Fun was had by all.

The beer festival was a lot of fun. Ken brought his camera along. My sister, her husband Campbell, Ken's sister Katie, her husband Mike and Ralph all joined us. We had a great time.

This starts the first full week of school for Mac and Alina. They spent the night with their grandparents last night and had a good time. I got to hear a great tale about as fight between a snapping turtle and a crawfish (which must have been the bait).

We want to say that our friend Andy is doing great and already home after his kidney transplant. Also, our friends Ron and Cindy in Atlanta brought their first child into the world this weekend. Hunter Lanier Fennel was born on Friday weighing over 9 lbs. We CAN'T WAIT to see him. Congratulations!!!

Alison

Back to School

Mac and Alina got started back to school this week. They are both enjoying catching up with their friends. Alina will start her full days next week and she's very excited about that. She's thrilled with her new backpack.

Ken and I are attending the Southern Brewers Beer Festival tomorrow in Downtown Chattanooga. We are really looking forward to hanging out with some friends and family that are also attending.

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Alison

From 2 to 5 in two trips to Kaz.

This family just returned from their trip to Kaz. The took their 3.5 and 5.5 year old boys (adopted from Kaz. 2 1/2 years ago). They brought home 3 (yes 3) little girls. WOW! Makes me tired just thinking about it. It makes me feel good about taking Mac and Alina with us on our trip.

They took lots of great pictures and I wanted to share their photo album. If you are interested cut and paste the link below (I can't get a direct link to work). I was amazed at the accommodations in the various cities in which they stayed. An indoor pool???? Where was that hotel when we went 6 years ago and can we please stay there this trip???? Play area in Almaty at the Mall???? Didn't see that either.

http://adobe.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=f1827ll.aykg6f4p&x=1&y=wimwiy

Mac and Alina go back to school tomorrow. They are excited about seeing all their friends.

Alison

October will be our time : - (

We've had a couple of calls from our agency over the past few days. They are telling us that it will be October before we get a referral. Things have just slowed down a bit. They knew we wouldn't be exactly happy with this info. so they had even contacted the facilitators in Kaz. to ask about us specifically. The October date was confirmed.

We are trying to look at this positively. Our dossier is at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Kaz. Most of their Gov. employees take the month of August off for vacations. This probably led to the slow down.

I know that our time will come. It will just be later than expected. This will give us a chance to get rolling in the new school year and enjoy several UGA home football games.

Fall is such a busy time of year that I know the time will pass quickly.

We have a good friend getting a Kidney transplant today. Please keep Andy in your prayers.

Alison

A day at Lake Winnie

I'm doing some test posts to find the quickest and easiest ways to post lots of pictures. I don't want to be in Kaz. surfing on dial-up trying to figure this stuff out.

So here goes one trial. You should be able to click on the photo and be taken to all the additional photos for the day.

Remember this is just a test. We did have a great day with Aunt Val at Lake Winnepesaukah today.

Alison

Home from Florida

We made it home finally! That's a long drive with tired kids in the back seat.

We had such a wonderful time in Florida and enjoyed getting to make wonderful memories with our good friends the Richard's. Here are a couple of pics from our last night at the giant treasure ship restaurant.

This week will mark the 3rd week since our dossier returned back to Kaz. Maybe this will be the week.

A day at the Beach

Yesterday we had some bad weather. We drove to nearby Destin to do a little shopping. Ken and the kids went to a movie. We drove back to Panama City and found a great place to eat right on the beach. These pictures were taken from our table.

After dinner the kids and I walked on the beach back to our condo. We watched the sunset. After dark we enjoyed some time on our balcony and then went for some night swimming in the pool. The kids thought that was the greatest thing ever.




We leave in the morning to head back to Georgia. We've had a great time. We are so lucky to live so close to such a beautiful place!

Beach Trip 2006

We're having a great time at Panama City Beach. We are staying at the Moonspinner condo's.

They kids have had a blast playing on the beach ALL day! The weather has been great. This trip is a great stress reliever as we anticipate a phone call from the adoption agency at any point in time now.


Alison