Wednesday, April 21 - ONE MORE DAY before heading home. Unfortunately, the last two hotels have had Wifi but no direct internet access so we have not been able to post blogs, check e-mails or look up anything on the internet on our computer (which is SO SICK right now that as I’m typing John is having to hold down the function key so that I can type words and not words with random numbers mixed in.) This hotel has a great breakfast included (with real coffee and milk!) A group of ladies sitting at the table next to us are part of a European tour group stranded in Barcelona since last Saturday trying to fly to Zurich to fly home to the US. The effects of this volcanic ash is truly widespread. We are thrilled to learn of a travel agent that is near the hotel and are able to reserve a hotel near the airport in Madrid AND get confirmation that our flight is still ON GO tomorrow morning from Madrid to Washington. Thank you, Lord!!! By 11AM we are back in our SKODA and heading to a city park a short drive from our hotel. We walk around snapping pictures of structures we will read about at another time. I wish I cared more now but I don’t. We ask Pam-Pam to get us to our hotel in Madrid and we are on our way.
12:30PM-6:30PM The miles between Barcelona and Zaragoza (halfway city to Madrid) and onto Madrid look a lot like the American Southwest. We see few cars through much of this stretch and are hoping that Pam-Pam is leading us correctly. Trying to keep a sense of humor about all of this but we have only one motive now and that is to GET HOME. Flat lands, red dirt, 20 ft. billboards of bulls, energy windmills spread atop mountain crests – that’s about all my tired brain can process for today.
Who would have thought that the last 2 hours of our 20 plus hour driving experience would be the most stressful of all? Pam-Pam takes us directly to the TYRP DIANA Hotel, located about 2 miles past the airport, bug she can’t seem to get us to the front of the Hotel where the cars go. So we squeeze the SKODA into a tight fit on the side of the road behind the hotel and walk through the woods to check in. Because we have opted not to leave our belongings in the rental car at nights, I would really like to pull up close to the entrance. We find the entrance but it is a ONE way street and after failed attempts finding the correct way to enter, we wait on some cars to exit and go for it in the wrong direction to the closest parking place. After unloading our stuff we decide it would be best to return our rental car to the airport tonight to allow for smoother sailing in the morning when we depart. SMART MOOVE on our part – it ended up taking us til 8:30PM to circle the airport numerous times in pursuit of the rental return lot, stand in line to return the GPS, and find out where to get the hotel shuttle. So glad that the airport folks in Frankfurt were more helpful (and kinder)than the ones in Madrid.
8:45PM – dinner at the hotel and off to sleep. Tomorrow night we will be in our own bed for the first time in 37 nights.

Tuesday, April 20 FIVE weeks ago today we left home! Boy, are we ready to be home where a “cup of coffee” translates into a 16 ounce tumbler of just right flavor with some whole milk and Splenda. Most coffees here are miniature expressos and no milk available! We were out of our hotel by 9AM and on the road to Setes, a city on the Mediterranean Sea. It’s time to step INSIDE the bubble and let our feet touch French ground. This town has condos and hotels packed in on the hillside, all with views of the beautiful blue sea and beach. There are miles of sidewalks for bikes and pedestrians that run along the water. We ate outside and enjoyed French bread, French fries and French omelets (and a tiny cup of black expresso). Truly, we have denied ourselves no food (nor have we exercised) and I am feeling like my body has been put into slow motion and stiff as a board!
We are on the road again and heading south to Barcelona, Spain (on the Mediterranean Sea just south of the French/Spain border). Staying there tonight will put us at about a 6 hour drive from the airport we will fly out of in Madrid. I am being a pitiful travel companion for a good part of the afternoon because I cannot get out of this zombie-state and stay awake to keep John company. We make the mistake of pulling in the pre-paid only ticket lane as we enter Spain and hold up a long line of not so happy drivers behind us. I finally get out of the car and tell the guy behind me that we aren’t from around here. He wasn’t very friendly.
In just 2 days we’ve gone from hearing German, to French, to Spanish and we still catch ourselves saying, our Russian “Spy-ceba” for thank you. The terrain in Spain is less lush and colorful compared to France, both countries are covered with wine vinyards which are just beginning to sprout new leaves. It is easier to navigate in a Spanish speaking country since John knows a tad of Spanish. We both took weekly Spanish lessons in Greenwood 2 ½ years ago when we first thought we were adopting a 4yo little girl from Guatemala. Glad to see those months of Spanish lessons weren’t wasted. While in Frankfurt (when we had better internet access), John randomly picked two hotel names in downtown Barcelona and Pam-Pam guided us right to the front door of a beautiful hotel on La Rambla Street in the heart the old section of town which was buzzing with people from all over the world. 10 minute parking in the front of the hotel gave us enough time to check for vacancies and unload our 160 pounds of luggage into the room. You’re on your own here to find a place to park your car (thus many locals ride mopeds which squeeze between moving cars and trucks without warning).
We do have success finding a parking deck and John is able to relate to the parking attendant that we will be back tomorrow for the car (a mere 45 dollar tab for less than 24 hours). Glad to be able to get around by foot. There are more stores to shop in here than in all of South Carolina (at least it feels that way). We are taking pictures of grand buildings and statues and hoping that someone can educate us when we get home as to what we have been looking at – probably something very historical and famous! Just aren’t up to climbing up on a tour bus to see the sights today. I am in sensory overload for experiencing new sights and sounds and tastes. We do get a good recommendation for a dinner place at 4 Cats which was a nice way to end the night (that and splurging on a colorful zippered jacket for me that is probably way to youthful but fun).

