Of highest importance, and why you are all probably logging on to my blog today (or at least this is why I would log in to your blogs – hehe), I did visit the baby house(s) today and believe that I have found my little one. The entire process was a blur really, as I only had one hour of sleep last night – too jazzed to sleep I guess (and for all of you that know me you can appreciate how bizarre this is). Tomorrow I start my bonding and I will be able to take some photos, but I am not yet sure if I will post until I have my a-okay from our International Doctor in Minneapolis. The turn around time is 24 hours on the review of her medicals, and I don’t foresee any huge concerns, but I don’t think that I will post a ton of information until I know that all checks out with her health. I have reservations on sharing too much, maybe the middle child in me, in fear that something may come up in the process to throw us off course. For now, I will share a bit more about my region and hopefully in the next couple days I can post more about my little one.

She is mighty cute though! Big Kissable Cheeks! Dressed head to toe in pink! A little Kazak girl born March 30, 2007. ( I will post more tomorrow on the ‘selection’ process as well. Again, I am glad to have brought my Grandma’s Rosary with me.)



Here are several photos of my hotel, the Ritz Carlton of Aqtobe, or as Sandi put it, it is ‘fancy schmancy!’ Today I decided to venture out of my room a bit and found the pool, Sauna & a Bar / Restaurant area. Last night I found the main restaurant too, and I must say that the food was fairly tasty.

Daily Food Report: Yesterday was a day of ‘catching up on sleep’ so I forgot to eat really. Come supper time I ventured downstairs, knowing that there was a restaurant somewhere, and low and behold, I found it right by the lobby. The next hurdle was to ask, in English, if they had an English menu; needless to say I felt totally rude. Learn Russian all of you! I wish I had a good 20 words in my arsenal already, just so that I didn’t feel so bad not knowing / using their language. They did have an English Menu, thank heavens, that I have since asked to get a copy of in my room to study. I want to read over what things are and what the prices are before taking another 30 minutes to decide on my next meal. I guess that $1.00 is 118 tenge, figure that one out quick. Anyhow, I met a very nice Dutch man at supper that shared my love of the English language. We shared a table and talked about his past week in a ‘camp’ in far western Kazakhstan, he sells some converter or boiler system thingie for the gas rigs. It was actually very interesting; this area has much gas and some oil as well. It sounds like the Chinese have really taken care of Kazakhstan, due to their interest in the natural resources here. China actually installed the internet system throughout Kazakhstan, kind of a nice friendly gift from neighbor to neighbor wouldn’t you say. I wonder if they have ulterior motives??? Hmmmm sounds a bit fishy! Hance was my fellow Holland(er)’s name, and if you thought that my travels were trying he did the same trek from Amsterdam to Almaty and then to Aqtobe and on top of that took a 7 hour train ride to his ‘camp’ where he didn’t even have water to shower ………..for a week! Yuck! When I asked Hance how his flight was from Almaty to Aqtobe, he said it was ‘Fookin’ Crazy.’ I about peed my pants, this is a normal adjective in Holland I believe as I heard it all over the ‘Amsterdam’ airport too, but in America it is a pretty bad word so to hear it flow so freely was quite hysterical.

Anyhow, for supper last night, I ended up selecting a water without gas (normal bottled water), minestrone soup (similar and pretty tasty) and a Lamb Loin with vegetables (as Hance did, I figured if he ordered it I would be okay – copy cat!). Everything was quite tasty, no complaints whatsoever and better than the granola bar that I would have had.

Today I enjoyed some tea with milk, yogurt, and a piece of bread with cheese and lunch meat for breakfast. Not too bad. Lunch meat for breakfast? Weird but okay really.

And for Lunch I had a bowl of French Onion soup, quite similar to what we enjoy in the States, again pretty tasty. I learned not to order the fried shrimp as my lunch partner had, another English speaking gentleman working on the oil rigs, the shrimp are whole with the eyes and everything. Yikes! Seriously to find another person that speaks English is such a treat, makes me feel right at home. This man lived in Texas for about 10 years and then became an Oil Rig Brat, his father also worked with / on the rigs, thus he has lived in South Africa, Saudi Arabia and is now in Iran.

Man I really wish that my toilet would be quiet! It is so darn loud, and has been for about an hour. It sounds like a washing machine almost. Shut up in there would you!