On The Way Home

Photos: The mountains flying into Almaty are beautiful. Memorial Park: Russian Orthodox Church and Soldiers Memorial.

We finally made it to Almaty. Our flight for 11pm lastnight was canceled due to weather. So we stayed in the apartment one more night. Actually that worked out better and we got more sleep. We pray for no more flight delays. We had packed everything and had nothing to do so we stayed in bed late. We got a phone call at 9am that the driver would be there to pick us up in 15 minutes. Glad we were packed and ready. We said a quick good bye to our good neighbors and loaded up. We drove by the orphanage on the way to the airport. It was VERY sad! The driver honked and we waved good bye. We really miss Eli and all almost cry when we look at his picture. We pray for his health and safety until we pick him up. It was a mad house at the airport so we had a quick good bye to Symbat and our driver. We think that was good because it would have been too sad otherwise. We already miss Symbat. She really made our trip great.

We had a great flight to Almaty. We had a big plane and not a puddle jumper like last time. We did get a little surprise when we got to the motel. The only room left has two twin beds. Well I guess it doesn't really matter because we have to meet the driver at 1am.

We did go for a walk this afternoon to the memorial park. It was breath taking. The snow really made it beautiful! We enjoyed seeing another Russian Orthodox Church. This one is much older than the one in Pavlodar but has a lot of character. Like in Pavlodar they have a lot of weddings in the memorial park. There was one taking place while we were there. We enjoyed seeing a few more sights that we have seen in books.

We had our last dinner in Kaz at the motel tonight. We plan to sleep as much as we can tonight and then head for home. We have had a wonderful experience but are ready to get back to home. It will not be complete until Eli gets home with us but it is nice to have made it this far. We would recommend adoption to anyone who is thinking about it - it is a wonderful thing and we have really been impressed with Kazakhstan! So long from Kazakhstan, see you at home!

He's Ours!!!!!!!!

The first two pictures are from our visit today. The 3rd is our favorite person at the orphanage. She is very sweet. It is amazing how you connect with people even when you cannot speak. The last one is us with our driver and the van we rode in most of the time.

We went to court today at 9am and it went great. It lasted about 1 1/2 hours. The girls were in there with us and behaved very well. They were not asked any questions. Brian made his speech and did a great job! He did much better than me. I got teary eyed when I had to answer a couple questions. The judge and prosecutor were all business but were nice to us when it was all over. The lady from the Dept. of Education had some very nice things to say about our family. The 15 day waiting period begins tomorrow. Once it is over our attorney here will work on getting Eli's visa and passport so he will be ready for Brian to pick him up on 1/28/08.



We did get to visit Eli one last time today and it was great! It seemed that he could tell that it was a special day and our last day with him for awhile. He let Brian and I both snuggle him for quite awhile which doesn't happen too often. He wasn't fussy at all today. The girls had a good day with him too. When I took him back to his group he giggled at Brian and kept looking for him. When I gave him to the caregiver he kept looking at me. We miss him so much already. It has been quite a day.



Our attorney and translator was very sweet this afternoon when they dropped us off for the last time. We will miss everyone that we have meet here.



Lastnight was an interesting night. We woke up at 2am smelling smoke. I looked out the window and the apartment behind us was on fire. There was a couple fire trucks there and fire fighters. They got it out but the smoke and smell was really bad. We hope no one was hurt but was very thankful it was not our building. We were already ready to get out of here but that reinforced it. The electrical doesn't look too safe. At least the buildings are concrete so they don't burn easily.



Our flight leaves Pavlodar at 11 tonight and then we leave Almaty on Saturday at 4am. We are not looking forward to the long flights but are very excited to get back home. The box spring mattress combo is getting a little old.

Winter has arrived in Pavlodar

Brian went to the bank this morning and we found out it was a balmy -31C (-23.8F). WOW that is cold. They cancel school here if it is -30C or below so school was out today. They don't seem to cancel for snow just if it is really cold. We just walked to the Internet Cafe and it is -10F. The girls have 4 layers of pants on and were all giggles because it was hard to walk. The weather makes us really glad we are going home. We were fortunate to have warm weather (0-10F) while we were here. We never thought we would call that warm but you can really tell a difference. We had planned to make one last trip to the ice sculptures tonight but are afraid the weather will not allow.

