Nanci's Guest Post - Travel Letter #5
To See photos from kazakhstan go to:

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/ntucker123/my_photos

With Almaty thousands of miles away, its alot harder to do this, but i should relay a few more things before i forget the details.

if you have a globe, you really should look for almaty, kazakhstan. its actually on the opposite side of the planet from SF, CA. (you could dig a hole to kazakhstan...) The city is near the china and kygystan borders. The culture of the city is influenced largely by the Kazakhs, uzbeks, kyrgyks, tajiks, tatars, turkmens, turkey, mongolia, and ofcourse in the last 200 years by russia. From what i can see, China, which is really close, has no cultural influence.

the kazakhs are a nomadic, horseback peoples, herding animals. there is little written history. they did not live by borders. they lived in transportable yurts (yorta) and ate mostly meats. their history was maintained mainly by music (in the oral folk tradition). originally the kazakh written word was put down using arabic characters, but after the russian influence, they switched in 1940 to the cyrillic alphabet (with 33 letters) and added 9 extra letters to represent sounds that are used in kazakh, but are not found in russian. kazakh is a turkish language. the borders of kazakhstan (and other central asian countries) were defined artificially by stalin around 1924. To this day, there is a diaspora of kazakhs living outside the borders who are trying to get permission to return. Kazakhstan was a soviet republic until the breakup of the soviet union in 1991.

Almaty was a city created by the russians as a frontier outpost in 1854, north of the silk road. In 1991 Almaty was the site of a meeting at which the USSR was officially pronounced dead. Almaty is located in the southeast corner, near to china and was the capital. Astana, in the north,central area is now the capital - the change was made recently by the president for economic and political reasons.

Kazakhstan is populated primarly by kazakhs in the villages, with the russian populations concentrated in the cities (almaty and astana). Hence Kazakh (the national language) is spoken mostly in the villages, and Russian is spoken mostly in the city. The land is rich and varied including the steppes (what is that?), desert, and mountains.

The economy is driven by natural resources mostly oil, as well as coal, iron, natural gas, wheat, and tobacco (hence our friend who works for philip morris). Almaty is the wealthiest city in central asia and is full of foreign investors from both the east and the west.

Having lived there for two weeks, it really feels like what it is, a combination of old traditions (as a mixture of central asian cultures), soviet union's leftover influences, european sophistication, all nestled next to the mountains and very FAR away from america.

I noticed early on that there is NO WIND in Almaty, and the temperature never seemed to change more than 1 or 2 degrees. Its amazing but without wind, 32 degrees never feels cold. But as a result, the air quality is terrible. I didn't appreciate that until we drove to the mountains (less than 45 min car ride) and looked down on the thick smog. It can't be healthy to live there.

I will end this by saying my flight home was thankfully less interesting! I did have 8 hours to kill in Frankfurt, unfortunately tho it was 6am to 2pm.

I took a train to recommended neighborhood, Hauptwache, (impossible to pronounce). When i left the train station, the street was so deserted it was creepy (9am sunday in germany with all stores closed). I was about to go back to airport, when i turned around to see a white angel. actually, it was another woman. a beautiful woman, all in white, hat too. i asked her if she spoke english and she told me she didn't know anything, she just just got off a plane and was on layover! So we teamed up. She was dressed lightly having just left the summer of australia, so i lent her my furry bulky brown leather gloves - they looked funny with her white outfit! we saw alot and talked alot. it was great.

And frankfurt, once it comes alive with people, which is about the time i had to leave it :( is a Beautiful Place. i may now have to visit germany - i never had an interest before.

my last memory of the trip home. sitting next to a nice, older swedish couple (for 12hours!!!!!!!!!!). the man told me he was a neuropathologist studying primitive cell development and migration and was going to give a talk (to the UCSF memory clinic!). "you understand what i do?" he said. we had some great conversations.

As i write this, i'm in SF. Genice in Jiana are in Oakland. My best friends just had a baby 2 days ago. And I am adjusting back to life in the US.

So, if anyone ever asks you if you'll go with them to Kazakhstan,

SAY YES!

Da Svedanya,
Nanci

Jiana meets Team Orange
Topic: Now that we're home.
Hello we're home!

I can't tell you how happy I am that we are finally home. I had such an amazing time in Kazakhstan, but it was such a long journey-- both the trip and the whole adoption, and it is just so great to be back at home and be able to go on with my life. I am so grateful that everything worked out so well (I guess all my worrying paid off), and that I have been blessed with such a wonderful daughter who I adore more and more everyday. I am certainly that my dear grandparents (may they rest in peace) must have served as my guardian angels.

