For all you addicts out there!!!

I am taking up precious sleeping time to fill all you addicts in but I think I owe it to you for sticking with us through this journey. Andrew and Elizabeth still seem to think they are on Kazak time so they are keeping us up quite a bit right now. But you can see they have adjusted to baths pretty well. The next step is a real tub!!


Derek (Hollys brother) was one of our greeters at the airport and the Kids really enjoyed his visit. (so did we)

He was a big help on their first visit to the doctor. Each kid got 4 shots and blood drawn. Well actually they just tried on Andrew. Neither arm wanted to give anything up. We went back today and they were able to get it though.


After the doctor on Monday we went by Heartland and visited my sister. You can see Andrew was worn out from the doctors visit. I think yall have seen this position before???


Can you see the bandaids on all arms and legs?? I thought he did very well considering....


We went to watch my neices play volleyball last night. (they won) I am yet to get a good picture of my nephew to post but he is the one behind the camera in this picture. (Eric the photographer)


Andrew and Elizabeth had a visitor (their own age) the other day. Samantha came bearing gifts and Andrew loves it. If he's not in the walker his cousins (and aunt and uncle) gave him he is in his new jumparoo!!! (we're trying to wear him down so he will sleep at night>.)


For all of you who wonder how baby is handling the our new additions, All is well. She is actually still somewhat afraid of the kids. especially if Andrew is in his Walker. Today Holly called me in to find baby hiding in the bathroom. She has learned the places Andrew cannot follow:O)


Overall they are all getting along great. We know our babygirl is going to be a great "big sister". It is just taking a little breakin time.

I will try to continue to post but time seems shorter here than in Kazakhstan. But once we get some kind of schedule down I think that might improve a little.

I want to thank all of you for the calls and visits. I know many of you think we need some adjusting time but trust me, we want to see and hear from you. we have missed you all for the last month and want to catch up with all family and friends!!!!!
Thanks again to everyone whou met us at the airport. It was truly a great surprise. we hope to see yo all soon,,,,,Love,,,,,,The Dunnings

We're Home!!!

Elizabeths first night in her new bed. (Thanks Nanny and Aunt KK for giving us a good nights sleep


Andrew was checking out baby as she ate. He likes anything to do with food!!


His first experience with mcdonalds. But it didn't count, it was in Amsterdam :)

Andrew didn't much care for his new high chair but once he was eating, everything was ok


Andrews first night in his new bed.


Emily with her new cousin Andrew.

Cousins!!!

Whitney and Elizabeth. She got her to take a nap in her arms later.

We were blown away at the airport!!!!!
We only expected a few people but that was not the case. (We were so glad)

After that long trip home and being so tired it was wonderful to see all our family and friends still supporting us!!!!

I will not try to thank everyone on the blog because we would rather do it in person but we are so appreciative of you all.

For those of you who won't get to see the kids for a while, I will try to post at least every few days or so. Just to wean you off of this thing.
Holly and I have checked this blog more often than you know just to see the support. And I must say we have never been disappointed.

Please keep us in your prayers.
It is so wonderful to be home and we look forward to all of you getting to meet Andrew and Elizabeth!!!!!!!
Love the Dunnings:O):O):O)

Time to leave for home

We thought you might like to see some of the pictures from when we first arrived. We have seen such a change in the kids over the last few weeks. (and you have seen them with us!)

We leave the appartment in about 2 hours so we are getting all the last minute packing done.

It has been a very busy day. We visited the US embassy here in Almaty and have all the documents we will need for the children to become US citizens. (They will be citizens as soon as we land in Memphis)
We have not had the opportunity to sleep today and we fear this may come back to haunt us. Elizabeth should be fine since she loves to be held close and doesn't require constant attention. My son however is another story. We pray it goes smoothly but either way,,here we come!!!
We may hand them to you at the airport, then curl up and die for a day. I know you will all be ready to help.!!!!!!!!!!!!!YES???????????????

I'll put a short plug in here for World Partners (our adoption agency)
While at the embassy we saw another couple that was adopting 1 child. we were called in after them to do paperwork and the embassy lady said ,,"27 days? the couple right before you was just the opposite, 72 days!!!!!" They didn't use world partners....
She was amazed at how fast our trip had been.

We also met another couple at the embassy today that is leaving tonight when we do. They adopted 2 children from another region and are flying to Frankfort, then Chicago (Where they live). They are pictured with us. also pictured is the lawyer from the agency here.


we will try to update from Amsterdam during our 8 hour layover!! but no guarantees.

