We had blineys for the second time for breakfast this morning. They are very thin pancakes folded into quarters. We had bought some apricot jelly at the store. We ate the blineys with the jelly and butter. They were very good.

We left for the Baby House 1/2 hour early so I could feed and dress Cameron. When we arrived, Cam was still sleeping. When he awoke, the caretaker brought him out, and he smiled to see us. I did better today dressing him. I think the kisses helped. This time he also got a bit of egg besides the cereal and milk.

Cameron did quit a bit of crawling in the Music Room. We think he likes the hard floor over the mat because it is more like the floor in him play pen than the soft foam mats we put down to play on.

After our visit, we went to the telephone company to get on the Internet. We still didn't have any messages saying that anyone had looked at Cameron's picture. We had heard back from Scott and Denise who said things are going wonderfully with Alma. From the phone company, we drove to the grocery store to buy some bread, cheese, salami, Lay's potato chips and chocolate. We are driven every day in a white van.

Leaving the grocery store, we then drove on to the Baptist Church. It was very beautiful inside. We got a personal tour from the preacher's secretary. It was a very special time for us to share Christian fellowship with people on the other side of the world from our home.

Marina and the head nurse took Cameron in the afternoon to get his picture taken for his passport and visa. They were gone for about 20 minutes. We had lots of crawling time when Cam returned. He'll crawl just about anywhere for the lens cap on the video camera.

Tonight's supper was interesting. The main dish was a piece of beef pounded thin, folded in half with cheese inside. Our garnish was spaghetti noodles with some kind of white sauce. (One of the few meals that didn't sit well in my stomach.)

Most of our meals here have been pretty good... chicken, pork chop, beef steak with cheese and tomato.

Guess who forgot to "Spring Forward" last night! I was watching Euronews while Tom dressed, when a reminder came on that we moved our clocks forward one hour the previous night. OH NO!! Tom and I looked at each other, we hadn't changed our clocks. It wasn't 8:45 a.m., it was 9:45 a.m., and Marina was downstairs waiting. I scurried down to apprise Marina of the situation. We left the hotel ten minutes late with yogurt, Coke and crackers in our bags for breakfast.

When we arrived at the Baby House, Cameron was waiting for his breakfast! So, we walked down to his room. I fed Cam, while tom wiped up the messes I made. Following breakfast, we dressed Cam in his play clothes and paraded to the Music Room.

Cameron was Crawling Cam again, exploring his favorite territory, the hard floor.

After our visit, we went on a short tour of town, stopping at a Catholic Church, a Russian Orthodox Church, the Ishim River and Constitution Avenue. The river was frozen over, and there were people ice fishing.

Today was the coldest day since we have been there. And it started snowing lightly. It has been snowing ever since.

When we met Marina to return for our afternoon visit, she told us that our court time is 9:00 a.m. this Thursday. She told us not to worry, as it is always easier than people think.

Marina also said that Gulzhan would like us to take pictures of a couple children for her. We will do this tomorrow.

Cam once again smiled when he saw us. We had fun playing and practiced with the Snugli again. He began getting cranky at about 5:30 and was conked out by the time Marina came to signal it was time to take him back. We learned that he hadn't slept during his nap. Cameron was incredibly good considering that fact.

It's a Super Saturday in Petropavlovsk, Kazakhstan. Cameron was dressed in light blue and seemed happy to see us this morning.

He did quite a bit of crawling, especially to his his favorite destination, the edge of the mat.

I think his cold is getting a little better. There were fewer times when I had to pick him up and carry him around to console him.

We did a little better today getting Cameron into his Snugli. He and I successfully made several laps around the music room and even made a mad race to catch the plane.

Following our visit we went to pick up our film. They are giving away prizes and we won three small photo albums. We also check email and discussion boards at the telephone company.

The Department of Education had asked Marina if we could buy them some folders, so we made a stop for those as well. While at the store I saw many beautiful coats.

When we returned to the Baby House we learned that there would be a music lesson in the music room and that Cameron was still sleeping. We were invited to sit in and watch the lesson. There were about 14 children 2 - 3 1/2 years old. They had a clown and an accordion player. They played several games, including "feed the rabbit a carrot." It was such a delight to see those cute little children. They finished off their lesson by pairing off for a dance.

After the children left, in came Cameron. He did a whole lot of crawling. We're amazed by how much he has progressed in just this past week.

Four more days of visiting, and Cameron will officially be a Williams.

Today marks one week that we have been in Petropavlovsk with Cameron.

