Stressed

We have received our long-awaited travel dates to Russia. Which would ordinarily be fabulously good news. (and is, really, fabulously good news. Travel dates! Woohoo!)

But they want us to fly out Sunday. Which would ordinarily be no problem, if it were any other week of the year. As it is, C has a very important meeting he cannot miss on Monday. In podunk Michigan. Two hours from Chicago O'Hare.

It won't help for me to fly out Sunday and then him to follow Tuesday. We both have to be there Wednesday morning. We will get to see our baby girl for a few hours on Wednesday and then for a few hours on Thursday. Then they all go on holiday for a week because there is a holiday May 1st and another on the 9th or so and they generally all take the week between off. Sort of like the last week of December in these parts.

The Russians are not on board with us waiting until after the 9th to visit her. And I found out that until we visit her, she is fair game, but after we visit, she is registered to us and cannot be adopted by anyone else except her family. So we need to get there asap and see her.

So not only do we only get a few hours over two days with her, but we are having a hell of a time trying to schedule a flight that will allow C to do his meetings on Monday and us to be there by Wednesday morning. He is trying to reschedule his last meeting on Monday, but it may not happen and if he can't reschedule, he will be really pushing it to make his 7:20 flight out of Chicago. We can't get me to O'Hare on Monday using miles, so I may go with him Sunday, then if we get to the plane on time Monday night, we would fly through Frankfurt and Moscow, arriving in the city we need to be in at around midnight Tuesday night. We can't fly out Tuesday and get to the region in time Wednesday morning. We have given up on using miles for the majority of the flight...at this point, we will be doing good to get there at all.

So things have been a little stressed out around here today.

I had to fill out the Russian visa applications today and overnight them so that we can get our visas back in time to travel. There were two apps per parent required and they both had to be filled out by hand. No copies. That took me a ridiculous amount of time. Around two hours. Seriously. I had to look up addresses and phone numbers of companies we've worked for and universities we went to. List countries we've been to in the last ten years (only as many as would fit in the box...so I didn't have to list all of them because we've been a lot of places in the last ten years...). And it all had to be written very small and very neatly. Twice for each of us. And I had to stop occasionally and discuss flight options and meeting politics with a very stressed out hubby.

So I sent that off today along with our final agency payment.

This week I need to beg my doctor to give us updated medicals by Thursday since I will need to take them and a few other documents down to Austin again for another apostille run. The latest I can do that is Friday.

And I need to go to the bank and track down a startling number of crisp, pristine $100 bills dated after 2000, since Russian banks will not accept bills dated before 2000 (Who knew?) and therefore we cannot pay our fees in bills that the banks there won't accept.

And we need to buy a video camera. I don't know the first thing about video cameras. Any suggestions for features to look for and ones to avoid?

And I need to finalize the homestudy and medicals for the China I-171-H because that expires on May 7th.

And I need to pack for both of us to go to Russia. It will be a short trip, at least, with minimum clothing needs, although jeans and tennies aren't going to cut it, so I need to get nicer clothes ready (and see what I can still fit into). And C will have to wear a suit Monday, so we will be lugging that around the world.

And I need to sort and mail out a scrapbooking swap I am hosting.

And I need to start and finish a scrapbooking swap that I am participating in. And mail it.

And I need to prepare handouts and my pattern and finish knitting the sample for the knitting a moebius class I am teaching at Fiberfest Saturday afternoon. Because I was loony enough to commit to this months ago... but I may need to be committed before the week is over.

Things are a little stressed around here. Did I mention that?

I think I need to go fix myself a margarita. You know, to celebrate the travel dates. Or something...