May 12

I got the official word today that I can leave on May 14. Everything was hinging on Julia's passport being released from the US consulate, and it was! Needless to say I am thrilled to have a concrete, firm, tickets booked departure date. We will be picked up by our driver tomorrow at 11:30 pm, our flight then leaves at 2am, we have a 7 hour flight to Almaty, then a 6 hour layover in Frankfurt, followed by a 10 hour flight to Atlanta, to arrive at 4pm Thursday afternoon. It is a long trip and a little, ok very overwhelming for me to think about. But, it is the last leg of the journey. A very specific prayer request is that Julia will sleep on the plane, so that I can sleep. I am going to try to get a couple of hours sleep tomorrow in the evening before we are picked up, but I doubt that will happen because I am sure I will be busy getting things ready.
Today we went to the "sisters" office in Almaty to fill out forms for the US embassy and for the USCIS. Then, we went to the SOS clinic (international medical) where Julia had a "physical". It was basically a very quick look in her ears, listen to her heart, ok she is fine physical. That has to be done for the US embassy to issue her a visa on her Kazakhstan passport. Tomorrow we have our final meeting with the adoption agency here, then we go to the US embassy where I will pick up her new passport and visa.
Thankfully Julia and I have been able to get great rest here at the Holiday Inn (picture included), it is very quiet and very clean. She slept 14 hours last night and took a 3.5 hour nap this afternoon. I assume that the more rested she is for the trip the better off we will be. I am a firm believer that well rested babies sleep better. Well, that is all for today. I will post once more after we are home. Thank you all for your prayers and kind words of encouragement as we have gone down this 65 day journey. They have been such a blessing to Ethan and myself.