We had a nice visit this morning with more crawling and turning. Cameron gave his Daddy lots of kisses when he first saw him.

We practiced with the Snugli. Cameron isn't too patient with our struggles to get him in and out of it. But, once in it, he does quite well.

We heard back from the US Embassy, and were assured that they plan to be processing adoption visas during the time we hope to be getting Cameron's.

After the Internet, we went to a store that had Kaz ethnic items. Cameron got two outfits and I got a beautiful handmade velvet coat. The only thing that prevented me from buying more was lack of tenge. We will be back!

Cameron was late to his appointment this afternoon as he was still napping when we arrived. But when he arrived, he was bright eyed and bushy tailed.

He is such a delight! He really seems to enjoy spending time with his mama and daddy. We didn't get to feed Cam his bottle this afternoon, so he was quite anxious to get back to his room for some grub.

Marina told us we visit earlier Monday through Wednesday, so I can get more experience feeding and massaging Cameron.

Hopefully, this time next week, we will be back in Almaty, Tom, Michele, Cameron, and Stuffed Dante.

This morning I learned how to give Cameron a massage, complete with baby oil. I then put his diaper on, dressed and fed him breakfast. He eats some kind of cereal and milk. He is supposed to have only about 1/2 of the milk in the bottle, but he seemed to want more. When we are home, I will let him have as much as he wants.

We brought the Snugli with us, so Cameron can start getting used to being in it. He did pretty well. Dad and I got him strapped in and I showed him that the baby in the mirror was in his Snugli too. We then took one lap around the room. It was when we were getting ready to unstrap him, that Cameron began to get a little upset.

Cam is getting an upper tooth now too, which seemed to be bothering him. Dad managed to get a little Oragel in the area, and that seemed to help.

We've been bringing CDs to listen to during our visit. One has nursery rhymes and the other has classical music. The latter is very nice to hear in the background.

We went to lunch at the Petrovich with Marina after our morning visit. Tom had chicken and noodle soup. I have a cucumber and tomato salad, noodle soup, and a pork dish that had bananas and pineapple.

After lunch, we returned to the Internet room. We were able to scan and post two pictures of Cameron. We also emailed the US Embassy to ask their opinion about conditions in Kazakhstan and about their processing of orphan visas.

I think we all had a good time during our afternoon visit. Cameron continues to give both Mama and Daddy many kisses. One of the caregivers brought a bottle of milk and I was able to give it to him. Boy, did he drain that thing fast! Not long after, we had to end our visit.

I fed and dressed Cameron this morning. We both ending up wearing some of his breakfast, but Cameron and I both survived. Cameron is pretty patient with his Mama. After all, he's had nine months to practice being a baby, whereas I am just starting my Mommy training.

Cameron did some crawling and played a little with the baby in the mirror. We let him have his pacifier near the end of our visit, and he very much enjoyed it.

While I was feeding Cameron this morning, the caretakers and assistants looked at photos of our family and home, so they could see where Cameron will live.

We visited the Internet room again. We hope to return and scan a picture of Cameron on his board.

Another nice visit with our boy this afternoon. Cameron is getting to be a pro at rolling and is working at mastering crawling.

We made plans to go out to lunch with Marina tomorrow. Then on Friday, we'll go to the ethnic Kaz store.

There is still a chance that we will return to Almaty on Friday, the day after court. Marina also told us that we would have a celebration at the Baby House after court and get a tour of the facilities. What a happy day it will be... a week from tomorrow.

Our day with Cameron was relaxed and quiet. He had awoken early, so we missed feeding him breakfast. We hope to do that in a couple days.

I brought a pacifier to our afternoon meeting, and it was a huge success. After a slight hesitation, Cameron took it. Within minutes, he was fast asleep.

We met with Dr. Rimma after our morning visit. We ran into her on our way to the music room and she said that she thought Cameron looked like me.

Our meeting went very well. After ascertaining that we were aware of his medical conditions, she proceed to tell us that he is in good health and "everything will be okay." We felt so good hearing those words, because we feel he is a healthy little boy too.

We took three rolls of film in for developing and got some marvelous pictures back. I've put together an album to show the judge.

Marina told us this afternoon that we may return to Almaty on Friday, April 4 instead of Sunday, April 6.

I can now say with the greatest authority that Cameron kisses are the sweetest kisses in the world. Cameron gave us and the baby in the mirror many kisses during our visit this morning.

He arrived in the Music Room all decked out for the Cherry Blossom Festival, right down to his pink hat and pink knitted booties.

