Home Sweet Home

Hello! We finally made it home after a couple of days of traveling. We arrived late Friday night and were welcomed home with balloons and flowers from Haley and my sister Karen and her family! They surprised us by picking up our dogs from the kennel also. We were planning on getting them on Saturday. Our refrigerator was packed with food from Chris and Sue (my sister-in-laws) which was great!!!

We miss and love Oscar a lot. Although we dread the long trips, we cannot wait to get him home and get back to our regular lives. We don't worry about him there except for the fact that we think he needs more individualized attention than the other older kids which they can't give him. The caregivers do their best though.

Our heads are still cloudy and I (Dotty) have been sick since before we left Ust. We had flights to Almaty (2 hours), to London (10 hours) , to Chicago (8 hours), 3 hour layover then to Boston (2 hrs) The flights were painfully long and tiring but they got us home. The first itinerary we had was better and shorter. Tomorrow, we go back to work and now have to complete more paperwork with our agency before the second trip in a few weeks.

It is soooooooo nice to be back home. There are too many things to list that we are so much more appreciative of with being home.... sweet Haley and the dogs, the color of the trees and flowers, the (nice, intact) houses and buildings, smooth clean roads, seeing smiles, happiness and open friendliness with the public, the English language, signs in English writing, drinking and brushing your teeth with the water from the facet, a good shower, walking outside without big, locked steel doors and dirty hallways and elevator (if working), the local newspaper, not having to use an adapter, not worrying about time on the phone and a fast, FAST computer, etc., etc., etc.... so nice....

The picture of Oscar is of our last visit with him. The mountain range picture (yes, it's real) is from the airport in Almaty, Kazakhstan, the main city, which is a two hour flight from Ust-Kamenogorsk.