Picture with Santa (Father Frost)

We took William to see Santa also know as Father Frost where he is from. He did really well, except for trying to crawl off Santa's lap...lol.

His shirt says Santa's Helper, but Santa is covering it up!

Merry Christmas soon

We had William's first Christmas pictures taken on the 18th. Our appointment time fell right when his nap time should be so needless to say he was not a happy camper after a few shots of him. Although the Christmas tree one turned out great. Then the guy doing the shots picked up a stuffed dog hand puppet and it barked jingle bells. This caused a melt down. I don't know if William has ever seen a dog, I would think probably not. But I know he hasn't seen one that barks jingle bells lol. At least the guy did this after the Christmas shot.

Here is his Christmas photo

Is he not the most handsome thing!

A shot mama loves.

We are home!

We made it! After two very long flights and an overnight in Chicago, we arrived in San Antonio Thursday afternoon. Our flight from Almaty to London was eventful. There were three other families with their little ones and all of the little ones were sick. We took turns running to the bathroom with them. The flight from London to Chicago was great! William slept through most of that flight. He is a great flyer, he would laugh when we took off and landed. Everyone commented on how great he was through all of the flights. He was not fussy at all. We went through customs in Chicago, handed them our top secret envelope and they pronounced William the newest American Citizen. It was great.

We are so happy to be back. We were met at the airport by Grandma and Grandpa, Leah, Lauren and Brandon.

Lauren and Brandon had made signs welcoming William home. They were great. We only had a slight melt down when everyone converged on him at once. Then he got used to them and he was fine.

We are still catching up on the different time zones and sleep patterns. William is getting used to being up more during the day and I think getting his body readjusted.

Coming to America!

For those who aren't Neil Diamond fans, this is a great song of his. A new little Kazakh-Texan is being brought to you by British Air. Grandma and Grandpa you can get your hands on him now lol.

YEA!!! Our last step was completed today. The U.S. Embassy interview. Not as scary as we thought and they didn't even ask for any of the paperwork we were told to bring. We have the secret sealed envelope, all of his paperwork and we are finished.

We found these great flags for his room and bought a book of Kazakhstan Coming of Age so he will know where is from. We want him to be proud of his heritage and proud of his new country also.

We are so excited we probably won't sleep tonight. William has not wanted to sleep in two days. I think he sees all the suitcases being packed and knows something is up. Well, we are off of here. We are leaving in the morning so this might be the last entry until we reach San Antonio. We can't wait to see everyone! It's been a long journey.

One Day Closer

Today we went to the SOS Clinic for William's Immigration physical. Everything went great and we have his sealed secret envelope (well WE don't but that is another story).

A little communication would be nice, there is a serious lack of it. A little heads up. We had to have photos retaken again because the ones they got for the Embassy were wrong. Just like the ones they got for Astana were wrong. So we have paid for three sets of pictures, not that them being wrong was our fault. They like not telling us this stuff until we get to the places we are going and then springing it on us. By the way we need 300 tenge for a picture again. What if we didn't have any tenge with us? What if we only had large bills of tenge (which our adoption buddies get scolded for). If you need something from us, tell us BEFORE it is needed not as we walk in the door to the place. This is only one in a long, long, line of things.

Well, we are off here. Hi and miss you to everyone back home. One more step and we are gone.

Not much happening

The process is winding down and we have two more steps to get through. Hopefully everything goes well tomorrow. Everyone who knows what has been going on keep your fingers crossed, no more hiccups. We haven't heard from our translators since late Friday and a call yesterday to say one more step was complete, so hopefully everything is still set for tomorrow.

Today is our wedding anniversary. David bought me some lovely flowers. I have been sick since yesterday, something I ate. This is not exactly how I pictured our anniversary, but it was good being together as a family.

We miss everyone back home and can't wait to be there.

Pics for the day....

Just a quick note

We know it isn't the 1st back home yet, but we didn't want to miss it in case the internet went wierd or something.