Hi everyone. This won't be too long. We got up at 7 AM in Amsterdam and finally made it to our flight, barely. Then we flew 10 hours to Houston. We had a two hour layover, which we totally ate up going through Passport control, customs, waiting almost 30 minutes on our luggage, re-checking our luggage and then going back through security. We barely made it to our gate after stopping to get iced tea and Diet Coke. We landed in Monroe a little before 5 PM. We had quite a welcoming crew at the airport and now we're at home and getting settled in for the night. I've been trying to unpack and go through things. Mom and Dad came by and watched some video and looked at some more pictures. My friend Beth called and I told her to come on over and visit.
Now it's quiet here and I told Sarah I'm about to take a soak in my own bath tub. The laundry can wait until tomorrow. Then we may play a board game or something quiet.
I'll update more tomorrow. Good night.
Kathy
Wednesday, May 2, 2007
Tuesday, May 1, 2007
Amsterdam finally ...
Monday, April 30, 2007 - Introducing our newest daughter, Almira Kathryn Bradford.
Court Day! Sorry it has taken me so long to post. We got back to the apartment about 1PM and we could not get the internet to work for anything. Sorry. Court went good and Almira is now our daughter. I woke up this morning at 4:45 a.m. and could not go back to sleep. My body is revolting. As I write this we are on a plane flying from Petro back to Almaty. We will arrive about 8:30 on Monday evening and will spend the night in Almaty. We walked to court this morning, not a good idea in high heeled black boots, but at least I finally was dressed like some of the women here in Petro. Mariya told us we could just walk to court it was about 2 blocks. Oh my goodness, it was about 5 city blocks. We don’t have city blocks in Monroe. It would have been quite a nice walk, but my feet hurt by the time we were half way there. I was cursing myself for not slipping my flats in a bag and putting my boots on when we got to court. I was just a bundle of nerves. We arrived at court about 9:30 for our 10AM court appearance. Almira arrived with Tatiana, the orphanage social worker and the nice lady from the Ministry that went on our visits with us about 9:40. We went upstairs to court and sat in the hallway for about 30 minutes. I found out we were waiting on the prosecutor. Finally at almost 10:20 they called us in to the Judge’s office. It was a Kazah judge. They started off with Jon and asked him why he had come to Kazakhstan. He couldn’t think of what to say. He said later his mind just went blank. He stumbled around and answered the judge’s questions. Then it was my turn. I think I did pretty well and told the judge about our family, our community, the school where Almira will attend. We talked about her having the opportunity to go to college and about our family eagerly waiting for her at home.
Then they brought Almira in. She was fine. I could tell she was a little nervous, but she answered everything the judge asked. The judge asked her if she was sure she wanted to come live with us, she said yes. The judge said what if you get home and have problems, she said “I won’t.” The judge said are you sure you want to change your name to Almira Kathryn Bradford and she said “Yes, I chose that name”. The judged asked, are you worried about learning English and going to school and she said she would study hard and learn English, she was very good at school. Then they asked her if she wanted to just leave the orphanage and go to America or did she want to just leave to go with us. She said I want to leave and go home with my Mama and Papa. They asked her if her parents moved to Kazakhstan, would still want to live with them and she said yes. We were so proud of her. She did great. Then they asked me some more questions and the judge told us to wait outside.
Court Day! Sorry it has taken me so long to post. We got back to the apartment about 1PM and we could not get the internet to work for anything. Sorry. Court went good and Almira is now our daughter. I woke up this morning at 4:45 a.m. and could not go back to sleep. My body is revolting. As I write this we are on a plane flying from Petro back to Almaty. We will arrive about 8:30 on Monday evening and will spend the night in Almaty. We walked to court this morning, not a good idea in high heeled black boots, but at least I finally was dressed like some of the women here in Petro. Mariya told us we could just walk to court it was about 2 blocks. Oh my goodness, it was about 5 city blocks. We don’t have city blocks in Monroe. It would have been quite a nice walk, but my feet hurt by the time we were half way there. I was cursing myself for not slipping my flats in a bag and putting my boots on when we got to court. I was just a bundle of nerves. We arrived at court about 9:30 for our 10AM court appearance. Almira arrived with Tatiana, the orphanage social worker and the nice lady from the Ministry that went on our visits with us about 9:40. We went upstairs to court and sat in the hallway for about 30 minutes. I found out we were waiting on the prosecutor. Finally at almost 10:20 they called us in to the Judge’s office. It was a Kazah judge. They started off with Jon and asked him why he had come to Kazakhstan. He couldn’t think of what to say. He said later his mind just went blank. He stumbled around and answered the judge’s questions. Then it was my turn. I think I did pretty well and told the judge about our family, our community, the school where Almira will attend. We talked about her having the opportunity to go to college and about our family eagerly waiting for her at home.
