Zachary:
Another long day. After driving around the near gridlocked streets running errands we barely made our 2:00 appointment at the US Consulate where we got Grace's passport and visa. Very major step. This means we are cleared for takeoff. There was no exit meeting with the sisters. We were not invited in, nor did they come out to say goodbye and good luck. Talk about professionalism. (Enough about that for now.)
It's about 7 PM local time here. The kids are bathed, read to and asleep. We've done most of our packing, just a few last minute items to grab when we wake the kids shortly before midnight for our trip. We've been up since the wee hours, April especially. Since we don't expect to get any sleep before we get back home we figure our trip began when we got up this morning. I could almost fall asleep right now. But I'm too excited.
April's dad, Dennis, is going to meet us at the Frankfurt airport in about 15 hours. He lives in Linz, Austria and bought a ticket to Istanbul so he could get into the terminal. He thinks he'll be able to get a refund. Hmmm...hope he's right!
For the next few hours we'll hang around, read, stretch, drink water...
Today has been our last day in Kazakhstan. We bid a fond farewell to our friends here who have been such gracious hosts.
We're on our way home.
Love, Zach, April, Kai and Grace
