My friend Jeannie posted this on her website and I thought it would be fun to play along. Hmmm... like I have all the time in the world to play around on the computer... NOT! But I'm procrastinating! lol!
1. Real tree or artificial? Both. We always get a real tree for our living room, but we now have 3 artificial trees that we put around the house as well.... This year though none of them will be going up.... :-)
2. When do you put up the tree? Whenever t he mood hits. Sometime after Thanksgiving. We used to put it up Thanksgiving weekend... now it just depends on our busy schedules.
3. When do you take down the tree? Depends on when we put it up. If it's early we will take it down after New Year's, and if we get the tree up late, we will take it down late.
4.Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping paper, pretty much.
6. Who is the hardest person to buy for? My father.
7. Easiest person to buy for? Probably my husband... there is so much we need that we never purchase, so Christmas is pretty easy.
8. Angel on top of the tree, or star? Both. One tree gets an old fashioned angel, one gets a golden star and one gets a big bow. We have another small tree, and that one gets nothing.... yet.
9. What is the worst Christmas gift you ever got? A cat pin. It was a cat playing a saxophone with sunglasses and covered in rhinestones. Chris bought it for me when we were first married, and it was awful. It's a joke now... and each year he has gotten me some heinous cat pin or another. lol! (Sorry to my good friends' who are cat lover's) Kelly!
.10. What is the best gift you received as a child? I honestly can't remember.
11. What is your favorite food to eat at Christmas time? Without a doubt it's the Christmas cookies. They are only made once a year and so they are pretty special.
12. What do you want for Christmas this year? Our adoption to be finalized, and that we would be together as a family of 5.
That was fun... I won't tag anyone... but play along if you would like!!
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Saturday, November 29, 2008
The Baby's Room
We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with our family, cooked lots of food, but also exercised a lot of it off walking/running and playing football. All of our company has headed home now, and Chris and I are accomplishing quite a bit today... getting things together for the baby's room. While he isn't really a baby really... ( more of a young toddler)... .but he's a baby to us. :-) He's still in a crib, so we've been cleaning out and finally putting things together.
I think this is really cool how all the furniture came together. The crib I found back in 2005 at a yard sale in Pennsylvania. I paid $20 for it, and gave it to my sister when she was expecting her 4th child. When her little one outgrew the crib, my sister Lisa asked if I wanted her to save it for me. I said, "Nope"...but she saved it anyway. I'm so glad she did!!
Then friend's of ours from church gave us a bunch of toddler toys and clothing and they had a changing table to donate. The very same finish as the crib! They look like they are a set. Then we went to the attic to pull down some bins to store clothes, and low and behold was my glider rocker (the only thing that didn't sell when I got rid of my baby furniture years ago). Guess what? It's the same finish as well! I know many folks really aren't into all of that.... but I am, and I am so thankful for the way all of those pieces came together in our little one's room. We'll be hanging curtains and have been washing our sons' old bedding to put on the crib. It's got some plaid and chambray in it, and believe it or not, I still like it... :-) I even found the diaper stacker. lol!
So, that's what we have been working on all day. Plus, Chris is planning on building shelves in the game room area, so we can baby proof the play room. We need to purchase gates, and quite a few of them!
Chris asked me what we were putting up for Christmas and I told him "Nothing". He was like... "Seriously? Nothing?" "Yep", I answered... "absolutely nothing, but a wreath on the front door". He seemed happy with that, and I'm glad we aren't going to kill ourselves trying to decorate with everything else going on!
Hope your Thanksgiving was a good one!
(I'll post pictures once the room is just about done, maybe by tomorrow)
Jackie
I think this is really cool how all the furniture came together. The crib I found back in 2005 at a yard sale in Pennsylvania. I paid $20 for it, and gave it to my sister when she was expecting her 4th child. When her little one outgrew the crib, my sister Lisa asked if I wanted her to save it for me. I said, "Nope"...but she saved it anyway. I'm so glad she did!!
Then friend's of ours from church gave us a bunch of toddler toys and clothing and they had a changing table to donate. The very same finish as the crib! They look like they are a set. Then we went to the attic to pull down some bins to store clothes, and low and behold was my glider rocker (the only thing that didn't sell when I got rid of my baby furniture years ago). Guess what? It's the same finish as well! I know many folks really aren't into all of that.... but I am, and I am so thankful for the way all of those pieces came together in our little one's room. We'll be hanging curtains and have been washing our sons' old bedding to put on the crib. It's got some plaid and chambray in it, and believe it or not, I still like it... :-) I even found the diaper stacker. lol!
