Almost There!

So I had a comment asking if the lack of posting was because I had my hands full now. I'm sure that will be the case in a few days--we get to get Julia on Wednesday and Angelica either Thursday or Friday--but for now, we really haven't had much to say. We've not even been able to go to the orphanages for the last few days, so we've just been pottering around town. Yesterday was Nazarbayev's birthday (he's the president of Kaz) and today is Capital Day, which is the 10th anniversary of when Kaz changed it's capital back to Astana. The celebrations downtown were nothing like as big as for the Holiday of the Protection of Children! We didn't even find any huge cotton candy. :( Nicholas did get to ride a donkey, though, and he thought that was cool. I have also included a picture of a marajuana plant, which are everywhere in the city here. We think that is pretty interesting.

A cool fact--we get to pick up Julia on her birthday. Isn't that kind of fun? I'm feeling so much more laid back now than I was a week ago. I think it's because I know I'll have my girls here in just a few days and we'll be able to start learning how to live like a family. I have been feeling like the usefulness of the orphanage visits is past and we're just wasting our time and money here now, but once we get to have them, that won't be true anymore. So I'm feeling lots better about life now that I'm just 2 days from having Julia and 3-4 days from having Angelica. We did get to visit Julia on Friday and we had a great visit and I was happy to see that she didn't act like she was in the orphanage again, which is something I was afraid of. Anyway, I'm sure we'll put up some pictures of Julia's birthday/goodbye party Wednesday night. Until then, we love you all and can't wait to see you all again! Angie