All by Myself!!!!

Joe and Sean took off today at 12:20 on their long way home....to Astana,London, Frankfurt (overnight stay), Chicago, and FINALLY, Tampa Bay! They get home at 10:45 east coast time on Friday night if all goes well.
Here they are at the airport with Eugene, our ever faithful coordinator, driver, translator..'Kaz man with the plan".





I was fine with them leaving, I knew that we are on the downhill of this incredible journey, and Joe will be back in 3 weeks or so. Tatiana and Ivan and Eugene take very good care of me, and I also have Kelly and Doug and Natasha (the other families here adoptiong) to hang out with! Of course, I still cried when they left. I'm such a GIRL!!!!

We FINALLY got together last night at Bavaria to celebrate our successful court day. We had a wonderful time. Sean was anxious to meet "Lil Man's" adoptive mom. He is one of Sean's favorites in the group and he gave Natasha the thumbs up since he found out how nice she is. Ivan and Tatiana came too...I LOVE THEM!
This picture is kind of dark, but it's all I got.




They brew their own beer at Bavaria, and the dark beer is very good. We also had this string cheese that is good with beer. It was really good and kind of addictive. It's salty though so you drink more beer. I had a headache this morning plus a good case of cotton mouth! Nothing that a big glass of water and some ibuprofin can't cure!!!

It was a good visit with OUR DAUGHTER THIS MORNING! Man, does that ever feel wonderful to say!!!
It's kinda cool the way we have divided our visits. The first 3 weeks, it was Joe, Susan, and Sean with Leeza. Then, the second 3 weeks, Joe left, so it was Sean and Susan with Leeza. Now, for the next 3 weeks, it will be just Leeza and MOM! I'm still learning so much about her. I'm finding that she has a very long attention span. We played with the stacking cups for an hour or so today. I had no idea that stacking cups could be so fun. I just got them cuz everyone says YOU HAVE TO HAVE STACKING CUPS. I thought they'd be boring, but I bought them because EVERYONE said and I have pages and pages of tips that I copied from my fellow adoptive parents blogs and they ALL said stacking cups. All that blog stalking is TOTALLY worth it. Even though everyone's journey is so different, I found reading everyone's stories incredibly valueable. Plus, for such a long wait, reading about other people's journey's keeps your hope alive that YES, it WILL happen for you too! Always the "overdoer", I got 2 kinds of stacking cups, but Leeza loves them both.







Since we finally got to get to know Natasha, and Kelly and Doug, we shared the last 30 minutes of our playtime with Natasha and her son she's adopting. It was so fun! Leeza LOVED his big lego's and he loved her stacking cups and her ball. I am having the pack mule go get some big chunky lego's for the plane ride. It will keep her busy on the plane, and something NEW from the cups.

Eugene and I had a tasty lunch at the Russian bar where I had my favorite salad..cucumbers and tomatoes with olive oil, and solyanka, my favorite soup. It has potatoes, and mushrooms, and some meat..maybe ham, salami? I don't know...but it's so good, and a molochiny cocktail(a milkshake). We had a great chat, he is such a nice guy. Once again, I am so incredible thankful for such a wonderful in country team. They have become such good friends. I am already getting sad thinking about leaving-I know that sounds crazy, but it's true. It's so nice to be treated as a FRIEND, and that is how they treat us. Tatiana just called me an hour ago to make sure I wasn't lonely. Eugene kept asking if i was SURE I didn't want to go out and do something tonight! We left the house at 10:30 this morning and I didn't get home until 6. I am on my 2nd cup of Kazahstani cherry tea, playing my itunes, and emailing friends. It WAS very quiet here without Sean, so I am grateful for the hours I spent downloading cd's into my itunes library. I also have seasons 1-5 of West Wing to watch, but I've been busy.

What happens now:

There is a 15 day waiting period that starts the day after court. It starts today! On the 16th day, LEEZA GRACE SERRA is legally ours. I am hoping that she can then come home to the apartment with me. That is what typically happens, but Dr. Irina didn't like parents to take the kids until a week later when they were ready to leave for Almaty, but Dr. Irina is gone!
October 3rd is our GOTCHA day, the day that we spring Leeza from the baby house, the day that the court decision is FINAL and she is legally our daughter. This is a day we will celebrate every year, the day we became a forever family. I am buying souvenirs for Leeza from Kazakhstan to give to her on her gotcha days.
Once she is legally our daughter, we can apply for her passport. That takes 7 or 8 days (or maybe longer). Once we get her passport, we can apply for her visa. Visa's are only processed one day a week, or something like that. Joe is planning on coming before we leave for Almaty, so probably in about 3 weeks.
Once we have her passport and her visa, then we can proceed to Almaty, a 4 hour plane ride for our exit interview at the embassy.
I am guestimating that we will be home sometime the week of October 22nd.
As soon as the plane lands in the USA Leeza becomes a dual citizen of the United States and Kazakhstan. We are going to readopt her in the US though so she can have a US birth certificate too.
I hope we can get in early enough so Sean can come to the airport. He has all kinds of fun ideas on how to greet us at the aiport.

I am not going to promise to blog everyday during the waiting period. I might, but I might not. I think I've been pretty good not missing a day since August 1st!

Once we are home, I will do one final "wrap it up" post, then I will start a new blog on Life with Leeza and Sean. It's such a wonderful way to document their lives. I did not do a good job at writing down all the cute things Sean did as a baby. You think you will remember,but you don't. A blog is such a wonderful way to do that!

I'd like to truly thank EVERYONE who has followed along on this most incredible journey with us to Leeza Grace. I cannot express how much your support and love means to us. I feel so very blessed!! THANK YOU SO MUCH!! The Serra family loves you!!!