We really had an enjoyable Christmas considering we were so far from home. It was nice to not have all of the hustle, bustle and to actually enjoy one another. The girls are so sweet. They took a green sparkly blanket and put it over a chair for our Christmas tree and Isabelle got 4 of her socks for stockings. She put her own money in them for us. We only had a couple little gifts here for them but they loved them and played with them all day. We received gifts from Svetlana, Lena, Symbat, and Joe and Anna. We had a nice dinner with our neighbors. We just didn't think about our traditions at home or what everyone at home was doing. We really enjoyed getting to talk to some of our family from home. Abbie got a little home sick lastnight after talking to her cousins and grandmas. She was so sweet. Issie wasn't a bit home sick. Abbie is also really concerned that she will miss all of the good Christmas food. We have reasured her there will be more when we get home.

We had a good visit with Eli today. Not sure if we will get to see him tomorrow or not.

We have court tomorrow at 9am so please keep us in your prayers. We pray all goes well and look forward to having Eli home forever around the first of February.

We leave Pavlodar tomorrow night, will spend one night in Almaty, and then fly home. We will get home Saturday night. We look forward to seeing everybody when we get home.

Not sure when we will post next. Thanks for all of your prayers, comments, emails, and phone calls while we have been gone. They have meant a lot.

Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas from Pavlodar! It is Christmas Eve here. We are getting ready to go out for pizza and then the girls are going to play at the Children's World. They were very excited about that. We wanted to tell Mackenzie and JoJo that we saw Santa and he is headed to the good ole USA to find them. He will visit Abbie and Issie when we get home.

Abbie says, "I hope you have a good Christmas, don't eat too many cookies and save some for me."
Issie says, "Be good because Santa is headed your way."
Brian says, "I'll be home for Christmas" - NOT! We have been listening to that song.
Sandra says, "I can't wait to see everyone when we get home."

Another Adventurous Day

Well so much for not posting today. We were suppose to meet someone at the internet cafe and they didn't show so we decided to come check our messages. I haven't been able to get on my work email for a week so I was hoping to do that but still cannot get one.

We had another good day seeing the sights of Pavlodar. We went to a Korean Christian Church this morning. It just didn't seem right not going to church the Sunday before Christmas but I think we got more out of our own services we have been having in the apartment. Their service was similiar to what we have at FCC. The first song they sang was "Shout to the Lord". We did not recognize any of the other songs. We could understand a few words: Amen, Hallelujah, and Jesus. The pastor was Korean and did the service in Korean and his son translated in Russian. Symbat translated some of the message for us. The message was about waiting on God and that it is in his time. There was an adorable little Korean girl that sat a few rows in front of us. She reminded us of Mackenzie. She had pig tales and was so cute. Before the service was over she was setting by Issie and playing with the paper and pencil we gave her. One of the ministers invited us to their Christmas party tomorrow night. Even though we understood very little it was a very neat experience. It really made us realize how God hears all praises from all people and all languages.

Above it a picture of a neat resturant we went to after church. Symbat said the name meant something like Noah's Ark. We didn't see the similiarity as it looked like an Italian resturant. It was one of the most fancy resturants we have been in here. We were eatting and a cat walked by our table. They said it was fine as the cat was theirs. That seemed a little strange. Issie really enjoyed the chicken that she got there.

After eating we took a tram to another mall. This was our first tram experience. Symbat took us to a couple different malls. The first two were very crowded but the prices were better so that was nice. They are small to begin with but there were so many people it wasn't too enjoyable. You can only imagine how Brian liked it. He thought he was going to miss the Christmas rush but we couldn't let that happen. We did find diapers there for about 1/2 of what we had been paying so that was a treat.

Mary - they do not have any laws here as far as seatbelts or car seats. Eli will be in for a shocker when he gets strapped in for the first time in the US.

Tante - Abbie asked if you meant that for real. She is ready to spend a week with you.

Another Good Visit

We had another good day with Eli. They put us in a smaller room today with more toys so we were afraid it wouldn't be a good visit but it went great. There was a mirror in the room and Eli discovered himself in it. He kissed himself and played peek a boo. He has had bruises on his head from time to time as any 14 month old would but today he had a bite on his arm. I am sure the other guy looks worse than him. It gets rough in the crib.

He loves to play with his daddy. Brian always gets a laugh out of him.

He was so sweet today and is letting us hold him more. I held him for about 45 minutes while he sucked his thumb and we sang Christmas Carols to him. Scary that he liked our singing. I am sure the caregivers wondered what that noise was.