Jiana is playing in her exersaucer and I was thrilled to be able to go to the bathroom without asking permission or having to carry her on my lap. And I could still watch her from the toilet... what could be better? And I'm so thrilled to be able to sit here and write a blog entry while she entertains herself.

Jiana, Jupiter and Sunkissed seem to be getting on well so far. There's a lot of curiosity and smelling, but no cries of hissing... thank goodness. It would just be so tragic after all we've been through to have to find Jiana a new home in case she had conflicts with Team Orange. I was strategic about dressing her in her "i heart my kitty" pj's as a good will gesture. I think as long as Jiana stays away from the scratching post, everyone should get along well.

So far, I've adjusted well to being a mom. I haven't found it to be nearly as tiring or as stressful as people made it out to be. On some levels, it's not so different from being a cat mom. Certain parts are

To the contrary, I am really more relaxed since becoming a mother than I have been in a long time. I think the main reason is that I am busy enough to not have too much time to spend in my head.

So here's how Jiana and the catz stack up.
Both wake me up out of full REM sleep to meet various needs and demands, and are equally as persistent and persuasive. Both will gently hit me to get their points across.
Both Jiana and catz cry when they want to eat.
Both hate to take baths. Although, bathing my cats is slightly less traumatic than bathing Jiana.
The cats are much neater diners. Jiana's table manners are more similar to our sometimes visiting Raccoons.
Jiana is actually easier and lighter to carry. Jupiter in particular must weight at least 2 pounds more than her.
Feeding medication is equally as difficult with child and cats.
Both have low tolerance for boredom and demand my full attention for playtime. And it is equally difficult to type with cat or baby on my lap. No multitasking allowed on either front.
Jupiter and Sunkissed are much harder to get in the car and are a bit more cranky on driving trips.

This morning I had my first experience of feeding Jiana, while Jupiter cried for food. Later, while I was feeding Jiana a bottle, Jupiter was demanding my attention for a round of cat dancer. I tried to hold the bottle while also navigating the cat dancer. But, somehow Jupiter wasn't too convinced of my enthusiasm. This should be interesting.

Overall, I've had such incredible great fortune throughout my adoption trip. My daughter is beautiful, charming and amazing. She is such a joy and my legal process went so unbelievably smooth. I met a woman at the airport who adopted a little girl around Jiana's age from the exact same orphanage and her adoption included a 3 week first visit when she traveled to the orphanage everyday for 2 hours, then they went home for 2 weeks and came back again to Kazakhstan for 10 days.

It was also so great to have both Delilah and Nanci and Rahila and Abdul Amani along for the ride. I would have gone nuts without them. It was wonderful to be able to get a lay of the land in Almaty with Delilah as she spoke and read enough Russian to get along quite well. And Nanci was such a calming influence for me. She was so supportive with caring for Jiana and was such a good sport as we schlep and schlep and schlep that stroller through the snow, slush and icy streets and up and down more stairs that I care to remember. She also was a great Cyrillic and Russian quick study. With all I had going on, I was quite pathetic, but Nanci learned to read signs and ask directions and was much more brave and adventurous than I would have ever imagined she would be. To confess, I was a bit nervous about her willingness to venture out, but she was just amazing. But, most importantly, Nanci offered me such great coaching along the way and really helped me to stay out of my head and be a really relaxed mother. And both Delilah and Nanci pen a mean blog.

We all really loved our limited travels in Kazakhstan. Almaty is such a great city... a real hidden gem. It was so interesting.

I was met at SFO by my mom and her partner Will. They came bearing bialis, chicken cacciatore, Mandelbrot and various cakes and candies. So much for my weight. They drove up from LA and ended up beating me by two days due to my flight delay. Aside from filling my refrigerator with assorted goodies, helping straighten up, my mother also took on the task of reorganizing my my disorganized closets (which I'm all good with) and redecorating my house (which I was less enthusiastic about). As I unpack, I am also in the process of redecorating things back to their original origin.

Gotta run. Jupiter calls.

Call, come by to meet the baby, we are ready for visitors.

