We have a court date finally ....

We just got the call that we can have court on Monday. We had to promise over and over again that the document is on it's way. It should be here by the end of next week. We are very happy that we don't need to fly home and come back later. I also think it will be better for Almira that we are going to court before we leave. I was worried about the effect of us leaving would have on her. Now Sarah and I will come back for Almira and Jon can get back to work. It is about 10:15 a.m. here on Thursday morning and we will go see Almira this afternoon. We are very excited.

I just love this picture of Jon and Almira. They were studying English and Russian. She is teaching Jon Russian and he was working on her English. Jon said he is teaching her "good" English. Folks from the south can appreciate this. She is such a sweet child, we just can't wait to get her home.

We went to the orphanage and told Almira the good news. She was so excited and kept saying we’re going to court on Monday. We sat in a little room today and played UNO. She just loves that game. We had to say the numbers of the cards and colors of the cards in Russian and she had to say them in English. Needless to say she knows her English much better than we know our Russian. She just laughs at Jon when he speaks Russian. Maybe it's the southern dialect on those Russian words. He just can't seem to roll those R's.

We then left and went and bought our plane tickets on Air Astana for Monday afternoon, late. We hope we can get everything done by 4:00 on Monday, signing all the documents and everything. We are very excited about coming home next week. We are going to try and fly out of Almaty on Tuesday morning. I just hope everything comes together and we can make these flights. We are quite anxious to get back home. That means we should be able to get Almira home by end of May or early June.

When we woke up this morning it had been raining for a while. The weather has turned cold again. The mud is back in full force.

Thanks for everyone that has been praying for us so hard. Jody, thanks for the positive thinking. I'll check back in later.

Thanks, Kathy B.