"Gotcha" Day

We made it to Almaty - again! The second time around was much easier than the first, especially when you know what to expect with the airport, customs, etc. We landed in Almaty 10:15pm on Sunday night, after approximately 24 hours of travel. The flights were all good. As you can see from the picture, Chuck even got an exit row. Unfortunately, it was on the shortest flight - from Denver to Detroit. Maybe we will do better on the way back, with a baby in tow.

Since, May 1st was a holiday in Kazakhstan, we did not pick up Bryce until today (Tuesday). The holiday was not Easter (although the Russian Orthodox here were celebrating Easter on Sunday) - our driver said it was some kind of unity day. I'll have look it up. So we spent Monday exploring the city again. So much has changed in 3 weeks! The trees now have leaves, and Almaty is truly a city in the forest. It is a bit confusing....we used landmarks to navigate our way through the city, and now they are all hidden by trees. Walking down the sidewalk is like walking through a green tunnel. Sometimes you can't even see the buildings, the trees are so think. And the weather is nice and warm. It has been in the 70s the past two days.

Last night we had dinner with 4 other World Partners families at a restaurant called Inara. They seemed to specialize in shashlik. We ate outside, which was great. The inside of the place looked great too, like a greenhouse with lots of plants. It is nice that there are other WPA families in town this time around. Our last trip, we were basically on our own for 3 weeks. They are all in various stages of their adoptions - some just about finished, and others were in the midst of their visitations.

Of course the highlight of our trip was today, when we picked up Bryce from the Babyhouse for good. It was a pretty quick exchange, actually. We left a written statement for their records, said goodbye to his caretakers, and we were off. Bryce was lucky to have one caretaker in particular that was very close to him, and it was hard for her to see him go. He cried quite a bit at the Babyhouse (I'm sure he knew something was up), but once he got in the car, he was fine. I think he was fascinated by the scenery. We also went to the SOS Clinic for his medical exam that was required for his US visa. It was quick and painless, and at least now we know for sure how long he is and how much he weighs. He was very well behaved for it all. We also stopped by the Lufthansa office to purchase his tickets home.

Other than that, we spent the rest of the day trying to figure out how to take care of a baby! We changed our first diapers and tried to figure out eating and sleeping. This has been challenging so far, but I'm sure it will get better. We were provided with Bryce's schedule at the orphanage, which so far has been followed very little. We were able to make him laugh quite a bit today, which was lots of fun. It was also nice to see how he progressed since we left 3 weeks ago. He now has 4 top teeth, and walks holding on to your hands.

Tomorrow we have our appointment at the US Embassy, and hard to believe but late Thursday night (ok early Friday morning depending on how you look at it), we take off for home!