By this time next month we'll have 3...

Hey, we got the call! We are heading to Russia on Friday, August 7! We actually have 3 weeks notice--that's much better than we'd ever hoped for. Here's our itinerary:

August 7: Overnight flight to Moscow
August 8: Overnight train to Kirov
August 9: Visit kids in orphanage
August 10: Court date
August 11: Get passports for kids and pick them up
August 12: FLY (yeah!!) back to Moscow and see an American-certified doctor
August 13: Apply for visas for girls
August 14: Get visas for girls
August 15: Fly home

There's other stuff in there, I'm sure. For example, I know they take us shopping in Kirov to buy diapers and food so we don't have to pack all of that. And I hope we get to do a little souvenir shopping there as well to pick up something unique to the area. I imagine we'll get to visit the girls on the 10th as well. Hope so. Can you imagine how terrified they are going to be to get whisked out of that orphanage by people they've barely met?? Please pray that they are prepared to let us be their parents. And that WE are prepared to be their parents!

Preparations are proceeding apace here on Oak Ridge Drive. Their room needs some work yet, we need to buy all the little things (diapers, wipes, bibs, bottles, etc), and we need to re-babyproof the house. There are other things, to be sure, to take care of but we have the Big Three: van that can house three car seats; beds; and the 'gifts' we need to take along to Russia for the people who have helped us, whether we know them or not.

We'll update more in the upcoming weeks...

By the way, anyone know how I put the photos at the top side-by-side?