LIFE with LEXIE

So our technical problems at the apartment continue. Monday I plugged in the phone line on the computer to try to get on the Internet to check emails but I heard in Kazakh, Russian and English "you're phone does not work due to non-payment." Well that kinda ticks me off since I am paying more for this apartment than I do for my mortgage. So I call Zina to ask the Landlady to pay her phone bill with some of those crisp new 100 American dollar bills that I paid her for our lovely apartment. It's getting harder every time that I haul water after using the toilet or take a cold shower not to become an ugly American. But have no fears. I promise even if we are without any water and electricity not to cause an international incident since I want to get out of here with Alexis in my arms. As my friend Paul says, keep my eye on the prize. And what a price she is. We have been practicing with Lexie in the stroller since she's never seen one let alone ridden in one. At first she wasn't too happy about it but she's getting better. She really just wants to be held all the time and who can blame her since she was not held much before we got here. We just have 8 more days until we can take her out of there for good. We leave Aktau two days later for the big city of Almaty if everything goes well. As long as the judge doesn't change her mind and Flora can get Lexie's new birth certificate with her new name on it and me as her mother - how cool is that - then we can leave Sat July 7th as planned. Then we wait for her Kazakh passport to be issued here in Aktau and for Flora to bring it to us in Almaty. After that we deal with the American Embassy before we can leave. So we're still looking at 3 weeks before it's all said and done but we're getting closer.