We finallly blog....

We are adopting from Kazakhstan. Somehow, I have a feeling my first blog words should be more exciting than those (e.g. "Four score....), but the pressure is on, so short and to the point will have to do.

After blog stalking for months, we have finally joined the fray. We said all along, "we will blog when we receive our region assignment." We figured that was a safe bet, given that we expected to travel about six to eight weeks thereafter. We pictured ourselves shopping, preparing for travel, and leisurely blogging during those blessed weeks. Then, WHAM. We got our region assignment and travel dates on the same day, the LOIs came four days after that, and we are now staring down the potential to travel this Friday, April 18. We know how fortunate we are. We know others have been waiting longer. We don't know what to say to those people, other than "hang in there" and "your time is coming." Ick, even as I type that, it sounds so trite. So, we'll just stick with, "we know how fortunate we are, and we are humbled by our good fortune", and we'll leave it at that.

Thanks to SOOOO many wonderul bloggers before me, we have been making lists and checking them twice for some time. I heeded much of that advance-planning advice and I have been shopping little by little for the last few months. I am not sure if it was so much about "advance planning" as it was "I need to feel like we are making SOME progress while we wait."

Alas, we still have what seems like a gazillion things to do (and thank goodness I can now check off "create a blog"!!!). And that's just the personal stuff. We thought we would be working for another 6-8 weeks, so imagine our co-workers' and our boss' surprise when we said, "ummm, it's 9 days, not 9 weeks." It's scramble, scramble, scramble, but it will be sooooooo worth it (and likely forgotten) in the end.

I sent off for our Visas this morning. The applications will arrive at the courier's office first thing Monday (isn't FedEx amazing?!), and hopefully she will hand carry the apps into the Embassy sometime Monday morning. We are planning as if we are leaving on Friday, but we know we aren't going anywhere unless those Visas turn around in four days. We won't fret either way (although I cringe slightly to think about every last seat being taken on every flight out. Middle seats, here we come).

We believe we'll be flying from Cinci to Minneapolis, then on to Amsterdam on an overnight flight. We'll hang out in Amsterdam for a few hours, and from there we head to Almaty. We still don't know if we will go that same day (it will be Sunday by then) to Ust-Kamenogorsk, or if we will stay one night in Almaty and fly to the region the next day. I suppose these are the types of things one finds out at some point in the week before travel?!

Time to go after the next item on our list -- taxes! Oh lucky me.

It's going to be a fun week!