More Monday...

The kids are so funny- the orphaage does things a little different. For one, they don't use diapers. AT ALL. They just use little cotton pants and I guess do a lot of wash. But they start potty training at 6 mos. And there are no "props"- no pacis, no sippie cups, they use utencils to eat and real cups to drink. Today we got a real taste of their personalities. We were trying to teach them to drink from a sippie cup (it would make things so much easier on mom! and on the airplane and carseats!) Lena caught on after a few tries, but Dub just sat and looked at it and handed it to Kevin to open. Kevin handed it back and told him to watch Lena and he just sat looking at it and tried a few times and it looked like he got it. Then he just brought it down from his mouth and this little scowl came across his face and he just flat refused to drink it.

We attended the "Guardian Council" hearing today. This is a requirement before going before the actual judge in court to gain custody of the kids. It was a little intimidating: 5 Kazakh women asking lots of questions and our interpreter, Vera, handing them off to us. In the end, they saw the picture of Kevin at 18 months or so with the Heineken bottle in his hands, and laughed at how much it looks like Valeryi. They wished us all the best, and hoped that our dream of a family would be fufilled.

We ate lunch - chicken kebobs - at the Bosfor restaurant, just a short walk away. Delicious! For dinner, we walked the 20 minutes or so to the Gros Market and bought a BUNCH of food, cokes, water for about $15. A very fun and full day. Back to the regular schedule of 10-11:30 and 3-5pm visits with Dub & Lena tomorrow.

Please continue to pray that God would somehow allow the Judge to waive our 15 day waiting period. It appears as if our court date will be on May 30 or 31. We'll know that next Tuesday or Wednesday.

Blessings,
Kevin & Angel