Lots of happy news

Linda here.

What a day. I woke up this morning and said today is the day. I drank 4 cups of water and waited. Yea! A nice poop. I felt I willed it. What a sense of accomplishment. I don't how most people travel, but for me the system shuts down.

The temperatures are getting warmer and the air is getting dryer. The sun is up early and goes down late. We are really into our routine now. More Luke Skywalker stories in the car. I also worked on the blanket I am crocheting - yes, I am conquering the car ride. We spent an hour with Mia before Tucker's massage. It was just fantastic that we were able to have this happen. Mike has written more about it and he took a wonderful video.

The day we arrived in Kokshetau - 9 days ago - we were told about the 60th anniversary of the baby house celebration coming this June 1st. In a conversation with the director I offered Mike as the official videographer. She was thrilled. I also thought how nice it would be to interview the staff. Today we were able to interview the massage therapist of 21 years (I don't have her name handy), Kunpash - the speech and language pathologist, and the music teacher (also don't have her name handy). It was so wonderful to have dedicated people really share on the video. Sveta also translated.

Tucker took a wonderful nap today due we suspect to his massage, then we took our walk to the green market. Mike wrote about Tucker's Spiderman shirt find. He really has an amazing eye when it comes to finding anything Spiderman.

Later this evening I took Tucker downstairs in the common area to play on the jungle gym. There were about 8 local girls playing a very strange version of jump rope. One got brave and asked whether I spoke English. Within a minute all the girls were surrounding me trying to ask questions. They were not the least bit shy. I said "ne punemayo" (I don't understand) a lot, but we amazingly got a lot of things across. All of the girls were Kazak except the most talkative one who is Russian. They range in age from 5 to 15. The 10 year olds were the most inquisitive. The fifteen year old asked if I spoke German. When Mike came out I sent her over to him. Four more girls joined the group and there was lots of broken English and Russian. They are very excited that we will be here for awhile. I hope they take to Mia when we bring her home to this apartment. I am sure they will. So much for keeping a low profile. They all know where we live.

One more thing... We expect to meet up for Shashlyk (kabobs) with the Luca family, who've been here in Kokshetau for a few days now and are just getting over their jetlag.