by: Nicole Sandler

11-21-2000

Wow, this has been an amazing few days! I left Los Angeles

Saturday afternoon at 3:20 PM PST, and flew 10 hours to Frankfurt Germany. I had a two and a half-hour layover followed by another six-hour flight to Almaty Kazakhstan, which is where I am now. I arrived around 3:00 AM and was met at the airport by the most wonderful woman, Galiya, who works for my agency and is handling the adoption details in Kazakhstan.

She brought me to the apartment that will be my home for the next three weeks or so. For $30 a night, I have a two-bedroom apartment with a full bathroom, kitchen and living/dining room.

I was awake until about 5:00 AM, unpacking… and pacing, knowing that in a few hours I'd be meeting my daughter!

I was picked up at 11:00 AM, ran around town a bit – registering my passport, exchanging dollars into tenge, and after driving 90 minutes to a little village called Karakastek arrived at the orphanage where my daughter is living.

Words can't describe the feeling as the beautiful little girl who will soon depend on me for everything was walked into the visiting room! For the past month I've had two pictures and two videos of her that are worn out from watching over and over again, and here she was. They placed her in my arms and she buried her head in my neck. I was in heaven.

We played and got to know each other for about four hours, and then it was time to leave. When I got home last night, I was totally exhausted! But I was being picked up at 9:00 AM in the morning to go back to the orphanage!

On the way Galiya had to stop by the courthouse to pick up the final decisions for two other families who had their court date the day before. When she came out, she told me my court date was Thursday! That's the day after tomorrow! That means on Friday, I get to bring Alison back to the apartment.

Unfortunately, Kazakhstani law requires a 15 day waiting period before the decision is final, so we're not leaving here for a while, but we'll have a couple of weeks to get to know each other before we get on a plane to Moscow. Yes, Moscow. We have to go through the U.S. Embassy in order to enter the U.S. But more about that next time. I' m exhausted....