Almost Famous

Here's our girl. Isn't she beautiful? Nicholas, we can't wait for you to meet her. We know you'll have so much fun playing together. We really enjoy our visits to the orphanage when we get to play with her, too.

During the rest of the time, Michael and I are busy becoming the infamous Americans in Taraz. Yesterday, everywhere we went--from the grocery store to the bank--people were staring at us and smiling. I thought, "This is great. They really like Americans here." Then we asked two girls who spoke broken English why everyone was smiling. They pointed at Michael's plaid pants and started giggling. All of the people here wear dark, solid color pants and I guess they hadn't seen plaid before. Michael's ego will heal.

Never one to be outdone, I got some attention of my own when we went for a walk in the middle of town. I slipped on the snow (I was not built for cold climates) and fell flat on my back. Michael said that it was because I insist on wearing my high-heeled, black boots. I pointed out that I wear them because they look great, especially when my feet are in the air and people can really see them.

We're also adjusting to the time change (Taraz is 14 hours ahead of California) and the fact that the sun doesn't come up until 8:30am. Hot water and heat are also intermittent so we've really come to appreciate a warm shower in the morning. The food is good: for breakfast we have eggs and coffee, lunch is borscht and beer. We haven't had dinner yet since we usually pass out around 3pm and don't wake up again until all the restaurants are closed. We'll try to stay up tonight for the New Year's Eve festivities. We hope you all have a Happy New Year!