Then they brought Almira in. She was fine. I could tell she was a little nervous, but she answered everything the judge asked. The judge asked her if she was sure she wanted to come live with us, she said yes. The judge said what if you get home and have problems, she said “I won’t.” The judge said are you sure you want to change your name to Almira Kathryn Bradford and she said “Yes, I chose that name”. The judged asked, are you worried about learning English and going to school and she said she would study hard and learn English, she was very good at school. Then they asked her if she wanted to just leave the orphanage and go to America or did she want to just leave to go with us. She said I want to leave and go home with my Mama and Papa. They asked her if her parents moved to Kazakhstan, would still want to live with them and she said yes. We were so proud of her. She did great. Then they asked me some more questions and the judge told us to wait outside.
It was a little after 11:00 at this time. We waited in the waiting room for close to 30 minutes. Then the judge called us all back in and said she was granting the adoption. Then Almira just threw her arms around Jon and then me. She was so excited. We got some pictures with the judge and everyone and then left and headed to the notary’s office. We signed one more set of papers for Svetlana’s power of attorney and then Svetlana left and took Almira back to the orphanage. She hugged us over and over again and kept looking back and waving as she drove away. It was so hard to leave her, almost as hard as leaving Sarah in Monroe. Mariya will continue to go to the orphanage almost every day with another couple and will see Almira. Also Boris will go every Thursday and can give her messages for us and can send us messages as well.
We will fly on Tuesday morning to Amsterdam on the 7:20 am flight. We will land in Monroe at the airport at 8:30 if everything goes as planned. I will try and post as I can.
We will fly on Tuesday morning to Amsterdam on the 7:20 am flight. We will land in Monroe at the airport at 8:30 if everything goes as planned. I will try and post as I can.
Tuesday, May 1, 2007 - Amsterdam time
Well, it is Tuesday afternoon at 5PM in Amsterdam. We just got into the Sheraton at the airport.
We didn’t leave Almaty headed for Amsterdam until almost noon. So much for our 4 hour lay over in Amsterdam. We arrived here 15 minutes after our flight left for Memphis. We were really excited about getting home tonight and seeing Sarah.
We are safe and sound, just home sick. We are in a much better place than we were at last night. We were met by an elderly man at the airport last night in Almaty when we arrived. He barely spoke English. He took us to that hotel by the airport, that you just walk to. I can honestly say it brought back memories of church trips from my junior high days. It was awful. Two twin beds, almost on the floor that were about the size of Almira’s bed at the orphanage. Only a sink and a chair in the room. It was really bad. It had a community bathroom down the hall that was the toilets with no seats on them. Also, every time a big jet took off last night, it made the alarms on the cars in the parking lot go off. It was a fun night. I laid down and tried to sleep and Jon said something funny and we started talking about the beds and the room and I got the giggles so bad my stomach muscles are sore today. I was crying I was laughing so hard. The exhaustion and surroundings didn’t help any. It was either laugh or cry.
We slept in fits on and off for about 3 or 4 hours. Put our clothes back on and headed to the airport at 4:30 AM on Tuesday morning. Then we sat at the airport and waited for the plane. It arrived 3 hours late and then sat at the gate for another 1 ½ hours. It was torture knowing we were so close to making our Memphis flight. We finally left Almaty at almost noon and made it to Amsterdam at 2:30 p.m. Our flight out to Memphis left at 2:10. The KLM crew was absolutely no help, no hotel, no nothing. Just sorry, no flights out tonight. I did stand in line at the desk and waited for 1 1/2 hours just go get an earlier flight home. We will fly through Houston and then into Monroe on Continental.
