Weekend with the Clarks

As most of you know from previous blog posts last year, we spent every waking moment with the Clark family of Massachusetts while in Kazakhstan. They were there at the same time adopting Julia. We spent four hours a day in a room together bonding with our children for a month. We had court on the same date. We flew back to Logan together and Tammy I returned to Semey after 8 weeks to pick up our girls. We busted the girls out of the baby house on the same day and stayed in a hotel in Almaty together for a week for the final steps of the process. I not only found my daughter in Kazakhstan, but an extended family as well.

Since our return, we have seen the Clarks about once a month. This past weekend Anelya and I spent two night at their house. It's always completely wonderful to see their friendship continue to grow. Of course it is wonderful for me to have someone who knows exactly every detail of my in country experience. It's a friendship based on the deepest kind of connection. You can see in the following pictures just how connected our girls are. It will be an asset for all of as they grow older and questions about identities and history arise.

They are always holding hands.

And laughing...

Julia usually never lets her mama do anything to her hair, but when Anelya is with her, she always wants two pigtails just like Anelya.

Anelya, Sarah, and Julia.