11/18/04-Day 3 fo the Journey Home

Our day began with the call of Jack. Gma brought him out while Grace still slept. I changed him and then drank our coffee waiting for Grace to wake up. After she got up, we got them dressed and fed them breakfast. We settled in for the day, waiting for our Embassy appointment, which is today at 4 p.m.

I decided to go for a walk in search for an Internet Café. I saw them in Karaganda and saw one in the neighborhood we were in the last time we were in Almaty. I still planned to hold this tome until I returned, but I thought it would be nice to send Mary Jo a note. So I headed up our street.

I think I may have mentioned that it appears we are in a more upscale neighborhood than we were in last time. The shops have a “higher class” feel to them. The “Baby Dior” shop may be the give away. I took a long circular walk around the neighborhood, constantly keeping my bearings so I could get back to the apartment. (I forgot to bring my breadcrumbs.) After about a ½ hour, I came across “Silk Way City Supermarket.” This is a place we’ve seen tons of advertising for on the T.V. I am not sure if I mentioned but Supermarket (spelled супермаркет) is not the large grocery store we are used to, but a large grouping of shops, closer to a Mall. In Karaganda, these were usually large rooms with stalls and sometimes had a grocery among the shops. Silk Way City Supermarket is just like our Malls, with enclosed shops and everything. I walked around and eventually came across a place with about 10-12 computers and a sign with pricing for Internet access. The process was 5 Tenge (about 4¢) per minute. I spend an hour looking at a few emails, sending an email to Mary Jo and checking a little news.

As I walked along, I came across their food court and what do my wandering eyes see, but the big red, white and gold sign for a “King Burger” or what we would call “Burger King.” Though it was only 11 a.m. I decided I had to try a Kazakhstan Burger King. So, I got a cheeseburger meal, which was their version of a Whopper, fries and Coke. After taking the lettuce and tomato off (which I also do at home), I tried my meal. It wasn’t bad. I also saw some luscious looking chocolate desserts, which I purchased to take back to Gma.

I got back in time to help feed the kids. This is good since we don’t even have the “improvised” high chairs we had in Karaganda. Here, we sit the kids on the kitchen table, hold them with one hand and feed them. Grace is fine. She will be sitting in her own chair soon. Jack is a little tougher since he doesn’t like to sit still. So far, no one has fallen. After they were fed, Gma and I sat down for some chicken salad. After lunch, Gma cut into her dessert and gave it a try. I also cut off a piece and tried it. I then looked and saw there was a little mold on it. Great!! We spend all this time here and get food poisoning on the next to last day. Well, at least we have some anti-biotic to fall back on. We settled into the living room and waiting to see if there would be any reaction to our dessert.

So, the time came for us to go to the Embassy and we were still alive, so our fear of a debilitating bout with food poisoning passed. Bolat’s father picked us up and took us to the Embassy. We arrived a few minutes early. I had brought my camera to take a few pictures, when I learned you were not allowed to take pictures for security reasons. I stored my camera away and we headed into the Embassy, which is a 17-story building in the middle of the city that is shared with a bank. After signing in, we were escorted to the top floor. Here we were let into a large waiting room that looked like any government agency waiting room across the U.S. At least we didn’t have to take a number.

I went ahead and paid for all the fees as we waited for our name to be called. There were three or four other families in the room waiting to complete their adoptions, including the Poindexter family that we met at the SOS Clinic. There were five glass-enclosed windows and everyone waited in their seats until they were called. We were the last family called, so Gma and I walked to the window. A man behind the window had our files ready. We started to work through the papers for Grace when he realized he forgot the most important process. I had to take an oath that everything I was saying and in the files was true. So, I said “I do” and we proceeded. The process was a non-event. I signed a couple of the documents, he asked me a few questions and then he presented the immigration files to me. These were both sealed and I was reminded that I was to present these to immigration in Chicago still sealed. If they were opened, we would have to fly back to Almaty to do this again. I stowed the files away and we headed back.

On the elevator, as we were escorted back down, Miss Gracie flirted with a couple men who were going down with us. She usually has been very scared of strangers, but we are finding that is typically with women. She doesn’t seem to have the same problems with men. Obviously, she has not learned that all men are dogs and will only break your heart. Ah, the things she has to look forward to.

We returned to the apartment where we fed the kids. As we still had not been visited by any gastronomic issues from our lunchtime dessert, Gma and I finished our chicken from the previous night. We eventually went to bed with the exciting prospect that tomorrow would be our last day in Kazakhstan.