So, that's what we have been working on all day. Plus, Chris is planning on building shelves in the game room area, so we can baby proof the play room. We need to purchase gates, and quite a few of them!
Chris asked me what we were putting up for Christmas and I told him "Nothing". He was like... "Seriously? Nothing?" "Yep", I answered... "absolutely nothing, but a wreath on the front door". He seemed happy with that, and I'm glad we aren't going to kill ourselves trying to decorate with everything else going on!
Hope your Thanksgiving was a good one!
(I'll post pictures once the room is just about done, maybe by tomorrow)
Jackie
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Court Date!
Just wanted to let everyone know we have a court date! Yay! Travel dates are also now official, so on top of Thanksgiving company Chris and I are running around getting all kinds of adoption stuff done. Another big Yay!
Sunday, November 23, 2008
The Holidays.... they are upon us!
I'm soooo not ready. I know I just got back from Russia and all.... but wow! Tomorrow my mom flies in for Thanksgiving and Tuesday my dad arrives. (He's been out west hunting, hence the two different travel times, but they'll drive home together). :-) Wednesday my sister and her whole family arrives. Let me tell you that I'm just not even close to ready. Not even close. My house is a disaster. I have nothing purchased yet food wise, but the turkey, stuffing (thanks to my mom) and ground beef. Scary I know!
My house is at 6's and 7's. (That's an old saying from a completely different decade). I wonder why they said that? Anyone know? Anyway, it is.... and I'm at a loss where to begin! I keep wanting to get our little ones room organized, but we'll have company there... so I can't really put anything there yet.
I do want to say that we have been so blessed by a couple at our church who gave us a changing table, and tons of toddler toys for our little boy. What a blessing! We had none of those! And the changing table matches the crib that my sister just gave us! I have bedding from when my boys were little, and I'll utilize that (even curtains). The one things we still need to get is a stroller, and a high chair, and baby gates.... well lots of different child proofing things, really.
Can you tell how my train of thought is bouncing around? From Thanksgiving to baby proofing, to decorating etc etc etc! I think I better get off this computer, and get something accomplished!
My house is at 6's and 7's. (That's an old saying from a completely different decade). I wonder why they said that? Anyone know? Anyway, it is.... and I'm at a loss where to begin! I keep wanting to get our little ones room organized, but we'll have company there... so I can't really put anything there yet.
I do want to say that we have been so blessed by a couple at our church who gave us a changing table, and tons of toddler toys for our little boy. What a blessing! We had none of those! And the changing table matches the crib that my sister just gave us! I have bedding from when my boys were little, and I'll utilize that (even curtains). The one things we still need to get is a stroller, and a high chair, and baby gates.... well lots of different child proofing things, really.
Can you tell how my train of thought is bouncing around? From Thanksgiving to baby proofing, to decorating etc etc etc! I think I better get off this computer, and get something accomplished!
Saturday, November 22, 2008
This and That...Plus a few photos
Traffic- It's crazy! In the circles they make their own lanes. But it was civilized craziness if you can picture that. Not like NY, where you have people ticked off and honking horns. None of that. Russians drive seriously, and pretty much expect someone to make a U-Turn across 5 lanes of traffic. lol!
Smoke- It wasn't as bad as I thought. Our apartment had a smoke smell, and that was awful... and the restaurants had it too. But, outside was just fine.
Apartment- If you can rent an apartment it was the way to go! Much more cost effective, and we were right down on New Arabat Street. We had a beautiful view of the city and also of Christ Church Cathedral. I loved to hang out in our living room looking out at the hustle and bustle of night life on our street.
Starbucks- Thank goodness for that, as the one thing our apartment did not have was a coffee maker. They did have a hot pot for making hot water for instant coffee... Ewww. Starbucks was a taste of home, and Chris would walk there every morning for his breakfast pastry and coffee.... :-)
I'll leave you with a few pictures of places, we visited. I wish I would have gotten a photo of our souvenir shop, but I didn't think of it. I'm looking forward to going back to Old Arabat for a quick shopping expedition. :-)
Smoke- It wasn't as bad as I thought. Our apartment had a smoke smell, and that was awful... and the restaurants had it too. But, outside was just fine.
Apartment- If you can rent an apartment it was the way to go! Much more cost effective, and we were right down on New Arabat Street. We had a beautiful view of the city and also of Christ Church Cathedral. I loved to hang out in our living room looking out at the hustle and bustle of night life on our street.
