First Official Day as a Family of 3

Poor kid had a long day!
- We arrived at the orphanage about 11 and packed his stuff up. He
quickly said his goodbyes and gave out hugs. His new caregiver was very
emotional and gave him her whistle that she always wears to round up the
kids. He LOVES it and we are so thankful that it's been "hiding" in my
purse for a few hours!!
- He was very excited to leave and as we were walking out he said, in
English, "where is the taxi"? All the "Where is______" games have been
paying off!!
- We then stopped by the Baby House where he lived from 2-4 and said
our goodbyes there.
- Next stop was Kids Village to say goodbye to sign off on some
paperwork. This was a VERY confusing stop for Ry. When we got there,
he didn't want to get out of the car. Once it was time to leave, he
wanted to stay. He was very tired at this point and thought he was
"home". After some explanation from the translator, he was good to go
and hopped into the car.
- Then it was on to lunch. We gave away several cakes and sweets today
and at every stop, Ry said he wanted cake and didn't want to give them
away because he wanted to eat them all! We call that a "hungry fella"
in our family.
- After lunch was passport photos which he wasn't too thrilled for, but
we got them done.
- Several pick ups and drop offs along the way of misc. paperwork
people.
- During all of this excitement, Dust had been on and off the phone
with the Embassy. The easiest/quickest trip is to Astana, but they are
only doing fingerprinting one time in the next week. Tomorrow from
2-4... So during all of the other errands, we tried to buy plane and
train tickets and explain to Ry that our first night as a family may be
on a train!!! No planes would get there in time...the train to Astana
tonight was completely full. It's been crazy!
The plans are that we have hired a taxi to drive the three Stone's + our
translator to Astana early in the morning. (About a 5 hour drive...on
what we hear are terrible and very bumpy roads). The taxi drive will
only cost us 14000 tenge which is about $94...we couldn't believe how
cheap that was...for all 4 of us! We should arrive in Astana around
lunchtime. We will rent a room at an inexpensive hotel for us to use
off and on throughout the day. Symbat will stay with Ry while we go to
handle the fingerprinting. After that we're going to check out some fun
things in Astana and then take the train home later tomorrow night. A
quick/crazy trip, but Ry is really excited to go on the train! A
private room on the train for all of us will cost about $45. We just
can't get over it!!!

- We finally arrived home and Ry was very excited to get in the
elevator and go see the apartment. He thinks we are in America now and
as soon as we walked in door, he looked around and said "Where is
Sadie"?
- He checked out everything and kept asking if everything he saw was
his. Moi means mine? Moi? Moi? Moi? Moi? Moi? We tried to explain
that it was all of ours, but that was a little over his head.
- We rode his new scooter, had dinner, bath time & a terrible attempt
at bedtime at 8:00PM! It's now 10:30 and he's still wide awake. I guess
we shouldn't have let him have that nap in the car today!
It's been a looong day for all of us, especially Ryland! Tomorrow
should be an adventure! Dust and I are tired and I sure hope Ry gets
sleepy soon! Will post when we are back from Astana.