In Almaty (Take Three...)

Three flights down, one to go, before we are in the same city as our son. We are sitting in the Almaty airport, waiting out the second of our long layovers. We already spent eight hours in Amsterdam, so this five hour wait is a piece of cake. As many people know, the Almaty airport has free wifi, although finding an electrical outlet for a dying battery is slightly more challenging than accessing the Internet. I’m about to go off on that electricity search, Magellan EuroSurge converter and power cord in hand.

We’ve blogged before about one trip vs. two, as Ust is still a region that makes it possible to complete the adoption in one trip of 8-9 weeks. It is still my humble opinion that each parent or set of parents should evaluate the pros and cons as they relate to their particular personal circumstances, make the decision (after potentially changing your minds, even while in country – like we did!), and then just go with the decision and don’t second guess yourselves (or let others second guess you) as the process unwinds. If, by chance, you are looking for another “pro” for the “pros” and “cons” of two trips, we have a suggested entry: it is about 100 times less stressful to travel to Kaz for trip 2 than it was for trip 1. ☺

We were such newbies during our first trip, despite being relatively frequent travelers. The added stress seemed to melt away our travel intelligence and we became the stars in what felt like a cross between Blast From the Past (the Brendan Fraser movie about the guy who lived in a bomb shelter for 20 years) and The Beverly Hillbillies” (without the oil riches). On this trip, we are so much more relaxed, and we feel like travel veterans again. We remembered to take advantage of our frequent flyer status at each check-in point, and although we could not upgrade to business class, we could "upgrade" to better seats in coach, around empty seats, so we had room to stretch out. The KLM flight between Amsterdam and Almaty was only two-thirds full, and the flight attendants carefully orchestrated who was permitted to move around, using frequent flyer status to determine priority. We each had two seats to ourselves on one of the side aisles, and we have arrived into Almaty feeling rested. We have no delusions of grandeur that our flights home will be stress-free, so it’s been nice to enjoy these last 30 hours.

Packing was also a breeze compared to our first trip. We brought very few clothes for ourselves, sharing one suitcase between us. I probably still overpacked for Zak (his name this week – still deciding!), partially because we wanted to bring many of the toys and books that we played with during our month together, hoping to spark some familiarity.

We are also the very proud couriers of a third large duffel bag, packed full of donations facilitated and provided by Two Hearts for Hope, a charity started by two mothers who adopted from Kazakhstan. If you are a family who has donated to Two Hearts for Hope, thank you!! We are thrilled to be able to help deliver these generous donations! If you are traveling to Kaz, particularly on a second or third trip when you know you will have some capacity to carry along a few more things, I highly encourage you to contact Kimberly and Stacy at Two Hearts for Hope. You can find their contact information and additional information about the charity and its Board of Directors (made up of primarily adoptive parents) at http://www.twoheartsforhope.blogspot.com. We cannot wait to deliver the plethora of pajamas, clothing, toiletries, and other childrens’ items to the Ust baby house. And, of course, they can always use more donations – those details can be found on their website as well.

We should arrive to The Shiny River by about 3:00 PM on Friday afternoon. We hope to spend the ride from the airport to the hotel encouraging our driver and/or coordinator to take us to the Baby House for what would be the regular 4:00 PM visit. We were unable to get confirmation before we left as to whether we’d first reunite with Zak on Friday or Saturday. Needless to say, it will be painful if we are asked to wait until Saturday.

We are holding in our hands our round-trip tickets to/from Ust, so we are already booked to come back to Almaty on Sunday. So, our trip into Ust is a quick one, and it looks like we will spring Zak from the baby house on Sunday, and go right to the airport to head back to Almaty.

We know the little guy is going to be shell-shocked. We guesstimate that we will be, too.

Thank you so much for continuing to keep us in your thoughts and prayers. It’s going to be a phenomenal six days, and we are so honored and appreciative to have so many people along for our journey.

Here we come, Zak!