February 3

Happy Birthday to Olesya! Okay, so it’s not her actual birthday, but she did turn nine months old today. Also today, the court decision is final. After our visit to the baby house, we went to the court to pick up a copy of the decision and then we went to the central registry office so that Aida could fill out some paperwork. Tomorrow morning we will go back to the central registry office so that I can sign some documents. These documents will be necessary to get Olesya’s birth certificate and to register the adoption so that I can take her out of the baby house. Aida and Jeanette keep telling me to be patient, but I am hoping that I will be able to take Olesya out on Monday or Tuesday. I think I have been patient enough.

Mom is on her way to Almaty right now! Tomorrow at this time, Mom and I will be watching movies together. Or she might be sleeping off some jet lag. It sure will be nice to have the company. I know Olesya is looking forward to meeting her babushka. We have been talking about it a lot lately.

Today I went to a new restaurant with Christa, Pam and Nazym. It wasn’t a new restaurant, but it was new to me. I don’t remember the name of it, but it has a lot of Uzbek dishes. I ordered something pronounced mon-thee, which was very similar to pirogis. They were dumplings with beef inside and very good. Christa and Pam ordered Ploff which is like rice pilaf and it was also very good. Nazym had a kind of soup with lots of noodles and beef. It looked very good. It is always nice to be able to add a new restaurant to the rotation.

Congratulations to Karen and John! Karen arrived back in Taraz yesterday with her sister, and she was able to take Maeve out of the baby house!