Well it seemed appropriate to add photos of our boys to this site as they are an important part of this family. These are shots from a snow day last winter and I think they capture something about each of them. As all animals do, these boys certainly have their own personalities.

Midou is the easy going, if somewhat diffident, old man.



Bokar is the cuddly lap dog who rarley succumbs to the 'come inside for a treat 'ploy.



And last but (perhaps) not least is Daouda, the relentless overlord with a tongue that is simply too large for his mouth.

Well I'm not sure quite how it happens, but a month has passed since I last updated this blog. In some respects it is indicative of all that has been going on here, and in a positive light, we are now a month closer to having a lot more to say about our journey to parenthood.

When we came back from Kaz in early July, the end of October was so far away that it hardly seemed to warrant much thought, and somehow, it has remained that way in our minds since. Now as the calendar affirms that October is in fact only days away, we are soon to realize how close we are again to our departure.

I know that many mention in emails and phone calls how hard the waiting must be for us, but the reality, at least for me, is that it has not been that difficult. Sure I am excited and sure I wish the process were closer to finalisation, but like so many things over which you find yourself with little influence, a certain resignation sets in and life just continues its forward march.

Somewhere in the back of my head is the comprehension that my life is heading for a period of drastic and life-altering change, though outwardly, my routine and daily experience suggests no such imminent transformation beyond those associated with our recent move.

As our new house travels along that indefinable continuum from house to home, KJ's new (and much shorter) work schedule has afforded us a new outlook not just on our life together, but inevitably, on our upcoming life as a family. It has really made an amazing difference in our lives. We are certainly encouraged, and our perceived need to leave Lovell has been reaffirmed.

Life in Boothbay has been wonderful. I think we have already had more visitors at this house than we did in six years in Lovell. Location, location , location I suppose. We've had visitors from Illinois, Wyoming, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Ohio, and joined up with friends from Oregon down in the 'good' Portland - Maine of course!

As far as the adoption goes, as best we know everything is still on track. It may prove to be be without foundation, but we continue to put faith in the saying 'no news is good news'. I keep awaiting some sort of breakthrough announcement or big news item with which to lead off a blog posting, and I think that that is partly why I have not posted in over a month. Little has changed adoption wise in the past month.

On our end, we (do you like how I add myself to what we all know are KJ's efforts) continue to procure and track paperwork as nearly all of our adoption paperwork needed to be 'updated', wherein 'updated' is a euphemism for redone. Though we have not yet recieved out LOI(Letter of Invitation) from the Ministry of Education in Kaz, we still anticipate flying out of Boston the last weekend of October, and hopefully returning with our daughter in the end of December.

One thing that we have not mentioned here on the blog is that both KJ and I are taking Russian classes in Portland. It is a private class we(again KJ) set up with an instructor in Portland. We meet once a week for an hour for ten weeks, and so far we are 7 down 3 to go. It was one of the things that we returned from the first trip wishing we knew something of, and so saw our delay as an opportunity to change that to some degree. I would finish this post off all in Russian, but as I don't have a Cyrillic keyboard, I'll just have to do it in English. Next time. Take Care.

Looking north from White Head, Monhegan Island.

This is Pemiquid Light, taken the other day as KJ and I visited with my mom. There are a number of light houses within a short distance of us here in Boothbay.

While I know that around the country there have been all kinds of weather related extremes occurring this month, it has been downright beautiful here in Maine. We are really loving our new location here in Boothbay, and have been enjoying daytime highs in the 60's and 70's with nights in the 40's and 50's. It seems an early fall, though there is destined to ba a little more heat left in this summer. With wild blueberries in full season, fresh lobster on the waterfront, and a little wood in the fireplace, what's not to love.

On the adoption front, we find ourselves in a strange phase. On the one hand we are finding that we are having to recreate and update nearly all of our adoption paperwork as its 12 month lifespan will be exceeded as we move into the fall, and on the other hand we already have a new travel date for returning to Astana to meet our daughter. It is as if we are re-living the last year on a greatly abreviated timescale.

So when is our new travel date? We are hearing we should be prepared to be in Astana by 01 November, but official dates will only come after our LOI (Letter of Invitation) is issued by the Ministry of Education. With that date in mind, we would expect to fly out of Boston (again!) in the evening of the 27th or 28th of October, and arrive in Astana in the early afternoon two days later. It does help to know the routine. I imagine that preparing to depart this time around will be a much more casual and stress free time. Okay, maybe not stress free, but you get the idea. Take Care.

So here is KJ and her truck. She loved driving it. Unfortunately I don't have a good action shot of her on the road. Maybe next time.

So we have been home just more than a month now. As happens in everyone's lives, a lot happens in a month. Much of the first week was spent just processing what had happened.

KJ's parents Susan and Hugh had graciously been looking after our dogs while we were gone and had helped us out quite a bit in the week leading up to our departure. They had, of course, driven out from Illinois expecting to be here all summer, so suddenly our return upended their plans as well. After our return, they stayed a few days longer and then made their way back across the country, offering again to come out and look after the dogs when the time comes. Family is good!

KJ and I continued to look towards the good that would come of returning so soon. We could be here to get ready for the move, and in fact complete the move before our daughter arrived. KJ could begin her new job in Boothbay and get to know the people and systems there before we left. We could actually enjoy a few nights in the house we had spent all those long weeks this spring getting spruced up to sell. Okay, so maybe they start to run a little thin about there, but all in all, being home this past month has been good for us.

Before KJ began work, we took several days and went to Cape Cod to spend a few days together with most of my family, and really found it quite relaxing which is always a good thing.

