Go Into the Light

There's light at the end of the tunnel...and it's the train to Almaty! On the night of January 15, we spent 10 hours on the overnight train traveling from Taraz to Almaty. We purchased a room with four bunk beds and it was still barely enough space for the two of us and our luggage (which may be more of a commentary on all the luggage we had!). We shared a train car with several people, some of whom slept in rooms like ours, others slept in the corridor. A young Kazakh man shoveled coal into a furnace all night to keep the car warm. Our room was closest to the furnace so we had plenty of heat. For some reason, the "coal man" opened our door in the middle of the night and Michael jumped out of bed, thinking we must be at our destination. I looked out the window and saw nothing but snow covered hills. I told him to go back to sleep, but he insisted on trying to getting more information. He left our room without remembering the number, and then went door-to-door trying to find his way back. By the time he found our room, he'd woken up most of the car and was insistent that "something must be happening because everyone's awake." (Do you think it could be because of the crazy American?)

After we arrived in Almaty, we went to the U.S. Consulate, which is on the 17th floor of a modern office building. We spent five minutes and $380, and Kyra now has her Visa for entry into the U.S. I expected balloons, streamers and the Marine Corps band, but it was pretty anti-climactic. Our flights to Frankfurt and then to LA were great. Fortunately, we made it out the day before the big storm hit Germany.

We'll return to Kazakhstan from February 2-7 for our court date, which is on February 6th. We haven't broken the news to our son, Nicholas. He was so excited to see us that I just can't tell him that we're leaving again. However, this time will be much shorter and when it's over, he'll officially have a baby sister.