He says "dada", "da" (yes in Russian - and seems to know what it means), has said "mama" a couple of times, "toktok" (which means knock knock in Russian and knows what it means). We would not have known but our translator was with us, Eli was knocking on the door and saying toktok. She told us what it meant. He might be saying more Russian words but we don't know them. He does know what "no" and "nyet" (no in Russian) means.

We are so excited - Monday we get to take him out of the orphange to go get his passport picture taken. One of the girls asked if a guard will be going with us. At first we said no but I am sure someone will go along to watch over us.

We are going over to our neighbors tonight to see them. They are doing good with their baby. We are planning on celebrating Christmas with them after our visit with Eli.

Interesting Facts: Gas is 89tt (tenge) per liter here. ($1.00 = 120tt). Milk is 150tt per liter. The temperature is still around -12 or -15 C most days.

We will not post tomorrow so don't worry about us.

Another Great Day

We had a really good visit with Eli today. We were really missing him after not seeing him yesterday. The holiday on 12/20 was a Muslim holiday. It was a day when the peolpe would bring their animals to the Mosque to be blessed and then they would have them butchered. The earlier holiday was Independance Day and a Russian Orthodox day. They celebrate Christmas when the new year comes. The culture is very diverse here and they seem to celebrate each cultures holidays.

We got Eli some boots for Christmas and took them today to try them on. We don't think he has ever had shoes on before. When we took them out of the bag he really liked looking at them. Trying to get them on was another story. He didn't mind but he kept curling his toes and it was very difficult to get them on. Once they were on he didn't know what to do. (2nd picture) He decided it was easier to fall down and crawl than walk in the new shoes. We have some work to do there.

Brian and Eli tried out the new baby carrier (1st photo) recommended by Aunt Sharon. If Brian comes back by himself he needed a way to be mobile while carrying a baby and carting the luggage so we got this carrier. We figured Eli wouldn't like it but he did fine. Not sure we have him in there correctly. We will have to watch the instructional DVD again.

More ice sculptures. Abbie is acting like a bunny.

This cemetary is in the middle of town. Soviet soldiers from the Afghanistan War are burried here. Symbat said that no body really cares about them anymore. That was obvious by the upkeep of the cemetary. If the USSR would have won the war I wonder if they would have a memorial like the WWII soldiers do.

We have been renting DVD's each day from the store across from the apartment. It is kind of an ordeal finding a movie. They have to find one that has an English version and then finding one that we would like. They keep all of the movies behind a case so you can't just go pick one out yourself. They have come to know us pretty well since we have been visiting daily. The lady that works there was so proud yesterday when Brian walked in. She had Santa Claus 3 picked out for us. She was all smiles. It is neat that she took an interest in us and wanted to help. We have noticed that the people we come into contact with on a regular basis are really friendly to us now. We wish we could carry on a conversation with them. It is amazing how well we get along not speaking the language. Brian makes fun of me pointing but it is quite effective. When we get in a jam I can depend on Brian to come up with a Russian word that explains what we want. Tonight we went out to eat and the girls wanted apple juice. They understood we wanted juice and then Brian could say apple in Russian so it all worked out.

We have always felt safe here but there was one day that was a little questionable. The agency we work with here has done a great job telling us in advance what to expect; however, one day the driver picked us up and our neighbors never showed up to ride back to the apartment with us. We were a little concerned about them. Then the driver took us to the "Pavlodar hood" and grunted to Brian and pointed to a dark entry way with a man standing out front. Brian hesitated and the driver grunted again and got out and motioned for Brian to get out. They took off and disappeared in this dark entry way. I told the girls I thought we better pray for daddy and Abbie said, "I had already thought of that." Luckily he and the driver returned. This was the notary's office and our translator was waiting for us in there. (Willa - how would you like to work out of a place like that?). We also hear a lot of firecrackers at night (or at least that is what we think it is). We have always felt very safe here.

More ice sculptures

Here is the progress on the ice sculptures. Brian really liked the bird dog on point.
It is Thursday here and we found out this morning that we don't get to see "little man" today. It is another wonderful Kaz holiday here and the orphanage is closed to visitors. Sandra and I wondered what it would hurt for us to visit since there will be staff there anyhow. Oh well, go with the flow. I think we will go bowling and to a children's playhouse with Simbat. The kids are still being troopers and have a lot of fun playing together. Abbie and I go to the riverfront each night to check the progress of the ice sculptures. It is quite a refreshing walk as it is getting colder. I'm not sure that the temperature has changed much, but, the wind has increased coming across the river. Burrrrrhhhhh! We will try to keep sending pictures and info as best we can. However, we are starting to run a little short on new info. We will do our best!

