Merry Christmas Mia!!

Christmas morning at home...got a fridge farm! WOOHOO

Christmas Eve at Grandma Roxie & Papaw Dan's....I got spoiled rotten!

At Grandma Nancy's and Papaw Jim's...I liked the paper best of all! :)

Happy Birthday Mia!!

Wow!! What a blessing! We had a great party today for this little girl. We are so lucky to have her home with us. We prayed for her for so long. We are thankful to God for allowing us to be her parents! This last photo was sent to us from Lena our translator in Ust, as a gift for her birthday!

Welcome Home Parties and Showers...

Thank you so much to everyone who helped us welcome Mia home and showered her with love and gifts! We have felt so loved and supported on this journey! Thank you. :)

Happy Halloween!!

Check out the Wilson fam in our costumes. We had a Star Wars theme going except for Mia. She's a sunflower. So cute!

Mia goes to preschool (with Mommy)

Mia had her first week at preschool! Now, I know you are thinking, "Wait a second, she's too small for preschool!" She is just in the Mom's Morning out Program. I am the Lead Teacher in the Toddler class on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings. So, she goes to the Infant room on those days. She is loving it. There are other kids for her to play with, and of course some of my co-workers, who just spoil her rotten for the 3 hours!! lol ;) She had her picture taken like all the other 'big kids'. It is so sweet. I will post her official school photo soon.

We visited with our friends, Glenn and Tina Lawson over the weekend. They leave for Kaz on Thursday to bring home Mia's cribmate! Her name will be Britney Zarina Lawson. We can't wait to keep up on their experience! Keep them in your prayers, as we cannot wait to have these 2 girls reunited here in the USA!! We showed a photo of Britney to Mia while we were at their house. Mia appeared to recognize her. She was jumping and grabbing at the photo! I will update you on their progress when I can.

Sonja

First Family Photo...

Hello everyone.... We have officially started the U.S. leg of the 'Mia World Tour'. She has recently been spotted at Walmart and a family wedding. There are plenty of more viewing opportunities to come, stay tuned for dates and times..... haha!

Here is the first family photo. We are Gavin's cousin's wedding. We will try to get her to look at the camera next time. She was more interested in all the people mingling around, than having this picture taken with us! We will post a few more times to this site and we will make occasional updates to it. We have started a Family webpage for our new day to day stuff. Let me know if you would like the link to it.

Mia has adjusted to her new life, here with us, very well. She sleeps all night, eats everything in sight, and has popped out 3 new teeth! She loves her new siblings and keeps them really busy. She starts preschool tomorrow with mommy. She will be in the classroom right next to mine, 2 days a week. She did great at church yesterday, in the nursery for the first time. All in all, she is very happy and just loving it. We are glad to see this of course, since we think she's just the cutest thing ever! haha

We will try to update you often, and will keep up on this site until her first birthday, on Nov 30th. Thanks again for coming on this journey with us!

Blessings,

Sonja (and the whole Wilson fam)

We all made it home safely!

Hey, everyone!! Just thought I'd let you know we made it home safe and sound. Mia did great on the flights. The first flight was 7 1/2 hours and she slept most all of it. The second flight was 8 3/4 hours. She only slept 2 hours of this flight, but she was really good.

We were met at the airport by Gavin, Seth and my dad. We got all loaded up and headed home. The kids came home from school at 3 and it was a great homecoming. They love thier new sister and already can't get enough of her. It was, 'It's my turn to hold her..', 'No, it's my turn, you had her last,...', all night.

I will post a family photo soon. It is so good to be home!! We will have to arrange a visit so you can meet this little sweetie! Thank you so much for coming along for the ride with us on this incredible journey. Your support and friendship has meant the world to us!

Love-

The Complete Wilson Family :)

Gavin, Sonja, Caitlin, Madeline, Thane, Seth & Mia!!

Embassy..and then flying home!!!