We will see you in around 36 hours (I think??)

When we will land with 2 of the United States newest citizens
Elizabeth Grace Dunning and Andrew David Dunning.

See you soon:O) :O) :O) :O) :O)

Packing for home

The way she feels about cars we don't have the heart to tell her we are going by plane. So, we just let her practice her flying here. (Superman couldn't fly with that belly!!)

Andrew is trying to be sure we're not leaving any good stuff behind in our closet.

Everybody is ready for home and pitching in on the packing.

We took the kids for their physicals today. Andrew is 27.5 inches long and weighs 18.9 pounds. Elizabeth is weighing in at a healthy 18.2 pounds and is 26 inches long.
The last measurement we had she was 2 pounds behind but as you can see she is gaining fast.

Both kids went on floor patrol to be sure we were leaving our apartment clean!


We can hardly believe this is our last full night in the apartment. We should leave the apartment in about 25 hours.

Our flight leaves Almaty around 3am for Amsterdam. We will have an 8 hour layover there which should be interesting with the 2 kids but I think I will take the time to introduce them to a happy meal while we are there. (Now $12 doesn't sound so bad!)

From there we fly to Memphis and will do the paperwork to establish the kids as US citizens. (They retain a dual citizenship until they are 18 years old at which time they will choose where they want to be citizens) (Kazak law!!)

Then it's one more short flight to Paducah. We are scheduled to land around 8:30/8:40.

This trip has gone smoother than we ever imagined it could go. (except for court:O) We have never heard any other family returning home as soon as we are scheduled to. We know that without the prayers of our family and friends this trip would not have gone as well.
At times I know I sounded like I was complaining and I apologize. I told you most of the negatives of this trip simply because I thought they would be more interesting.

I would gladly face this trip again, and much more to aqcuire the precious gifts we are returning with. This has been the trip of a lifetime and it has literally made our lives!

While we have been out of the US, The storm of the century hit the Gulf coast, Gas prices have soared to well over $3 per gallon, The Chief Justice has died and the over all economy has been brought into question.
However, at no time that I am aware of has The God we love and try to serve ever left his thrown. We know times have seemed uncertain but we also know they are not. We all know how this story ends, we just don't know when.

We hope that our travels have taken your mind off of some of the events going on in the US right now. But we also hope you can see that While all this was going on your concerted prayers were being answered on the complete opposite side of the world.

We could never express how much we appreciate and love each one of you for supporting us and lifting us up in prayer. We hope you have enjoyed following along with us as much as we enjoyed having you along.
In crazy times God still takes the time to show that he is listening. We hope you know that it was your prayers God answered and We love you for it....
See you verrrry soon,,,,,Love The Dunnings

see you saturday

sam just called from our driver's cell phone and said that we have tickets for saturday. Yeah!! we will be leaving here a few hrs. earlier sat. morn, but arrive home about the same time b/c we will have an 8hr. layover instead of 6 hr. like before. should be interesting with two children, but we will be so exicited about coming home, that we will get through. we'll try to post more later, the next day and 1/2 will be very busy, we have medical check-ups today and u.s. embassy tomorrow to finalize all paperwork, then we'll have to get to the airport tomorrow night to get through customs, etc... thankyou again for your prayers ,and by the way who prayed that we would get to come home 4 days early?? they should be the 1st to hold the children.
getting ready to give baths before their check-up, see you in a few days.
lots of hugs,kisses, and baby slobber
sam, holly, andrew, and elizabeth

mountain trip

Here's a picture of us in the mountans today.

This is an ice rink up in the mountains, supposedly the highest one above sea level.

Here is a shot of the ice rink from above.

Just thought you might like to see how much bigger Andrews feet are than Elizabeths.

We are really short on time, trying to get things done so we can leave early. but let me stress,,,,we may not be home early! It all depends on flights out of here. We are just excited that we can explore the option.

I will save the end of court for another time. It seems somewhat anti-climactic anyway.

tomorrow we try to change flights and then we take the kids to a clinic for checkups before we can leave. the next day we take them to the embassy for the final paperwork and then we are free to leave. we just hope there is a plane ready too.

I know I keep repeating this but we do appreciate the support and we still are so short on time we can't respond very well but you all must forgive me until we see each other again and can share stories with one another the way they were meant to be told,,,face to face!!


goodnight and keep us in your prayers,,,,The Dunnings

Who's gonna take me to Cracker barrel Sunday???

