"WEGOTOURLOI"

I received a weird phone call this afternoon while at work. There was a lot of yelling and screaming on the other end of the line. I thought it was a prank call but then I thought, "what kind of idiot would make a prank phone call to the police"? After 15 seconds or so, I realized it was Patti. She kept screaming, "wegotourloi, wegotourloi"!! I didn't have any idea what she was saying. I thought she may have picked up a new Russian phrase that would come in handy for our trip so I asked her what it meant. She was able to compose herself long enough to say "We - got - our - LOI" (Letter of Invitation)!! It finally came, wegotourloi, wegotourloi! We are finally going to Kazakhstan to get our baby"! Oh, ... now I get it!!

We received an email from our agency this afternoon. It stated that our Letter of Invitation had been issued and that we would be traveling to Kazakhstan "shortly". They said it will probably be at the end of February but will have the exact travel dates tomorrow (Friday). We will post our travel dates as soon as we get them.

As soon as we get our travel dates, we have to complete our visa applications and send them to the Embassy in Washington D.C.. They will then process and return them to us, hopefully the next day. Since Monday is a holiday, we should have them by Wednesday or Thursday of next week.

We also have to purchase airline tickets. In doing my research, I've read some glowing recommendations for Golden Rule Travel Agency. They specialize in adoption travel so they are very aware of the many "last minute" changes that we may have to make. I spoke to one of their agents last week and feel pretty comfortable with them.

On Saturday, I spent 2 hours researching international cell phones and the different plans that are available. When I got done, I was more confused than ever! Patti is going to be in charge of the phone while we are there (and pretty much everything else too)!! I'll just carry the luggage and be "The Blog Master"!