Well, I broke down and bought the painting I have been wanting. I got a great price on it, and this is the last day will be here. I couldn’t bare the thought of not taking it. This is a picture of it. It is called ‘Girl with Peaches.’

We had our Embassy interview today and we got our ‘sealed envelope’ of documents. We have heard of this envelope on all our chat groups. We have to hand deliver it unopened to immigration in the U.S. Crazy, huh?

We are all packed and ready…..we are just hanging out, until time to go to the airport. Mia is still going strong in the playpen at 9pm. I hope she is good for us on the plane! It will be a long trip. Please keep us in your prayers as we start this journey home.

Well, the next time we post, we will be home sweet home! Thank you Jesus. We can’t wait for you to meet this little sweetie! We hope to cross paths with you all soon!Love and BIG SMILES :) For the journey home!!!

Sonja (Mia and Grandma Roxie)

Zoo Day...

It was rainy and cool today, but we still decided to head out to the zoo. The zoo here is pretty big and there weren’t as many people there today due to the weather. We saw all the key ‘zoo animals’, bears, tigers, elephants, and giraffes. No lions though. We took lots of pictures. Unfortunately, Mia missed half of it, because as you can see, she was sleeping! Oh well, I will show her the pictures! Haha. I had to have my picture taken as a Sumo wrestler! Nazym was cracking up as I was making 'real' Sumo sounds and faces! lol ;)

We ate at my favorite pizza place for lunch and then we headed back to the candy store. I liked a few of the candies we tried and I wanted to bring some home for you guys to try. Well, you can if there is any left after our 20 hour plane ride!- jk ;)

Nazym and I, hung out here for a bit tonight. We looked at pictures on my computer and I looked at some pictures she had from her world travels. She studied in Sweeden and has been to Paris and Rome. I am so jealous! I dream of visiting those places….oh someday, right?Well, just one more day here! Tomorrow night, we will be on a plane home! We have our Embassy interview at 4:00 and then we will be in the apartment packing! WOOOHOOO! Say a prayer for our appointment tomorrow and a big one for our safe travels home. I will try to post tomorrow before we leave.

Oh, by the way, NSD Judy Kawiecki sent me the photo of us at Seminar. I posted it on Awards night Sept 11th. Go back to that day's post and check us out. We are a couple of classy lookin' ladies, if I do say so myself......

BIG LOVE and BIG HUGS-

Sonja (Mia and Grandma Roxie)

Keeping Busy...

Today we visited the square. We saw the Kazakh Golden Warrior monument. There were iron sculpted windows all around it. Each window was a snapshot of the country’s history. They were beautiful and I learned a lot. Since it is Saturday, there were alot of weddings. In Kazakh weddings, the entire wedding party takes a tour around the city, and has their pictures made at all the important monuments, parks etc... This may take all day, and everyone follows you around with thier video cameras. We saw many bridal parties in the park being taped, while the bride and groom were dancing. This is all before the reception and dinner….. Wow… what an ordeal….

We tried to visit a musical instument museum, but they were closed for repair. We also visited an art gallery, took a walk in the park, ate at Mamma Mia’s for lunch, and attended a supermarket sweepstakes party in the evening. The mall here is called Silkway City,and they have been giving away entry tickets with purchases for a drawing. That drawing was tonight. We have been telling Nazym that she will be winning the grand prize, which is a car!! We all have been kissing the tickets as we drop them in! The scene there was a bit like Octoberfest. People were hanging out, eating and drinking, and dancing to the music. We couldn’t hang out 'til the end though, Mia was getting tired and fussy. So, we took a taxi back to the apartment. We did get to meet her nieces though. They are 11 and 8 and so sweet. They had a great time playing with Mia. Here are some pictures of the monument and this is Nazym's youngest niece holding Mia.

I did mention that we came home because Mia was sleepy, right…? Well, she is currently jabbering and raspberrying it up in the playpen. She decided a 10 minute catnap in the car was enough. It is 10:15 now! So, I will have to put the sleephold on her her in a minute. Maybe she will sleep in for us tomorrow…..right. We’ll see.