Lastnight while Abbie and Brian went on a walk Issie and I got to spend some time together. Pretty much the four of us have not been apart on this trip so it was nice to have some one on one time with her. I told her that Mackenzie and Joseph was really missing her. She said, "Mom, don't talk about it you are going to make me cry." I thought that was so sweet. Abbie and Issie have both been so big on this trip. Issie is so good at getting her coat, boots, hat and gloves on when we go out. She can do it all by herself. That is a huge help.

Merry Christmas to Mrs. York & Mrs. Melton's Class

Mrs. Melton & class - I miss the class and you. I miss going to music. I can't wait until I get back. I hope you all enjoy the Christmas party today. I wish I could be there with you but I am having a good time here. I am glad to hear you got some snow over the weekend. I hope you got to play in it. I will see you after the first of the year.

Love, Issie



Mrs. York & class - You are right. The santa here does look a lot different. I have enjoyed hearing from all of you. I will see you when school starts back after the first of the year. I hope you have a fun party today. Love, Abbie
Often they make us put this purple outfit on Eli on top of his other layers and the hat is always a must before we can take him to the play room. We think he looks like Barney. He is so stuffed in this outfit he can hardly move. Eli is a strong boy - he was pushing Issie on this car until he decided it would be more fun to pull her hair. We let Abbie and Issie play in the snow while we waited on the driver one day. Mr. Proper - we thought this was funny. Everything has a different name here even Mr. Clean!

We think we will be leaving Pavlodar on 12/27 at11pm and then leave Almaty on 12/29 at 4am to head home. With all of the time changes we will get into Louisville at 6pm that same night. We really hate leaving Eli and Pavlodar but we pray that all of our flights go well with no delays. We do not want to get stuck in an airport.

We have really enjoyed our time here. Life is so different here than at home and we can't say that it is all bad here. We enjoy the slower pace and no one gets excited or appears to get upset over things. It is nice except when you are wanting them to hurry up on paperwork. They do not understand the definition of hurry. We have adjusted to the unrealiability of hot water. It is kind of like camping. You just have to go with the flow.

We are counting down. We only get to visit Eli 6 more times until we come home. We are really going to miss him for the month that we are at home without him but we are sure things will be crazy when we get home and the month will go by quickly.

Our neighbors got to bring their baby to their apartment today. The girls made him a Welcome Home sign and note. They appreciated that. They have been here since the first part of November.

Issie is feeling better today so we got out a little bit. We went to a little cafe for lunch and then we took the kids to another indoor play area. They had a good time. The cotton candy was their favorite. We walked down to the river and the ice town is getting underway. They are starting to carve sculptures. We also paid Santa 100 tenge (less than $1.00) to get our picture taken with him.

We are very excited to get to see Eli tomorrow. We haven't seen him the last two days because of the holiday here and we are missing him. On our last visit we finally gave in and let him have a lick of a sucker. He wanted to bite it more than lick it but he liked it.

A few days ago we went to an open market. They had nice fruits and vegetables. They also had a large meat section. Now that will make you not want to ever eat meat again. The best was a skinned hogs head hanging on a pole. Aside from that it was a good place to shop.

We are starting to get very creative with our cooking. The cooking is so different here. Brian made us grilled cheese lastnight. We found potatoes and oil about a week ago so we are eating those like crazy. You can never beat fried potatoes. We have also found sliced ham so that makes a pretty good meal. We are going to try ham and beans this week but there is no Jiffy Corn Bread here! We also got dried kidney beans and tomatoe juice to try to make chili.

Update from Kaz

Neil - please send us your email address so we can reply to you. We have lost it.

We are doing much better now that it has soaked in that we will be here a little longer than expected. It is nice getting to spend more time with Eli. Each day makes a big difference. Yesterday I got to feed him his lunch. He is a very good eatter and is so good at drinking from the cup. He took it out of my hands and drank the whole thing down without spilling a drop. He seemed thirsty. We are excited about spending Christmas with him. It will be a lot of fun. Abbie and Issie have been saving money for the orphanage (mostly from recycling cans) and we plan to go shopping and take the gifts on Christmas Day. It is not a special day for the people here but it is for us and will make the day seem more like Christmas.

It is Independence Day here so we have been hearing lots of fire crackers. We didn't get to see Eli today or tomorrow so that makes for long days.

