Count Down to Take Off: 3-2-1...

August has FLOWN by! On the 4th the Ukrainian State Department of Adoption (SDA) began looking at our dossier. By our estimate, we figured we would receive a court date mid- to late September. My husband had been planning/training for a 10 day hike in Yosemite on the John Muir Trail. Luckily, this wouldn't be in conflict with traveling.

A day and a half before his hike we received word that we had a court date - August 31! That was only 2 1/2 weeks away and there was so much to do. William offered to cancel his trip, but after some discussion, it was decided that he should go. Who knew when he would have another chance? And, what a bummer it would have been to have trained so hard and not been able to participate!

For the past 2 weeks, I have made to-do lists up the wazoo trying to cover all the detail of our life. Just as I would complete on task, 3 more would come to mind. I finally made 10 different to-do lists based on topic: dog care, rental property, kid care, bills to pay, transportation, supplies needed, etc. For those who don't know me, I like to be organized (I'm not always very good at this, but like it none the less). For my parents, who will be watching our kids the majority of the time, I wrote a set of instruction. This, of course, became a huge project - partly due to me being detailed and partly due to the fact that my parents wanted details about my details. All in all, I ended up with a 17 page thesis including a table of contents and additional pages in the appendix (googled maps of every conceivable place they might want to go and then some). If anyone reading this ever needs to make a set of instructions, you can borrow mine and modify it... :0)

Count down 3-
Yesterday the dogs went to a friends house for their adventure. I packed gifts and clothes to donate. I also packed for my kids.

Count down 2-
Tonight, my kids will go stay with some friends for a week until Grandpa & Grandma arrive. House is mostly clean for my parents arrival. Perishibles are purged from the fridge. I still must finish packing and make sure nothing is being forgotten (and hopefully get some sleep).

Count down 1-
Tomorrow will become today and we will be airborne.

That's it for now... I'm not sure when I'll be connected again, but will definitely update as I can.