Day 43, Wednesday We spent most of the visit today in the group room, showing the girls photos, video of Luda & Lily (Luba) from the last few weeks. Lots of "oo's and ah's", and they appeared especially impressed by the photos of the waterpark and the swimming pool at the Medeo. These are beautiful, lovely girls that have been nurtured and lovingly cared for by the staff of the boarding school. Just like with Luda's group from her orphanage in Ust-Kamenogorsk, we would love to bundle up a bunch and bring them home with us. It is hard to leave them, but no doubt they are in loving hands although every child deserves a family. We promised a list of what we miss most about home, so here goes! (disclaimer--this list is not in any particular order, just whatever springs to our mind) 1.  Family & Friends!!  And professional colleagues; MC students, choir members & alumni; housesitters; friends in high and low places; and even the friendly strangers in our life, such as the UPS guy who counts all the four-leaf clovers in our neighbor's yard and gives a report with each delivery. 2. Our wonderful neighbors in Ross Springs, the Beshores and Halsnes have been so supportive to us and our housesitters. 3.  Our sweet, lovable losers! The canine members of our family--Sasha, Sophie, Maggie (better known as Piddle) and Mackie (also known as Mr. Moi) 4.  Our equine buddies--Gabriel, Kramer, Duke & Captain Jack Sparrow, and Farm Friends at Oak Springs Stable and McCord Farms. 5.  Chips & Salsa! Nice salty, crispy chips with tangy salsa--the thought makes our mouth's water. 6.  The weather! While we have enjoyed the snow (at least Luda & I have), it will be so nice to put up the wool socks, insulated gloves and heavy coats. 7.  Dry sidewalks! It took us two weeks to learn to walk on ice and snow covered sidewalks. The tally thus far for "whoops!" moments: Kevin-0, Luda-3, Stacey- 2 and Lily-2. We are hoping to get out before we seriously hurt ourselves!                                                                                                    Note: while Kevin hasn't fallen yet, he did suffer a stress fracture from some sort of slip. He stumbled around for the first two weeks with his foot wrapped in pair of my tights as a substitute bandage and depleted our inbuprofen supply. 8.  Technology--the microwave, printers (they have them, but we don't have one in the room), thermostats and such. 9.  Coffee Creamer! Have considered writing an "Ode to Coffemate"... 10. The TRUCK!! We have yet to see one "pick-em-up truck" in Kostanai! 11. Animals, wildlife and grass...some urban dog packs, pigeons, and a handful of gnats are about all we have seen of Mother Nature while living in the city, during frozen tundra season.

Day 44, Thursday Today we went shopping for gifts for the group. Mama Tanya told us that the girls would love to have a DVD/Video player so Dinara and Zhahmat (our diver) took us shopping today. We found ourselves at a Circuit City "Clone", considering a player that also had karaoke capabilities, although the store didn't have any mircrophones.  It was a unanimous decision to take it anyway, and we headed across the street to the Tsum Mall. We wandered our way through the four level building, and eventually found a nice Yamaha microphone that will soon be helping eleven little girls find their inner "Beyonce". Because the girls are in need of stimulation, the Mamas also suggested some games that involve intellectual processes. Dinara, along with the devushka behind the counter at the store, helped us to sort through a number of games to find about ten that we thought would be appropriate. We wanted to make sure that the games we selected were "cool" enough that they would also enjoy playing them while they were learning. Luda and I also put together eleven purple gift bags stuffed with a type of clear plastic wrap paper covered with hearts that perfectly matched the bags. We filled the bags with personal items, such as hand lotion, lip gloss, hair clips and bands, brushes with mirrors on the back, socks and a bar of fancy "kid" soap, stamped with a popular local cartoon character. Tomorrow, we will present our gifts and hopefully get a lot of video and photos to help preserve Luba(Lily)'s history of her life, her extended family from the boarding school in Kostanai.

Court Update We are nervously awaiting court tomorrow, please send all your positive thoughts our way, we need them. We found out last night that because of bad weather in Astana, the second set of documents from the Kaz Embassy have been delayed. We are praying that the judge and the prosecuter will allow us to proceed, but it is very possible that they may reschedule us. If we are fortunate, someone in the position of power will have compassion and let us have our court date. Sometimes they will grant this knowing that the papers are on their way. With our strict judge, it is hard to say what she will chose to do about it. We had a very poignant visit at the boarding school on Friday (photo is of a handmade doll given to the Luda by the girls in the group), dinner with our coordinator Dinara on Saturday, and have been busy trying to get packed and say good-bye to all our American friends today, Sunday.  We will post about the weekend at a later time...

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