Almaty..............apples

Well, I survived leaving her behind. Barely. It was so hard to walk away. But I have to keep my eye on the prize and know that soon she will be with us all, forever.

Today we flew to Almaty. Wendy, Joel, and I are in a Guns and Roses Pub in our hotel and feel like we're back in Kansas again. Everything is in English. We're listening to American music. We are eating cheeseburgers and fries, and they have free wifi!!

While I'm here in Almaty for a mere 10 hours, I would like to share with you some information about this city. I planned to write about it on my arrival on October 5th, but the wifi here was out. It's kind of integral to my story, so this is my last chance.

Almaty is the largest city in Kazakhstan. It was the capital until 1997, when President Nazarbayev moved it to Astana to be more centrally located. Almaty used to be named Alma-Ata which means father of apples. You see apples are from Kazakhstan. In early years apple orchards surrounded the city. They used to grow a famous giant Aport apple that grew as big as a baby's head. They would wrap them in paper and ship them to Europe and Russia. A famous Russian scientist, Nikolai Vavilov, was sent here to prove that apples originated in Kazakhstan. (He was a Stalin scientist until he fell out of favor with Stalin and he was sent to the Gulag (labor camp) like the one we went to visit near Karaganda.) In the 1920's, after investigating climate, topography, and apple species, his theory was that the original apple did come from here. They now have DNA evidence that proves his theory correct. By the way, I am getting much of my information from a book titled Apples Are From Kazakhstan. After reading it, I fell in love with this country. It is a history/travelogue book written about 2 years ago. If anyone out there is interested in learning more about this great land, I recommend it.


Hence, my "Apple Baby" blog. My baby comes from Kazakhstan, too.

There has been a change in plans for bringing Sofia home. Originally, I was going to come back here to Kaz to pick her up. The agency has convinced me to let them escort her home. My little apple will be arriving in the Big Apple the first week in December. A date is not secure, I'm hoping its sooner.

This morning at 2am I will go to the airport and fly to Istanbul, Turkey. I arrive at O'hare on Thursday afternoon. Funny, I leave on the 29th and I arrive on the 29th after traveling for about 22 hours. Its a free day.

These last three weeks have zoomed by for me. It has been an incredible experience. It's a fantastic start to a new life with my new daughter.

Thanks to all of you for following along. I plan to post periodically as I get updates on our reunion in NYC.


See you soon!!