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