Almaty is All-righty.

Well, I finally get to post. Everytime I tried for my last two visits, I had no luck. Glad Pat has been able to post for us. As Pat has said already, we have felt a bit of revival and relief as we have started our week or so in Almaty. Pat said I had to finally fill you in on our first plane trip to zhez so that our plane trip out of Zhez will make sense.

We arrived in Almaty after our rather terrible experience with the Amsterdam airport and we slept a bit and then were taken to the airport for an evening flight to Zhez (yes, I am spelling it different.....this is the updated version supposedly). We arrived in Almaty in the fog and left Almaty in the fog then arrived in Zhez in the fog. They have some very good Pilots that along with God's help, I am sure, were able to land with fog all the way to the ground. I did not see runway until we touched it....yikes. Very thankful that they were good pilots. Well, the funny part of the initial arrival was that they take your luggage in the terminal....take it out to the plane...and then leave it at the bottom of the stairs for you to haul up the stairs and put in the back of the plane.....Did I mention you climb into the plane from the back...a rear entrance....think C-5 transport plane but miniture.....we were exhausted at this point and over weight on our luggage so we loved every minute of trying to get those huge suitcases and bags up the stairs.....oh yeah, and there were these really young guys that stood around and watched you do this...no help what so ever....so we got loaded on and then when arriving in Zhez...yes, we must unload our luggage down while people stood by and watched. All of the other passengers where on the bus waiting to go to the terminal (oh, I mean the parking lot) and just watching us struggle with all of our luggage off of the plane and then they watched and did not move while we tried to get it on the very full bus....nice welcome to the city.....we at that point actually thought it was funny because we were so tired and just took our time since no one offered to help (one nice passenger did help a bit on the journey up the stairs but just the easy bag).

So, Needless to say, we were dreading the flight from Zhez to Almaty because now we had a rather speedy 3 year old to hold on to plus all of that luggage (minus a few gifts and Pat's boots...they wore out from the walking). When we got to the airport, we handed off our luggage and knew that this really meant nothing as it was all going to be waiting for us to try and get on the plane. Well, the bus took us out to the plane and passed right by the rear-loader and on to a bigger plane with no luggage outside the stairwell. Well, if we could have shouted Hallelujah in Kazak, we would have. We were praising God all the way up the stairs because we only had our backpacks and a 3 year old. They even held the line up so we could go first. And, then they helped us get off. God knows what you need......trust me!

As Pat said, Nick did great on the plane. Which only goes to show that a grandson of a McDonnell Douglas retiree knows a great ride when he gets it. I actually don't know what kind of plane it was.....something old and soviet. I would say circa 1950's or 60's from the decor. We didn't care as long as it got us here. I have some fun pics of the plane ride when we ever figure out how to use our jump drive here. It is not the same as Zhez.....one of the things that was better in Zhez.

Nick was so curious about everything on the plane and thought the flight attendant was great because she picked up all of the trash. He must have watched her go back to the galley at one point (their's has a door that shuts behind them) because he wanted to get up and go to the back with his trash. I thought he wanted to go potty but he just stood there and when she came back out, he promptly handed her his trash and headed back to his seat. She thought that was hilarious and so did I. She made extra efforts to take his trash from then on. He loved the meal that they had and ate his and mine. He almost fell asleep but we started to land so hopefully this is something that he can do on the long flight.

We are enjoying our luxury apartment although still not kid proof.... it has doors that shut and he can't open them....praise the Lord again! He adapted pretty well with the new surroundings and has enjoyed lots of stroller rides all over town. We haven't been in too many "sights" because he just doesn't do that well with walking around. Not sure if we will get to the mountains but it is nice to see them. We had a great easter egg hunt with the fellow Americans and they even had a co-worker dressed as the easter bunny. We were sad not to get to worship anywhere but listened to some of our CD's throughout the day now that we have a nice stereo system. Nick dances to the music and we have a cute video of him dancing to some Greater Vision.

The food is still lacking but the stores have so much more to choose from for Nick. We found their version of chicken strips (he won't eat them but Pat will) and microwave popcorn (we have a microwave now) so we feel that we can survive no problem. I may have to go solo and try the lebanese restaurant to see how it compares to our OASIS but we shall see....not as much fun to try stuff if we all can't go and it is just not easy with Nick....We did go to their version of a mall today and their food court had some edible foods and baskin robbins! We also met another adoptive family there (well, half of them) the other half is still in Taraz. They are adopting a 12 and 11 year old. They will have 7 kids total.....they were from Texas so we taked for a bit to this husband and his 3 boys. They loved Nick and helped keep him occupied so mom and dad could eat.....their version of stuff is just weird so we still haven't had great caloric intake considering all of the walking we are doing again (hills included) but we don't mind keeping the weight off until we get home.

Well, that should catch everyone up from my standpoint....we have not heard from our coordinator but are still hoping that we may get out of here next Sunday. Nick is continuing to learn words, colors, sounds and I would love to have all of my kids books at home.....patience, patience.....we bought some overpriced animals and a book today for the plane and some play kitchen toys so he will maybe leave the china alone! We are so thankful for all of the prayers. Thank you for lifting us up and sending scripture our way.....we cherished all of it....It reminds me of the verses about if one falls another will be there to lift them up. We felt that from all of you! Have a great week and I hope this is the last Monday that I am writing to you from Kaz.
Love to all....Karen, Pat, and Nick