Getting Ready for Russia

Our agency called on Monday and told us Russia is ready for us. We are leaving on December 8, 2007 and will be in Tomsk, Russia December 10 -12. We are still waiting for a second referral, and may not get one until we arrive in Tomsk. Either way, we will definitely be meeting our little ones. Yelena is 13 months old today, and we will be holding her in less than two weeks.

Tonight we completed our visa applications and realized we needed passport-like photos for the visas. So,w e spent a great deal of time trying to get the right shot. They are not flattering, right up there with driver's license photos. We were able to get a picture of each of us that will work.

Ben will be staying with Melanie and Logan. Please keep all of them in your prayers. We are worried about being separated from Ben, but are glad it will only be a week. We should be back home December 14. Melanie and Logan will be great with Ben, but they will have their hands full. And with the Holidays, it is already busy and stressful. So please pray their peace and comfort.

Please keep us in your prayers as we finalize things. We haven't even started packing. With Ben, I had made packing lists a year ahead. We were already packed when we received the invite to go. This time around, who has time to pack? So we will be pulling things together over the next week.

We will use this blog to keep everyone posted as we go and while in Russia. So check back often! And don't forget to leave comments. They mean a lot to us.

This is what Ben was doing as we ran around trying to pull stuff together tonight. Ben has started "camping out" as we call it. We tuck him in his bed, but he moves to the threshold to be closer to us. He usually ends up falling asleep there and we then pick him up and move him back to his bed. Despite our efforts to discourage this, this is the normal night time routine. I'm off to put him in bed.