Ok, this post may be a bit premature but things have sped up here and it has now been approved for us to leave here "SATURDAY" morning or Friday night for you.
It is far from a done deal because we are not sure of flights and such. we have a ton to do before then but if all goes well we are coming home early........

Pray,Pray,Pray,,,,When you get up tomorow morning we should have the answer for you.

more later

I had sent this picture to grandparents only but Holly wanted you all to see that Elizabeth is now enjoying her baths (to a point)


Here we are with our translator Dilnosa. behind us is a typical taxi cab (all old Russian cars)


here is the notary office. very nice, yes?? we didn't get good pictures of most of the official buildings. It was not allowed.


We ventured out and went to a restaraunt today. The kids did fine but the food,,,not so good. I made the mistake again of assuming Cheeseburger would be cheese burger. It was more like meatloaf with some sour tasting cheese and cabbage on it. (plus uf course lettuce, tomato, and pickle.)
It wore us out because we packed the kids between 2 or 3 miles. But it was nice to get out.
Today was our last trip to Esik (where the kids are from) and what we will miss most are the breads from there. There is a little store there that makes he best stuff. When we first passed it we thought it was an abandoned building but turns out it is the biggest shop in Esik. Maybe the view of the mountains too but that is all. Nothing else there to miss.

Now on with court day
Perhaps now would be a good time to stop and set the scene a little bit and also give you all the characters in the tale.
First there is Gulnara our coordinator. She is an attractive Asian woman who stands about 6 feet tall has long black hair (that is so thick it actually rustles as she moves it). If she was in the US you would describe her dress as gaudy, she dresses like most teenagers but is creeping up on forty. Here though she fits right in. Thankfully for us she is incredible at her job!!!

Second there is the babyhouse director. Again Asian, probably in her late forties. Very attractive and confident looking. We fell in love with her at the babyhouse. She is such a caring woman and turns out to be one of our strongest allies.

Third the minister of education – Asian, somewhere between 50 and 60. A quiet woman with short hair and bright pink lipstick. Holly wanted to get after her eyebrows with a weedwhacker but I thought when she was younger she was probably a very attractive woman.

Fourth, the secretary (stenographer) Plump and board with her job. That pretty much describes her. She was Russian and probably around 30????

Fifth is the prosecutor. I pretty much described her already. I did leave of her old fashioned glasses that didn’t seem to help because she squinted all the time. Very snooty and unpleasant but then again, she obviously didn’t think much of me either.

The judge also was described earlier but I should say that even though she walked in like a lion, she walked out like a lamb (or actually in this case she seemed more like a grandma in the end)

7th was Dilnosa, she is 23, asian, with long black hair and is as nervous as Holly and I. She only translates written documents but in this case they didn’t have another translator for us. She did a wonderful job and Holly and I will always remember her help.

Holly and I finish up the characters in the room. You may have noticed that I was the only male. Perhaps in other muslim countries this would have been an advantage but trust me, in this court is was a womans world!!!

We (Holly and I) were dressed in our best but everyone else (except the prosecutor) was dress like they were going to a disco. Most people here dress more 70’s and 80’s American style. They are obviously influenced by our movies but they are a few decades behind.
The court building sets in the middle of what I thought was slums but then everything in Esik looks that way. The view from this place is awesome. Esik sets right at the base of the mountains and you would think you were at a resort unless you look around you or inhale.
They leave all the windows open in the courthouse because it is hot. And outside you can hear roosters crowing and dogs barking. Also the people milling around outside.
While everyone was yelling, I could hear the rooster outside and I thought of the horsemeat in the corner of the room (for the tea party) I almost smiled but caught myself. I know that would be frowned upon but it literally felt like a kangaroo court you would see on tv.. It was almost surreal, like you were watching a car crash in slow motion. To put it simply, Nothing felt real…..

I know I haven’t told you the rest of the tale yet but we can do that tomorrow.
Quickly I will tell you that today we again had to leave the kids for many hours to finalize some paperwork. We now have new birth certificates with their names officially changed and we have all the adoption papers from court. It is completely a done deal. There is still more paperwork to do before we are allowed to leave the country with them but we should still be home on the 14th.
One week from now we will leave this apartment for the airport to fly home.

I can not tell you how excited and thankful we are that this journey is so near the end. We could not have made it without all of your support and prayers. Please continue and we’ll see you in 8 days…… love

Our day in court (Part one) GOTCHA!!!

First official family photo...


Where to start on this crazy day. I guess as Winnie the pooh would say ,"the best place to begin is at the begining."

