Together again!

I was so excited as we got closer to the Baby House. First thing I noticed was a new sign outside, the old one had been torn by the wind last time we were here. It is huge and has a girl holding a teddy bear and says "this is our home." I was so excited and must have been hungry too because when we opened the front door, that familiar smell of boiled onions made me so happy! Finally we got up the third flight of stairs, thru the locker room and to his group's door. Sixteen little heads spun toward us, and as if he'd been tagged, "goose," Nicholas sprung from the circle and came running toward me. He gave me a big, strong, hug, and the caregiver said (and I understood thru Almagul), he missed you, he missed you.

Not long after hugging, he went to my purse, where he knew he'd find something special. Thank goodness I picked up a Dora color-with-water set in London. He meticulously colored in every bit of each of two pages. Almagul asked if he remembered his sisters and Papa, and he nodded "Da!" Then he said "Katrina," "Isabelle," "Sophie." Then he said the Dora he was coloring was "Stephanie."

We stayed a little while and then he went outside with his group. Tomorrow I'll take him out of the Baby House and see how he does. If he's ok, then he'll sleep here with me, and if its too much all at once, I'll take him back. On Monday I hope we can have a little party and give the caregivers their gifts.

Now let me tell you a little about the oddessey of getting here. Oh man, what a voyage! I didn't sleep a wink from Chicago to London, really surprising since the night before I'd only slept for about 4 hours. I watched "Blood Diamond" and "The Good Shepherd." Also chatted with a couple from South Bend, she a dermatologist and he a pediatrician, heading to Spain for a cruise with their three adult kids. How fun. Also turns out we're on the same flight back on the 26th, so Nicky will have his first dermatologist evaluation for his little dry patches, in flight! How cool is that.

The layover in London was 7 hours. I got very tired and laid down on some seats that didn't have the armrests separating them. Then got woken up by a lady putting her bag on my head, and to my horror, found that the quiet area I'd picked for a snooze was now teeming with people. How undignified! I felt (and probably looked) like a bag lady.

Little did I know, I'd soon be a bag-LESS lady. I got on the London to Almaty flight, fell asleep before takeoff and woke up two hours later to find that we were still at the gate! I went back to sleep and awoke as we were landing in a place called Ekatrinaburg, Russia (a stopover that was not on my itinerary, named after Katrina apparently). We sat there for a bit too, and the person next to me got off the plane so I now had three seats to myself!

Bummer though was when we got to Almaty, somehow only one of my two suitcases had made it! The one with the orphanage donations made it. Too bad I'm not a size 2-T. My bag is still in London, along with the stroller. Oh well, I made the connection to Ust with an assurance that my bag will arrive on Sunday.

Almagul was in the tiny Ust airport to meet me. It was great to see her. I'm the only client here right now so I got the "awesome" apartment. I went back to sleep, lovely to stretch out on a bed again, and had her call me at 2:30 so we could get to the baby house for the afternoon visiting time. We got an Internet card, phone card, Tenge (local currency) on the way, and then, the best part of all...