Thank God, Almaty

My mom and I got into Almaty on Monday and slept the whole day, which was okay since Marissa wouldn't get into town until Tuesday morning. We picked her up at the train station at around 9:00AM and we've been cruising ever since. On Tuesday afternoon, we went for her doctor's appointment at the international clinic. She checked out just fine, but we had to wait for her stamped passport to arrive so we could have our final appointment with U.S. consulate.

We met with the agent at the consulate for our interview on Wednesday afternoon, although Marissa's passport had not yet arrived from Astana. Our coordinator told us that it would be arriving by 6:00PM and that we should plead with the agent to stay late so that they could apply her visa to the passport and issue the immigration packet. Well, all of our prayers were answered and the plan worked. At 6:45PM, we had all of the paperwork necessary to bring Marissa back to the states. Thank you to everyone.

The big rush was required because the government offices were closed on Thursday and Friday for Constitution Day (sort of like Kazakhstan's 4th of July). The US consulate is also closed on Monday due to Labor Day. Therefore, if we didn't get the papers on Wednesday, we wouldn't have been able to get the papers until next Tuesday. We were very lucky to have everyone pulling for us.

Since Wednesday, we've just been spending time at the hotel, eating, sleeping, and playing. We also went to see some of the outdoor concerts that are being held for Constitution Day celebrations. It's been a great trip. I wish Linda could be here. Our earlier trips had a lot of hardship and we weren't able to get out to see things in Karaganda. She would enjoy being here in the big city of Almaty and seeing the more "metropolitan" side of Kazakhstan and spending time with Marissa. I guess it's okay since Linda will get her big pay-off on Sunday when Marissa finally gets home.

See you all soon.