What next?

We arrived in San Francisco from our trip to Stavropol late Friday night and drove to Kevin's parents to spend the night and pick up C and K. C and K did well the week we were gone. Grandma and Grandpa had them in swim lessons nearly every day, took them to the library three times, picnicked at Pt. Reyes, went to a museum and saw Kung Fu Panda. I think his parents were tired! But C and K were in good spirits, and unbelievably well-behaved for having us gone so long. They have also been so polite and helpful since we've come home. It's been really nice!

We spent the weekend recovering from our jet lag (thank you again, Melatonin). And since Monday I have been chasing down the last three documents I need. I finally had them all in hand Wednesday at 5pm, and scanned and emailed them to my agency last night. They should be in the hands of our coordinator Friday and if she is satisfied, the whole dossier will be presented to the judge. Our agency and our coordinator and translators in Russia are working hard to try to have us return for a court date in July,
so that we can bring M home before the August holiday.

July is going to be a busy month if we go to Russia twice, not to mention the annual family camping trip to Lake Tahoe. While I love the camping trip, I'm actually hoping that we are in Russia during the trip. I think it would be easier for Kevin's parents (and everyone else) to watch the kids that week because all the aunts and uncles can share the job of watching them. Plus, the kids will be occupied playing with their cousins. They'll just need food and a place to sleep. So we'll see what happens.

So today and tomorrow I get to do some more mundane activities, like grocery shopping and planning the kids' birthday party which we postponed to Saturday. And one of these days I will upload some pictures from my good camera.

Next week, I may actually dive into the piles of boxes in the garage that hold all the clothing from the kids for the past 7 years. I can start pulling stuff out to wash and prepare for M. I can't wait!

Gotta get the kids up now so we can take Smokey cat to the vet...