I love my washing machine

What a dork. I almost cried when I opened the lid of my washing machine and started dropping my second-hand-smoke-permeated clothing into what seemed a bottomless drum. Just the sound of the dryer whirling put a grin of satisfaction on my face. It seems my spirit of adventure evaporated in the presence of my Western amenities. I loaded the dishwasher and marveled at how quickly the sink went empty! I paid my bills online and experienced true joy. I unpacked my Peapod-delivered groceries ooohing and aaaahing at all the fresh greens. Then I went out to the real grocery store just for the fun of it. Man, am I sucker for comfort!

BUT as I looked around our house, I was also seeing it thru Nicky's eyes and thinking that after the sparse and methodically organized Baby House, poor boy is going to short circuit. What's all this stuff? It's like eye pollution. Going to take some getting used to for a boy that can be entertained by a popsicle stick and a little pile of dirt.

And our schedule? What schedule? Let's see, if its sunny, we go to the pool, and if its not, the library. Is that a summer schedule? Need a marker? Here are 50. Want a cracker? Open the pantry and chose from five varieties. How am I going to do this? I need to have a major Good Will run. This is ridiculous. I mean just on the desk where this laptop sits there's enough stuff to overload our little man.

Anyhow, enough stream-of-consciousness. Here are the facts. I will travel back to Ust-Kamenogorsk on/around June 15. We will leave the Baby House, Nicky's first time out in about 16 months, on June 18 or 19th. Once we receive his Kaz passport and new birth certificate (with his new name, birth date, and parents), we fly to Almaty to the U.S. embassy for medical exam and interview.

Nicky and I will fly home on or before June 27 which also happens to be the day my visa expires. I really hope I don't have to renew it--that'll be another $250. However we're saving a lot because I'm flying back to Kaz alone to retrieve Nicholas. As God would have it, our good friends the Brossards have seen their move date pushed off repeatedly. Connie Brossard is like an aunt to Isabelle and Katrina so they will stay here. Connie and Joe have four boys of their own, but has never stopped them from opening their home to our girls and countless other kids! She is truly amazing. She can seriously bake cookies from scratch, pull a kid out of the street, and answer my phone call simultaneously. And genuinely smile while doing it!

Speaking of people I can learn a lot from, at the end of July we'll do our regular trip to the Outer Banks with the Reeds. I plan to observe closely and ask outright how it is that Melissa has two of the best-behaved-but-not-mamas-boys on the planet. Whatever she does, I need to learn to do, even with the language barrier. I can already tell Nicholas is one of those boys that will need a ton of love and equal amounts of discipline. He's just like his father :)

We miss our Nicholas terribly and talk about him all the time. Sophie can't wait to meet him--she's seen the video that we took of him on the playground one day. By the way, she did great without us. Kept her grades up and was really mature in taking care of herself and going w/ the flow at the Iskowitz' and Beauchamps. God is good. Will write more in a couple of days...