So we are flying out of Amsterdam in the morning and arrive in Monroe sometime around 5 PM on Wednesday. We had on purposely told Sarah that we weren’t coming in until Wednesday night so she wouldn’t be disappointed if we couldn’t make it. As many of you know, with this many connections, the timing has to be right and it wasn’t today.
So one more night away from home and then we hope and pray everything goes good tomorrow. We are anxiously planning my and Sarah’s return to get Almira. I can’t wait to see her and bring her home.
We didn’t leave Almaty headed for Amsterdam until almost noon. So much for our 4 hour lay over in Amsterdam. We arrived here 15 minutes after our flight left for Memphis. We were really excited about getting home tonight and seeing Sarah.
We are safe and sound, just home sick. We are in a much better place than we were at last night. We were met by an elderly man at the airport last night in Almaty when we arrived. He barely spoke English. He took us to that hotel by the airport, that you just walk to. I can honestly say it brought back memories of church trips from my junior high days. It was awful. Two twin beds, almost on the floor that were about the size of Almira’s bed at the orphanage. Only a sink and a chair in the room. It was really bad. It had a community bathroom down the hall that was the toilets with no seats on them. Also, every time a big jet took off last night, it made the alarms on the cars in the parking lot go off. It was a fun night. I laid down and tried to sleep and Jon said something funny and we started talking about the beds and the room and I got the giggles so bad my stomach muscles are sore today. I was crying I was laughing so hard. The exhaustion and surroundings didn’t help any. It was either laugh or cry.
We slept in fits on and off for about 3 or 4 hours. Put our clothes back on and headed to the airport at 4:30 AM on Tuesday morning. Then we sat at the airport and waited for the plane. It arrived 3 hours late and then sat at the gate for another 1 ½ hours. It was torture knowing we were so close to making our Memphis flight. We finally left Almaty at almost noon and made it to Amsterdam at 2:30 p.m. Our flight out to Memphis left at 2:10. The KLM crew was absolutely no help, no hotel, no nothing. Just sorry, no flights out tonight. I did stand in line at the desk and waited for 1 1/2 hours just go get an earlier flight home. We will fly through Houston and then into Monroe on Continental.
So we are flying out of Amsterdam in the morning and arrive in Monroe sometime around 5 PM on Wednesday. We had on purposely told Sarah that we weren’t coming in until Wednesday night so she wouldn’t be disappointed if we couldn’t make it. As many of you know, with this many connections, the timing has to be right and it wasn’t today.
So one more night away from home and then we hope and pray everything goes good tomorrow. We are anxiously planning my and Sarah’s return to get Almira. I can’t wait to see her and bring her home.
Thanks again for all the well wishes and prayers.
Sunday, April 29, 2007
Pre-Court day
Today was Sunday and we took it nice and easy. We walked to the Iceberg and got some pictures for court developed and then bought some groceries so we could eat lunch at the apartment. We watched the Bridge to Tarabitha and Chronicles of Narnia in Russian this afternoon. Svetlana and Maria came over to discuss court and we feel like we're ready. I've never heard of anyone being turned down, we we are happy about that. Tomorrow will be 3 weeks since we arrived and we have seen Almira every day.
It is going to be hard to leave her, but we know it is for a short time. We will be back before the end of May to bring her home. We have court at 10:AM tomorrow morning which will be 11Pm at home. We hope to be through with court in about one hour. I will try and post to the blog when we are done.
Keep the prayers up. We are almost done here. We are so excited about coming home and seeing Sarah and everyone.
I'll try and post tomorrow before we head out of town. We will fly out of Petro at 5:20 p.m., which will be 6:20 a.m. on Monday morning back home.
Thanks again and talk to you later,
Kathy
It is going to be hard to leave her, but we know it is for a short time. We will be back before the end of May to bring her home. We have court at 10:AM tomorrow morning which will be 11Pm at home. We hope to be through with court in about one hour. I will try and post to the blog when we are done.
Keep the prayers up. We are almost done here. We are so excited about coming home and seeing Sarah and everyone.
I'll try and post tomorrow before we head out of town. We will fly out of Petro at 5:20 p.m., which will be 6:20 a.m. on Monday morning back home.
Thanks again and talk to you later,
Kathy
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