Well, that’s all for today. Tomorrow, we will go to the zoo after lunch. Just 2 more days and we will be on the way home! We are counting the hours….

Love and hugs-

Sonja (Mia and Grandma Roxie)

El-Moun-taine!! hahahaha

We finally made it into the mountians today. It was amazing!! The drive up the mountian was beautiful, and then we reached the lifts. Mia stayed at the bottom with Nazym to finish her nap, and mom and I got on the first lift. We grabbed our jackets and headed up. We got off the first lift and looked around and we saw a second lift that went even higher. We decided to go on up. The lift seats we were on, held two people and we got some great pictures of the mountian side. Some of the leaves we already turning and the air was getting cooler the higher we climbed. We got off the lift at the second landing to an incredible view. We were met by a Russian woman who was trying to caox us onto the third lift. Now, let me just say that this lift looked a little scary. The seats were for one and looked older than me by 20 years! We declined and started snapping some pictures. We were then approached by a second woman who asked if we spoke English. I said yes and she began to translate what the Russian woman was trying to say to us. She said we have only seen 2/3 the beauty of this mountian. We must go to the top. I still said no, and then this British woman, began explaining how safe the lift was and that she agreed we just had to go to the top. She said there was a valley, and that if we look across it we will see China. This peaked our curiosity enough to brave the last lift. Talk about nervous! We hopped into the single seaters and hooked the little chain in front of us. I had doubts that this chain would have hindered my fall in the least should I tip! We made it to the top and it was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. The air was so crisp and cool. We saw snow caps in front of us and yes, we think we saw China! It was so great, and then we got back into the scary seats for the ride down. Well, those of you who know me, know I am terrified of hights. Right. Well, lets just say on the way down I could see all the way to the bottom! The breeze that seemed non-existent on the way up was now hitting me straight on, and it was COLD! Woohoo. Talk about refreshing. My toes were so cold when we made it back to the landing! We made it the rest of the way down with only one other incident. Mom and I were admiring the changing colors of a specific tree. As we were moving right above it, the branches started thrashing. Mom had been saying the whole time, how great it would be to see ‘an animal on the mountian’. Well, we were scared by this sudden thrashing of branches and let out a squeal. It turned out just to be a man shaking the berries off the tree! I thought great, she asked for an animal and we thought we had a Bigfoot! HaHa. We laughed so much on the way down in the car, retelling the story to the translator, that we were crying!! Oh yeah, that was big fun… We stopped a few more places, on the drive down the mountian, to snap some pictures. We saw an incredible ice skating rink. I suppose if Almaty is chosen for the Winter Olympics, the games will be held on this mountian. We also stopped at a beautiful stream. Talk about cold water! Yikes! I of course, had to walk barefoot in it. I thought my already cold toes were going to fall off! It was an amazing experience though!

We also made it by Mary Kay this morning. I took Raushan some roses as a thank you for the invitation, and she gave me the goodie bags. She said, “Thanks for coming Sonja. Enjoy your presents!” I assured her that the thanks to be given were mine. It was an incredible experience! When I got to the car, I tore through the bags like a kid at Christmas! I shared my gifts with Nazym. I gave her the product bonuses, since I already have them, and I got some cool stuff too. I got an MK watch, a chinese wooden fan with the Seminar logo’s on it, candy, a big clapper, and a light!! AWESOME! Nazym and I were just beeming! Speaking of Nazym, she is meeting with the Director tonight for her interview. She has decided to do MK!! Cool! I have a new recruit, she’s just not on my team! I am sooooo excited for her. She will be so great. She is driven and such a people person! I will keep you posted on her status tomorrow. I am so excited…

Mia has become such a chow hound! She is woofing down the bottles and the babyfood. I am glad to see her face filling out. She gets really cranky because she thinks I am not feeding her fast enough!

