IT IS FINISHED!

VISA DAY
Today we crossed the last hurdle to completing this adoption.  We got Asa's visa to enter the United States! 

It was another exciting day in Almaty.  We learned last night that the medical papers that were supposed to be picked up at 8 pm would not be ready until 9 am this morning.  Scott and Kami (Bakyt's parents) walked over to the SOS clinic to pick them up and drop them off at the embassy.  Our appointments for the interviews was still set for 3 pm.

We all had laundry to do.  We gathered up a large plastic bag of clothes that we needed washed, especially for Asa, as we are out of clean shorts for the boy!  Mike took them down to the laundry.  He returned with the bag of still dirty clothes.  $111.50 was the cost given to launder that bag of clothing.  No thanks.  We'll do it ourselves!

We then headed out for the triple dome mall, Almally, for lunch.  We figured that we could go there for lunch, hit the other mall on the way back to buy a few Russian movies for the kids and the trip home, and then be at the embassy by 3 pm.

It was a nice relaxing walk.  We changed it up a bit to walk through a park instead of just along the street.  The mall has a neat seating area consisting of about two dozen bean bags!  We had the best time just sitting there talking while the kids played on, in, around, over and under the bean bags.  Once they started trying to throw each other off of the bean bags we knew it was time to go eat.  I had a loaded baked potato from StarBurger.  It was loaded with all kinds of things: peas, corn, cheese, sour cream, some kind of ground meat and a strange red sauce.  It was good.  If you didn't concentrate on what you were eating.  Asa had a kid's meal from the southern fried chicken joint and Mike had a chicken salad sandwich from StarBurger.  For dessert I had a mango slush and Mike and Asa shared some ice cream.

We walked back and stopped at the "other" mall.  Since we were completely out of clean shorts for Asa, I found a really cute outfit for him at a children's clothing store.  Later at the hotel he had a meltdown because he could not put his new clothes on NOW.  He really gets obsessed with things that we say are his.  He has never owned anything of his own.  Ever.  And it is hard for any four year old comprehend "tomorrow" but especially one whose life is in such transition and chaos.  And when the people offering the explanations speak very limited and very terrible Russian.  Thankfully the offer of food usually distracts him and the tantrum stops.

Our next stop was the US Embassy.  We were supposed to take our last three years tax returns, several other forms, a copy of our home study, a copy of document such and such, and many other things.  The stack of items was over an inch thick.  And when we packed it all up this morning we discovered that all of those things had gotten wet!  Oh, it was frustrating.  Thankfully they didn't seem to be too bad, just the edges.

We went through security and arrived in the consular section of the embassy.  The waiting room was empty.  Our four children had the run of the place!  This greatly thrilled the little Russian guard.  Not.  We were directed to window number four and told to "ring the bell".  A nice lady came to the window and took our names.  She handed us a piece of paper with the cost of the visa application fee.  $230.  She told us to go to window number one and ring the bell.  One dad joked that the same girl would show up at the next window!  We rang the bell at window number one and another nice lady came out and took our money.  Thankfully the United States Embassy accepts payment in United States currency ;)   We were then told to have a seat and they would call our names. 

The same officer who yelled at us the day prior called over a loud speaker, "Mr. and Mrs. Kahler, please come to window number three."  He even said our last name correctly!  As we walked up to the window, he specifically said, "Let's make some new American citizens!" Once we were at the window, we had to raise our right hands and swear that the answers we had provided on the documents was true to the best of our knowledge. He flipped through the pages to make sure everything was in order.  He told us that he and his colleague in Bishkek had spent a large amount of time reviewing our cases to make sure that we had all that we needed to be approved for the visas. He had us sign in a few spots and then said, "Congratulations!  Your son will soon be a US citizen!" 

Each family went through the same process and we were all finished by 3:30.  The officer said that he would try hard to have all of the visas stamped into the kids' passports by 5 pm and told us to wait.  It was not even an hour later and they called us all back to window number three to receive the passports with visas inside!

At long last.  We began this adoption in March 2008, the same month that Asa was born in Kyrgyzstan. Four years and four months after we began this adoption, it is finished!

We went back to the hotel.  Since we did not have our laundry professionally done, we opted for old school: a bathtub and Tide to Go.  Sadly, as soon as I started washing the clothes, Asa jumped in and knew exactly what to do.  I know that little kids love to help, but it is sad that a four year old has HAD to hand wash clothing so much that he knows HOW to do it.  We are now surrounded by wet clothes hanging all over our hotel room.

Each of the four families has been waiting at least as long as our family, some of them even a year longer.  We decided that a very nice celebratory dinner was in order.  We went to a very nice Italian restaurant and had a toast to our new families and (almost) new American citizens!

We will go to the zoo tomorrow and spend the afternoon packing for the long trip home.  We will leave the hotel at around 1 am Thursday and arrive in Dallas on Thursday at 8:40 pm.  There are no other flights into Midland that night, so we'll spend that night in Dallas and then fly into Midland on Friday.  We land at 2:20 pm on Friday the 3rd!

love and thankfulness for each and every one of you!

and Praise and Glory to God our Father who has called us, sustained us, made provision for us, and given us a son!

mike&karla&asa