Home at last, home at last...

What a busy week it has been.

Monday of course was court.  We had a nice pre-court visit with Nurai at the Baby House then headed over to court.  The actual court session was quick and painless and we left with an immediate decision in favor of our adoption of Nurai.

We left court, drove over to register her passport application and then headed back to the Baby House to take a quick group shot of the four of us post court.

As you can see, though Tougy was done with all pretense of holding it together by this point in her napless day, KJ and I were just beaming to finally be here at this moment, a family of four.

Nurai, as you will see more clearly in shots later, greeted us on this last day with a bit of a battle scar.  Of course the care giver initially walked in and handed her to us without saying anything about the obvious bruising to her cheek, then seemed surprised when we asked about it.

Turns out it was a bit of a love bite from a friend and left distinct upper and lower gum marks.  Thankfully no teeth were present.  Poor Nurai, though honestly she seemed unaware, or at least unaffected.

Following our quick trip to the Baby House, it was back to our in-country team's office to sign the last bits of paper, review a timeline and settle up payments for our apartment, our translator, our driver, and our coordinator's fees.  

By this point we were all just ready to flop down on our pillows and await the morning.  We were emotionally and physically drained and had little to offer to the outside world.

 

Tuesday we flew from Shymkent to Almaty and had a most beautiful sunny and blue day -  observed mostly from our hotel window.  We did get out for a mid-afternoon walk up to Tsum to find the oft-mentioned 'third floor', home of the best selection of Kazakh curios, but the was the extent of our outing.

We stayed at Hotel Kazhol and had a very nice two room suite with a true king sized bed(well box spring anyway) and a huge bathroom.  We had stayed here once before as we were leaving the country after our failed initial trip in July 07 and had a horrible dank, tiny room, with a small box spring for roughly the same price of around 170USD.

The exchange rate difference helped a lot as then it was 115/dollar, and presently it is 150/dollar, but I also know that the hotel as a whole has undergone some rather major renovations and changes.  All in all very pleasant, and as a room, far better than our 500/night Hyatt Room in December of 2007.

As we were flying out on KLM rather than Lufthansa, we got a full night sleep before heading to the airport at 7am for our 9:20 flight.  The flight left right on schedule and we had a comfortable row of four in the middle for the three of us.

By this point, I was well and truly sick with something and spent much of the flight alternately shivering under a hat, jacket, hood and blankets, and then sweating and clammy in just a shirt.  KJ did an amazing job of holding it all together and guiding the three of us home.

Tougy really didn't sleep that first 8 hour flight to Amsterdam, nor did she sleep during our 2.5 hour layover, and so KJ had to stay awake with her and be the one to keep her busy and content to sit quietly in our seats.

For our flight to Boston we were in the back of the plane in a middle row of three and again Tougy refused to sleep for the first 5 hours of the flight, only finally relenting to close her eyes and lay down for the final 2.5 hours of a 20 hour travel day to Boston.  At this point, KJ finally got to close her eyes as well.  And to think, at one point I entertained the idea of making the return trip for Nurai alone - yeah right!

Of course, Boston still does not mean we are home and so we are met at the airport by KJ's mom who lovingly drives us the last 3.5 hours back to Boothbay.  Tougy slept the whole way, and I through much of it while KJ sat up front with her mom.

Arriving back at the house was magical.  To see Tougy's excited dance when she got out of the car and saw her dogs was just such an exclamation point to the whole journey.  At that point, it was over and we were home.

Well, that part was over anyways.  I will write more and put up photos and video soon.  I hope that all our stateside friends had a wonderful Thanksgiving, and that the rest of you are happy and well.

It was so nice to come home and actually see the blog, and fun to be able to look through all of the Nurai photos from beginning to end and to see the changes in both her spirit and her physical abilities.  I know that these next few weeks will pass quickly and that we will soon enough find ourselves making plans to return to Kaz.  More soon.  Take Care.