We went to the Guinness Pub for lunch. It was great. Gavin would have liked it a lot. Mom ordered a beer and we shared. The head on that beer was 2” thick! So funny, it got on my nose while I took a sip. Nazym was right there with the camera! So, maybe I will post it too. We’ll see.

We also got word today, that our documents were accepted at the Embassy this morning! So, we have an appointment with them on Monday at 4pm. Please pray that all will go well at this visit. This means that we WILL BE on the plane Tuesday! YEEHAW! I would whistle if I could, but sadly I can't! haha! We are almost home baby!

Well, there’s nothing else to report after that, just a trip to the grocery. So, we will give you some more tomorrow……

Love and kisses- big hugs too!

Sonja (Mia and Grandma Roxie who thought she saw a bigfoot! Haha)

Broken Down....

Well, we didn't make it to the mountians today. Our driver's car broke down and we had to use a taxi for the rest of the afternoon. We will have a new driver tomorrow and he will take us up the mountian. So unfortunately, we will have to put you off one more day on the scenic photos.

We visited a market today. It wasn't very busy and I picked up just a couple things. We really are about all shopped out! After that, we walked over to a candy factory. I have been buying some bulk candies at the grocery. I tried this particular candy at our apartment in Ust and I really liked it. So, I have been buying it a little at a time. It is sold in bulk like Brach's candies. We went to the factory and they sell it really cheap there. The store was so busy, that we waited in line at least a half an hour. We got an assortment of sweets. Nazym was telling us which ones to try. There were too many to choose from. It looked so pretty with all the bins of sparkling wrappers. And the smell of warm liquid chocolate in the air. MMMMMMM. We have been trying all the sweets off and on all night. :)

I spoke to my children this morning and I miss them so much! I was fighting back tears while we were exchanging stories. Thane has now officially lost both his top front teeth. I hope someone will get a picture of his little face. I bet he looks sweet. And Seth sounds like he is 10 when he is telling me all about school. I am glad to hear that cheer is going well for Caitlin and that Madee is excited about Basketball camp. I just can't wait to be home with them. It will be soon though!

We confirmed a baby basket seat for Mia on the flights home. I had never heard of this before, but they have seats like bassinets on international flights. So, we have one of these. It will be good for her to something to sit in and play in rather than hold her on our laps for 20 hours! We also confirmed our tickets for Tuesday the 20th at 2:50 am We will be in Indianapolis at 12:30 on That same day! WOOOHOO!! We also checked on our paperwork. It received the official stamp in Astana today. It will be here in Almaty tomorrow and we will take it to the Embassy to submit it. This will get us our appointment on Monday. After this appointment, we will be free to come home!! Keepthis final step in your prayers as we prepare to finally come home with our little girl.

I wrote an email to the ladies at MK Corporate here in Kaz to thank them for the Seminar invitation. I also mentioned an interest in the registration bags. I did not receive one, as my ticket was only as a guest. There are extra, and they invited me to come and get one tomorrow. So, I will go there in the afternoon to pick it up. How exciting. I just love this company! Also, Nazym is meeting with the Senior Director tomorrow at 6pm for an interview!! I am so excited for her. We spoke with this Director today and she has only been with the company one year! She has an offspring Director and a unit size of 60 in one year! AWESOME!! So, more tomorrow....

This is a picture of mom at the Russian Orthodox Church we visited on our first day of this trip before going to Ust. It is so beautiful. Here is a pic of me and Mia, and as you can see, she would rather be down getting into something....

Love and hugs-

Sonja (Mia and Grandma Roxie)

Pretty as a picture...

We started out the day giving Nazym her first MK facial. She liked it. I helped her with her glamour. I think she was unsure about it at first, but she looked so great when we got it all done. Our driver noticed when we walked out to the car. He smiled alot and told her she looked beautiful. I think she felt beautiful too! We then headed out to get something to eat. And as fate would have it, we ran into a group of MK ladies at the restaurant. I spoke to one lady, and it turns out that she is a Senior Director with a unit of 60 people. I ordered a cleanser from her, as I have run out. I will leave it here for Nazym when we go home. We talked MK all day long, and Nazym said she will sign up. I told her that since this director lives here in Almaty, and has an established unit, that it would probably be a great one to get into. She said she'd check it out.