Monday, April 19 “Touring Europe Outside the Bubble” We’re taking charge and escaping Frankfurt, hopefully no longer under the effects of a continually erupting volcano.
So here’s how NOT to tour Europe –we grab an Egg McMuffin at the McDonald’s in the Frankfurt airport before picking up our rental car. Walk approximately a mile to find our car, yet unable to find the cable connection on the GPS the Eurocar employee issued us. Walk a mile back to the Eurocar counter to learn that the cable connection is in a nifty place we hadn’t seen before. Walk back to the car and drive to our hotel to check out and load up. Talk to a family from Canada who are told it will be SATURDAY before they can leave. Give them our calling card we had purchased since it is only good in Germany. Sit in gas station near the hotel eating our McDonald’s breakfast trying to figure out how to get our GPS to work. Our GPS voice, we’ve named “Pam-Pam” has a British accent and she sends us 15km in the WRONG direction and then quits giving directions at all. Feeling very stressed in a foreign place this morning. Multiple turnabouts and street signs in a foreign language are not comforting when you are lost. The word for the day is “AUSFAHRT” which I could find nowhere on our map. After seeing this word repeatedly we realize that it is not a location at all, but probably means EXIT. What in the word are two people from Greenwood , SC doing trying to drive themselves to Madrid? Maybe we should have taken European driver’s ed before getting behind the wheel.
We rarely saw speed limit signs while in Germany and felt like a snail being passed by cars and motorcycles whizzing by us on the left. Wishing now we had a car with more pick up and go than this cute little SKODA that rattles when it gets over 120 kilometers/hour. By the end of our day at 10pm, we have traveled 1000 kilometers, passed through Germany and most of France, eaten at a Shell station for lunch and a truck stop for dinner, stopped and paid toll fees at countless toll roads and taken in some beautiful views (albeit fast) along the way. Whatever pictures we made were from the car in transit. The Ibis Hotel in Montpiellier, France was a welcomed respite at the end of a long day of travel.
This isn’t exactly how I’d imagined experiencing Europe but at this point we really just want to be HOME.

Sunday, April 18 Today is our 3 year “GOTCHA DAY” anniversary since we first got Cooper. Sure would love to see our kids. It has been such a blessing to hear how well they are doing without us being there. John and I eat breakfast at the hotel and take the shuttle back to the airport to check on our flight we have booked for Monday. We learn that NO flights are leaving on Monday and the earliest booking we can get out of Frankfurt is Friday. Don’t understand how a Monday departure turns into Friday when there are so many days in between. Seems like we’d get first dibs on flights since our initial flight out was scheduled 11AM last Friday, just hours after they closed the airport. The expressions on people’s faces are much different today than yesterday morning. People are getting weary. We run into our friend, David, who has been in Ghana. He’s modeling the free white t-shirt Lufthansa airlines handed out in their care packages. (John and I slept in ours last night). David’s been taking anti-malaria meds since he thinks he has malaria again and has had to ration them. He’s not feeling so well now. Our friend, John, from Botswana only brought $100 cash to get him to the US (and he has no credit cards). We’re able to help him out a bit since we can make a daily withdrawal from the ATM machine here. We met a woman today from San Francisco who lost her husband 4 years ago and is traveling for the first time since her husband’s death. She’s alone and is out of her Lexapro and Ambien. She begins to cry as she talks about losing her husband, ect. One guy who has been out of the country for the past year working with the US Secretary of State is supposed to get married in the states TODAY. We suggested to him that he do his wedding on skype and we could stand in as his bridal party. I can only imagine how many other stories are in the walls of the Frankfurt airport.
TOURING EUROPE IN 3 DAYS ….. We decide that we don’t want to sit around to find out there are further delays past Friday and so we book flights out of Madrid, Spain on Thursday morning to get us home Thursday night at 6:30pm. We can take a bus ride down to Madrid or rent a car. Since neither of us have ever been to Europe before, we choose to go for the scenic car route. We are able to retrieve our luggage (after an hour and a half wait), book a rental car for tomorrow morning (with GPS that I pray is in English), and head back to our hotel to drop the luggage off. We go back downtown to walk around (very crowded) and eat at a café in what must be their financial distract (thus a bull and bear bronze statue that looks like the in NYC).
We’re on day #4 in these same clothes, however, our suitcases are full of DIRTY clothes. What’s deodorant for anyway? Extra bummed now after Googling in Mapquest from Frankfort, Germany to Madrid, Spain. It’s an 18 HOUR drive. 6 hours of driving/day for 3 days isn’t what we had in mind to tour through Switzerland, France, and Spain. And that’s if we can do it without getting lost. This is killing John who is our ultra detailed planner when it comes to traveling. No planning on this trip, we’re just going for it. We’ve decided we’ll just crank up the music and look quickly as the scenery passes by. Honestly, I like experiencing new places, but I’m just as happy (if not much more so) hanging out and hearing people’s stories.
