We have a court date!

We found out today that our court date/time is set for this Friday (which we assumed) at 10 a.m. So think about us then and keep your fingers crossed that the judge is in a good mood! Sunday we cooked our big meal for all of our Kaz friends: Karina's family - Zaure, Serik, Gulia, Baha and our WPA family: Murat, Murat, Irina, Malika and Saule. We made caprese, bruschetta, shrimp cocktail to start (they don't get shrimp very often here as we figure out by the cost of it!! It was about $65 for a bag of shrimp cocktail sized shrimp - about 50). Then we had meatloaf, sauteed carrots and onions, mashed potatoes. For dessert it was an apple/blueberry cobbler with ice cream and chocolate chip cookies. They loved the dessert not so sure about the meatloaf. We found out that here it is a sign of respect if you serve meat with fat - the more the better. They measure fat by finger widths.

We explained that it was a bit different in the U.S. They asked us what we were doing for New Year's Eve - said they were renting a cottage and going skiing etc. but since we'll have custody of Bekbolat Serik we won't be able to go. They said ' it was no condition for a baby'. Guess they don't understand that we take our kids everywhere in the US. They asked Kurt if they could take me away for their 'Independence Day' which is Dec. 16th. That and New Years are the two biggest holidays here as far as we can tell. They're off Dec 18 and 19th in observance of the holiday and I hope that I'll be able to visit the baby on some of those days even thought it's a holiday. Karina comes home to Astana from Moscow University on the 22nd of Dec. so I'm sure that they will all keep me occupied once Kurt and the Brabsons leave this Sat.

Irina and I have planned to walk at the Sports Complex at least a couple of times a week after visits to keep me occupied. That plus shopping for souvenirs and all the HBO programming we brought should make the time fly by until Kurt gets back on the 29th.

Also, there is another American couple who got here on the same day (different agency) who are staying the whole time. I plan to bug them as well for company and they seem quite open to it. Think they might be getting a bit stir crazy since they haven't had a lot of other company then each other.

On to today - some of you have asked what we're calling little man since you've seen different things on our posts. Well since he's only know the name Bekbolat - and that's what he responds to we're trying to work in his new name slowly - hence the Bekbolat Serik or Serik Bekbolat. It usually depends on what we remember at the time. Little guy was a so excited to see us today and was in a great mood - only downside was that he puked - a lot!! We had to do a pretty big load in our broken washing machine when we got home (we flooded the floor a total of three times so far). Other than that it was a great visit and we were all happy to spend time with each other.