We were so proud of him as he was "scooching" all over the play mats, exploring his world. He got himself over to the edge and was most curious about the linoleum floor.

Cameron loves to look at the pictures of the babies on the wall. One in Particular makes him smile.

We aren't able to visit him this afternoon as they are doing a thorough cleaning of the baby house. So instead, we went grocery shopping and went to a store to buy handcrafted birch boxes and nesting dolls.

We can't wait to see our boy in the morning.

My baby fell asleep in my arms today. During our afternoon visit, Cameron started getting cranky, so I picked him up and began rocking him in my arms. Not much later he nodded off. We went over and sat down and he slept for a good half hour, first in my arms and then daddy's.

Our visits with Cameron have going very well. He's a very good boy. He just loves sticking his fingers in Daddy's mouth. Ten more days and he'll be ours.

We've had pretty good weather, with sunshine yesterday and today. We've been to the grocery store where we bought cheese, bread, apples, Coke and water. That is what we've been having for lunch in the hotel room.

What a day yesterday was! After very little sleep, Sasha drove us to the lawyers' office. We ran into Denise, Scott, and Connie in the lobby, as they had just finished their meetings.

We spent almost two hours with Gulzhan, going over paperwork and our schedule. Everything is progressing as planned. In fact, we may have the opportunity to fly home a day early.

From the lawyers', Sasha drove us to the Ramstore, a Super Walmart kind of store, inside a big shopping mall. We bought a couple things and had a quick lunch because we needed to get to the airport!

We left for Petropavlovsk, a 4 hour flight at 3:00 p.m. We flew on a very small jet plane with fold down seats. The flight was incredibly smooth. We landed on an icy runway, but you never would have known it!

At the airport we were met by Marina, our translator, our lawyer and the driver. We were in a hurry, because we were going directly to meet Cameron!

We drove up to an unimposing building and were let inside. We took off our coats and were led upstairs to the playroom. There was little Kostya/Cameron in a playpen, playing with some toys. Thousands of miles, a ton of paperwork, months of prayer and anticipation, and there he was in front of us.

I said hello to him, but he was much more interested in his toys. I picked him up and held his little body in my arms. I held him up, his face to my face and he reached out and touched me.

We brought him over to the couch and sat him in our laps. Cameron loves his Daddy's glasses and big nose.

Our visit was short as it was past Cameron's bedtime.

The driver brought us back to the hotel and we checked in. We are in a very nice room, with a big bed, a refrigerator, and a good sized bathroom. We had a pleasant pork dinner in the restaurant in the hotel.

Tom and I were both dead tired and conked out quickly. I woke after a few hours with a headache. But after a couple aspirin, I got a couple more hours of good sleep.

Marina is picking us up at 9:45 to return to the Baby House for our next visit with Cameron. For the next two weeks, until April 3, we will visit him from 10-12 and 4-6 daily.

We are here! We made it with no incidents or confusion. Because we were so well prepared, we knew what to expect when we reached Almaty.

We traveled with Denise and Scott and Connie. That really helped with everything!

When we arrived at the Almaty airport, we boarded a very nice shuttle that took us to the terminal building. The first thing we had to do was get in line at passport control, a little intimidating, but we got our passports stamped successfully. From there we went to find our luggage so we could put it through an X-ray machine. Then on to customs. Luckily for us, the lady officer didn't ask to see our money. Once again we got stamped.

Out we rolled our luggage carts. The first person I saw was a nice looking young man with long hair, holding a sign with our name on it. It had to be Sasha! He led us to our car along with Dimash from the lawyers' office.

They dropped us off at our apartment. It is very nice with a living room, bedroom, kitchen and bathroom. Even a washing machine and microwave!

The people before us left bread, butter and a bit of cheese. We had that for breakfast along with Lipton chicken soup. Don't laugh!

Sasha is picking us up at 10:15 a.m. for an appointment at the lawyers'. Then we should be on to Petropavlovsk and our boy.

I can't believe we are so close!

Less than a week until our departure! It is finally almost here. We have been doing our last minute prep work. Spending, spending, spending! Our most notable purchases have been a running stroller and a digital video camera.

We did a trial packing run last Sunday to make sure we can fit everything into our suitcases. We think we can. We have our plane tickets and our travel visa. We are going to be on the same flights with two other WPA families.

Yesterday was my last day at work. I'm now officially a Stay-At-Home-Mom!

I will probably not be able to update this journal until our return. Although if there is a way, I will! If all goes well, we will return home the second week in April.