We are here!

Hi everybody! We've been in Astana since Monday night. We did some late night paperwork with our coordinator and translator and exchanged some money (dollars for tenge). We also got some groceries for breakfast and lunch because we have a little kitchen in our apartment. We were very hopeful for a good day on Tuesday. We thought we would meet our child. It did not work out that way, however. We were told that there were no well children in the orphanage at this time. We were heartbroken. We spent several days in our apartment not doing much of anything, at least not the main thing we had come here for, adopting a baby.
Saturday morning, we got a call from our translator saying that we were being requested to come back to the orphanage. We got ready in 30 minutes and left. We met a beautiful little girl named Gunara. She is so cute! Her caretakers say she is a "sophisticated lady." She doesn't cry much or give them a lot of trouble and she seems to notice everything around her. They also think she is very clever, and so do we. Gunara is 7 1/2 months old. She is scooting across the floor, sitting on her own, grabbing and playing with the toys we brought her, and talking a lot to us. She thinks David is great. She has probably never seen someone so big. When he picked her up, I'm sure she knew that she had never been that high before. She grabbed his glasses and broke them. He didn't even try to stop her! We had to get them fixed today. Today was our third day with Gunara. We are getting to know each other and David and I look forward to seeing her every day. We left her with a little bear blanket that her Grandmother Sponaugle gave her. When we leave, she is about to go to sleep for a nap. She was playing with her bear today as we walked out of the room.
Another good thing going on here is that we met some American friends who are working in Astana. They have been so great to us. We've had dinner together and I go running with the girls. David has some guys to discuss books, movies, and American sports. They are within walking distance of our apartment. What a blessing!!!

We're On Our Way!!!

Well, we have a referral and we're leaving Sunday! We are so happy and excited that this day has finally come. We found out about the referral last Wednesday and it was finalized on Monday. We were scheduled to leave on Friday, but our itinerary has changed several times. So, tomorrow we are leaving and will be on our way to Kazakhstan to pick up our baby. We are so busy and so I won't say much here. But keep checking this blog. Hopefully, we'll have some cheap internet access over there and be able to update every once in a while. For now, we need your thoughts and prayers. We will probably be visiting the orphanage for the first time on Tuesday morning, which is Monday night here. I will do my best to keep up communications. See you all in a few months!!!