June 27th

We get up at 7:30am today. I do laundry and Pat gets ready to go to the gym. Bob knocks on the door at 8:00am. He's not going to the gym. He has a bad knee and tweaked it yesterday when we were walking. Pat decides to go anyway. He'll just lift. No ping pong today (sigh). I finish up the laundry and take a shower. Pat gets back to the room at 9:40am. Dana arrives at 10:00am. Pat, Beth, Dana and I walk to the soccer stadium. We arrive to find a small line at the ticket window. Our timing is perfect as a half dozen people or so arrive shortly after us. Pat had discussed with Dana on the walk over what areas of the stadium would offer a good view of the game. Dana secures tickets in the "fan' section. The woman selling her the tickets asked her if she was sure that she wanted those seats. That section is loud the woman tells Dana. "Yes, of course" Dana replied. We wonder if we will be sitting in a 700 level type of section (for those of you unfamiliar with the term-the 700 level is where the drunkest, rowdiest Eagles fans sat at the Vet). We're glad Dana changed her mind and will be joining us. If things get rowdy it will be good to have an interpreter with us. We arrive back at the hotel at 11:00am. We're going to take the bus so Bob can rest his knee. We don't have to leave until 12:45pm. I catch up on my journal entries and Pat starts the Da Vinci Code.

We arrive at the baby home and find the children inside. I head toMolly's room. She is waiting for me in the playpen. She is dressed in the usual turquoise stretch sweater pants (hiked up under her armpits), onsie, flannel print jacket and bonnet. Fetching. The bonnet is "tied" under her chin. Hardly enough string to make a proper bow. Pat, Bob, Beth go for the boys. Aidan, Nicholas and another boy are in the small playpen. Bob picks up Nicholas and Aidan crawls across the playpen to where Pat is standing. He recognizes his Daddy. Everyone meets in the marble room. We remove Molly's bonnet and jacket. Aidan and Nicholas have there red and white striped baseball caps on. Molly and Aidan "interact" on the sofa. Aidan's hair is safe under his ball cap. Molly plays with her toys. EVERYTHING goes in her mouth. I feel her top gum for teeth. Nothing yet. Aidan crawls around and climbs on his mommy and daddy. The favorite toy of the day is an empty Kraks (Pringles knock-off) container that Bob and Beth brought. All of the kids love it. Molly chews on the ends and Aidan chases it around the room as it rolls away from him. Bob and Beth take Nicholas for a walk in the Snugli. He enjoys it and they decide to purchase one here. They don't sell the exact same thing but have something very similar. We've seen people on the street carrying their babies this way. When Bob and Beth get back with Nicholas we take Molly and Aidan out. We stroll around the grounds of the baby home. The kids take it all in. We stop to look at and touch leaves and flowers. Aidan watches a bird fly by. Pat sings a song and Molly joins in. I look at my watch. It's 2:25 and time to go back inside. Olesya joined us earlier in the marble room before her massage. She was back when we returned. She had been to see the judge that morning. Our pre-trial hearing has been scheduled for Monday July 4th at 5:30pm. Court is open until 6:00pm so the hearing won't be long. We sign a form that indicated the date, time and location of the hearing. Olesya also tells us that we will take the children to get their passport and visa photos tomorrow. We'll take a car from the baby home into town. We are to bring clothes for the children to wear in the photo. The cost is 800 TT per child. We pack up and take the kids back to their rooms. I put Molly in her crib. There is a pacifier in her crib and I give it to her. This is a first. Usually there in no pacifier and she sucks her thumb. She lays down. I pat her back and tell her we love her. She is ready for a nap. I meet the others out front. Pat reports that Aidan when right down. Olesya is with us so we take the bus.

We stop at the hotel and drop our stuff off. Olesya is taking us to a bookstore and to the post office. I had expressed an interest in buying some stamps to keep as souvenirs. At the bookstore we purchase a fold-out map of Kazakhstan. The map has information about the country in English. We also buy a set of postcards with pictures of some of the sights of Kostanai. On the way to the post office we here someone call "hello" in English. It is a young woman from church. She has done a reading each of the weeks we've attended Mass. She was going to walk by but we wave her over. We have Olesya with us to translate. We asked her name (Natasha), said that we were glad to see her again, and that we would see her in church on Sunday. We said goodbye and went into the post office. We buy several different types of stamps. Next Olesya takes us the the phone place. It is open 24 hours a day. You pre-pay for a certain number of minutes and are assigned a booth to make your call. Olesya writes us a note to give the clerk if we would ever want to make a call. The rate is 190 TT/minute or about $1.25. Olesya departs after we are done at the phone place. Bob and Beth go to the park and Pat and I to the Internet cafe. I check email and Pat updates the Blog. We're there for about an hour. Back to the hotel to meet Dana.

We walk to dinner. Another stike out at Baron Munchhausen. They are apparently making renovations inside. We opt for Plan B. This is a restaurant that we refer to as the spinach tea place. They serve green tea in a clear teapot. The leaves in the pot are large and resemble spinach. It is an excellent choice. Dinner is very good. Pat and I try a new Kazakh beer called Tyan-Chan. It is named after the snow covered mountains found near the city of Almaty. The beer is tasty and has an alcohol content of 11%. We walk Dana home after dinner. We'll see her again tomorrow night for dinner.

Bob and Beth invite us to their room to watch a movie. I request Miss Congeniality. We watch the movie and eat cookies. The movie is over at 10:00pm. We go back to our room and write in our journals. Lights out at 12:00am.