Update on Travel arrangements

I spoke with the travel agency on Friday, June 6, but the travel plans were only good for 24 hours. I didn't realize this, or I would have purchased them that day. Anyway, our agency called on Tuesday and said that the travel arrangements were good, but when I called the travel agency, we could no longer book the same days. So, we are leaving on Friday, June 20 instead of Saturday. This actually works out pretty well. We will arive in Novokuznetsk on Sunday, giving us an extra day to sleep before meeting our daughter on Monday. We will visit her Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday for about two hours each. According to the orphanage schedule, we can visit from 10:30 am to 12:30 pm. Those are the only times we are allowed to be in the orphange to visit.

There is another family traveling that week. We were supposed to meet up in Moscow, but since we are now taking an earlier flight, we will be meeting at the hotel. Their child is also at the same orphanage. We will be able to see our children together. We might even go sight-seeing together. We do not have access to a driver or translator for non-adoption related tasks. However, if we are willing to pay a little extra, we can ask the driver to drive us around if he isn't busy. On the other hand, since we will be with another couple, it might be nice to just walk around and explore Novokuznetsk.

We found out a little about the orphanage. Our hotel is in Novokuznetsk. Our orphanage is in Prokopeyvsk. We are hearing very good reviews of this orphanage. We are hearing that the directress is very nice and that the children are very well taken care of. We also received a sample menu of what the children eat during the day. Although it's not much like an American diet, it's not all porrige and mush.

Please keep us in your prayers as we plan for this trip. I am very busy from now until then. Friday I work, and then in the evening we have the appointment with the psychologist. That evening we leave for Indiana for the weekend. We will be there all day Saturday and Sunday for Father's Day. On Sunday we return home with my neice. I will have her Monday and Tuesday. I don't know if I work on those days. My father-in-law is supposed to pick her up Tuesday night. I work Wednesday, Thursday I don't know about yet, but Thursday night I'm supposed to do stamping cards, and we leave Friday night. In between there somewhere I'll need to do some laundry so we're not overwhelmed when we come back home.

Please pray for us on our journey as well. We leave Friday at 5pm and arrive home on Thursday at 4pm. We don't have anyone to take us there, so we'll either have to drive or take a Taxi.