We then went to have an oil portrait done of Mia. It is just a black and white one. I held her on my lap and she was getting pretty sleepy. We did everything we could to keep her awake until he was done. Then, she quickly went to sleep! So, we brought her back to the apartment.

I listened to some music with Nazym and we talked for a while. We burned off a couple CD's for her of some music I had on my computer. She went home kinda late, and I was worried about her. She called us when she she arrived home though. Too fun.

So, mom and I have just been hanging out playing cards, our usual nightly game of 500-rummy. Oh yeah, we know, it is way too much fun for the average world traveler. We are professionals....haha.

We should have some really nice photos tomorrow, as we are headed to the mountians, or the Mount-tanes as I like to call them. (inside joke, sorry if you don't get it, but I know a few ladies who will! haha)

BIG BIG hugs to my children and lots of love-

Sonja (Mia and Grandma Roxie)

Art or Not?? hahahaha

Well, we are happy to report that the electrician came today, and we have lights! Wooohooo! We hung out here at the apartment for him to come, and he left about 1:30. We tried a Turkish café here for lunch. It was pretty good. We decided to go to the Art museum this afternoon. It was interesting to see all the different styles of art. There were a few pieces I really liked. We took a few pictures while we were there. Mom cracked me up in this picture. She said, ‘hey this lady looks just like me! Haha!’ Oh I laughed so hard I cried! The most amazing pieces were the woven tapestries. I like this one. It was so beautiful. This picture doesn’t really even do it justice. It blows my mind to think that someone took rows of string and made this!

We then walked across the street to the Hyatt, where I snapped this picture of mom and Mia in the lobby. It was awesome. I understand that a standard room for the night is about $400 US. Ouch.Lena called this evening. She made it home safely. She has 2 exams tomorrow at the University. I pray she will do well. She will be studying for them tonight.

Well, we will visit some more areas of interest tomorrow. Until then, we send big hugs and kisses. We miss everyone silly.

Love,

Sonja (Mia and Grandma Roxie- who managed to have 2 pictures on the website tonight!)

Stranded in Kaz……….

Hey everyone. We are not so happy here in Kazakhstan. We found out today that we will not be able to come home until next Tuesday the 20th. We were already experiencing some delays due to Mia’s exit visa. We had sent all of our info to the capitol city of Astana this morning in hope that it would be back and ready to go to the Embassy for our exit interview tomorrow. No luck. Once the paperwork was in Astana, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, they noticed a mistake on her birth certificate. On one side it is written in Russian and the other side is the same info in Kazakh. There was an additional letter in her birthfather's name. So, it was misspelled. Great right? Well, this means that it has to go back to Ust-Kamenogorsk to be redone. From there, it will go back to Astana to be completed and then it will have to come here and be presented to the Embassy for an interview the following day. We should have all of this done by Monday of next week, which puts us on a plane Tuesday morning. So, we have screamed and cried and thrown what fits we could, but we are still stuck here and at the whim of the system. Please keep all this paperwork handling in your prayers. We sure could use it.

We are worried about the effects this longer stay will have on us. Mom and I were to report to work on Monday and Tuesday next week. We brought a limited amount of cash with us, so we are ever mindful of that. I feel bad for Gavin who is at home juggling everything all by himself. He really is a trooper and my hero. Please call and encourage him through this next week.The problems continued today when we came back to the apartment this evening and found there was no power. I am writing this to you by candle light. 4 of the apartments in this building, all on the left side, are without power now. So, mom and I have been playing cards at the kitchen table and drinking coffee. Like 2 old ladies, haha. Mia doesn’t seem to mind, as she is sleeping.