Thankful that I didn’t toss my clothing line out before we left Kazakhstan. We have our own clothesline with wet (and semi-clean) clothes now hanging up in our hotel room. Since we’re going to be in a different country for the next 3 days, no one will know if we’re in the same clothes each day anyway!

Saturday, April 17th 4AM – Rise and Shine! 5 hours or sleep is all this body can handle on a granite floor. We are lookin’ and feelin’ mighty fine. So, we’re wimps and can’t do the campin’ out at the airport any longer – 26 hours of roaming the halls and guarding our bags is long enough. John got on line and found a hotel vacancy 2 km from the hotel with a shuttle service. We arrive at the Steigenberger Hotel (even sounds German, don’t you think?) at 9:30 and sit in the lobby (with soft cushioned seats) until we can get in our room at 11. It feels so good to lie down on a mattress and especially good to have a shower. It would be even nicer to have clean (or some different) clothes to put on after the shower, but we will never see these people again so what difference does it make to be on day 3 of these same clothes?
3PM – decide to take the subway to downtown Frankfort and see the sights. We ask a couple who are staying in our hotel where they are from (as they were getting on the shuttle with us to get to the subway station which is below the airport) and we end up spending the rest of the day with them. It turns out this delightful couple from Crossville (I think), Tenn. have been to Germany numerous times on business and Rebecca actually speaks German. They have no clue how glad we are to tag along with them and to learn some history about this place. We ended our time with them at a German restaurant on the square downtown sharing pig knuckle, sausages, mashed potatoes and sauerkraut . I’m going to need to find me some elastic waist pants before I make it home! Wonderful night’s sleep on a wonderful bed.

Friday, April 16 (Actually, I’m not sure WHAT day it is!) I am typing this while sitting at Frankfurt Airport in Germany where ALL flights have been cancelled due to volcanic activity in Iceland. We arrived here at 6:30AM Germany time (6 hours off from US time) and at this point I can’t do the math on which time my body is now on.
We just sent out a quick, “The judge said, “YES!” from a computer at the airport we were permitted to use for 15 minutes, but I wanted to go back and include some details of yesterday.
Thursday, April 15 11AM – 12:15 – (Court) Gulnara speaks for 40 minutes presenting our case, primarily proving that Kirill’s mother was unfit and though she continued to live in various places with her boyfriend and to drink she made no attempt to come back after her son. We were asked by the judge why we wanted to adopt Kirill. John went into his speech mode which sounded very nice but had nothing to do with why we wanted to adopt Kirill. I continued with a response as to what it was we loved about our new son. Our favorite doctor sat behind us (representing the baby house) and spoke on our behalf. A representative from the Dept. of Education stated that he had no objections to our adoption. A prosecutor (lady in an interesting uniform) asked us questions concerning what our response would be if Kirill began to exhibit bad behavior after coming to US (All here are concerned after a Tennessee woman sent her 7 yo Russian adopted son back to Russia on a plane alone – now all Russian adoptions to American families are on hold). I stated that we had seen the place that Kirill spent 2 years of his life and that we ANTICIPATE there will be some issues in his future and that we have good appropriate healthcare to help us. Court was dismissed until 2PM for the judges verdict.
12:30 - Helen (our new translator) drives us to the baby house to see Kirill and to explain to him that we will be leaving for 4 weeks and that he will be joining us in America. She asks Kirill if he has any questions and he shakes his head. Does he have any concept of how different his life will be? How far away America is? What it will be like to ask for a snack any time he is hungry (or to help himself to food for that matter)? It seems he can tell something big has happened. We leave some little cars and candy for his “classmates” and some gifts for his teachers to show them our gratitude for their fine care of Kirill.
2:05-2:15PM Back to court room for judge to restate our case and after several minutes state that he gives his approval for John and Kirby King to adopt Scott Kirill. Thank you, Heavenly Father. We are now blessed to parents of five. (Kim Cain, forgive me for ever making fun of you years ago for wanting so many children! As Cooper says now “ We have a lot of family!”)
2:30 Iger takes Gulnara, John and I to Olga’s house. Olga’s daughter works with Night Light Adoptions in Colorado and Olga will be escorting Kirill to US next month. She has prepared an incredible spread of food for us. Gulnara asked John (on our way to Olga’s) to call and invite Zhanat (first translator) to come and join us for this celebration meal. We are grateful that we will be able to end this road on a positive note with our original translator. Truly, we do not blame him for calling it quits when he did. He has tolerated much.
Olga has such a pleasant smile and she adds a gentleness to the Russian language we have not heard so much of during our time here. Our time with Olga is a very warm way to finish our stay in this country. Because Olga lives in walking distance to the baby house; John, Zhanat and I run (in what is our first rain since being in Karaganda) to make one last, quick visit with Kirill. We are thrilled to be able to see the American families and tell them our good news (and to have some “group” pictures taken before we go.) They have “felt our pain” for the past couple of weeks and have been such a blessing to us. Upon returning back to Olga’s apartment (about 6:20) we are greeted with more food on the table and told that what we had at 3:00 was “dinner” and now we are having “supper!” That’s my kind of eating schedule! One plus of wearing your pants so many times without washing them is that they stretch out for more room!) Eating and toasting goes on until after 8PM. We leave 2 bags of new clothes, undies, PJ’s, toothbrush, and a new “Machina” book bag with Olga to have for Kirill when they travel to the US. NOW it is beginning to feel like reality!!!! This nice woman will bring our boy home – Storkess Olga! She has done this escort trip twice before and says that she and Kirill will board the business train in Karaganda at 10PM (whenever this day will be) and arrive in Almaty the following morning at 8AM. On that day she will take Kirill to the hospital for a required medical exam and then on for his visa. The following day at 3PM they will depart for America. Now that’s what I’m talking about! (this is Zhanat’s favorite American expression.)
