Finally Arrived

After 16 hours of air travel and 16 hours of airport waiting we have safely arrived in Almaty. The flights were great, right on time and we were treated well. On all the long flights we were served so much food. On our last flight we finally had to turn down breakfast -- we were just too full.

Upon arrival we found all our luggage (slight damage to one) and found our driver and tranlater right away. We are staying at the Hotel Kazakhstan, the same hotel Hailee & I stayed at 8 years ago. It's beautiful and our room is great. The weather is in the 50's and spring is everywhere. Trees are blossoming, grass is green and tulips are already open. The mountains around us are snow covered and gorgeous.

Once we got into our room (2 hour delay or pay for another night - too cheap for that) we crashed. Got up around 4 and showered. We're finally feeling human again.

We did meet up with Bob and Karen and their new son Garrett Nurlan. They just left Uralsk and will be returning to MN on Tuesday. They were a wealth of information about Uralsk and the apartment. And Garrett was the entertainment. So much like Hailee when we brought her home. Just perfect!

Tomorrow we leave for Uralsk at 9 a.m. and hope to go to the Minister of Education to get permission to meet our new daughter. Hoping too, to go to the orphanage to begin our bonding time.

That's about it for now -- I had written more but the computer went down -- want to get this posted before that happens again. We have a great story of a Toyota Camry and 7 pieces of luggage and 3 tired travelers ......

Love to all!