Train Ride
The train ride was definitely an adventure, but one we are glad that we took! Our translator and driver took us to the train station and took us aboard the train. We had a small private room with 2 beds. They explained to all the staff on our car what we were doing and where we needed to get off, etc. Right after the train took off, they came by our room with a traditional Kazakh tea setup. CUTE! It looked like any Grandma’s old porcelain tea set with flowers on it. A man came by to check our passports and we couldn’t understand each other at all! We have a translation of our passport, but he was still questioning. Luckily our translator, Irina, had written us a note explaining what we were doing. Basically something like this – “Hello, we are Dustin & Cortney from America. We are here to adopt a child and are traveling to Pavlodar. Unfortunately, we do not speak any Russian. Please call me with any questions about this as I am their translator.” I thought it was so cute to have a note, but it worked wonderfully!! Great idea! He read the note and smiled and tried to call Irina. She didn’t answer, but he was fine with everything and left.
After that excitement, we read for a while and then feel asleep. The sleep wasn’t great as trains are loud and bumpy, but we can now say that we’ve done it! Once we arrived in Astana we got off the train, with all of our luggage (that’s the fun part) and quickly found a taxi to take us to the airport. The driver was fast and very polite/helpful. Astana looks like a beautiful city with a lot of new construction. So different than Petropavlovsk!
The Astana airport is impeccably clean, there our cleaning ladies constantly cleaning the bathroom about every 5 minutes! We have about 4 more hours until we can check in for our flight to Pavlodar!
Having the high speed internet here at the airport is great. We are able to catch up on some work and were able to video call with Skype!
Hope everything is going great back home and that we have good news to post soon!
Love,
Cortney & Dustin
On the Train to Astana
Our translator (Irina) & driver (Alexander) in Petropavlovsk
Our room on the train
posted by The Stone's @ 12:47 AM
4 Comments
4 Comments:
Hi Guys,
Glad you made it to Astana safe and sound. Thanks for posting pictures of Irina and Alexander...we miss them very much. They are great people. Wait till you mean Svetlana. She is amazing in addition to being incredibly beautiful! She will be on her home turf... so you are in very capable hands. She will fight to find your child.. be assured. Please send her our warm wishes, Jocelyne, Sven, Yannik and Annabelle
i love all the pics! really cool to see where yall are and what you are living in! me and cory are thinking about yall all the time. good luck to you in your next leg of the journey! Kristin
I think that is so cool that you got to go on a train there. We adopted from Uralsk in 2007 and we are in the process of adopting number two. We are currently hosting an exchange student from Pavlador so it is neat to hear your account of the city. Good luck with your visit to the MOE.
I have been thinking alot of you guys and following your journey. We adopted a 2 year old and have had her for 7 months. I did not have an immediate connection with her but now I wouldn't give her up for anything. My prayers are with you during this time. I know from experience you have to put all your faith in God and follow his leading.
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