Good Morning from Almaty. We are sitting in the airport café having a little breakfast and awaiting our next flight to Astana in about three hours. Things will definitely be happening quickly and as I am sure to miss details, I wanted to take a few minutes to catch up on the trip so far so as not to overlook it in the excitement of the moment later.

Our flights went very well, and we have collected all of our luggage at this end without incident. We had a ten hour layover in Amsterdam yesterday and had arranged to take part in a 3.5 hour tour yesterday that left from and finished at the airport. We booked it online from home and it was very easy and relaxing, though the desire to sleep at times overtook the desire to see.

Our group consisted of a father and son from Ghana, our driver/guide Marco, and us. We departed in a nice Mercedes van at 9am, toured around various points of interest in the downtown region, hopped on a canal boat and spent an hour cruising the canals, then got back in the van, drove into the countryside a bit and stopped at a traditional windmill, and then a wooden clog maker before returning to the airport.

Back at AMS we still had plenty of time to find a pair of the reclining lounge chairs upstairs next to the meditation center and fall asleep for a few hours. You have to love AMS. They really know how to provide for the in-transit tourist.

As I sit here in Kaz this morning the sun is rising over the snow topped mountains that seem to encircle Almaty. It is a clear but chilly morning with the temperature just below freezing, though it will certainly warm as the day goes on.

The reality of all that will follow in the next several days still fails to settle into our actions, as things continue to feel very normal and relaxed. There will undoubtedly be a tipping point in the near future where the accumulated lack of sleep, dramatic time change, and enormity of adoption will overwhelm all emotional and mental capabilities, and I will no doubt find myself a sobbing mess.

I expect I will welcome it, viewing it perhaps as an initiation of sorts into the realm of parenthood. Just as the passing of years makes it difficult to remember a time when we could not drive, or email, so too I expect, time will quickly make me forget a time when I was not a parent.

Likewise, just as it took me well into my teen years to even begin to fathom the notion that my own parents had lives prior to my arrival, so too will our daughter begin our lives with her memories of us. All that I was or did prior to this point will simply meld into her vision of Dad, and that person will be me. Surreal! Take Care.