Starbucks- Thank goodness for that, as the one thing our apartment did not have was a coffee maker. They did have a hot pot for making hot water for instant coffee... Ewww. Starbucks was a taste of home, and Chris would walk there every morning for his breakfast pastry and coffee.... :-)
I'll leave you with a few pictures of places, we visited. I wish I would have gotten a photo of our souvenir shop, but I didn't think of it. I'm looking forward to going back to Old Arabat for a quick shopping expedition. :-)
Friday, November 21, 2008
One if by Land.... or air....
Well, we flew... so who knows. But we met both little ones at two separate orphanages on Tuesday. It was a completely full day and also quite emotionally challenging. We requested that a physician meet us at both orphanages to evaluate the children. I don't know how people do it, but making life changing decisions in a matter of days is difficult!
We ended up accepting one referral and declining another. How difficult that decision was! Yet we prayed so very much for wisdom and clarity, and felt an absolute peace about our decision.
So, we'll be bringing home one little munchkin instead of two this time. Yes, Chris is already talking about the next time we go over to adopt another one..... we shall see..... Like several of you, we were both ready to go back again, but wisely we'll try to get this one home and adjusted to our family, before we consider that. I will say, we would use our agency again in a heartbeat. Without a doubt they have been communicative, professional, and absolutely first rate!
We ended up accepting one referral and declining another. How difficult that decision was! Yet we prayed so very much for wisdom and clarity, and felt an absolute peace about our decision.
So, we'll be bringing home one little munchkin instead of two this time. Yes, Chris is already talking about the next time we go over to adopt another one..... we shall see..... Like several of you, we were both ready to go back again, but wisely we'll try to get this one home and adjusted to our family, before we consider that. I will say, we would use our agency again in a heartbeat. Without a doubt they have been communicative, professional, and absolutely first rate!
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
The Grocery Store
I'm currently baking cupcakes for ds2's official birthday party tomorrow. So, while they bake.... I thought I'd do a quick recap of our grocery experience and our attempt at being frugal by cooking our own dinner.
Chris found the grocery store the first day. I was down for the count from the plane ride and something that I ate. So, I decided to rest in our apartment while he did some reconnaissance of the area. He had to locate someplace to copy our entry cards and stamped Visas. He also went to get some water, and exchange dollars for rubles. He was awesome at all of this, and certainly my hero that evening! So the next day we headed to the grocery store he found.
**Sidenote** I have to say, I had walked most of the day and my feet were killing me. Reminder to all: Wear comfortable shoes in Moscow, you have to walk everywhere! Don't try to blend in with those high heeled wearing Russian gals! Especially if all your used to wearing is flip flops all summer long! Even a small heel just about did me in! So, I was pretty tired by the time we got to the grocery store.
We walked in what seemed like circles looking for spaghetti sauce and spaghetti. We found the meat section and it all looked quite good. Not speaking any Russian myself, and who the heck learns the word for "ground beef'" when you go to Russia. Especially for those endearing words you want to share with your new child. Bravo, Spiceeba, Ya te bya lu blu and Ground Beef (insert Russian word there). Anyhoo.... so I point to the leanest ground beef and motion that I want about 1/2 a lb. Kind of making a square with my fingers and thumbs. Evidently he got it, as all he asked (pointing naturally) was "this one?" to the one I selected. I gave him the old thumbs up, and I felt like I was on my way to fluent communication. (In sign language naturally).
We left the store and went back to the apartment. That evening we had dinner with some friends who had just picked up their daughter! yay! So, as we talked throughout the evening my friend shared that on one of her trips she picked up some baby food at a Russian grocery store. (This is their third child they adopted over a 5 year period.) What she got was beef and carrots. However when a friend translated it she found out it was actually horse and carrots. Thankfully she had not fed it to the baby..... (Do you know where I am going with this?)
