Welcome back to our weblog, where we have chronicled our travels and observations as we adopted a new daughter. This site travels through a nelsonian experience, continuing the journey of becoming a family, and of following our faith where it leads us. Aliya is home, and we are grateful for your interest in our site, in her new life, and for your many posts and comments that sustained us throughout our eight-and-a-half week journey. We thank God for his countless blessings!

Aliya's first Christmas with the Nelson family.....

Here is Aliya at Disneyland in early October 2005, at almost 17 months old. She is celebrating Nana Nelson's 70th Birthday with the rest of the family.

Not flesh of my flesh,
nor bone of my bone

Yet she is me, and finds her home.

I heard her call, yet knew her not
then met her once and saw for her
my dreams revealed
that she knew not.

Now she and I, we forward go
together now, as always so.

Knit and sewn within my heart
before my start

Not flesh of flesh, nor bone of bone
yet I see her eyes, and touch her hands
and I feel home,
for she is me.

The daughter I had always known
God's dreams revealed
for she is me.

..

Aliya turned one today!

After three weeks, we're all still adjusting to the new Nelson family. We've had a lot more middle of the night visits with Aliya since we came home, which confirms how fortunate we were to see her adjust to her new life in our apartment in Karaganda.

There are signs of life in So Cal. It's a beautiful day, the grass is green, the sun shining, and Aliya got out and crawled around. In a diaper and shirt.

We'll have lots of firsts these next few days.

There is nothing like feeling welcome. This is great fun.

In posting since we've returned home, we cannot say enough about how fortunate we are to have high speed internet access in our community. Holy smokes!!!

And you have no idea what a boon to commerce the availability of broadband can be. Kazakhstan, stuck in a dial-up era, has virtually no internet commerce, so buying things you need (and don't) is still dependent on getting around. And many people don't have cars.

After an unplanned overnight stay in London (thank you British Airways), we made it home tonight, finally, 50 hours after leaving the Frances' apartment in Almaty.

At least the three oldest kids will now be able to say they rode on the top level of a London double-decker bus, and that they had pancakes at McDonalds near Heathrow.