So then it was time for KJ to begin work in Boothbay, but we still wouldn't take possession of our house there for a couple of weeks. What do you do? Well you get out your trusty tent and sleeping bag and take along a flashlight and the new Harry Potter of course. So there she was - doctor by day, camper by night. She loved it, finished the book, and even made time for s'mores.

Back in Lovell, I was putting some finishing touches on the house and preparing for the move. We had done so much to prepare for the move that the actual move was really quite simple. Most everything was boxed and moved to storage well before we went to Kaz, so the actual move involved renting a big truck and making several trips between Lovell and Boothbay. Between Sunday and Wed, we made three trips with the truck, and two with my car. I have since returned for one more load of my car and trailer, and apart from my larger woodworking machines, we are pretty much done.

As you can see from the photo, it was a big a truck, and I'm not too proud to say, that KJ was far more comfortable driving it than I was, and so she ended up doing about 700 miles of driving to my 3 (I drove it to the store to buy a Mountain Dew). She fearlessly drove through both small towns and highways at night and in the the rain, and I dare say, she loved it.

Boothbay is wonderful and the dogs are really taking to their new house quite well. As of last week, they now have just over 2 acres of space to roam inside their new electric dog fence. As the fence is a familiar boundary to them, getting them adjusted to it has been easy. Within a few days they were out on their own exploring the grass and woods, and thusfar we have seen no evidence that any of them have had any issue with the boundaries. So during the days, the doors to the house remain wide open and the dogs come and go as they please. It couldn't be better for them. From the house they hear the occassional car or truck, but you can't see the road, and so their distractions are very limited.

Yes we love our boys. Our house hunt was really more of a search to find the right property for the dogs, though we certainly all won with the house we ended up with here in Boothbay. The town is so full of things to do, and sitting as it's name implies, beside a bay, the water is all around us. Fresh seafood, lobster, and this time of year, blueberries, keep any self- respecting Mainer happy. It is easy to assume that you know what a blueberry tastes like, but unless you've had wild Maine blueberries, you've been fooled.

There is plenty of room here, so if you find yourself passing through - perhaps on the way to New Brunswick or Newfoundland to see family - let us know. Take Care.

Amazing how time flies when you're moving! I didn't mean to leave off for so long after the end of the last posting, especially with the rather abrupt 'ending' of the last post. It just seemed I was getting beyond the length I imagine most people would stick around for and decided to inject a stopping point.

I left off with us in Astana having decided we would return home. Really once we made that decision the healing process and personal recovery began. I will say that even all these weeks later, we are still in the recovery mode to some extent, but the road towards looking at our situation in a positive light began with accepting that we would go home and return to Astana in the future.

From time to time I find it important to remind myself that KJ and I are not the only ones affected by this process, our daughter is as well, as this whole story is actually the story of her adoption. Every step of the process is part of the genesis of our family, and as such, there is no regret.

So let me fill out a little timeline.

We left Maine on Monday afternoon for a night flight out of Boston. Monday and Tuesday nights were spent on the plane. We arrived in Almaty(KAZ) around 4:30 am Wednesday, spent several hours at the airport awaiting our flight to Astana, then arrived in Astana just after noon. We were met by our in country coordinator and driver, driven to our apartment and given 30 minutes to shower and get ready to go to the Baby House. We arrived at the baby house around 3pm and shortly thereafter were told that their were presently no children available.

We returned to our Apartment, where I mentioned earlier we had locked ourselves out of the bedroom, and spent that night on the couch trying to comprehend what was happening. We did get out for a bit of a walk that evening, and really liked the location of our apartment and the immediate surroundings. Astana is a very comfortable city, especially in the summer when everything is green and the streets are full of people. It will no doubt be quite different by the time we return again.

Thursday morning we again went to the Baby House, only to hear again that there was nothing to wait for, and that our best option was really to head home and return at a later date. That afternoon we got out to an email place and had the opportunity to check in with folks and let them know what was happening. Our adoption agency contacted our travel agent and filled her in and had her call us at the apartment to work out the return. As mentioned in a previous post we were able to get confirmed flights for the middle of the next week, but could only get stand-by before that. We decided that our best option was to fly to Almaty as soon as we could and be prepared to jump on any of the standby options if they became available. Thus we spent Thursday night at the apartment, this time on a bed.

It just happened that Friday was a huge celebration throughout the city marking it's tenth year as the capital of Kazakhstan, and conveniently, was also the president's birthday(we heard). As a result, it was a fascinating time to be in Astana. The photos of children dancing and drawing on the sidewalks are not simply daily occurrences, but were just small parts of the celebrations going on all around town. It was a beautiful day and with so many people out and about, you really got a sense of the ethnic diversity that is Kaz. Being as far north as it is, there was daylight until quite late and in fact, the photo of the Gas and Oil building was taken at 9:30PM.

We went back to the apartment, watched the fireworks while we packed, and were on a flight to Almaty around midnight. Before we left for the airport, our travel agent called and said we were now confirmed for a flight out at 5am Sunday, and that after going through Amsterdam and Minneapolis, would have us back in Boston Sunday night.

And so it was, we arrived home in Maine early Monday morning just inside a week after we left. Take Care.

Here are some more photos from Astana. The first is of the Gas and Oil ministry building on the day of the 10th anniversary of Astana becoming the country's capital. All throughout the city there were events staged and people out everywhere, and at night there were fireworks along the riverfront. Though we were only Kaz for a few nights, we did get to experience this big celebration and to see the city at the height of the summer with its long days and and its residents out and about enjoying the sunshine.

Here are a few views from our apartment showing the river, parks, and construction.