The best news today is that Mia had her appointment at the SOS Clinic. They see children and other people who travel abroad and check them to make sure they are not carrying any diseases. She checked out fine. He said she is small for her age, but we knew that. She weighed 15.6 pounds and is 27.5 inches tall. She has gained almost 3 pounds since coming home with me! Her face is starting to fill out a little.

Lena left for home today on her bus. We had a blast with her while she was here. We did good this time when she left. Neither of us cried. We were laughing too hard. She boarded the bus, and I waited outside at the station until it left. We were doing charades through the glass. It was funny. We were trying to guess who would be sitting next to her for the 20 hour trip. There was a rather large man who kept acting like he was going to get on the bus and then he would leave and pace some more. I was joking that he was the one. She lucked out though and got a boy who was about 17. We were laughing so hard and were the entertainment for that whole side of the bus. They were all watching us and laughing. She is so funny. I will call and check in with her as she travels.

Since I am operating on battery power and in the dark, I will post today’s photo tomorrow. My dad is concerned that I am not posting what my mom is doing. I assumed he would know that she is doing exactly what I am doing. So, right now she is reading this over my shoulder, dad. She says hello and she is fine. So, stay tuned to the saga…..we will have more news and hopefully no more drama to report tomorrow.


Pictures are of me and Mia waiting at the SOS Clinic to be seen and her in her playpen giving me attitude. Wow, what a shock.... :)

Love and hugs needed here……we send some to all of you-

Sonja (Mia and Grandma Roxie)

Oh What A Night!!

I started out the day with a phone call from Gavin. That was awesome. He sounded really sad though. I miss my family so much. We then spent the morning at a mall. We shopped for Lena's family and I picked up a cool necklace and earring set to wear to Seminar tonight. We had a blast. Lena made out like a bandit with gifts for everyone on her list! We then headed to the notary to sign some papers. Nazym was there and she is feeling much better. I am unsure of her test results, but I know they had her on an IV for a few days. I was glad to see her and she looked great.

Speaking of looking great.....I felt like I looked pretty good for shopping on the fly in another country. I arrived at Seminar and was greeted by NSD Judy Kawiecki. She told me I looked nice and I smelled good! I returned the compliments and she had her husband take our photo. This is it, they emaied it to me. Being at this Seminar was such a blessing. Mary Kay is the same all over the world. Women mentoring and helping other women to find thier God given gifts. What a blessing it was! Tonight's performer was a VERY popular Russian singer named Valeriy Miladze. He was awesome. I think I have a new 'Seminar guy' Kerry! haha The crowd was wild over him. When I came home I told Lena about him and she flipped! I guess he is all the rage here. He came down into the crowd and shook my hand (other people's too). I turned to the girl next to me and she was like you are so lucky! I had no idea who he was! Oh well. I did talk with Judy's husband some. He is super nice. He wanted to know about the adoption. I showed him pictures of my family and of Mia. I found out that they will be on the flight we were supposed to be on Tuesday morning. Bummer. It would have been great, to maybe chat with them some on the plane.

Well, I will go for the night. Please pray that all will go well with our paperwork tomorrow. It will be traveling to the capitol city and back all on Monday. We will need it all correctly done and back in our hands tomorrow night, so that we can do our Embassy stuff on Tuesday.

Big hugs and buckets of love-

Sonja (Mia and Grandma Roxie)

Seminar in Kaz!!

I am so excited. This morning I went to the theatre where Seminar is. I found the Director who sold me my products. She invited me to hang out with her unit until the doors opened. So, I did. Her daughter spoke some English and we were able to tell our stories. The doors opened and we made our way to our seats. My seat was in the 3rd row, but really the second because there is only a 1st row on the outer edges of the stage. Then an interpreter came to give me my headset and put me on the front row!!! I was 2 seats down from NSD Judy Kawiecki and her husband. She was backstage, but I introduced myself to him. He was really nice. It turns out that Judy is NSD Sue Kirkpatrick's offspring National. So, we know alot of the same people and she is familiar with our area. Judy introduced herself and talked with me quickly during a break. I wish I had more time to talk with her. As far as the show, it was very similar to our Seminar. There was some trouble with the headsets and they were not working during the new NSD debuts. I really didn't need them though. I could see the emotions on their faces and see the joy and pride. I also could just imagine what my husband might say to me when I debut as a National and what I would say to everyone else. I was crying and I don't even know what they were saying. It was moving in any language! Here is a picture of me with that MK unit.