Our Nanny showed up around 7:30 and our driver and coordinator came to take us to Esik,(that is where the babyhouse is) So off we went with more gifts for people we didn't know and our tea party in tow.


We didn't want to be late for our 10:00 court date. (mustn't upset the judge) We arrived, and went to the judges office. 10:00, 10:30, 10:45. Ah, here comes the judge. A large, heavy set woman dressed in an all white pant suit and sequins (picture Rosanne Barr a little taller and with Lucille Ball red hair) storms into the room. She doesn't appear to be in a very good mood. she invites us into her chambers. Once there she realizes that the prosecutor isn't there yet and she flips out. Sends us away and goes to yelling, we couldn't understand but boy she was hot. From outside her chambers we can hear her yelling over the phone. she is obviously upset that the prosecutor isn't there.

About 30 minutes later in rushes a snooty little lady we hadn't seen before (dressed in what I would describe as a cruise ship captains outfit complete with board stripes on her shoulders, we figured she must be the prosecutor. As she passed us to enter the judges chambers, she gave us an awful glare. We knew that couldn't be good. It wasn't our fault she was late and the judge had chewed her out, but I don't think she saw it that way.

We were reinvited to the chambers where we listened to the judge and the prosecutor battle it out. Court started with people still yelling at each other. The judge turned to me and said, "Speech".

"Speech"!!!! Now?? I had practiced it a lot in the apartment and more on 1 1/2 hour drive to Esik but was anybody ready to hear me plea for the children?? I made it through with the aid of our translator Dilnosa. I went through the whole spill about how unhealthy the children were and how we needed to get them back to the US ASAP to have them checked out.(reason for immediate execution, the children are fine!) ....No one seemed impressed:O(

Here is where things got more interesting. After my speech the prosecuter tore in with the questions. She didn't seem to be able to shake me so she went to our paperwork. She wanted to know why we had only gotten police clearance for the state of KY. Not all the other states??? We tried to explain we had never lived in another state but she was very determined!! I won't tell the whole story about that but basically we finally convinced the judge that we had all the documents available to us and she moved things along.

The prosecutor wasn't phased by this however. She now moved on to our postplacement papers. We signed and had notarized a paper saying we would send Kazakhstan post placement information for 3 years after the adoption. We also knew that we would have to send pictures of the children and information on how they were doing until they were 18. The trouble was, the prosecutor didn't understand the difference between the 2.

She asked me, " would you be willing to sign a paper right now saying you will send post placement information until the children are 18? I agreed even though some quick math told me this would cost at least another $9000 over the next several years. problem solved right??? Wrong, she then told me I wasn't a citizen of Kazakhstan and therefore couldn't sign such a paper.


I am tired and we have to get up super early and be in Esik at 8 in the morning so I will give you part 2 tomorrow. (hey, you already know how it ends)

Thank you all so much,,,,We love you!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Very long day but all is well

We will post more in a few hours after we have played with "OUR" kids. Our coordinator said that was the most difficult court she had ever gone through but in the end we got'em. We have been gone since about 7:30 this am and it is now 8:30 PM. We are exausted.
I promise o give details after we put the kids to bed.

I would hate to imagine court if we hadn't had all the prayers supporting us...
We love you all.

Have I mentioned how ready to come home we are??

I set the camera on a bench and ran to get in the picture but wanted to catch the rainbow.

Everything bought for the tea party. Can you spot the Horse???

Holly and Alia climbing the last flight of stairs to our apartment.

I know it looks like he sleeps a lot but really, we're always trying to put him down. He rarely stays.

Holly and Alia at another fountain.

We met with our translator today and went over our speeches for the court. Holly and I each have 3 page speeches that are now broken down into 1 and 2 sentence phrases. Our coordinator wants us to say the speech pretty much exactly as written so as not to confuse the translator but we aren't supposed to look at it.
I wouldn't worry much about the speech if we could say what we feel but that is not the case. They tell us most of what to say which is fine if you let me read it but I don't know how our memorization will be.


The president of Kaz. came to town today and boy did they make a fuss over it. Shut down most of the streets and had a huge celebration. Holly and I tried to keep a low profile most of the day.

You can see i now have all the supplies for the tea party....Good thing we went early, we got the last horse sausage available?????

