July 25th

Groundhog Day! The alarm goes off at 7:30am. Pat and Bob head to the gym. Beth and I go for a walk. A young man approaches us as we near the university. "Do you speak English?" he asks. "Yes." we say. Soon we have a crowd around us of 15 or so students. They are interested in practicing their English. Some of them are studying to be translators. We find out that they are waiting for a bus to take them to the woods to work. They ask us where we are from, why are we here, do we like the beer here, what is our favorite american movie and the trickiest question of all...what do we think of George Bush Jr. We chat for about 20 minutes or so. One girl in particular speaks very well. She was an exchange student her senior year and attended school in St. Cloud Florida. The bus arrives and the students say goodbye. Beth and I walk to Victory Park, then to the river and finally to the pastry shop. This has become our standard route. Pat and Bob meet us on our way back from the pastry shop. Pat got the better of Bob today in ping-pong taking the day 9-4. This brings the tourny standings to 90-83 with Bob in the lead. We get back to the hotel, eat our pastries and get ready to go to the baby home.

It's partly cloudy with a cool breeze when we start out for the baby home. By the time we arrive the sun is out and it's a bit humid. We guess that the kids are inside but we find their rooms locked. They're outside. Molly has just finished eating. Mama Bibigoul hands her to me and I undress and diaper her. Pat and Aidan arrive to say hello. Mama Bibigoul finds a onsie for Molly - it has a picture of a little hippo on it and says 100% boy - and we're ready to go. Another great day with the kids. They are in good spirits. Both are chatty and pleasant. Aidan is all over the room. Molly does some creeping without any prompting from us. Pat sits with Aidan and Nicholas on his lap and reads to them. When they're done its Molly's turn. Aidan takes a tumble and whacks his head on the floor. I pick him up, comfort him and he's ready to go again. I have Molly try on her new pink and blue plaid baseball cap. Olesya wrinkles her nose and says "I don't like it. She looks like a boy." We think it's adorable. Aidan talks to Molly's socks while she whacks him on the head. He just chuckles. Those are some funny socks! Ah, 2:30pm already. The children are being transported to their inside rooms so we take the kids back inside too. We kiss them and say goodbye. We meet out front and take the bus back to the hotel. We make arrangements to meet Olesya in the hotel lobby at 4:45pm. She will take us to get the kid's new birth certificates and adoption certificates.

Pat and I head to the Internet cafe and have just enough time to post one entry each to the Blog before we have to meet Olesya back at the hotel. She takes us to the Office of Registry which is only a short walk from the hotel. We're done our business in less that a 1/2 hour. Olesya calls Andre for a ride home. She will go home and rest. Her back hurt and she is tired. We say a silent prayer that our luck will hold out and Olesya's baby stays in his happy home for a while longer.

We meet Dana at the pizza place at 6:00pm. Everyone gets their usual and dinner is good. Pat drinks Holsten and I opt for Derbes (a Kazakh brew). We walk Dana home and get back to the hotel around 8:00pm. We try to watch a movie but the cable to Bob's DVD player is on the fritz. Bob will see if he can replace it tomorrow. Pat writes in his journal and I read a magazine. Lights out at 12:30pm.