Steve here.  Our last day in Almaty was wet and snowy.  There was wet slush everywhere!  This made it one of our hardest days here.  Although we were in pretty good shape as far as packing went,  we spent most of the day indoors and Jen and I really got some cabin fever.  But it was just too wet outside for us.  Well, Ben liked it outside pretty well, but his parents didn't.  I did my run in the (relatively) early morning, and had wet shoes for the rest of day.  In fact, I'll likely be bringing their sogginess home with me.

We did get out in the afternoon.  We ate lunch at Dastarkhan, since I insisted on having Logmon one more time.  Then we had our interview at the US embassy.  They insist that no pictures be taken of, inside, or around the embassy.  I could describe the inside to you, but for national security reasons, I won't.  The staff probably doesn't want anyone outside to know that they have soft toilet tissue inside - there would probably be a riot.  We had a bit of a wait for our interview, but it was fun, since there were about a dozen families in the room with their adopted children waiting with us.  It was fun to meet the kids (who ranged in age from 8 months to 6 years) and to swap stories with the parents.  I'm sure will be seeing most of them again at the airport late tonight.  The interview itself was fairly simple.  We signed a few papers, then the official asked us to raise our right hand.  I was all excited that we would be taking Ben's oath of citizenship for him.  But the official just told us to say "I swear that all the information on these documents is true."  Of course it is and we attested to it, but what was that about?  Wasn't our signature good enough?

After the embassy, it was off to the World Partners office for an exit interview/briefing.  We met with Golbanu one last time.  She's WPA's main person in Kazakhstan, and she's superb.  The organization has been perfect throughout the trip, and we credit Golbanu and her staff for making a potentially rough process very smooth.  Throughout, we were able to focus exclusively on getting to know our boy.  We never had to worry if, when, or how.  Golbanu and Olga, the coordinator in Uralsk, did it all for us.  We can't thank them enough.

We also had to handle a few financial issues at the office.  11 days in the apartment (check!), our VIP charges at the airport (check!), and the $300 registration fee.  REGISTRATION FEE?  Uh Oh.  The last couple of days we had budgeted down to the penny, I mean tenge.  Unfortunately, we neglected that fee.  Fortunately, our MasterCard came through this time and we were able to get a cash advance.  Not exactly what we wanted to do, but at least we can leave now.  I was worried we would have to set up our own souvenir shop at the Tsum!

So Andre our driver will come to get us tonight (well, tomorrow morning really) at 1:20 am.  Then it's off on our 36 hour trip home...  As we pack up and prepare to return home, we recognize that there are many, many people without whom our journey would not have been possible:  we've mentioned the staff of World Partners Adoption both here and at home, but they deserve a second thanks!  We thank our families and friends at home who have supported us throughout the adoption process and kept the memory of home alive for us with their phone calls and emails.  We especially thank Jen's parents for taking such good care of Joe while we were gone.  (We miss you so much Joe and we'll see you soon!)  We thank the people of Kazakhstan for embracing us and overlooking our language and cultural ignorance.  And perhaps most of all, we want to thank the Benjamin Aidos' first parents.  They have given us a gift for whom we will be deeply and eternally grateful.

Thank you all!

Some final pictures from Almaty...