First few days of travel

I left for Astana on January 25, 2010, I flew from Philadelphia to Frankfort, then had long 5 hour layover in in Germay followed by a 6 hour flight to Astana. The plane rides were comfortable and pleasant. Lufthansa takes good care of their passengers. I arrived in Astana after midnight on January 27th and was met by Dina, my coordinator and her husband Arman. It was cold, but not horrible as we wlaked to their car. I was happy to see two large gallon bottles of water sitting on the seat! Dina had thought of my needs and taken care of everything! My apartment is nice and well kept, over looking the river. I have a great view and a lovely sunset each evening.

'Dina told me to be ready at 11 am on Thursday to go to the baby house. At 11 am she called and said we would go at 3.....more waiting! She actually picked me up at 1 and w ewent grocery shopping. WE bought bread and chocolate butter, which is delicious! It is literally as good as a croissat at the hotel hershey! It was finally time to go the baby house,. WE went tothe Department of Educatyio to pick up a representative who was to accompany us....we waited in the parking lot for 15 minutes for her! The finally drove off to the baby house. When we arrived, the woman from the DOE went into the Drirector's and was in there for 30 minutes before we were called in! Dina and I sat in the lobbby and waited some more! Fially it was time to go in. I was introduced, asked some questions, asked about Annika, showed everyone her pictures, they said she was a beautiful girl, and finally they began looking at their lists of babies. after a few minutes, they had seemed to have decided on 3. The first baby was beautiful....looked to be about 9 months but was actually 18 nmonths, so she had some special needs that i knew we could not handle. The second baby was a girl and also had needs we were not equipped to handle. The third baby was a healthy boy, but i looked at hime and knew he was not my son. The baby house staff talked some mopre...it seemed serious...it went on for a while. Would I be going home without a baby i wondered? hen they mentioned Tansholpan...and when she appeared in the room, I knew she was the one! She is 9 months and her birthday is April 10, 2009. Just after convention! Her name, Tansholpan means morning star. She is a big baby....not sure of her weight, but she is big! Definitely not wearing 9-12 month clothing! She wass quiet at yesterday's visit, but today she opened up and was silly and talked baby talk and laughed. She is a thumb sucker, just like her biug sister! The baby house workers tell me she is a good eater and a good sleeper!

So that is it for now...th ebaby house visits are great but the rest of the day is long and lonely!