Isabelle has been fighting a cough and running nose the whole trip. Last night she ran fever. We have kept her in the apartment most of the day because we want her to get better and not worse. It is not like at home where you can go to the After Hours Clinic, etc.

We were going to go with Simbat to her village today to her cousins wedding but with Issie not feeling well we passed. It would have been a neat experience.

Abbie and I ran down to the Internet Cafe so we could send you an update. We are going to go on a walk and try to find some groceries and then back to the apartment. It feels like we go to the grocery store every few days but you don't buy much at a time because it spoils quickly plus we have to carry it a distance.

We will try to post more pictures soon.

Court Date Set

Cute baby boy! Three Musketeers! Man in tights!

Well, we finally got a court date but not what we were expecting. It is not until 12/27. We really hate this because we feel like we need to get back to work but it is out of our control. Brian will come back towards the end of January to bring Eli home. It is just amazing how they drag all of this out. We know it is going to be harder on us to leave him than it is going to be on him.

We went to a Kaz restaurant lastnight and tried lamb and horse. It was not to bad but we would not want to have it every night. Abbie even tried the horse. The restaurant was a really neat experience unfortunatley we forgot to take our camera.

There are 4 days of holidays coming up here so if we don't email you will know why. We don't know if the Internet Cafe will be open or not.

Merry Christmas from Pavlodar

Top to Bottom: Eli showing off Abbie's hat. Is he cute or what! We had another good visit with him today. Christmas lights by the river. The base of the tree is made up of ice blocks with lights on the inside. It is really pretty up close. We can't wait to see the ice sculptures that should be completed soon. This is our favorate Russian restaurant we told you about. We went back lastnight. You can see the decor. This was the dish that Sandra had. She can't wait to go back and get another one. It is Moscow chicken in a clay pot. It had chicken & mushrooms in a cheesy soup mixture. The top was like a cresent roll. It was wonderful! Of course we had to have our ice cream. Abbie and Issie enjoyed it. It is slightly less expensive to eat out here than at home. We find that it seems more expensive at the grocery store. We come out with a few bags and a high bill and it doesn't last long. We go to the store every three days or so.

We got a lot of laughs from Brian's list and glad you did also. Abbie is a little embarassed that her class read about the pink bear trick. We don't always tell them everything we put on the blog but we read all of the comments to them.

The judge accepted our paperwork but has not given us a court date yet. We are still praying for this week but our attorney does not think it will be until after their Independance day which does not end until Dec 18th. We will let you know as soon as the court date as the four of us plan to head home right after that. Most likely we will have to come back 3 weeks after we get home to get Eli. That should be a week trip or less (hopefully). We can't wait to get him to good ole Carmi, IL. Eli does recognize us when we go get him from his group and is ready to go with us but he is always ready to go back to the caregiver. The couple that has been here over a month says that their son is also willing to go back to the caregivers. I guess that makes it easier to leave him each day. He is learning so many new things. The orphanage director told us today that it is because of us that he is walking. It is just amazing what a little attention does for a guy. Simbat went with us today so she could translate. We wanted to ask a few more questions about his routine. The caregiver was so sweet. She says he eats and sleeps good. I guess those are the most important things for this age. We asked them to start calling him Eli. She was more than happy to do that and we left a picture of our new family of 5 for them to show him often and talk about mama, papa, and his sisters. Again she was very agreeable.

We hope some day in the future to get Eli and Nikki (our neighbors son) together. It would be neat if they could keep in touch as their lives started together.

Seatbelts - What? The first night we got here Abbie and Issie were digging in the car seat trying to find seatbelts but they are pretty non existant over here. That is a big change for them as we never let them ride without seatbelts but you have to do what you have to do. We have let them do a lot of things here that we wouldn't allow at home.

Mary & Adam - We hate to break it to you but Brian was really serious about the hat; however, only at bargain price. I guess that means a trip to the flea market. Here you can tell someones status by their hat. Most younger people, college students or newly married couples have stocking hats. The middle class and up have the fur coats (ladies) and hats (men & women).

Mrs York's class - you had asked about the equipment infront of the church last week. We forgot to reply. You are correct it was a concrete mixer. They were adding onto the church.

Brian's Likes and Dislikes in Kaz

Eli is so cute! We had a great day with him today. We finally got out of the cracker box room and they put us in the music room. It was wonderful and we really had good bonding time. He is now clapping his hands and waving goodbye. He enjoys baby massages. He will fit in well with this family. He likes to suck his thumb and cuddle his "snot rag" as we like to call it.

