Steve here.  We're getting closer to the big day.  "Court" is schedule for Friday, and if all goes well, Benjamin Aidos will officially be our son shortly (he has already become our son in our hearts).  We're a little anxious since schedules seem to be pretty fluid here.  We were supposed to have a precourt interview with the judge last week (on Dec. 2), but we found out the day before that the judge was on vacation.  Precourt was rescheduled for yesterday, but we again found out the day before that the judge was still on vacation.  Our facilitators here have told us not to worry - that we will probably just skip the precourt and have the adoption on Friday, but we're still apprehensive.  Our organizers have been truly wonderful, and they've handled everything for us perfectly.  However, we're told things on a strictly "need-to-know" basis, and that's a little challenging for a couple who is used to being in charge.

It's now later in the day.  Our coordinator, Olga, has told us that we will have precourt tomorrow.  That's good news.  I was afraid the judge was not going to return until after the Independence Day holiday (which occurs sometime around Dec. 16 - the government has not yet announced the day).

We did a little bit of sightseeing today.  We went out to the "Old Church", then went to the War Memorial. The War Memorial is quite impressive.  It's a plaza on the outskirts of the city commemorating Kazakhstan's contributions to the "Patriotic War" (i.e. World War II).  The memorial includes the names of all the known soldiers from the region (Northwest Kazakhstan) who gave their lives during the war.  Jen and I estimated that there are about 40,000 names.  There are also about 50 plaques for the region's greatest heroes from the war.  Among those depicted was the grandfather of our current driver Igor!  He died at the front when Igor's grandmother was pregnant with Igor's father (who is Phillipiche, the driver for the Javines').  We were suitably impressed.

We also dropped by Kirov park again and saw a statue of Lenin.  It's very imposing.  I'm not sure if he is intended to inspire or intimidate, but I think it's the latter.  The statue stood in the town's government square until a couple of years ago.  With the rise of Kazakhstan nationalism, however, Uralsk replaced the statue with one of an old Kaz hero.  We tried to picture how such revisionism would go over in the US.

Jen did some serious shopping today.  Thanks to the generosity of family and friends in Oshkosh, we were able to gather about $800 in cash donations to bring to Uralsk.  We purchased some kid's clothes and toys in Oshkosh, and Jen blew the remainder today.  You wouldn't believe how much vodka you can buy!  Ok, I'm just kidding about that.  Jen bought a medium-sized refrigerator for Benjamin Aidos' group, along with lots of good-quality toy trucks and a couple of "ride-on" cars.  The rest of the money will go to purchase another larger kid's car.  Before she started on her spree, we had to exchange our money.  But it was the noon hour, so all the banks were closed.  No problem!  Igor  took us to a spot where people exchange money on the street.  We pulled up and and several men (dressed all in black) appeared at the car window and we conducted a friendly (!) transaction right there.  Amazingly, we got a better rate than the bank was offering!  Other adoption families call this the "Bank of Igor."  It has to be experienced!

Dinner was with Assia and Olga at Altan Della - an authentic Kaz restaurant. We had Logmon (turns out that this is the soup we had for breakfast our first day in Almaty - so it is the soup formerly known as Mystery Meat Soup), Shash Leek (seasoned lamb cooked on skewers), and Bish Par Mak (this is the National Dish of Kazakhstan - it means "five fingers" in Kazakh because it used to be eaten with one's hands). This was the best meal we have had here.  

(Sorry about the quality of today's images - Benjamin got his fingers on the lens during the morning visit!)