9:15PM John and I are dropped off at our apartment to change clothes and pack. At 10:45 the owner of our apartment comes by to collect our past 2 weeks rent and helps us carry our 4 bags of luggage downstairs so we can wait on Iger and Gulnara to pick us up and take us to the airport in Astana. 15 minutes later (and a lot of readjusting to cram 4 large suitcases and 3 carry-ons into a medium size Audi) we are on our way to Astana.
Friday, April 16 (The day we thought we were finally going home)
2AM - We arrive at airport, check in our bags with Lufthansa Airline and say our goodbyes to Gulnara and Iger. Since our final souvenir shopping was cut short with other activities we are grateful that the airport has a souvenir shop open at 2 in the morning, and that they take Mastercard. Not exactly how I had pictured collecting some memories from my new son’s birth country, but he now will have a 4”x6” Kazakhstan flag that flies proudly on a 10” stick and a small plate with his country’s name and picture on it. Our greatest souvenir is a beautiful malchick (little boy) that can fill up his room one day soon with other keepsakes.
4:30AM – On board and ready to fly home! (Astana to Frankfurt to Washington, DC to Greenville by Friday 6:30PM) ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!
A quick summary of Friday – lots of standing in line to find out that NO ONE is going anywhere until this cloud of volcanic ash from Iceland moves elsewhere. So proud to be a part of newspaper headlines “Volcanic ash PARALYZES European air travel” - that’s us, baby. That’s what I’m talking about (thank you, Zhanat!) So cool to befriend several people in one of our wait lines. Three American missionaries -one now living in Ghana and one in Botswana and an adorable woman in her late 70’s who is returning home from her 51st mission trip. As well as a precious woman, originally from India, whose husband is a pediatrician in Virginia. She and I enjoyed long walks around the Frankfurt airport, talking and window shopping. I have learned so many interesting things about these people’s lives and though we wish we were home, this day has given us wonderful looks into the lives of people who chose to live for the Lord in foreign lands. John and I are also very grateful for the input that John and David (the two workers in Africa) have given us on dealing with Kirill’s past experiences. Both feel that it is most important that we allow Kirill, with an interpreter, and counselor upon arriving home, to talk about his past and express his feelings about this (rather than waiting for issues to come up later). This seems like wise advice. So our new community of friends help to guard our possessions while we take turns walking about the airport. There are a limited number of airport seats that slightly recline and we do our best to keep position of these.
8PM dinner at German restaurant (that takes Mastercard). 11PM – John calls it a night on the reclining seat and I claim territory under the “ALL FLIGHTS CANCELED” sign using my squishy pillow to line my butt and John’s neck pillow for my head. So glad I still have my heavy coat with me. They must turned the heat off in this place at night (and the extra padding on the floor is wonderful).

Thursday, April 15, 2010 COURT DAY
10AM – Our bags are packed (with some very dirty clothes) and we are ready! Court is in one hour so we will wait until our call to go downstairs to meet Iger. John has been walking around the apartment practicing his speech he will give before the judge (I’m just banking on it being so good that I can remain mute.) I’ve got to share the scripture that John “came upon” this morning (he’s been reading through the book of Luke). It’s a parable that Jesus told his disciples so that they should always pray and not give up (something that so many of you have done on our behalf!). It’s about a judge who neither feared God nor cared about men. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, “Grant me justice against my adversary.” For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, “Even though I don’t fear God or care about men. Yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually wear me out with her coming.” And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you he will see that they get justice and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?” Isn’t God’s word amazing and His timing so perfect?
So as we sit here waiting for this worldy judge to hear our case in the next hour and give to us his verdict ….What is faith? We’re still learning but I think we have a greater understanding since beginning our journey. It certainly is not faith in the people who surround us and unlike I once believed, it is NOT based on how much faith I can muster up myself. It is keeping our eyes fixed on the prize which is Jesus Christ himself and knowing that no matter what He is up to, He is in control and He does have a plan in the craziness of all our lives. It’s knowing that he knows us personally and understands that we could never possess enough consistent belief that all things do work out for the good, so he fills us with his Holy Spirit who equips us and enables us to stand up under great stess. It is God in us that helps us to endure, and to be made more like his Son in the process – that’s what “the good” is. Oh, how we hope and pray that God will give us the desires of our hearts, the desire we believe that He placed within us 2 years and 9 months ago when the idea of adopting again began. I have reminded Him that He has quite an audience ready to watch Him show off today. He will not disappoint us (somehow, even if this worldly judges verdict is not in our favor.) At this point, this journey is not only about John’s and my desire to adopt a child but about a 5 year old boy who has not had a fair start in life. Can you imagine the story that Scott Kirill will share one day, standing before a crowd of prospective adoptive families who are wondering if it is worth all the trouble, the finances, the stress of pursuing a little one to add to their family. I know that it is worth it.

