Lauren at 6 weeks

This is Lauren at six weeks of age. The Director of the orphanage gave us this photo from Lauren's file just after we had first met her. It is the only photo we have of Lauren prior to our meeting when she was 7 months old.
As far as postings are concerned, this is the best we can do at the moment. Dawn took the laptop with her to Kazakhstan.... but unfortunately she left the power-cord at home... She has not been able to find a replacement cord.
Dawn is promising that she will do a day by day accounting of her time since she returned to Kazakhstan as soon as she gets back home --- complete with photos and everything.
Dawn & Lauren are in Ust-Kamenogorsk until Sunday 12/25 when they will travel to Almaty. Then as soon as Lauren's passport comes in and they have the de-briefing at the U.S. Consulate in Almaty they will be able to come home. They have airline tickets for the 2nd of January. Hopefully everything will work out to where they will be able to come home then.
Lauren is doing great. Since she has left the orphanage life has just been one big party... one adventure after the next. So many new things to see and do! She's even eating well... as long as it is on her terms.

Are we ready..........?

Are we ready for this?!?
We had better be ready... Dawn is leaving this morning for Kazakhstan to pick Lauren up. She will be arriving in Almaty early Sunday morning, and then go on to Ust-Kamenogorsk on Monday if all goes well. She can't wait to see Lauren again and to bring her home finally.
This photo was taken during our last visit on December 2nd. It is hard to believe that was only two weeks ago! It feels like it has been so much longer than that.

The End - For Now

The End --- For Now.

We visited with Lauren for the final time Friday night for a couple of hours. It was difficult to walk away. The next few weeks will feel like an eternity.
Saturday morning our flight leaves from Ust-Kamenogorsk to Almaty. Then Sunday morning at 4 AM our flight leave from Almaty to Amsterdam. After a 6 hour lay-over in Amsterdam we'll head out for Seattle. We'll arrive in Seattle at 1 PM in the afternoon .... and it will still be Sunday. With the time difference Sunday will be a 37 hour day for us. We are looking forward to being home --- but we are eagerly waiting for the time when we'll have Lauren home with us and all this will be behind us. It will be wonderful to have her at home.

Blowing kisses

Lauren is very proud of her "kissy-face". This is her version of blowing a kiss at you. When this picture was taken she was sitting on my shoulders ofcourse. That is one of her favorite places. This face was not a chance occurence. She pretty much blows kisses on que. She especially likes to blow kisses at herself in the mirror. We will probably regret teaching her this...

Wearing a Girly Dress...

For our last day together for the next few weeks mommy had Lauren wear a nice dress. Lauren wasn't much impressed, but oh well!
As of yesterday the adoption is final. Now it is just a matter of the paperwork catching up before we can take her away from the orphanage. That should take place just before Christmas. It will be a long three weeks...

No going back now....

There is no going back now. We had court today and the adoption was approved. The snot-nosed monster you see in the picture is now officially ours. She was very happy and active today during both visits. It is amazing how much she has grown and developed in just 3 weeks. Lauren turned 8 months old on November 29th. We are glad court is over. It is not fun to be in a situation where you understand none of what is being said until your translator explains things to you. Plus... Dawn had to pronounce Lauren's Russian name, Yevgenia.... Do you thinks she got that right the first time??? Second time??? No.... it took her three attempts before she got close. But.... as of today her name is offically Lauren Dawn Holmberg. So there!