It dawned on me that I wonder if that was actually ground beef that I purchased? I mean, I don't have a clue....... it looked lean, but I don't read Cyrillic. Plus the guy behind the counter did give me a questioning look as he pointed to the one I wanted. I never questioned if it was ground beef or not, and just gave him the thumbs up! Hmmmm..... so a few nights later we decided to cook the mystery meat up or it would go bad. Oh my word! I'm just gonna tell you now... that it did not smell like ground beef! It smelled Horrible! And it made our apartment smell horrible!! I swear to you I was ready to barf, it was that bad! We ended up cooking it completely and putting it in a ziploc bag and throwing it away. Chris swears it was so lean that it couldn't be ground beef. From then on... even my burger at Fridays was questionable. Nope. I had to stick to chicken... all the time! Since then we have found that ground beef in different countries, is just different. I truly have no idea what we had, but I won't make the same mistake again.... :-)
So, check that baby food, and be sure you know what your purchasing if you decide to be frugal and cook for yourself. We should have stuck with plain old Ramen noodles or just spaghetti and sauce! Hmmm... next time I'm bringing canned Chef Boy R Dee!! :-)
Chris found the grocery store the first day. I was down for the count from the plane ride and something that I ate. So, I decided to rest in our apartment while he did some reconnaissance of the area. He had to locate someplace to copy our entry cards and stamped Visas. He also went to get some water, and exchange dollars for rubles. He was awesome at all of this, and certainly my hero that evening! So the next day we headed to the grocery store he found.
**Sidenote** I have to say, I had walked most of the day and my feet were killing me. Reminder to all: Wear comfortable shoes in Moscow, you have to walk everywhere! Don't try to blend in with those high heeled wearing Russian gals! Especially if all your used to wearing is flip flops all summer long! Even a small heel just about did me in! So, I was pretty tired by the time we got to the grocery store.
We walked in what seemed like circles looking for spaghetti sauce and spaghetti. We found the meat section and it all looked quite good. Not speaking any Russian myself, and who the heck learns the word for "ground beef'" when you go to Russia. Especially for those endearing words you want to share with your new child. Bravo, Spiceeba, Ya te bya lu blu and Ground Beef (insert Russian word there). Anyhoo.... so I point to the leanest ground beef and motion that I want about 1/2 a lb. Kind of making a square with my fingers and thumbs. Evidently he got it, as all he asked (pointing naturally) was "this one?" to the one I selected. I gave him the old thumbs up, and I felt like I was on my way to fluent communication. (In sign language naturally).
We left the store and went back to the apartment. That evening we had dinner with some friends who had just picked up their daughter! yay! So, as we talked throughout the evening my friend shared that on one of her trips she picked up some baby food at a Russian grocery store. (This is their third child they adopted over a 5 year period.) What she got was beef and carrots. However when a friend translated it she found out it was actually horse and carrots. Thankfully she had not fed it to the baby..... (Do you know where I am going with this?)
It dawned on me that I wonder if that was actually ground beef that I purchased? I mean, I don't have a clue....... it looked lean, but I don't read Cyrillic. Plus the guy behind the counter did give me a questioning look as he pointed to the one I wanted. I never questioned if it was ground beef or not, and just gave him the thumbs up! Hmmmm..... so a few nights later we decided to cook the mystery meat up or it would go bad. Oh my word! I'm just gonna tell you now... that it did not smell like ground beef! It smelled Horrible! And it made our apartment smell horrible!! I swear to you I was ready to barf, it was that bad! We ended up cooking it completely and putting it in a ziploc bag and throwing it away. Chris swears it was so lean that it couldn't be ground beef. From then on... even my burger at Fridays was questionable. Nope. I had to stick to chicken... all the time! Since then we have found that ground beef in different countries, is just different. I truly have no idea what we had, but I won't make the same mistake again.... :-)
So, check that baby food, and be sure you know what your purchasing if you decide to be frugal and cook for yourself. We should have stuck with plain old Ramen noodles or just spaghetti and sauce! Hmmm... next time I'm bringing canned Chef Boy R Dee!! :-)
Our sightseeing or lack thereof
Another thing that I had no idea about, is that we would have very little time to actually see Moscow. (Well except by car, and trust me we saw a ton of that!) What I wasn't expecting is how much of our day was taken up with the very important orphanage visits and driving to and from those visits. I know Chris and I had two orphanages to visit, but even if we didn't we would visit one orphanage twice a day. Typically we met our driver at 9am or 9:30am, and we would not get back to our apartment until 8:30 at night. We would have a few hours in the middle to grab a quick lunch, but not really enough to do all the tourist things.
So, again if you are heading over there I would recommend building in a day before or after for your sight seeing. We did get a chance to visit Old Arabat street, and I am insanely jealous of those of you who got to visit during warmer weather. I can just picture how much fun we would have going from shop to shop. (Becky I'm thinking of you, now!) I loved the woman who helped us numerous times at our favorite souvenir shop. (It's practically next to Starbucks on the opposite side of the street as Hard Rock Cafe.) Her name is Irina, and she was helpful, and not pushy. When we go back, we will definitely stop in to buy something from her and say "hello". I can't say enough about how much I liked her and her souvenir shop. So if you visit her I think the store is called "Arabatskaya Lavitsa Souvenirs" tell her we said Hi!
