Being Flexible (and I'm not talking about yoga)!

Well, we are learning about flexibility...Russian Style! On Friday we were all set to purchase our tickets - US to Russia to Paris (for a vacation in Western Europe prior to coming home) to US. I called the travel agent on Friday morning to book the tickets and had to leave a message requesting a call back. By 10:45 there was no return call and I was off to the movies with a friend (Yes, I saw the Twilight New Moon movie). From the movies I headed off to Katie's school for her fall party (I was only a few minutes late and the homemade whoopie pies made up for my tardy arrival).

During the party I get a panicked call from Ken, #1 asking if I bought the tickets and #2 saying, "Don't buy the tickets." Apparently, the Russian visa rules changed and our host institution is going to have difficulties getting us a visa. We can get a 3 month visa (not long enough) or a longer visa that will take 2-2.5 months to obtain which gets us to Russia in Feb. which is much later than we hoped to be there!

As a side note...Upon getting home I had discovered that our phone and internet were not working. I later discovered that they went down early in the morning (maybe God was protecting me from buying those tickets and I was meant to be away from home at the movies!)

So, we are learning to be flexible. We think that we are going to go to Russia on the 3 month visa, leave the country over Easter to travel in Europe, and then come back on a second 3 month visa. It is not our original plan, but it has some positive points...We can leave the bulk of our luggage in Moscow while we are gone, thus eliminating the need to lug it with us through Europe. We are trying to be patient while all of this is sorted out but it can be hard! Meanwhile, I think I am going to go do some yoga for stress relief!

6 Weeks (about) and counting...

Our journey to Russia is approaching very quickly. We have so much to do... register the kids for school, see an accountant, buy tickets, buy clothes - WARM CLOTHES -, buy a laptop, E-Reader, find luggage, get shots, finish the visa application, get adapters, figure out what we can live without for 5 months and the list goes on and on and on...

We are so grateful that our placement with RAI (Russian American Institute) formerly, RACU (Russian American Christian Univeristy) is working out. They have very generously offered to help us find housing and will be picking us up from the airport. We feel very fortunate to have their support!

The kids will start school on January 11, with Ken starting on Jan. 18. We will leave sometime in early Jan. to get settled and adjusted before the kids need to be in school. I'm off to work on the applications for Katie/Dylan's school!