August 30

(Left: Forest Restaurant near Kostanay with traditional Kazakh doll. The food was excellent.)

(Right: Lakeside park near the restaurant. L to R: Zhanna our legal liaison, Talap the driver/police official, L&D, Talap's son Maksat, who assisted us very capably with translation)

We visited the orphanage in Rudniy again today, and spent 2 hours with the baby girl. She is really sweet and very lovable. We continue to try to sort out and understand the implications of her medical condition. We are in contact with an international adoption pediatrician who will review some photos we took and e-mailed to her today, along with her medical history. We will hear back from her today.

We are in good spirits and are prepared for whatever the outcome will be. Even if we return to the US without a child, we will never forget this experience and what we have seen. We hope to be able to make a difference here by telling our story and helping these orphanages in some way. The people here are very friendly to us, and have gone out of their way to make us feel welcome. Our driver this week named Talap, a police department official, invited us to spend the Kazakh national holiday today (Constitution Day) with his family. We politely declined since we are so focused on trying to make the right decision and need time alone together most of all. We've spent hours on the Internet trying to learn more about the implications of the possible medical conditions, and soul searching about whether we are the right parents for a child that could have special needs.

Dasvidanya (Bye)