Passport Pictures

I was comparing the passport pictures of my Ukrainian twins. The younger is picture is from 2008 and the newer one is from 2011. Look how much they've changed!

Keith

Iryna. Yeah, Iryna doesn't look too happy in her newer picture. To be fair, she had a fever blister (nice timing, eh) and she was READY to be done at CVS.

In 6 weeks, we leave for Russia! Wahoo! :)

$4,500

Our home study is done (on our end) and is being reviewed by Heart of Adoptions - our home study agency - and About A Child - our placement agency. It should be notarized within a week or two.

We mailed in our service agreement +$2,000 to our placement agency. It feels odd writing a check for such a large amount.

And this morning, I paid $4,500 for 6 round trip tickets from FL to Moscow. It was $753 per ticket, an amazing price! I found them on Delta Airlines. It's not as great of a deal like I found a week ago, $585 (Thanks for the tip, Mary!), but we needed to be in country longer and $753 is still a super awesome price, so I'm happy. We leave in April! Let the countdown begin! :)

Update

We are still waiting on one paper/form to be submitted and then our home study will be done. Hooray!

We are planning to leave April 11th. I am having trouble finding a good rate on flights - I am hopeful to find something for less than $1,000 per plane ticket. Has anyone found this?

I'm so ready to just GO to Russia! Keithy keeps asking when we're going on the "airplane in the sky" and I know he doesn't understand the meaning of 2 more months. :(

Orphanage supplies

I am going to plan to take a bag of supplies to the orphanage(s) in Nizhny Novgorod. I am thinking to ask the kids' school to see if any of the students/teachers want to donate items. Most people want to help orphans, they just don't know how. This will be an easy opportunity for them.

Has anyone used asaptickets.com to buy plane tickets? They're quoting $800 for a roundtrip ticket to Nizhny Novgorod, whereas, other sites show $2000...not sure if I should trust asaptickets or if I've hit the goldmine? What airlines have you used (or do you know others have used) to go to Russia?

I am putting together some really fun fundraisers for our adoption. Stay tuned!

April 11th

That is when we're planning to leave for Russia. Would I like to go sooner? Yes. But this is when we're going. And I'm trying to be at peace about it. I'm a planner and this just means that I have more time to agonize over plan every detail of the trip. It means we don't have to rush in getting our visas. It means that I can spend more time finding a great price on 6 round-trip tickets to Russia. It means that I can focus on fundraising for the adoption. It means that it'll be warmer in Russia in April than it is right now (28 degrees and snowing). There are two families traveling to Nizhny Novgorod in March through AAC, so I will be very interested to see how their processes go.

In other news, Tyler and I currently feel comfortable with the idea of adopting 2 children: one with special needs and one "normal". So that is our plan for now. Of course, whomever God asks us to adopt at the MOE, we will adopt them. We want to do His will above our own.

Dreaming of my babies

So last night I dreamt that I had a precious baby girl in my arms. I am so ready to go to Russia!

I am trying to be hopeful that we'll be going to Nizhny Novgorod in March. However, Tyler has to submit his itinerary 30 days in advance before we can go. The issue is that the last week of March and the first 2 weeks of April there are mandatory things at work that Tyler has to attend.

So for us to be able leave in March, we'd have to have our home study done. Plus we need to get money for our plane tickets and for lodging in Russia, home study and adoption placement agency fees, and paperwork fees in country.

Please pray for us! We need a miracle to help us get to Russia in March.


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Names

I love the topic of naming children. It's something that I get really excited about! What a great opportunity to name a child - the name that they will have for their whole life! I really like the names of my children, thus far, and I am excited about picking new names for our Russian children. Here are some names that we're looking at currently:

Girls:
Vanessa
Stella
Katya (Ekaterina)

Boys:
Emmett
Russell
Luke

I am planning to keep the children's given names as their middle name (or first name if I really REALLY like it). I just realized today that I am "expecting" 1-3 children right now! And thinking of a name is a common topic when you're "expecting", right? Which of these names do you like best?