Jiana, Sunkissed and Jupiter's mom
who is typing while playing cat dancer

I haven't received any personal emails to me since January 11
Just in case you are wondering why you haven't heard back from me.... just in case you sent me a really sweet and sentimental email message. I probably never got it. Upon arriving home, I logged into email and realized I haven't received any personal emails since January 11th as I had too many emails on my server. If you happen to still have any emails you sent to me in your sent box, I would really appreciate it if you could resend those messages sent to my genice@profluence.net address from January 11th-yesterday. Sorry for the inconvenience.

I be posting my wrap-up in the next day or so.

Genice
who is kicking herself for not having someone turn on her computer to download messages.

Jiana and Dustin Hoffman
I was looking over Nanci's post and realized I completely forgot to mention our lunch of horse meat and camel's milk. You know that life is really full and exciting when you completely forget to report that you are dining on such delicacies. Anyone who has ever done any serious eating with me knows that I am not generally a picky eater. But, even I have a few limits.... specifically they are beets, Brussels sprouts, baby corn and exotic animal meats. I guess I was so enamored by the restaurant decor, that I wasn't paying any attention to what Abai was ordering. You can imagine my suppressed dismay when I found out what was on the lunch plate. Remind me never to trust any of Nanci's friends to order lunch.

Due to our flight being delayed out of Almaty, Jiana and I missed our connection to SF and were rerouted via LA. When we arrived in London, we just missed the LA transfer and opted to spent the night in London and fly out the next day. I started this post from Heathrow, but am finishing it from home as the Heathrow connection was cumbersome and expensive.

As we went through passport control, I noticed Dustin Hoffman and his wife at the next passport control station (4 feet away). I spontaneously decided to make a impassioned appeal for a picture. Being from LA, I'm very used to running into celebrities and I normally don't bother them, but with the baby, the adoption and having my camera right there, I just couldn't resist. As I was trying to maneuver the baby in Bjorn, Mrs. Hoffman cautioned me not to bump the baby's head on the counter and took the camera, while the staff at passport control yelled at us for taking an illegal picture in a restricted area.

Other than that, the trip back home was uneventful. Jiana proved to be a very easy going traveler, who charmed the flight staff.

More wrap-up to come tomorrow and/or the next day.

g and j

Nanci's Guest Post - Travel Letter #4
Topic: From Nanci
HI again,

Almaty never ceases to amaze! Have I mentioned how cosmopolitan this city is? Imagine European stylized, beautiful, women walking around in an urban, new york style city with snow everywhere and buildings built for the soviet republic. What do they sell here? well how do chanel, brioni, cartier, yves st laurent, ermenegilda zegna, bang and olufson and (my fav) Ligne Roset(!) all sound to you? And thats just for starters.

The restaurants! Well, ok Kazakh food aside - but did I remember to mention the camel's milk (moloka) in addition to the previously mentioned horsemeat? anyway, the other meals in fine restaurants were to die for. i had entrecote last night (with chicken,mushrooms and melted cheese in a white a sauce and the best diced potatos, tomatoes, and green beans ever!) all for $8.00 USD. what can i say. but the locals never eat out. they want their "better" home cooked food and they can't understand why we eat out. well, we can't understand why they eat in?!..........to each their own.

Sights. Here is a brief update. More city walks, beautiful Panfilov Park, with unbelievably beautiful church, incredible park monuments (kazakh, yet soviet in style -> big hulking figurines representing - well, i don't know what - couldnt' read the signs - you get used to that here...), the beautiful city mosque, some incredible,delicate, old, kazakh-style buildings (few and far between) built all in wood and in startling contrast to the cement made, soviet-style hulking buildings, and lastly a wonderful museum of ancient kazakh instruments.

At the instrument museum, we paid 50 cents admission, and were followed by our personal, (unsolicited), "docent", a pleasant 70 year old (he told us) kazakh man whose descriptions of the history of the instruments were mostly decipherable through the (non russian) accent. we learned about the instruments of the kazakhs, uzbeks, russians, kyrgyks, turkmens, tartars,mongols, chinese, koreans, pakistanis, well, etc..... Oh and then he serenaded us with the 2 string dombra, performing songs of kazakh, mongol, chinese and some other styles - the contrasts and similarities were fascinating - well, then he brought out "his" tape cassette, and i suppose we were had. we had to buy it. nice scam. but it should be fun to listen to (once)!!!!! But really, he was a wonderful man to encounter and made the museum charming.