Just want to announce the official addition of our new son: Scott Kirill King We went to court on Thursday and after 1 hour and 15 minutes of our atty. talking and a few questions to us and an hour and a half wait for a verdict - this precious boy is ours!!! Will post more later. We arrived at Frankfort Germany at 6:30 this a.m. to find that ALL flights out of this airport are cancelled due to the volcanic eruptions in Iceland - a new way to end our journey that begin with 8 hours stranded in an SUV at a road block. We hope to be able to leave here 11 Sat. a.m. or at least by Monday at 11a.m. They say this is the biggest air traffic european shutdown since World War II - ha!

Wednesday, April 14th Final 2 days in Karaganda and we are soooooo glad. Today has been a very BIG day in our adoption quest. At 10:45 AM Iger drives us to the judge’s office for “pre-court” which is scheduled for 11. Gulnara is there and Helen, our new translator, meets us there as well. (Yes, Zhanat, could bear the stress no more and he has quit on us.) Helen was called late yesterday to see if she would translate for us during pre-court and court. Fortunately, Helen had called Gulnara the night before and apologized for telling Gulnara that she could not have her drink near Helen’s computer (Helen’s house rule that made Gulnara so mad the night we were at Helen’s to discuss our case, that we left Helen’s apartment immediately.) Glad that burned bridge has been repaired!
11AM John and I, along with Helen and Gulnara enter into the judges office who sits behind his desk. The judge looks to be about 40 and is wearing a black robe with a fancy collar. His secretary (a platinum blonde asian!) sits across from Gulnara and takes notes as Gulnara explains our case to the judge and shows him pictures of where Kirill had lived for over 2 years. Other than to stand and tell the judge our names we did not have to speak at all!! As I was praying (while Gulnara and the judge were doing their thing), I could just imagine this office filled with angels, ceiling high, who were joining us to watch. And I could picture Jesus , our Great Judge, standing behind the seated Kazak judge, leaning over him as the two of them looked together at Gulnara’s pictures. 30 minutes after we entered, pre-court was done and off we headed to the Dept. of Education office for our interview.
12:30PM Interview with 2 women from Dept. of Education - one of which was present at each of the baby houses at the start of all of this when we were initially shown the children. Because of the scandal that has just occurred in which an American mother decided to “return” her 7yo she had adopted from Russia some time before, we were told to expect much more questioning from the judge in court tomorrow. We quickly state that we feel that what this woman has done is criminal. The officials say that because of this scandal, Kazakhstan adoption bonding time will be doubled to 30 days (instead of the 15 required for us). Questions were asked, such as, “Does any of our family need an organ transplant?” “Why are we adopting when we already have biological children?” “Do we love Kirill?” Evidently, Iger, our driver, had witnessed Kirill running to us yesterday outside the baby house and our interaction with him at that time and he shared this with Gulnara who shared this with these department officials during our interview. That seemed to go over very well. 15 minutes later we were on our way out the door.
Pre-court and our interview could not have gone smoother. Gulnara said that we need to go to Timmertaw this afternoon to obtain a document from the police department. Oh, how we do not want to go back to Timmertaw, especially on our last full day here. We really need to buy clothes for Kirill to wear on his trip from Karaganda to Almaty and onto US. We are running out of minutes. We assure Gulnara that we will be able to find transportation ourselves for the afternoon so she allows us to stay in Karaganda. John and I are afraid we will not be able to get everything done before we must leave for court (scheduled for 11 tomorrow AM) so we are not returning to the baby house today. We will meet Olga tomorrow at 2PM and go together to see Kirill. Olga is Kate’s mom and Kate is who we have been working with at Night Light Christian Adoptions. Olga will escort Kirill, Lord willing, to Almaty and onto the United States in about 4 weeks. Because it is becoming more difficult to use “escorts” now to bring children from Kazakhstan to the states, I may have to return (with Tucker) and bring him home myself. We’ll worry about that one later. So 11AM Thursday is when this final decision is being made. That would be 1AM “at home” time. Before you close your eyes to go to sleep on Wednesday night PRAY, PRAY, PRAY that this judge will say “YES!’
We will try to send out a post when we are waiting between flights in Germany on Friday. If this isn’t possible, we’ll be sure to post this weekend when we get home. It has been so wonderful to know we have friends who care enough about us and about this little boy to follow along on our journey. I will plan on posting a bit each week , so you can “see” how things go as Kirill becomes “Scott” and our family grows by one more.

Tuesday, April 13 -Day #28 - “The Day that Pollyanna Died”
Last night’s instructions from Gulnara were for us to wait in our apartment for her to call. Gulnara was to decide last night after coming back from Iger’s house what our plans were to be today. Evidently there are still some documents we need. John and I were able to run to Net City this morning to post some blogs and make it back in time to be picked up for a short visit with Kirill at the baby house at 11:15. We bought him a little Winnie the Pooh ball (there are no bouncy balls anywhere to be found in this baby house). Today, all 10 new parents are in the big music room (the 3 families with Children at Heart and the new couple from Spain, and us). We aren’t envying the baby thing at all, rather we were busy blocking the bouncy ball that Kirill was kicking across the room barely missing baby heads! We took a bag of candy for the kids in his class (and have promised cars for all the kids but have not been given time to get back to the toy store yet). Kirill’s teacher had him say “I love you” in English to me today when I took him back to his room. I am smiling while I type – he’s such a sweet little boy.
