Ah... Where to begin?

Let's just cut to the chase, shall we?
A few weeks ago we received the referrals for a sibling set of 3 children. Uh huh, I said THREE. One boy (4 years old) and two girls (3,2).

At this point, most people gasp and raise their eyebrows in shock, three?! Go ahead, shake your a head a couple of times, get that of the way...Read on.

Now, Scott and I have had some time to get used to the idea, because back in October, before we changed regions, we were informed about these little ones. Would we like to be considered for a sibling group of 3? Coming to that decision is a story in itself. I certainly did my fair share of gasping, eyebrow raising, and head shaking! I'll fill you in on that someday.

We changed all of our paperwork in October so we would be approved for 3, just in case. December 7 brought the phone call from our agency. The referrals would indeed be sent to us.

So what's been going on for the past month? Well, it took a couple of weeks to complete our appointments with the International Adoption Specialists (IA docs). There are a limited number of these doctors around the country. We sent everything we were given about the children to 2 different IA docs for their review, then we had a phone conference to hear their opinions. Both doctors raised many questions/concerns that we've been trying to get answered. Unfortunately, the powers that be in the Russian orphanages are not providing any more information at this time.

So, our choices were
1) Decline the referrals and wait to be matched with another child or
2) Conditionally accept the referrals, go to Russia and meet the little ones for ourselves (and hopefully gather the additional information we need while we are there)

What'll it be?
Well, Monty, we've decided to go with Curtain #2!
Hey! It's a trip to Siberia!

Um, please note the weather forecast folks. Today's high... negative twenty. Seriously? Negative twenty degrees? Isn't that just some imaginary number Scott teaches in his fancy new math classes?

This trip will be about 7 days. We'll be gone in early February. More details to come. Until then, we certainly covet your prayers for patience, wisdom, and protection for the children.

Oh yeah, one more thing. Molly wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!