Update

It turns out that preparing to go to Russia on 7 days notice really does a number on ones stomach...not to mention checkbook.

Luckily, some of that stress has been eased by the fantastic folks at Rainier World Travel, who were able to process our visas and book our flights with amazing speed.

We will be heading to Russia this coming Tuesday, but won't actually arrive in Novosibirsk until Thursday morning. As soon as we arrive, we will be driven to our hotel where we will have an hour or two to freshen up (I'm pretty sure we'll need it at that point), and then we will meet with the Department of Education where we will receive our official invitation to see our little girl.

At some point on Thursday afternoon, we will head to the baby home and meet her. We have been told that we will spend anywhere between 40 minutes to 2 hours with her that first day, so we need to be flexible.

I would imagine that after visiting with her, we will then head back to the hotel and crash.

We are guaranteed one visit with her on Friday, but there is a possibility of two visits. This, of course, is dependent on the decision of the baby home director, as they don't like to disrupt the children's schedules too much.

While it is not common practice to allow visitation on weekends, there is also a possibility that we will be granted a short visit with her on Saturday.

We will leave Novosibirsk on Sunday evening, spend the night in Moscow, and then get catch a flight early Monday morning to head home. Assuming all flights go as planned, we will arrive in Boise Monday evening.

And just an FYI - As much as I wish otherwise, we are not allowed to give any information about our little girl until the adoption has been completed. For this reason, we won't be able to share her name or pictures while on this trip. We will, however, do our best to keep you informed on our experience while visiting her, so feel free to check in from time to time.

If you don't hear from me between now and next week, I will catch you on the flip-side...and I mean that quite literally!