12 –ride in taxi with Catherine and David to the (mega) bazaar, a cool (actually grubby but cool) flea market type of place where the real people shop! We head straight to the back of the bazaar to eat at a little place they have been enjoying that prepares shashlick (shish kabobs). I am looking forward to getting to hang out and shop for souvenirs (sp?). John and I order coffee (Nescafe instant, but good) and the four of us take a seat in an “indoor” restaurant (trailer) where we can see our breath (it’s so cold -did I say that it snowed again today?). Just as the kabobs were coming off the grill, John’s cell phone rings and it is Gulnara saying that we must leave now to head to Astana (2 hour drive) to obtain a document from the Ministry of Education (a record of Kirill’s name being on the data base). So we stand, pull a couple hunks of meat off the skewers, grab some Khleb (flat bread) and RUN to meet Iger and Gulnara across the street. I was really looking forward to some shopping.
12:30-2:30 drive to Astana
2:30-4:30 drop Gulnara off at the MOE and drive around a few minutes. Astana, the newer capital of Kazakhstan is a grand city with architecture unlike any I have ever seen. After Kazakhstan regained its independence from USSR in 1991, and the capital of Kaz was moved from Almaty, there has been tremendous growth and development. However, the traffic was so bad that we found a parking space alongside some random building and we sat in the car for another 2 hours while waiting on Gulnara. So this is where Pollyanna dies (Pollyanna has been John’s nickname for me for years because I usually have a way of looking at the brighter side of things). Well I just wasn’t finding it today and thank goodness, John was holding it together for the both of us so I didn’t rock the boat with just 2 ½ days left to go. I’ll give myself an “F” on attitude today. We haven’t a clue why we needed to come along on the ride (and if I’d known I’d be sitting in a car for over 6 hours, I’d have brought my book). Ok, enough whining – we missed our time with our boy today. I’m tired of being here and I’m ornery and cranky and I want this to be over (and successful). On day #28 I have hit the wall – AGAIN.
4:35 Grab some food and stop by an apartment in Astana to talk with Gulnara’s new client, a single mom who is adopting from a baby house there. Her little 19 month old boy apparently has some hearing deficit issues and Gulnara thinks it may be helpful if she can talk with the two of us (this mom is still not certain she is going to adopt this child). John was able to call and talk with an ENT from Greenwood (Greg, if you get a charge on your cell phone for an international call, we owe you big). Hopefully the information that John passes on to this mom (and her mother) is helpful.
6:15 -8:15PM Drive back to Astana reaching speeds of 160km (Did I tell you that they use no lines on their roads here? That a 4 lane road with 3 lanes of traffic going each way with cars going at it without any white or yellow, solid or dotted lines to keep them straight?) Odd and scary.
Tonight we enjoyed watching “Accidental Marriage” that we borrowed from one of the other couples and eating popcorn in our room. Trying to unwind a bit and get myself into a much better frame of mind for tomorrow when we will have pre-court at 11 and our interview (with Dept. of Education lady) in the afternoon. (just learned tonight that we should take a gift to these 2 ladies and one to the judge – great to know that after all the stores are closed) I will go to sleep now and hope that Pollyanna has returned in the morning.

Monday, April 12 Day #27 since leaving home (but who’s counting?) Grateful for a sweet conversation with Cooper and Brady (and my mom) this morning (6:30 Monday AM here and 8:30PM there). It helps so much to know they are getting along so well without us.
Oh, that our God of order can make good out of such a mess. Yes He can. Yes He can. We are trusting that He can. It’s 1:30PM and we are back in our apartment waiting for Gulnara to call us to rejoin her and Iger for our afternoon appointments. Today we have no clue what appointments we have, we just ride in the back of Iger’s car and if Gulnara says, “stay,” we sit in the car while she goes into a building and if she says, “let’s go” we go with her. Iger picked us up at our apartment at 8:15 this morning and then picked up Gulnara and we joined Zhanat at his office at the university to go over the petition and other documents that Zhanat redid last night. Zhanat had asked the notary that works in the office next to his to come in early to help us. This nice lady had also come in late one evening to notarize several of our documents from our trip to Timmertaw. After about 10 minutes in this woman’s office John and I could tell that the conversation was going south very quickly. “Nyet, nyet, nyet” and a look of disgust on both our attorney and the notary’s face is a sure giveaway that this transaction isn’t going to happen. Turns out that Gulnara had told the woman to her face that she was stupid (don’t know the Russian word for stupid but it must have come just before this usually warm and friendly woman’s face turned to a look of disgust). And guess what? The notary told Zhanat that we are no longer welcomed there for further notaries. Zhanat is now upset because he has worked with this woman for quite some time. Lucky for us there is another notary in this city and so we are back in Iger’s car to visit this one. Oh, how frustrating to be represented by someone who does not treat people with the same respect that we would. In this notaries office we walk right past several Kazak people who have been waiting their turn to see the one notary who works in this building (one such waiting individual follows us down the hall to let us know in Russian that it isn’t nice to cut in line.) John and I are told to wait out in the hall while Gulnara and Zhanat meet with the notary. Several minutes later, Zhanat, who has been the most patient and tolerant 24 year old, comes out of this notary’s offence and throws out an American slang word he learned while in New Jersey (which is a very bad word no matter what state you are from) and says that he has had it - and off walks our stable minded translator friend. Who needs a translator anyway? WE DO!