Hard Rock Cafe is a great place to eat. They spoke English, and their chicken fajitas were really good. We also ate at My My (pronounced Moo Moo and it has a big cow in front of it). I was pretty nervous to eat there as it's mainly native Russia folks who frequent the place, though they do have some English translation menus. I was glad I went, even though I felt like a scared rabbit. (Chris is sooo much more adventuresome than I am!) We also ate a TGI Fridays, and it was just okay. I'd chose Hard Rock over that if given the chance again. Also Chris ate at a really nice Russian restaurant, and I'll get the name to you. He wants to go back with me on trip 2.
We never made it down to the Red Square, as the day we were going to go, the weather turned really cold, and it started to rain. So, we will build it into the next trip. We stayed on New Arabat Street, and it was great! Everything was fairly close, (10 minute walk) like Starbucks, Fridays, Hard Rock and even a McDonalds. Next trip we also want to visit the huge Gum mall!
Next post I'll share our experience at the grocery store...... :-)
So, again if you are heading over there I would recommend building in a day before or after for your sight seeing. We did get a chance to visit Old Arabat street, and I am insanely jealous of those of you who got to visit during warmer weather. I can just picture how much fun we would have going from shop to shop. (Becky I'm thinking of you, now!) I loved the woman who helped us numerous times at our favorite souvenir shop. (It's practically next to Starbucks on the opposite side of the street as Hard Rock Cafe.) Her name is Irina, and she was helpful, and not pushy. When we go back, we will definitely stop in to buy something from her and say "hello". I can't say enough about how much I liked her and her souvenir shop. So if you visit her I think the store is called "Arabatskaya Lavitsa Souvenirs" tell her we said Hi!
Hard Rock Cafe is a great place to eat. They spoke English, and their chicken fajitas were really good. We also ate at My My (pronounced Moo Moo and it has a big cow in front of it). I was pretty nervous to eat there as it's mainly native Russia folks who frequent the place, though they do have some English translation menus. I was glad I went, even though I felt like a scared rabbit. (Chris is sooo much more adventuresome than I am!) We also ate a TGI Fridays, and it was just okay. I'd chose Hard Rock over that if given the chance again. Also Chris ate at a really nice Russian restaurant, and I'll get the name to you. He wants to go back with me on trip 2.
We never made it down to the Red Square, as the day we were going to go, the weather turned really cold, and it started to rain. So, we will build it into the next trip. We stayed on New Arabat Street, and it was great! Everything was fairly close, (10 minute walk) like Starbucks, Fridays, Hard Rock and even a McDonalds. Next trip we also want to visit the huge Gum mall!
Next post I'll share our experience at the grocery store...... :-)
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Trip One Accomplished!
I know I went stealth on this blog for awhile. I'm sorry, but I wanted to insure some safe procedures while we were traveling abroad. It just was a decision both Chris and I needed to make.
So, we flew to Russia a little over a week ago! Let me tell anyone who has not traveled yet, the plane ride pretty much stinks. Not in it's foul smelling or anything...but it's just so daggone long! Plus going to Russia it's sort of our bedtime, so they keep the window shades down on the plane and keep it dark. It's hard to sleep in the economy section of the plane. Trust me, I know! It doesn't help when a not so nice Russian man is behind you and has his knees jammed into the back of your seat, so you can't even tilt your seat back. Nice. Let's just say, it wasn't very comfortable!
The jet lag going over was pretty harsh. I'll let ya know I'm not looking forward to doing that again! Plus the anticipation of being in country, not knowing what will be going on, and meeting your referral.... well it all gave me insomnia! I was told by our coordinator in country that it was very normal to sleep for about 2-3 hours and then wake up around 1am in the morning and have a hard time falling asleep. This happened to me several days in a row, and I really needed the sleep for a clear head at the orphanage. I even took a Tylenol PM on the plane, and it did nothing for me.... actually I took two (the regular dose). Nothing, nada! Can you believe that???
We stayed in an apartment and really felt that was the way to go! It was safe secure, and comfortable. (oh and less expensive) We would definitely utilize an apartment again. Especially since ours had a living room separate from the bedroom which allowed me to work, or read while Chris slept. (Lucky him!) Our apartment had a great view of downtown Moscow and Christ Church Cathedral. At night everything was all lit up and it was really cool. We used Skype on the computer while we were there to talk to our boys. It was awesome because I could take the webcam and turn my laptop around to give them a tour of the apartment and then show them the view at night of the city. They and my sister thought it was beautiful!
