Finally

This trip was really brutal on all three of us. When we got to Almaty this morning, we discovered that our flight would not leave for Semey until 2p.m., which meant an 8 hour layover in Almaty airport, which has NOTHING. It was bad. We finally got on the tiny plane, only to discover that it's Friday afternoon and all of the Semey business men were flying home for the weekend from Almaty.

The plane was packed and the party started pretty much the second we got over the clouds. They whipped out vodka bottles, stood in the isles and pretty much had a party until we got to Semey. It was pandemonium. I was squished next to a very large man, so I decided that I would make it pleasant and proceeded to chat him up for the next 2 hours... in Russian. We pretty much talked about everything and I am not sure how I would have survived that plane ride without him. Thanks, Ilya. By the way, there is snow in Semey.

At the airport we found Pasha and Larissa waiting for us. We quickly dropped off our stuff at the hotel and we were summoned by Olga herself to go straight to the baby house. She swooped in and gave me Anelya's new birth certificate, with her new name and my name on it as the mother. I also got the signed adoption decree. I have the paperwork in my hands!

We quickly grabbed our orphanage donations and piled into the car. We made the quick trip on awful roads to the baby house and I made my way into Anelya's baby group. She was lying on her tummy in the playpen and I went in. She smiled the second she saw me and when I said "Mama came back," in Russian, she started laughing and furiously kicking her legs. I scooped her right up and heard, "Mamamamamamama". It was AMAZING!

As you can see, the hedge hog is no more. They let her hair grow, as I had asked them to, and now she has very thick straight long jet black hair. Her cheeks also grew considerably.

First picture of Anelya and a choked up Hoovie. She just LOVES him. She went right to him and looked him in the eyes, gave him some smiles and was happy to be with him.

Eat the face...

We went up to the bonding room and played together with Tammy and Kalamkas for about an hour. It was wonderful. I kissed Anelya good night and returned her to Farida, her favorite caregiver, and hugged Farida and Alia goodbye. I thanked them for all of the love they have shown my daughter. I left clothes for her to wear tomorrow when I pick her up at 8:45 to go straight to the airport.

Anelya easily pulls herself now, although she is not crawling. She will get around really quickly. She is also able to stand in a quite stable position if she is holding onto something. Still no teeth. Still all baby. She's definitely babbling more. I cannot wait to continue to get reacquainted with her once and for all.

We went out to dinner at Istanbul Picnic with pasha and Tammy and now we are taking showers and going to bed for the first time since Wednesday morning. I am seriously delirious. So, please excuse the short blog. It was every bit as magical as I hoped it would be. I have a couple of videos which I will upload asap. Thank you all for your comments and emails. It means more than you know!