11:00AM We stop by the office of Education (where the big hat lady works that was present at all of our initial contacts in the baby houses) and this woman apologizes for the noisy construction work taking place on the floor above her office. She asks us to wait outside. HOWEVER, her eyes were kind and she had a bit of a smile on her face and for now, and we are hopeful that she will help us.
11:20AM We arrive at the baby house and are told to wait in the car as Gulnara goes inside to do something. From the car we can see a group of little ones outside on the drive. It’s Kirill’s class and as we walk closer (we decided we didn’t want to wait in the car) he RUNS to us. How sweet and just what we needed in the midst of such a day of “yuk” to remind us why it is we are going through all of this. He is our little boy – not legally, yet, but in our hearts he is ours. I was able to sit on the curb outside and have many of the other children come and “sigh-dees” (sit down) on my lap and tickle and hug on them. These kids are very well cared for but are so hungry to be loved on. Aren’t we all?
3PM - We arrive at the baby house to join Gulnara who needs us to sign a document saying that we have been shown all of Kirill’s medi cal history. Because we have no translator to translate this document, the baby house director, Rosa (who has been away for the past several weeks), will not permit us to sign the papers until after we know what they say (understandable since this is important information). Standing in the hall outside of Rosa’s office, Gulnara and Rosa get into an exchange of words that has me and John very concerned and practically praying OUT LOUD. There is not enough room for two big fish (our attorney and the head doctor/director of Shapagat) in one little pond and this pond belongs to Rosa. Listening to the two of them fire an unpleasant sounding exchange of words and then watching Rosa walk back into her office and lock the door was frightening. We have never met this woman before and we certainly would like to make a much better first impression than this with her.
3:50PM Gulnara heads to court to try and obtain a court date for us. We have been told that this can take a week to obtain. Since we still have 10 minutes before we can go and get Kirill, John and I close ourselves into the bonding room and pray for Gulnara’s visit to court. This has been a day full of short tempers and conflict. God, please help her be gentle with people. Please get us to court in time. 4PM - Our 2 hours with Kirill is very good. The other families have commented on how comfortable and content he looks sitting on our laps. He seems just as receptive to our hugs and kisses as our other children. Every time he sees us he picks our pockets to see if we have gum and candy for him.
6:15 Iger and Gulnara pick us up at the baby house and we have GOOD NEWS – we have a court date for this Thursday (3 days from today) and we have even BETTER NEWS – the judge (after seeing pictures today of Kirill’s living conditions before arriving at Shapagat) said that he will allow Kirill to be adopted. According to Gulnara, this is very unusual to have a judge agree to this without having a parent’s written release of a child. But all the evidence that Gulnara has obtained seems to be enough to show that Kirill has not received proper care. Thank you, thank you, thank you God! Hoping and praying that this judge will feel the same way on Thursday. We are very optimistic.
6:30 Iger drives us to a town about 25 minutes from Karaganda where Albert (the German Baptist missionary) and his wife and two children live (in an apartment that is part of the Baptist missions office). They have invited me and John and Gulnara for dinner. (Kelly and Tucker after 21 years your mother was a gracious guest and ate a piece of cake.) What a precious family who have left all their family in Germany to live among the people of Kazakhstan for the sole purpose of sharing the love of Jesus Christ. Albert drove us by the Christian orphanage (all private funding) that he helped to start and build and it is an amazing place. Being invited into another’s home for dinner for a 2nd night in a row has been a good reminder for how wonderful it is to extend the gift of hospitality. We will remember the warmth of these kind people.

Sunday, April 11 I am writing about Sunday on Monday and with the events of this morning, Sunday (yesterday) is already a blur. Because there are no baby house visits permitted on Sundays we had a quiet morning to ourselves. We went to City Net after lunch to e-mail and send out our blog and the power went out to the whole place while we were inside. There were two fire trucks parked outside with firemen holding hoses in the adjoining building. Funny, we probably wouldn’t know it if we were being asked to evaculate a burning building (at least the smell of smoke is universal!).
John called Gulnara and found out she wanted to meet with us and Zhanat at 2:00 at Café Ankara. The two of them went over our petition and some other documents which Zhanat was to retype later that night at home. After last night’s clash between Gulnara and Helen, John and I took time to pray before heading off to this meeting, that God will give His divine wisdom to Gulanra and calmness, ect. It was a beautiful sight to see the two of them working well together as a team as they sat across from us in the cafe. We do think the world of Zhanat. He told us earlier that he is interested in being a translator for other adoptions in the future. We said we would be happy to write a letter of recommendation for him.