This is a list of our likes and dislikes in Kazakhstan. Bear with us if we have mentioned some of this before.
Likes:
1. Eli! He is such a blessing. It is amazing and awesome to think how God matches a child with a family. It feels as if he was meant to be ours.
2. People are quiet in Pavlodar. The city is quiet overall with the exception of a few barking dogs.
3.People dress nice here. Most people are in dress clothes of dark colors all the time. Many wear fur coats and hats. I wanted to buy a mink or sable hat but what I've found is about $300. Too high! I'm still looking though.
4. The snow covering the city is beautiful. We also enjoy looking at their Christmas lights with the snow in the background. They celebrate New Years in Jan. instead of Christmas on Dec. 25 as we do. We have found Santa Claus and some Christmas cards with the Nativity on them however.
5. The quality family time is great. We have grown closer to one another as well as to Eli. Abbie and Issie have been super! They have always kept themselves entertained (i.e. 1-They used Abbie's bra as a slingshot to propel pink bear across the room, 2-They chase each other around the apartment as each pretends to be Ghengis Khan.)
6.Our Canadian neighbors have been wonderful. Joe and Anna are adopting a 9 month old little boy. He is in the environmental part of the oil business and she is a speech therapist. She is Russian. They live in Edmondton, Alberta.
7. We have found some of the food to be good, especially in the restaurants.
8.Our apartment is clean and spacious.
9.We have an internet cafe close to our apartment.
10. When the showers work they are good and hot.
11.They have a beautiful Russian Orthodox church here.
12. The trees are nice.(especially snow covered)
13. Sandra likes how they start their day later than we do.
14. We have always felt safe.
15. It is a fascinating culture here and they love their children. They are so cute bundled up like eskimos being pulled on sleds.
16. We have great translators(Elena and Simbat) who are a phone call away. Simbat likes to spend time with us and learn about America and our "slang". I told Sandra that our Southern Illinois dialect would really confuse her.
17. Scented toilet paper
18. We like all of the music we have heard.
19. We enjoyed visiting the Korean Christian Church. Their minister asked us if we believed in God. I pointed to a picture of Jesus and said,"Yes, in Jesus". That was one time that the language barrier didn't matter.
20. Walks along the Irtish River are nice. (but cold)
21. The Russian outdoor channel is interesting. They have some American hunting and fishing shows on there; however, it is still in Russian. It is still fun to watch.
22. ESPN and CNN



Dislikes:
1.The language barrier stinks! I wish I spoke Russian.
2. Public bathrooms. In some places you have to pay extra for toilet paper if you are lucky enough for them to have any. (better hope you have some money) We have learned to first of all use the bathroom in our apartment, and secondly to carry kleenex with us at all times. Some bathrooms are simply a hole in the ground. (We have not seen any of those yet thankfully.)
3. The climate is very cold and dry.
4. People won't speak to you and often cut in front of each other (and you) in line. Needless to say, I've quit holding the door for people and we root in there with rest of them. This is more normal for their culture than trying to be nice. When in Rome......
5. The way they do business drives us crazy. It is at their own pace and slow.
6. The buildings have a very drab exterior. They definately have a Soviet influence.
7. The water in our apartment comes out of the tap discolored. You definately do not drink it!
8. The plumbing system is very odd and sometimes unreliable. I've quit trying to figure it out.
9. The security guards in the malls and stores followed us around our first couple of times in them. It has gotten better as they've gotten used to these American hillbillies.
10. The drivers are wild and honk a lot here. We have just seen one wreck however. If a car quits another will tie a ski rope to it and pull it down the road. Look Out!
11. See thru curtains in apartment or none at all. Good place for peeping toms.
12. Not much selection in the grocery stores. 25% of the store is pasta noodles. Wal-mart would blow their minds.
13. Climbing up the stairs is good exercise. It really stunk however carrying all of our suitcases up. We are on the 5th floor by the way. Elevators are very uncommon around here.

Overall we are having the time of our life, despite a few bumps in the road.

Brian

Pictures

See post below for more explaination of pictures.

Winter Wonderland! We are thankful we did come in the winter because it is beautiful. The summers only get up to about 52F in Pavlador so we would have thought that was cold also and we would miss the beauty.

Keeping themselves entertained. Issie and Eli are good playmates. Eli is walking everywhere.

Hockey Arena. Joe, Anna and us at the hockey game. Photo by Abbie.

Flea Market

Movie Theater