Did I mention the babuskha nazis? Genice will elaborate in the blog, but I have to say something on the subject. Babies MUST go outside with the hat on, the hood on, and the winter jacket buttoned ALL THE WAY TO THE TOP BUTTON (which is impossible to do because with two hats on, since its really too tight, she hates it and cries, and then we are stuck with an unhappy baby). But if you don't do this before you go out, you will be stopped by every woman on the street. I mean EVERY woman. So we always hat her up and button her up, to the very last button on her jacket, which i call the "Babushka Button."

The baby is doing GREAT. She eats and eats and gained ONE POUND in 16 days. Not bad. She loves to play and has a wonderful laugh. She makes sentences: "blah blah blah blah blah blah BLAAAAA". And she has perfected the fanciful raspberry spit-rolling, with delight. Watching the catchup development on a daily basis is heart warming. I identify areas of weakness, like she is a wobbly sitter, and we work on it. Every day she has sitting time. Now, she sits well for at least 10 minutes without falling over. Its incredible to see these changes.

I had my first experience GOING to the pediatrician. Can I say how bizarre that was? All morning i was preparing for the visit, thinking things like - what should she wear, should we feed her first, what if she spits up- oh that will be terrible. OH and then I had my WAIT A MINUTE moment: I am a pediatrician. Babies spit up in my office all the time, i never notice. their outfits, i never notice. Are they fed? Oh yes I notice. (Pediatricians don't like to examine hungry fussy babies! ) How funny it was to catch myself thinking not-like-a-doc.

Two more days. Have tix to opera and ballet (4 bucks each) in a fancy opera house that makes the Met look blase. Trip to the mountains upcoming. Some shopping and thats it.

Really looking forward to coming home though, as much as i love it here. I am far, far away in a strange land, like i've never been to before and literally on the other side of the planet. It will take me a while to complain about going all the way across town to the toronado for a beer or for a drive down to the south bay to meet up with my friends! (ok, maybe not too long, so don't be getting all your hopes up!!! :)

Miss you all, thanks for all your well wishes along the way,
Nanci
ps still searching for Borat (for you HBO fans)

Thursday, January 20th

Jiana's very first email
m ;.'nn mf x sc , jkll ,. . 0 jn . . 9u ], xc x jxxxx444xxx v b vb vxb3dy z44sx4rv x ft

Finally... the story about our adoption day
I'm finally back to a reasonable Internet connection. The other one was impossible as some guy was downloading a really humongous file. Ugh!

So, here's the full story...

I was a bit uneasy the night before the court hearing as I was afraid I wouldn't be up and ready in time. And then on top of that right before bed I realized I was down to 3 diapers. The babysitter was going to arrive at the apartment by 7:30 am, and it seemed like I created a possible disaster and then everyone would be in complete dismay as to what an unfit mother I would be.

My insomnia got me up on time, everyone arrives, and we left the apartment by 7:45 am with gifts and cakes for the orphanage staff. We drive back to the small town of Ecik (about an hour outside of Almaty) and back to the orphanage where I have to sign the register indicating that I have visited the orphanage for the past 14 days, which of course I didn't as I took illegal temporary custody on the 4th day. We have a nice visit with head doctor and take some pictures. Then the head doctor and Aigul (my facilitator) get in Aigul's car to pick up the lady from the Dept. of Education and the prosecuting attorney. Nanci, Alicia and I are suppose to meet them at court. Our driver gets lost on the way to the courthouse and we have to stop 3 times to ask locals for direction. Fortunately, it's a small town.

We eventually arrive at the courthouse with 5 minutes to spare before my court appointment. And as luck would have it, everyone is late. No Aigul, no Orphanage Doctor, no one. So we wait and wait and I start getting anxious and impatient (me... can you believe it?) Aigul and the Orphanage Doctor finally show, but we are still waiting for the department of Education person and the prosecuting attorney. So we go into the judges chambers, which are completely freezing. Everyone is walking around in coats and gloves. Another 15 minutes later, the Department of Education lady arrives and then 10 minutes more, the prosecutor finally comes in. Interestingly, everyone involved in the hearing: the judge, prosecutor, Dept. of Education person, court reporter, translator, my facilitor and I are all women.

The judge was an interesting looking character. She had a 1970's haircut, was wearing a full length mink coat, and had half her mouth capped in gold. Everyone else looked less intriguing. The doctor and I are wearing practically the same outfit: black pants, black boots and pink turtle neck sweaters. (By the way, I am holding Jiana as I write this standing up and typing with one hand.) So court, finally convenes... I was afraid I was going to freeze to death waiting. The questions directed at me are fairly standard... how are you going to support and care for this child? Does your family support your decision to adopt? Why did you pick Kazakhstan?... At that moment, I was sort of wondering that myself. ... What if you get married?... Will you love this child as much as a biological child you have? All expected questions, the only was when I was asked if I believe in G-D.