Thank you Emily,whitney, and Eric (and Sara) For the phone call this morning. we sure hope we can tell you tomorrow that it was "gotcha day"
We could all be home in about a week and a half if all goes well. Elizabeth and Andrew send there love:O)

We will post as soon as we can whichever way it goes but I wouldn't expect it to be very early so don't be getting up in the middle of the night to check.
We really appreciate your prayers and hope you will continue with us for one more day. Tomorrow is it!!!!

and for those that asked the time court will start is Sunday night at 11:00 for you guys. (12:00 for lexington/Louisville)

36 hours until court. (Time for Speeches)

You can see the kids are getting along great:O)


Our coordinator came to go over court proceedings today. It is much more involved than we had imagined. More questions than expected and definitely a longer speech. It took almost 2 whole pages of abreviated points we needed to hit upon. We thought a 1 or 2 minute speech would suffice. But instead it will probably be at least 10 minutes each (yes Holly has to give one too.) Thats over 40 minutes together by the time it is translated!

After going over all the speech stuff we took the kids to take pictures for their passports and exit visas. We aren't really worried about being turned down for getting the kids but immediate execution is our main focus now. I am so ready to leave this place. We have adapted to the living conditions fine, it's the culture I don't like. I'm sure it's not like this all over the country but the people in this city are probably the rudest people (as a whole) that I have ever been around. I am so ready to get home!!! (Yes, another Ramstore experience)


These are at the passport place.



Tomorrow will be a very busy day. I have to go with our driver to get food and refreshments for our after court tea party (yes, tea party) "I thought it would be a few years before I did that with Elizabeth". He said we have to go early because the fried horse meat "runs" out very quickly. (no pun intended) I can't wait for the tea party. Nothing like sitting down to luke warm tea and horse meat. (They told me not to refrigerate the drinks). Perhaps they will have a sampler platter, I mean how am I supposed to know if i like Tenessee Walker or Quarter horse better? Hey Christy, who's tempting who with food now???!!!

After we get the Food (if you can call it that) We have another meeting around noon (after picking out horse meat, I can't say around lunch) with our coordinator and translator. (it will be her first time translating in court, maybe the judge will have mercy on us.) We are supposed to have our speeches prepared by then.

We will be very very busy the next several days so please understand if we miss a post.

Court is still on go for Monday morning at 10:00. remember to pray for us. That is Sunday night for you.

Love to you all, we miss you more every day. ( Thanks kent and Christy for the phone call. )

The babyhouse revisited (over halfway there!!)

We discovered we have Fox news todaY, "in english"!! We were so excited. We see how bad it is down south and it makes our journey seem minor. It is still a major event in our live obviously. But it makes us realize how good we have it here.
Today, our plans were changed once again. instead of our meeting about court, we went and signed a ton of papers about the childrens Visas and such. (the kids still hated the car ride!) Then Holly kept the kids in the apartment while our driver took me back to the babyhouse to deliver our gifts to the doctors, caregivers etc.
I saw a sign just before you get on the "Crazy" road to Esik (the babyhouse) it is written in 3 language and is an official sign just like you would see on I-24. I ould only read the english version and this is what it says, (No Kidding) "GOOD LUCK" ! I told you it was a crazy road. I would have taken a picture but wasn't willing to stand on the side of the road long enough to do it.

I talked to the babyhouse director (through an interpreter) for a while today. We need her on our side in court and she seems to be. She likes Holly and me as a couple and seems to be pleased we are getting the kids. She asked so many questions. One of which was "do you have any dreams for what you want the children to be?" How would you answer that question??? I told her NO, It honestly never occured to me. I then went on to explain that as I grew up, I never knew of any special dreams my parents had for me. They always seemed to let me choose my own dreams and then supported me while I tried each new path. They just wanted me to be happy (Happiness includes the Lord!!). I have no dreams for Andrew and Elizabeth beyond that. I don't think that is the standard answer she gets but the watering in her eyes told me it was acceptable. I have to say this is usually Hollys department but since she wasn't there, I cried. (I Love You Mom and Dad!!)

While I was there they dressed me in a white doctors coat and let me go take pictures of where the children lived.

This was where they ate,

this was Alias bed,

Bolats bed,

this was a big play bed to keep several kids in.



We found out when court was today, it will be Monday morning at 10:00 A.M. (11:00 P.M. Sunday night at home) . Yes, we will post resutls ASAP but we have no idea how long court will last. Please keep us in your prayers as court is now only 3 days away. We do not ask that you stay up and pray during the night because we know God doesn't need our time schedule but we do ask you to pray a special prayer on Sunday if you at all can.
Thank you all so much, We love you and can't wait to get home. (we should be over halfway there:O)