Where the rubber meets the road

If you have all been wondering about the loud screeching noise you heard Monday morning, and the burning smell... that was us. Monday's are apparently bad days to talk to your adoption coordinator. You never know what is going to happen. This morning she called, to check in I was sure, find out if I had sent the visa application (sitting on the counter to go today), made plane reservations (calling to confirm and pay after dropping Jaden off at school), see if we had any questions (oh, yeah...). But that wasn't it at all. She was calling to put the brakes on.

You see, it appears that despite all the hurry up, it's now time to wait. There is another family that just arrived in Arkalyk to adopt, although I don't know what this has to do with us. And the coordinator in Arkalyk, Habiba, might need to have surgery at the end of the month. And there will be more children 'released from the registry' at the end of the month. And it's a short month, so they are not sure we could be done with court by the time Bruce needs to leave for his conference in Berlin. Oh. So I asked her, "But if we wanted to go right now, could we?" No real answer ensued. Being Russian, I would expect her to be quite direct. But I guess that's my preconception of Russians. This one hems, haws, and politely waffles. I think I am supposed to 'get it', but would be in favor of a straight answer. I don't believe there is any intent to mislead, perhaps just a cultural politeness that doesn't meld with the current endeavor.

At any rate, it appears we won't be leaving on Valentine's Day after all. And Jaden will get to spend his birthday in Boulder, as he so strongly desired. Perhaps most importantly, we did 3 weeks worth of stuff in the last week in anticipation of leaving, so now we only have half as much to do, so we can easily put that off until the last minute... t he gnashing of the teeth can take a break temporarily as well. And there is some small, outside chance that there will be time to edit the ever growing pile of stuff to take. But not by much. In our world, it never pays to travel too light.