After I answered the questions and there was quite a bit of back and forth in Russian. They then asked, why I was requesting an immediate decision. I was coached to say the child needed immediate medical attention in the States. More back and forth in Russian, and finally it was translated back that they would wave the 15 day waiting period if we filled out a different set of forms. So then I was once again forced to do what I promised my father I would never do... sign documents without reading them. What could I do... they were all in Russian?

So finally, they read the court's decision and everyone congratulated me. We then went to the Ecik Hall of Records (another freezing building) to wait for Jiana's new birth certificate. So, 4 hours later, we were on the road back to Almaty.

Yesterday, I signed more documents in Russian and today we visited the SOS Medical clinic for my medical sign off for the American Embassy. Turns out that Jiana has gained one full pound since I gained illegal temporary custody of her 16 days ago. 17% growth is a pretty awesome ROI, isn't it. Tomorrow I visit the for my exit interview and then on Sunday morning I fly back to the US.

We've been running around the past few days to get in last minute sightseeing and shopping. I'm getting good at 4-wheeling the stroller through deep snow and slush. But, we have to be very careful to make sure baby's hat stays on straight, as it seems everyone on the street is very concerned when it slips down or when buttons are left open, and we are constantly being stopped by strangers requesting that we fix it.

That's all for now. Baby is strangling me by pulling on my necklace. Gotta run.

Jiana's mom.
Mom and baby are thrilled to be family. (Well at least I hope baby is thrilled.)

It's official: Moldyr Ospanova is now Jiana Hilda Jacobs
And I'm finally a mom.

Yesterday was such an amazing experience and I have quite a story to tell. But, I'm on borrowed time here as we are at the Internet club accompanied by my daughter Jiana, and the Internet connection is painfully slow tonight. I keep feeding her Cheerios and trying to entertain her with various rattles between sentence fragments.

So, here's the short version... the long version will come at a later date. We went to court in town of Ecik, the adoption was granted, the judged waved the 2 week waiting period and I am flying back home with my new daughter this Sunday.

Gotta run,
Jiana's mom

How's that for anti-climatic after a year of adoption drama?

Nanci's Guest Post - Travel Letter #3
hello - i am in the Ramstore (spelled Pamctop in cyrillic)

its a huge shopping mall that in the most american like place i've been to here.

i'm getting better at reading cyrillic. it reminds me of reading hebrew. once you get it down, you can start sounding things out. i love it when i recognize a word. like the other day i figured out a sign that said "bistro."

my internet connection today is very slow, so thats why this is brief today.

you can read more on genice's blog - but i can tell you now. hers is BRIEF too!!! :)

We had a wonderful day on sunday with our new russian friend Svieta whom we met at the Arsana bathhouse (can I say how GREAT that was again?). She took us to her house for a lovely family meal. They served - meat. then we had a lovely tour by car (finally not by FOOT!) of the city.

Monday was super long. We went to the town of the orphanage (Ecik - in cyrrillic, pronounced Issyk). I got to go to the orphange, but saw no children, met the orphanage doctor. then court and legal proceedings - which took like 5 hours. and i had to wait in the car for most of it with the driver, who speaks no english.

Today, we went back to the fabulous green bizarre which only pictures can do justice, (but its the place where i saw the animal heart last week) so you'll have some wonderful pictures to see soon.

Later we meet up with my Kazakh friend, Abay, (named after a famous Kazakh poet from late 19th century - he has many things named after him such as the opera house here). I met him on the plane over here. he teaches geology at the university. He took us for a traditional kazakh meal in an unbelievably beautiful and fancy restaurant. So what is that - well - meat. seems similar to the russians. But not so. Our appetizer was many variations of horse meat (and from what i could tell horse fat). Yes, I ate it and behaved politely, saying how wonderful it was. this was followed by a wonderful lamb dish. It was amazing, but i'll just say this - i probably won't be going back there before i leave! :)

the events to come are a trip to the opera one night and hopefully a drive to the mountains this weekend!

the weather here is spectacular. its about 32 degrees every day, and there is NEVER a wind which makes it really pleasant. it snows on and off almost every day. but for the last 24 hrs its been snowing constantly, yet only seems to have accumulated about 1 or 2 inches. i hope we get a sunny day too, maybe i'll get my wish on the day we drive up to the mountain.

thats it for now,
will be home soon, happily!

dobre vecher, (good night),
nanci

finally... the long awaited massage
Privet,

Baby is developing more and more everyday. It's amazing. In the last couple of days, Nanci has taught her to give me a high five, wave bye, bye (sort of) and she is started taking a few steps (with assistance). I think she is really beginning to bond with me as she is not nearly as cranky as she was just a few days ago and is much more responsive to my attempts to soothe her. We even got to sleep through the night last night, which was a huge breakthrough.

