Travel Itinerary

The day after we recieved our referral we were able to talk with the international pediatric specialist, Dr. David Douglas (who ROCKS!!!!), and discuss little M's case. No surprises there, and we officially sent in our acceptance letter THE MINUTE we were done!

A few minutes after Scott emailed our FC she sent him back an email with our travel itinerary! WHAT??? Yes, you are reading that correctly! Usually they need to have received our forms in the mail before they go about making travel plans. Evidently our FC received the travel itinerary WITH the referral! I don't know if they just felt that good about little M and our willingness to take whatever God gives us or what? But you can definitely see God quick at work in the life of this little bundle of sweetness. I just want to eat her up! I haven't even seen her in person yet! Oh, boy, I'm in trouble!

So, I just thought I was swimming in paperwork and forms before now, but I think Scott and I did about a total 3 hours of reading it all to get us up to speed with what happens next. I haven't really cried (expect when the Dr. prayed with us over the phone), but I think I cried about 3 times times that day. Talk about overwhelming! Whew! So we hit the ground running and are starting to prepare for Trip 1!

Trip 1 is just a trip (like a hop, skip and a jump -ha!), to go to the Ministry of Education in Kras and answer their questions on why we are adopting and so on. Then we get to go see M, love on her a few days, and head back and wait for a court date. Since we have most of our forms done, our FC thinks that we might get a court date faster than usual. However, faster doesn't mean we'll have her with within the month. Usually it takes about 2. We are praying it takes less! I'm praying that all the papers I have ready for them when we get there will push us along faster...well, at least that's my plan:)

So, this is what I received:
Itinerary:
8/26 - Leave U.S. for Moscow
8/27 - Arrive in Moscow and take overnight flight to Krasnoyarsk
8/28 - Arrive in Krasnoyarsk
8/29 - MOE Appointment
8/29-8/31 - Visit orphanage
9/1 - Leave Krasnoyarsk for Moscow
9/1 OR 2 - Leave Moscow for U.S.

You might wonder why I would even bother telling you this but I have 2 reasons.
1. So you can pray for us every step of this trip!
2. To keep those of you who DO care about details up to date...uh, hum, family...that would be you! Love u!!!

I finished ALL (well almost all-we have to wait to have our physicals done in between trips) of our paper work, again, and had them notarized and apostilled and sent to our agency on Thursday. It was such a great feeling having that lifted off my shoulders. I think I became a little bit of a crazy person the last 2 weeks! Sorry!

I'll update more I'm sure between here and then, but just keep us in your prayers and that we can get done what needs to be done before we leave. The good thing about these date are at least I WON'T miss the boys first day of school. I love those days!!!

Love you all!!!