Greetings from Kazakhstan!

Jon and I have made it safely after 29 hours of traveling. We took advantage of our 7 hour layover in London by taking a quick tube trip to see Big Ben and Parliament. Our flight from London to Almaty actually had a stopover in Russia at Ekaterinaburg. Luckily we didn't have to get off the plane. We arrived in Almaty at 3:45 this morning and were greeted by our driver, Andrei and a woman from the law offices. Since we arrived a half a day early, we have some down time today and will meet with our agency's partners tomorrow.

We were pleasantly surprised when we turned on the TV this morning at 5 a.m. (10 hours ahead of EST) to find an English-speaking ESPN channel with the Yankees and Red Sox. After watching the Yankees beat up on the Sox for a little bit we took a nap. Then we had our driver pick us up and take us to exchange money, buy TJ's return ticket (yes, we got an extra seat for him for everyone who was concerned about that), and now we're at in internet cafe at the Ramstore which is a giant supermarket/mall. After eating some strange potatoes, chicken and a questionable hamburger, we are both doing well.

Tomorrow we will meet with our agency's partners and will fill out paperwork and learn about the details of our trip to Uralsk, visiting hours at the baby house etc. We should be leaving on Wednesday morning for Uralsk.

Well that's the update. No pictures today since we are at a cafe and just figuring out how to even log on. We are also going to try to buy an i-card so we can log on from our apartment. We should get our cell phone tomorrow.

Hope everyone's doing well.

Love,
Jon & Lisa