February 8 2005 - destination known

We now know where we're going! We'll fly into Almaty, stay for a day or so, then we'll go to the Taraz region, specifically Zhambyl. We think Zhambyl is about 4-5 hours due west of Almaty. Mapquest doesn't quite cover the highways in Kazakhstan.

Our friends from Denver, the Bishops, stayed in the same place when they adopted their daughter, Ollie, and adopted Ollie from the same orphanage. Talk about a small world. Karla (adoption agent) has already told us some very good things about the accomodations in Zhambyl, so we are very excited about our trip!

The weather in Zhambyl is a little chilly right now , but not too bad in March and April...
http://weather.yahoo.com/forecast/KZXX0052_f.html

Here's a really good map of Kazakhstan (see link below). You can see Almaty in the southeastern corner, and Zhambyl is about 300 miles due west of Almaty, right on the Kyrgyzstan border.
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/atlas/kazakh/kazakh-dl.gif

Social/medical background info is on its way to the doctors now for evaluation.

For everyone who has sent us emails and phone calls of encouragement, thank you so much. You have no idea of the impact you are making in our daily lives. Thank you.