from David about how to manage our digital pictures. Since he's leaving Sunday night, I have to take over the technical duties. Hah ... good luck! Maybe I will be able to do it without blowing up the computer, who knows?

Tonight: We took Aida to dinner for a "farewell" celebration. We were able to get a "kabinyet" or private room so Melanie could run around. We had "lagman" one more time. We so enjoy her company and will miss her terribly. She is going to Almaty the day after we do, so we're hoping we can hook up with her there.

Tomorrow: rehearsal for court! For some reason I'm not nervous about court; I suppose having been through it before, although it sounds like things are a lot more formal here than they were in Uralsk. Maybe I should be nervous!

Colin & Quentin: The first  photo is especially for you. We thought you would get a kick out of it!! If anyone asks what your parents brought you from Kazakhstan, you can say, "Barf!" It's dishwashing liquid from Iran ... where the Farsi word for snow is "braf". I don't know why they didn't just leave it "braf"?? Don't they tell people how words can translate into other languages funny ... like the Chevy Nova in Mexico: "No va" means "won't go". So much for good international marketing, huh?

Night for now ... Us