The Circus is in town!

Last night we had what is probably a once-in-a lifetime experience - we went to a Kazakh circus. It's supposedly been in operation for about 46 years. It was surprisingly good and we had a blast...good stress reliever after court!

It was in this tent in the middle of a field surrounded by some apartment buildings. The whole time I just kept wishing my sister-in-law Meaghan was there to take some good pictures. Totally amazing cultural experience!

There were four of these guys out front of the tent for a photo op. They are standing in front of a Kung-Fu Panda poster, which I thought was odd, but everyone was gawking at them and I realized that they are the only Africans that I've seen here. Everyone is absolutely white or asian. Nobody was being ugly about it, but they were definitely an unusual sight. It made me really miss home! 

We treated Pasha, his son Costia, and Igor to the show instead of taking them to dinner since they really wanted to go. Pasha ended up having to run paperwork so his wife came in his place.

Before the show they lifted kids up in these harnesses beneath balloons and the umbrella and spun them all over the place, and you could stand right between the two elephants for a photo. Certainly wouldn't happen in America!

These guys definitely had the coolest act -- fire breathing and limbo-ing under a pole like 8 inches off the ground. Very impressive.

To change subjects, we were disappointed yesterday because it only took like 3 seconds for the passport photo and before we knew it we were back at the baby house. Luckily Clint ran next door and got some ice cream so it wasn't a total disaster. 

There is now a two-week appeals period which is to allow other family members a last chance to claim  him. When that is over his Kazakhstani passport will be issued. That is what takes so much time. Once it is done it will be sent to Astana where they will issue a visa for him to leave the country (weird that they care who leaves). At that point we'll be able to come back to get him. Let's just pray that it takes less than the 10 weeks it took the last group. We've been told that it'll definitely be less, but who knows.