Moving Forward

I thought that I would start my entry off with a picture and a story about my neice, Tori. (She's the one in the pink hat, not the fuzzy one with the big ears!) Tori is 8 yrs old and the only grandchild on my side of the family. She has been immensely excited about getting a new cousin and has been enthusiastically helping Uncle Jeff collect cans to recycle to help with some of the costs. My mom, or grandma, jokingly complains all the time about how the back seat of her car is always full of cans and having to wait for Tori while she runs to pick up a can she has spotted. That being said, before Christmas for an assignment her teacher had everyone write a letter to Santa Claus to be published in the local paper. Tori's letter was as follows:
Dear Santa,
I hope you have a good Christmas. I wanted to ask you something. Can I have a panda bear that comes with a little one and a wreath and two boxes of cans so my Aunt Michelle and Uncle Jeff can adopt a baby that's all.
From,
Tori
We just thought that was the sweetest letter. We had my mom save the newspaper clipping with her letter so we can put it in Baby G's baby book so we can show him/her how much he/she was wanted!
On another note, we received our travel packet yesterday and I was SOOOOOO excited, until I started to read/ scan through it! All the information!!! It makes income tax forms look like a childrens book! So, I am going to attempt to break it down a little bit at a time and time is something I have! What we have read has made us start to rethink our original plans. We had originally thought that we would just do it all in one trip with Jeff leaving for the US after court and my mom coming over to help me with Baby G until we returned home, but they make it sound like it might be more complicated that way than just making the two trips. I had just figured I had the time that I could stay in country and 1.) It would give me some extra time to really get a feel for the Kazakh culture and 2.) I didn't want to have to leave our baby for a month because I didn't want to leave Baby G and two I thought it might make the transition process a little easier. I guess that is something that we will have to really think on even more now! Otherwise, we now have a more official list of what to bring, along with a list of suggested items from my yahoo group, and can REALLY start collecting things to bring with us on our trip(s). Time to get busy!