Well, I certainly thought that I would have done a better job of finishing what I started in sharing our adoption story on this blog. Praise God this adoption is coming to a beautiful conclusion whether I write about it or not! My apologies to anyone who still thinks we may be stuck in the volcanic ash somewhere in Europe. We left Karaganda, Kazakhstan at 4:00 Friday morning, April 16th, the day after our court date. Instead of arriving in South Carolina that evening at 6:30, we made it home 6 days later. Renting a car and driving 20 hours from Frankfurt, Germany to Madrid, Spain (to find an airport that was not shut down due to the continually erupting volcano) seemed like a nice way to end our adventure. It sure was an expensive addition to our trip - spent as much in 6 days on food and lodging as we did for 4 weeks in Karaganda!

John's pulling in the driveway as I type to take me to the airport. I will leave Greenville, SC as 7pm and arrive in Almaty, Kazakhstan just after midnight tomorrow night, 2pm on Tuesday here. Hopefully there will be a driver there at the airport holding up a piece of paper with my name on it. After a night's sleep in a hotel, Olga (the escort who is the mother of Kate with Nightlight Adoptions) and Scott will come to my hotel room to begin our first day together. She was asked to take Scott from the orphanage on Sunday so they have had a day and night together at Olga's house already. She said he is talking and EATING up a storm. Hopefully soon he will know that there will always be plenty to eat and no need to stock up on food when he sees it (then again, I often do that and I haven't got his excuse!)

I'll do my best to post a blog or two while in Almaty but may need John's help to add pictures to the blog when I return home next weekend. If you are reading this before our journey is done - PLEASE PRAY!!!! Even though John is not traveling with this time - I am NOT alone.

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).