The strangest thing happened on my way to Russia today...

If documents could speak, that's what they would say. This morning I received a phone call from our adoption coordinator who informed us that one of our documents was not correct, and they needed the correct one in Russia ASAP so could I please mail it today. I did the correct amount of eye-rolling while speaking pleasantly on the phone and assuring her that yes, it could be done. Then I loaded the kids up in the car and ran around Maryland getting all of the necessary paperwork done in order to fix this little error. It took 6.5 hours. The last thing I had to do was FedEx the package to Russia, and when I went to Kinko's to grab an international airbill (I have tons of airbills for the US in my desk at home, but didn't have any international ones on hand, go figure) I decided to check and see how much this was going to cost and when it would get there. The guy at the counter took my package with his right hand, and proceeded to do almost everything with that hand while only using his left hand for balance. When I snuck a closer look, it seemed to me that he had the same issue in his left hand that Samuel (our hopefully soon-to-be son) has in his left hand.
It wasn't until I was driving home that the pattern struck me. Before each adoption, we have met someone specific who had the same issue that the child we were adopting had. The day before we flew to Russia to meet Inga we ran into a man with no arms coming out of Best Buy. Before we adopted Andrei we met a guy who had prosthetic arms and took him out to dinner so he could tell us all about them. Before we adopted Elena we "met" a girl online who ice skates and has two little arms just like Elena's one arm. I didn't actually have a conversation with the man behind the Kinko's desk like I did with the others, probably because I was trying to be overly sensitive due to a heated conversation on my Yahoo child amputee chatlist that involved annoying "all-bits" people (people with all limbs) who ask all the wrong questions. But it was fun to see this guy behind the counter nonetheless. It kind of validates this adoption. Which is what I need right now, because it looks like we are not going to make the March 1 deadline (when our agency loses accreditation) so who knows what will happen at this point. Please pray for us!
The package is going to cost about $130.00 to send, by the way.

Balls and Vans

Dan and I went to the Winter Ball at St. Stephen's last night, which was a fund-raiser sort of thing involving dinner, dancing, and a silent auction. It was for parents and staff and friends of the school, and also for the middle and high schoolers. We got babysitters (yes it takes more than one to do my job) for the evening and I had a ton of fun! There was food and line dancing and free alcohol (something about the school not getting its liquor license in time) and dance competitions for the twist and swing dancing for which all teachers and their wives were required to participate (I have never been so grateful for the dance lessons we took right before we got married!). The pastor can actually really dance well, but even funnier was the sight of a homeschooling mom of 7 out leading the line dancing better than most of those people that get paid at those country bar/line-dancing type places. The gym was decorated in true prom style, everyone was dressed to the hilt (although I, like Jaime, opted for the warmer and less-dressed-up mode). The students came with their families, and danced with each other and with siblings and parents. The nicest thing was that people kept asking us to sit with them. I throw this in there so you all know that I am actually quite popular and not at all the geek you all so erroneously assume me to be. AND Dan and I weren't the first ones dismissed from the swing dancing contest.

Still looking for a van. I have of course decided that I want what is not possible. Ben K. can understand how this works, I am sure, since he has gone shopping with me in the past. I look around, I get this ideal in my head of what I want, I see something close to what I want but not quite, I discover that nobody actually makes exactly what I want, and I purchase nothing. Well, Dan and I have decided to see if five car seats will actually fit in our minivan, comfort or no. I drove two Sprinter vans and I hated it and everything else larger than a minivan gets about 10 miles to the gallon, so if there is any way we can keep the minivan we are going to do it.

Elena is way into buying a new van. She asked at dinner today if we were going to buy a new van tomorrow. I told her that no, we weren't. "But tomorrow afternoon, Mom?" she asked. "No," I responded firmly, "not tomorrow at all." "Oh," she said, "afternoon, then." Dan and I just looked at each other and broke out laughing. I can't wait to see what happens when she gets married.

Practicing

Inga is still practicing her refugee look. I personally prefer the smiling countenance but this at least gets us the odd quarter from the innocent bystander.

Update

Our trip to Siberia at the end of January was really smooth. I won't bore you with the details (when things go well it makes for a very uninteresting story!), but the basics are that "Samuel" is really cute and amazingly sweet and felt like he was at home the moment he was in our arms. He cried whenever we left him, and ran to us on the last day of our visit. He actually looks a little bit like Uncle Rick. I would post a picture of him but I am not certain I should do that until he is legally adopted, since technically he is not our child yet. So instead here is a picture of one of our Siberian walks. Russian winters are beautiful!

We are hoping to go back to Russia for court on February 19. All of our paperwork on this end of things is ready, but there are still two key papers that need to come from Moscow that have not yet appeared. We will most likely not know until sometime next week whether or not we will be able to go when we hope to...if those papers don't come in time then we will be looking at a whole new set of rules and uncertainties because our agency loses accreditation on March 1. So, basically, we would really like to leave on February 19. Pray for this for us, please. Lots.

We have done the Unthinkable

We have submitted an application for Inga to be an extra on a movie which has asked for child amputees. The film is called Charlie Wilson's War (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0472062/) starring Julia Roberts and Tom Hanks, who is also directing. I have no idea what will come of this, but a lot of people are applying so the chance that she will actually make it is slim--especially since this is for a refugee camp scene which takes place in Afghanistan. I don't think she quite fits the profile, but I guess they are counting on modern technology to darken skin tone because they listed "Caucasian" as a type they were inviting to submit. Inga has been practicing looking gaunt and haunted all day, and asking others (including her gymnastics teacher) if she looks traumatized enough. This would be hilarious if she didn't also have a sinus infection (apparently these are easy to come by after you break your nose) with huge puffy red bags under her eyes that make it look like someone ought to call 911.
So, Brad, if the unthinkable turns into a reality can we come stay at your place? Oh--and can someone give Inga a crash-course in acting 101?