Touchdown Kazakhstan! (read this one first)

We have arrived safe and sound! What a long trip! It took us over 24 hours to reach Kazakhstan. We flew from Cleveland to Chicago and then to Frankfurt, Germany, with a 6-hour layover before flying to Almaty, Kazakhstan. The first two flights were very crowded, and we did not really sleep at all. Then, we had 6 hours to sit around the airport in Frankfurt before taking our flight to Almaty. In the Frankfurt airport, you cannot sit in your “gate area” until a few hours before your flight. We didn’t know this until we had walked all the way to our gate and were turned away. The main terminal was just jam-packed with people sitting around – probably in the same predicament as us.

Fortunately, we traveled with another family also adopting in Semey through our same agency. They were very easy to talk to, and we all felt so much better being in a group. We went to a little restaurant in the airport and drank coffee, hot chocolate, and beer. It was 6:30 a.m. in Germany, but midnight (or so) Eastern Standard Time. Each time we entered the area for our gate, we had to go through security. For some reason, I kept setting off the x-ray machine and had to be “wanded.” The wanding resulted in more beeping, and I was whisked away and patted down. Of course, this revealed my money belts and I had to take out the money and tell them how much I was carrying. This resulted in some back-and-forth in German and then they let me go. NOT FUN. Stan was also carrying cash, but he never set off the machine. From now on, he will be carrying all the cash. (For those not familiar, almost all international adoptions require carrying large sums of cash to the country of adoption.)

We all slept like babies on the flight to Almaty, which was much less crowded. Stan and I had a row of four seats all to ourselves. We were extremely tired, and very nervous!! Our adoption agency said that the security process when landing in Almaty could be unsettling (guards with guns, shouting, etc.). It was nothing of the sort! The guards were young men and women who did not speak a word. They were as friendly as you would expect for airport security. Our airline (Lunfthansa) gave us the migration cards that we needed prior to landing, and we simply got into a line, handed a guard behind a window our passport and migration card, and waited for him/her to stamp it. There were other windows beyond that for customs, but no one went to customs and neither did we. It was so easy! We had ourselves worried sick that some kind of customs officer would yank us out of the crowd and try to exhort cash from us! So, for those of you waiting to go to Kaz, do NOT worry about entering Kaz. Also, there were a lot of Americans on our flight, so that made us feel better as well.

Marina and Leonard (?) met us at the airport. We have never been so happy to see someone! It was 12:45 a.m. when we landed, and they had another family to intercept at 5 a.m. When do they sleep? We were overjoyed when Marina said that we’d be staying in a hotel for a few hours before flying to Semey. The hotel is great – just a little chilly. The bed was comfortable. We have a small room with a TV, chair, and couch; another room with a desk and chairs; a bedroom; and a bathroom. The water was hot and clean.

After a few hours of sleep, we went down to the breakfast room. We ate potstickers made with very tasty mystery meat, some kind of pancake thing but much oiler/fried than a normal pancake, scrambled eggs, rolls with jam/honey/butter, and freshly squeezed fruit juice. There were great looking salads (marinated veggies and slaws), but we weren’t sure if we were supposed to eat those (our doctors said no fresh fruits/veggies unless we clean and prepare them ourselves.).

We also exchanged some dollars for tenge at the hotel and visited the hotel business center where we were able to connect to the internet for 10 tenge per minute. (120 tenge = 1 dollar).

Now, we’re back in our room just waiting until noon when Marina takes us back to the airport for the flight to Semey. Boy, will we be happy when we get to Semey!! The plan is for Olga and Larissa to meet us at the Semey airport and take us to our apartments. Then, shortly after, we will make our first visit to the Baby House. The first visit is short (30 minutes or so), but starting tomorrow, we will go for two 2-hour visits each day until we go to court.

I know you all can’t wait to hear about Charlie! We are told that our apartment in Semey will have an internet hook-up, so we will try to post as soon as we can after we meet him.