The staff in country were great! Very professional, and they had their act together. They made the process seamless. Both Chris and I were impressed.
I'll post next about some places we visited and how our days were filled. Again to those who have yet to travel, be ready.... I'm not sure if I just idealized the process from reading so many blogs, but it was much more difficult and draining than I thought it would be. I'm not sure if I would have really been prepared, except to maybe know that it has the potential to be far more emotionally draining than I ever imagined.
I'll post some more of our time tomorrow. I'm going to clean up from my ds2's birthday today. We had a family celebration.... and I made a cake. Free hand decorating.... I'll post a picture of that too. lol!
Later,
Jackie
So, we flew to Russia a little over a week ago! Let me tell anyone who has not traveled yet, the plane ride pretty much stinks. Not in it's foul smelling or anything...but it's just so daggone long! Plus going to Russia it's sort of our bedtime, so they keep the window shades down on the plane and keep it dark. It's hard to sleep in the economy section of the plane. Trust me, I know! It doesn't help when a not so nice Russian man is behind you and has his knees jammed into the back of your seat, so you can't even tilt your seat back. Nice. Let's just say, it wasn't very comfortable!
The jet lag going over was pretty harsh. I'll let ya know I'm not looking forward to doing that again! Plus the anticipation of being in country, not knowing what will be going on, and meeting your referral.... well it all gave me insomnia! I was told by our coordinator in country that it was very normal to sleep for about 2-3 hours and then wake up around 1am in the morning and have a hard time falling asleep. This happened to me several days in a row, and I really needed the sleep for a clear head at the orphanage. I even took a Tylenol PM on the plane, and it did nothing for me.... actually I took two (the regular dose). Nothing, nada! Can you believe that???
We stayed in an apartment and really felt that was the way to go! It was safe secure, and comfortable. (oh and less expensive) We would definitely utilize an apartment again. Especially since ours had a living room separate from the bedroom which allowed me to work, or read while Chris slept. (Lucky him!) Our apartment had a great view of downtown Moscow and Christ Church Cathedral. At night everything was all lit up and it was really cool. We used Skype on the computer while we were there to talk to our boys. It was awesome because I could take the webcam and turn my laptop around to give them a tour of the apartment and then show them the view at night of the city. They and my sister thought it was beautiful!
The staff in country were great! Very professional, and they had their act together. They made the process seamless. Both Chris and I were impressed.
I'll post next about some places we visited and how our days were filled. Again to those who have yet to travel, be ready.... I'm not sure if I just idealized the process from reading so many blogs, but it was much more difficult and draining than I thought it would be. I'm not sure if I would have really been prepared, except to maybe know that it has the potential to be far more emotionally draining than I ever imagined.
I'll post some more of our time tomorrow. I'm going to clean up from my ds2's birthday today. We had a family celebration.... and I made a cake. Free hand decorating.... I'll post a picture of that too. lol!
Later,
Jackie
Monday, November 3, 2008
Maybe it's the head congestion....
For those of you I don't know IRL, I have caught a nasty cold... bleck. I am praying very much that it is gone before we travel. There is so much going around at church (stomach bug, colds etc) that I pray no one catches anything else either!
On another note, I just have to post how surreal this all seems. Maybe it's partly the head congestion, but it's hard to believe that we'll be flying to Russia soon. It's even harder to believe that we'll be meeting the little ones. I look at my lists and suitcases all empty and think... "hmmmm, that's nice." I am not feeling the sense of urgency or panic that I'll be leaving important info behind. At least not yet... it just all seems very surreal to me. Maybe it's two-fold, a part of disbelief that after 4 years of praying and 2 years of waiting we will finally be traveling....... And then again...... maybe it's the head congestion. :-)
On another note, I just have to post how surreal this all seems. Maybe it's partly the head congestion, but it's hard to believe that we'll be flying to Russia soon. It's even harder to believe that we'll be meeting the little ones. I look at my lists and suitcases all empty and think... "hmmmm, that's nice." I am not feeling the sense of urgency or panic that I'll be leaving important info behind. At least not yet... it just all seems very surreal to me. Maybe it's two-fold, a part of disbelief that after 4 years of praying and 2 years of waiting we will finally be traveling....... And then again...... maybe it's the head congestion. :-)
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