Mom and Lena picked me up for the lunch break. We went to Mad Murphy's Irish Pub. It was great food similar to what we would have on the Applebees menu with some regional favorites as well. It was like a party with free Amstel beer all day. We had a glass with lunch and we found out later that it was their 10th anniversary day. All the staff spoke perfect English and there were lots of Americans and Irish people there. It was a fun lunch. I had a plate of nacho's, mom had chiken fingers, and Lena had a club sandwich. Good stuff. Mia just had her usual babyfood and juice for lunch with a side of balloon. She squeeked and chewed on this balloon until it finally gave out and popped! Oh well, it was good while it lasted!

We heard from the agency today and we will be coming home on Wednesday instead of Tuesday. I am not thrilled about it, but it's better than having to wait until Friday. Keep us in your prayers as we are checking off the final paperwork pieces!

We miss you all and can't wait to come home to you!

Sonja (Mia and Grandma Roxie)

Freaky Friday...

Wow. We finally found my skirt today. I found it much cheaper at a store for big people. It was funny. I will upload a picture of the store's logo to this page tomorrow. It is so late now. I ended up getting a pantsuit with a jacket and a skirt. We also picked up a few tank tops. All for less than the other 2 pieces I was considering.

Good news is I have the outfit, and I am going to Seminar in the morning!! Bad news is, the agency people here are telling me that it might be Friday of next week before we can come home. I guess there is some sort of hold up with Mia's exit visa. PLEASE PLEASE pray that we will not be here that long. Our tickets are for Tuesday morning at 2 am. I would like to go home then. But, it is not looking possible. I know God can do all things, we are keeping the faith. Please remember us in your prayers. I will update you as soon as I know.

More tomorrow, big hugs to my family- I miss them so much it hurts!

Sonja

Cooler today...

We had a bit of a blessing with the weather. It was cooler, about 65 degrees. I was glad to see it since we were in the car alot today. We started out the day at the Mary Kay Corporate Building. They gave me my ticket to Seminar as a guest and for free. I will be sitting in the 3rd row!!! The NSD’s will be in the 2nd row!! Also they said that NSD Judy Kawiecki will be attending from the U.S.. They will introduce me to her! I will have a headset to listen to the whole program translated in English. I am so looking forward to it!

We searched around today for a suit or skirt. I found one black skirt, but it was $95 US. I found a nice brown jacket and it was $65 US. We will look more tomorrow and I will decide then. It is so expensive to buy nice quality clothes here. All of them are imported.

Lena arrived today at 4 and we picked her up. She said she was tired of sitting. She was on the bus for 20 hours! So, we went to a park and walked for a while. We got her settled in the apartment and then she and I set out on foot to find a local grocery or market. We wanted to buy a few things for dinner. It was a pretty good walk until we found a place. As you can see, we found our way back! Ha! We will eat and watch a movie.

Well, say a prayer that I will find what I am looking for tomorrow! I want to look nice for this Seminar. Especially if I will be hanging out with an NSD!!

Love to everyone- Missing you-

Sonja (Mia, Grandma Roxie and Lena)

Hot Cha Cha!!

Wow....today was a hot one. We were melting out there! We went to lunch at a really nice Russian resturant. It was new in town and not really busy yet. The food was great but a little pricey. We then went to look at some of the paintings we saw on our layover here. I bought 2 small ones. There was a large painting of a girl that I really liked, but she was about $80. We will see how the money holds out. We also went to an awesome bakery. The desserts all looked so good. They were very artistic. I wish I had taken pictures. We brought a few pretty pieces of cake back to the apartment for a snack later!!

