May 25

We learned today that Olesya is in Almaty which is a large city in the southeast portion of Kazakhstan (a map is available in the upper left portion of this page). Almaty is the main city in Kazakhstan with regards to international air traffic. It will be nice not to have to make additional travel inside Kazakhstan and at this time it is possible to fly to Almaty with only one stop (Denver-Frankfurt-Almaty) on Lufthansa. Not bad when I consider that when I was with GP I once flew to LA from Denver with stops in Salt Lake, Reno and Fresno. We are still waiting for our I171 from the USCIS. Once we get it, it should be about 4 months we learned today until we travel. There is a backup at the embassy in New York and also at the Ministry of Education in Kazakhstan. This means the timing should allow Kim to start with her new class at Asbury Elementary as she had hoped. It also means that it could come close to Tim and Marci's wedding in which Joe is slated to be a groomsman. We will work on getting this squared away somehow.
In talking with our friend Sherri who is also adopting from Kazakhstan and whom we met during the homestudy process, we are at the same point in the process with the USCIS today, with both of us receiving a request for resubmittal of some form. Perhaps we will meet up in Almaty for dinner in the fall.?.