Yesterday, I onced again commissioned the Kazakh babysitter (the one whose baby feeding talents put me to shame), and Nanci and I finally had the chance to visit the Arasan baths, a somewhat decrepit, but very traditional Russian style bath house. The Arasan bathhouse turned out to be one of the great things in life that the US is sorely lacking.

Nanci and I arrived at the baths only to find out that we had a bit of a translation problem.... (Even with Nanci's valent attempt to learn Cyrillic, we were challenged. At the perfect moment, we were rescued by a Russian woman, name Svetlana who spoke good English and offered to show us the ropes. We purchased our bath tickets, which entitled us to a 2 hour visit for around US $4, and then bought rubber sandals which were sold in a Kiosk outside for around $3. We entering the bath and joined Russian and Kazakh women in various states of dress and were assigned a locker. What an amazing experience this turned out to be. It really ranks with being buried in hot sand on the beach of Beppu, Japan, my encounter with the leaf carrying ants in Costa Rica) and dancing with the pilgrims in Muktanath, Nepal. I would of killed to have started shooting off my camera, but I guess that wouldn't have been too appreciated. There were women dressing, being massaged and getting facials and enjoying tea in their underwear. I couldn't help but notice the underwear and that most of the women weren't wearing matching bras and panties.

Svetlana, who it turns out works for one of my favorite American company's Philip Morris) helped us to schedule massages and showed us to the sauna room. There were two sauna rooms, one with dry heat and another with steam. After a week and a half of carrying around baby, my muscles were so sore, I practically collapsed in the steam room. Later Svetletia asked if I would like to have a women hit me with a branch of myrtle leaves, which I believe is a Russian bath treatment. I couldn't think of a good reason why not, so I said sure bring it on. The Russian bath lady gave me a good whacking in hot steam, and then poured three buckets of freezing cold water over me. It was great and I was about ready to collapse (in a good way now) when she was done. I took a dip in the pool, spent more time in the dry room, took a shower and sat in a mesmerized state waiting for my massage. I visited to toilet only to find newspaper, in lieu of toilet paper. Enough information.

Finally, Svetlana came by to say my massuese was ready for me. This woman was amazing... She came right out of that TV commercial from the '80s, with the Russian fashion show where all the women were wearing grey smocks. The big, strong massage woman clad in a red shirt, white sarong, and a pink terry cloth headband. She had short bleach blond hair and was about 80 pounds overweight and perspiring... sometimes on me. But, wow did she give a great massage... perhaps the best I've ever had. After I was done, Nanci was her next victim. After showering and dressing, we thanked Svetlana and exchanged phone numbers and made arrangements to meet the next day (today). We visited the small snack bar in the main area, where I had great fresh squeezed orange juice and a pastry. I then showed Nanci to the Green Market and I ran off to relieve the babysitter.

Later that night, venture off for dinner a couple blocks from our apartment and stumbled upon a fabulous Romanian restaurant. Baby got cranky upon our being seated and we were saved again by a waitress who picked up and soothed the baby while we ate. Of course, I never let them out of sight for a second and after I started following around the restaurant (it was a small restaurant), she got the message that she shouldn't be more than two feet away from me. The wait staff was incredibly nice and the food was spectacular.

This morning I ran out and bought a stroller at the Green Market and Nanci and wrapped up the baby and took her to the Central Museum, where we met up with Svetlana. It turns out the Svetlana's family is from Ecik, the same town as the orphanage my daughter was in. We had a great time at the museum and gift shop and then went over to Svetlana's house to for a late lunch with her mother, daughter, and daughter's boyfriend. We enjoyed a traditional Russian lunch of sausages, salami, mashed potatoes, cheese, juice, vodka, coffee and pastries. I could go on and on about how wonderful they were and what a wonderful time we had.

I need to sign off now as the internet club is about to close, and I need to get ready for my big court date tomorrow.

Paka,

Genice
who is making new friends and having a great time.