September 14

Due to a slow down in Almaty we have been assigned to Taraz (formally Zhambyl) which is west of Almaty on the Krgyzstan border. We believe we will keep the name Olesya. She was born May 3, 2005 and is scheduled to be available for international adoption on December 1, 2005. At this point, we plan to travel to Kazakhstan in mid November to initiate the bonding period in advance of the court date which we hope to be on or near the December 1 date.
Since we were originally planning for a 3-4 year old, there is much work to be done in changing things to accommodate a younger child. In the grand scheme of things, this is a small problem and one we are happy to work through.
This is good news in the sense that it should allow us to attend Tim and Marci's wedding in San Diego.