2 weeks to first trip

So, things are starting to get exciting. Here's the latest:

* We're departing Friday the 23rd in the afternoon. After a quick layover in Atlanta we're boarding flight 46 which will take us directly to Moscow. We'll arrive there Saturday morning (their time).

* We're sharing a 3 bedroom apartment with a couple from Birmingham Alabama who is also going on their first trip to Russia. This is awesome because going this route is so much cheaper than us getting a hotel room. They are arriving on Sunday afternoon.

* Together we and the other couple will be going to the Ministry of Education Monday morning to receive our referrals. Chance are incredibly thin that their referral and ours will be in the same orphanage. They will go to their orphanage...we'll go to ours.

* Once we get to the orphanage, WE MEET HIM. We'll spend the first day getting to know him and deciding "is this the one?".

* Tuesday the little guy gets a complete medical review by a international adoption doctor that we have scheduled. He'll do a medical exam, review his records, talk to the staff and other things. Once he has all the details, he'll give us his medical recommendations.

* Either on Tuesday or Wednesday we'll decide if we're moving forward with the referal they gave us. If we don't accept this referral, the orphanage will get us another child for consideration.

* Once we accept the referral, we start the paperwork in Moscow.

* We continue to see the little guy each day until we leave on Saturday.

* Mary and I also have to have a medical exam on that Friday.

* We return home Saturday the 31st.

So, normally it is about a 6 week turnaround for your court date. So...about mid march we should go back for trip #2.

So that's where we're at. We're packing luggage and weighing it to ensure we don't take too much (airline limitations). We'll be taking the laptop so we'll be able to keep everyone up to date.

We'll update everyone before we depart.