Joy

**This week marks 1 year since we appeared in court in Kazakhstan (twice!) to petition for the adoption of Amirkhan & Murat. October 4 was the official date the adoptions were final. We want to remember this week last year so we will be republishing our journal entries from this week in 2006 but this time with corrseponding pictures that we were not allowed to post before everything was final! We hope you enjoy this walk down memory lane for us and if not, it's really for us. :)**

Today was a great day…perhaps one of the best we’ve had so far. I’m not sure what made it among the best exactly but maybe it’s the incredibly content and happy feeling we both have here at the end of it.

Our visit with Patrick was fabulous! We went outside for the first time in over a week and he loved it! We spent time cuddling and singing and he fell asleep. He also took his sippy cup for the first time – he’s still not entirely sure about it but hey, it’s progress. He is one of the sweetest kids I’ve ever met. He is shy until he gets to know you and then you are rewarded with these wonderful smiles and dancing eyes. He really wants to stay with us every day but doesn’t complain when it’s time to go back to the caregivers (just tries to jump back into my arms :).

We spent part of the afternoon doing laundry at our friends’ apartment. They leave tomorrow for Almaty so this was our only chance to use their washing machine. We enjoyed visiting while the clothes washed. I’m hopeful that will get us most the way to Almaty but our other friends said we could give them laundry and they would bring it to us the next day - not a bad deal. :)

Calvin was like a different child today! He was happy and content for pretty much the whole visit. We felt like we were seeing the kid we absolutely fell in love with from day 1! He was very loving towards us and enjoyed playing with the toys. The cutest thing was that he stood up and walked along the chairs lining the walls and looked so proud of himself and suddenly shy. He then proceeded to climb easily up on to one of the chairs – Mommy was proud, delighted, and terrified all at the same time.

Our coordinator, Nadya, arrived today from Almaty. She is so friendly and seemed glad to see us again. She came to our apartment to collect gifts and other things tonight. She seems to think we are nearing the end of our stint here in Uralsk; we hope so. :) Everyone we have worked with has been wonderful! We have been incredibly pleased with our agency at home and our in-country reps here. What a blessing!

All of these things make us thankful and happy tonight. We praise God for how relatively smooth things have gone so far and most of all for the beautiful boys He chose especially for us. We can’t imagine it any other way.

Please pray for pre-court tomorrow at 2 p.m. our time (you will probably still be sleeping). We are hopeful for a close final court date. Thanks for praying and keeping in touch. We'll let you know how it goes!

**1st Published October 1, 2006**