Annual Letter

In 2010…

Neil learned to sit, crawl, stand, walk, and run away laughing. He
also giggled about a ssssnake eating sssspagetti. He cut twelve teeth.
Now his three favorite activities are cooking, eating and doing the
dishes.

Ruth Anne memorized the alphabet song among others for home preschool.
She stopped wearing diapers and started distinguishing between English
and Russian language. She loves to read and to pretend.

Karen started teaching two high school classes at the International
School in Ashgabat and completed a first draft of her dissertation.
Revisions, submission and hopefully the defense will come in the new
year.

Joe ran his second half-marathon. He oversaw the implementation of
immigrant visa processing in Ashgabat, negotiated to help
Turkmen-Americans depart Turkmenistan, and accepted an onward
assignment in Washington D.C. working on nuclear non-proliferation
with a program called the G8 Global Partnership.

We bought a townhouse in Alexandria, Virginia in anticipation of our
return to the States next fall.

Soca, our Trinidadian tabby, died. Lawaş, our Turkmen calico, came to
live with us.

We celebrated several marriages, births and new jobs for friends and
family members from afar.

Here’s to a wonderful 2011!