Gulnara then invited us to join her at her friend, Tatiana’s house for Tatiana’s birthday dinner . It turns out that her husband is Alexander, the man that drove us to the baby house that one morning, after we had been so reluctant to get into his car since we hadn’t been told he was replacing our regular driver, and then he got his car stuck in the snow and slammed into a tree. The last time we saw Alexander was when we left him and his car stranded in the snow (just as we were instructed to do!). This dinner of friends was a great experience which we will always remember. To be invited into someone’s home and partake of their culture is such a treat. We sat down to eat at 5PM and enjoyed an abundance of Kazak and Russian dishes (can’t name a one of them) including salad, egg salad with meat and cheese, cold roasted chicken, salomi, bread, black olives, and some congealed broth with chunks of meat in it. John and I were both stuffed. THEN they brought out the HOT food (all that other food was just the appetizer – ha, who knew!) Hot stuff included mashed potatoes and beef stew, chicken wing, ect. Did you know if you keep sitting at a table of food (we did not get up for over 4 hours), that every 15 minutes or so you are able to find new room in your stomach for more food? What’s a good guest today when everyone is telling them to “eat, eat.?” The birthday girl, hostess (in her early 50’s) was a gracious host. Nine of her cashier workers from the two stores she manages also joined us for dinner (as did her next door neighbor and another couple who are good friends). We enjoyed listening to them singing songs and giving toasts throughout the night. It was a night where not understanding words was not a problem – good fellowship doesn’t always need any words.

Saturday, April 10 Day #25 since we left home – that’s a LONG time to be away!
John just woke up from a nap (before we head back to the baby house) and he slept so hard he said, “Wow, I felt like I was on another planet.” Then he looked out our apartment window and said, “And we’re still there.” All good things must come to an end and we are very ready for this journey to be over (and Scott Kirill to be home with us). I had read in another Kazak adoption blog about this happening…. We have no COLD water in our apartment as of last night. Thus the toilet works (only if primed with a bucket of water from the sink) and a shower is very risky. The first 2 minutes in the shower this morning were nice and warm (long enough for me to lather my head with shampoo). All remaining water was (and is) scalding. Scalding water to get out one’s shampoo is better tolerated standing with one’s head handing over the kitchen sink and darting the head in and out of the faucet water very quickly!
Both our visits with Kirill today were wonderful. Nearly an hour of our morning visit was spent outside (upon Kirill’s request for “u-litsa”). It is freezing here – still a lot of snow and ice in areas that don’t see much sun. We are impressed with the efforts that these caregivers go to in order for these children to receive some fresh air. To help dress a class of 10 or more little ones (one group of adorable kids look to be 2-3 years old) in sweaters, jackets, boots, and hats for a 20-30 minute walk on the driveway which circles the baby house is commendable. Much of the time, Kirill would hold his hands up high in order for John to pick him up, swing him and hold him. He has such a look of pleasure and contentment when he is held that there is never a rush to put him back down. He has a lot of being held to make up for! We made a fun game out of John and I standing about 15 feet apart and counting, in Russian to 3 and having Kirill run from me to John and be picked up and spun around. Then I would count to 3 in English and say “go” and he would run and do the same with me. As long as he is content with an activity we just stay with it. For the afternoon, Carolyn (one of the 3 American moms) gave us a small container of playdough she had bought for Kirill. He was happy playing with this for nearly an hour (Yes, the boy can stay on task!!!) Then he crawled up into John’s lap and the two of them played a car racing game on John’s i-phone for another 45 minutes. We would try changing games (for a bit of variety) and he kept coming back to “machinas” (cars). Kirill’s response to my, Ya tee bya bl-yu (I love you) spoken softly in his ear while he sat on my lap was received with a sweet, sweet smile.
So if you have been following along, you can see that our time with our son has gone incredibly well. This is such an answer to prayer. We entered Kirill’s word just over 2 weeks ago as complete strangers. His acceptance of us as new parents couldn’t be stronger. This is where John and I are struggling to keep the faith and not be overcome with doubting. Our bonding was completed on the 8th. Our scheduled interview (pre-court) was delayed until Monday by our attorney because she was in Astana with a new client who is just beginning her adoption process. Our evening last night with our attorney (who has just returned from Astana) to finalize our preparations for our interview and for court was a disaster. We had gone to the apartment of a different translator (Zhanat was not able to meet at 8PM on a Saturday night) to work through the court petition that John and I had written a week ago. Our attorney became very offended that she was not allowed to bring a drink near our translator’s computer, so she quickly gathered all our paperwork, called a taxi, and we left – very, very frustrating to be caught in the middle of such unnecessary conflict that is not helping our case. Our 2 years and 8 months of pursuing a child we felt called to pursue is coming down to these last few days. Much has been accomplished to prepare for our time in court where we will be asking a judge to allow us to be this boy’s forever family. Nothing has gone particularly smooth thus far.
18 Against all hope, Abraham , in hope BELIEVED and so became the father…. 19 Without weakening in his faith he faced the fact that…. 20 Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, 21 being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. Romans 4:18-21 Our only hope is in the “ableness” of our God. Our circumstances are a mess. I have found comfort in remembering a scripture where God spoke wisdom through a donkey (not making a literal comparison of our attorney and a donkey but it serves as a good reminder that God does not need a calm and eloquent speaker to accomplish His work). PLEASE PRAY FOR OUR COURT DECISION. Pray that this judge would look at the pictures of where this little boy has lived for half his life, the evidence that his mother has made no attempt to come back for him in 9 months, the joy on this boy’s face with his new parents, our ability to love and provide for him, and find favor on our case. As far as we can tell, this decision (our court date) will be Thursday. Because we are 10 hours ahead of US time, your petitions to The Judge we answer to needs to be before midnight on Wednesday. Let us all finish this race we began and not give up the fight for this little guy – Scott Kirill King.