Insert clever title for "News!"

And (as a close member of the family pointed out) this time the news is not annoying or bad!

We've decided to go to Estonia at the end of May to preview Ekaterina and Roman. As mentioned to most of you, we wouldn't adopt siblings or older kids unless the specific kids were really what we're looking for in terms of personality, health, and issues. We're prepared to deal with likely issues we may face, but it seems that these kids have nothing severe.

Here's what we know so far...

We're flying out on Saturday the 24th in the evening for an overnight flight. We have a layover in Stockholm and then we'll get to Tallinn at 5:50pm (their time). We'll be picked up by the people from the B&B we're staying in, which is where most people stay when they are going for the adoption trips. Our coordinator/translator (Igor is his name - not to be confused with Dad's impression of "Igor the Ogre") will be taking us where we need to go. I assume the first time we'll see the kids is Monday. From what I heard it's likely that the orphanage will want us to take the kids back to the hotel with us to stay with us for the 3 days we are there. Then we leave on Thursday the 29th, to arrive back in Newark at 7pm.

We were excited to learn that the kids speak Russian, not Estonian. That means we can keep going with our learning of Russian and have it be useful! With the translator's help, our little bit of Russian, and the fact that they have been taking English, communication should be easier that we thought it might be initially.

The only other significant things we know about them is she takes ballet, he likes to play soccer, they do well in school, are agreeable and compliant, that she desperately wants a family and he's a "little wild". When I asked for clarification on that, they said "normal 10 year old boy wild"; but they also said that he really likes adults and does tasks he's given without any trouble.

They seem like really sweet kids. I don't remember if I mentioned this before, but the lady at the agency in SC (who has adopted kids as well) said that if she was looking to adopt, she'd adopt these kids. They really seem normal, healthy (as much as possible in orphanage), and nice. So we're going to meet them so we can decide for sure.

We're really excited to go and keep hearing nothing but good things about how these trips usually work out. Seems like an easy place to travel, especially with Igor's help. Their culture is more western than eastern in a lot of ways, which is why (I guess) they take ballet and play soccer and take English as part of their schooling. :)

The next step after we get back is to send our dossier over there to be approved. Anywhere from a month to several months later we will go back for our court hearing to finalize. That second trip should take two weeks or less over there.

We're finishing up our dossier before we leave for the preview so everything will be ready before we go. The paperwork for Estonia is much easier, in my opinion. We've gotten almost all of it done. After we get everything we need, we have to get some things notarized and then take it all to Harrisburg to be apostilled. That basically means they verify the notaries and give everything another stamp. Then everything gets translated and sent off to Estonia.

We just found out yesterday that the kids are right in Tallinn (where we fly in and where we're staying), so there won't be a lot of in-country travel. Which is good when you're only there three days.

So now you're up to date! Things finally happening. But it's such a roller coaster. This is so hard! All the waiting and wondering, uncertainties. It really is tormenting. All we can do is hope that it'll be worth it. ;)

Love,
Molly