Well, are you ready for some GREAT NEWS!!!???? The ladies from Mary Kay Corporate here in Kaz called today and.............I am going to the Mary Kay Seminar here!!!!! WOOOHOOO! It is Saturday and Sunday. I will need to go get a black skirt tomorrow. I don't think we will find a formal in my size and I wouldn't want to try to pack it home either. But, if I get a black skirt, I will make it work. I am SOOO EXCITED!! What a story I will be able to tell!! I am just so excited and that's all I can say about that! I go tomorrow to buy my ticket. It is only about $55 US. Please pray that they will allow my translator to go along with me. So much fun!! Stay tuned for all the details!!

Lena will be arriving here tomorrow at 4:00. I spoke to her and she is headed here on a bus instead of the train. She will be taking over as our translator for the rest of our trip. Nazym, the girl who has been helping us, will go to the hospital tomorrow for some tests and treatments. She has not eaten anything in the 3 days we have been with her, and she mentioned that her liver is enlarged. I worry that something serious could be wrong with her. Please keep her in your prayers. She is such a sweet person. I will keep you posted on her progress, as we will be keeping in touch with her and visiting her if we can at the hospital.

Mia actually held her own bottle today!! We have been working on that one. I am glad to see it is a success. She is finally getting to wear the short outfits I packed for her. She is trying to keep cool. Her teeth are really bothering her though. She is chewing on anything she can get near her mouth. She has turned into a slobber fountain. What a mess! She is so funny though! She is really attached to her grandma already. She seems to have already figured out that mamaw's are big softies! She plays it up when mom is around. What a stinker!!

Well, as much fun as it appears that I am having, I would trade it all for tickets to come home. Thanks to all of you who are keeping in touch through the emails. They are a big highlight in my day!!

More soon.... Love and Hugs- Kisses to my family!!!

Sonja (Mia and Grandma Softie, oops I mean Roxie)

What a GREAT Day!!!

I just love the people in Mary Kay!! We went to their Kaz corporate office here in Almaty. I got all glammed up and pretty and we headed out......It was like stepping into a pink bubble! Most of the people here do not go out of their way to be friendly. But inside this building, it was like home. We met some of the staff at the front desk and the helped arrange for me to meet the President or Head of Sales Development!!! Her name is Raushan. She was soooo nice. Here she is holding Mia and laughing with me! They gave Mia a toy shaped like a star and said here is her first Mary Kay star! HaHa! I guess their Seminar is this weekend! She said all the tickets are sold out, but she might be able to arrange a ‘special invitation’ for me!! WOW!!! Wouldn’t that be AWESOME!!! I missed my Seminar in Dallas, because I was here. It would be so cool to go to this one! Please say a prayer that they will invite me!! Yipee! I talked about Mary Kay so much all the rest of the day, that I have recruited my translator Nazym!! She is like, ‘Wow, you can make that much money in MK? I will need to change my job soon!’

Here I am buying a moisturizer from a Sales Director I met in the office. (My skin is drying out here. It’s like a desert!) So, I think we will call that Director back and get Nazym signed up!Here is a picture of Mia eating her first breadstick. Or should I say slobbering it to death. She has been cutting teeth and she loved chewing on this! We ate at a really awesome pizza place. It was pizza like at home. Mom and I ate a whole Medium pizza! We will have to go back there!

I also spoke to Lena today. I invited her to come to Almaty as my guest. She can hang out here with us as my friend and take a mini vacation. She first said that she wanted to clear it with the agency director here, but then she called back and said, this is my vacation, I should be able to go wherever I want. So, she will be here Thursday night!! I just hope the agency director doesn’t have a problem with it. It will give us a few more days together before we leave. And it is only a $29 ticket here and back on a train! Maybe I will recruit Lena too! Ha!

Well, I will quit typing now. You can’t tell I am excited at all right?? I could go on and on…… More tomorrow.

BIG LOVE- (as Jaime Oliver say’s)

Sonja (Mia and Grandma Roxie)