Referral time!

So, the original reason I even got a blog was that once the adoption got moving I could use it to communicate with a lot of people very quickly and easily -- even from Russia.  Obviously with the exception of a couple posts at the beginning this has been used more as a "keep recipes I make up from getting lost" sort of application! BUT  we have a referral, so it's time to use this for it's intended purpose.
We got our referral last Tuesday, the morning after Andrew's 7th birthday.  That sticks in my head because that night he came and gave me a giant hug (he's our huggy guy) and said "Mom, WHEN are we getting my baby sister?"  I told him to go back to bed and to pray about it, that only God knows when we'd find out and then, just half joking, told him to was ok to pray that it happened SOON!  He's pretty sure that his prayer alone brought a picture of her the next morning!
Apparently he wasn't the only one on the cusp of knowing...my sister had a dream that same night that we got our referral and even dreamt some of the details -- like the fact that she was part of a family and they couldn't keep her and had other kids!
The biggest "God wink" if you've heard that term before, was opening the referral.  We decided in Sept of 2010 to begin this process.  We didn't tell anyone else until later that fall, but we did immediately open a new savings account and start dumping anything we could into it.  Our code word for the adoption was "Anastacia" and we called the account the "Anastacia account".  If you're not familiar with Russian history, Anastacia was the youngest daughter of the last Czar of Russia.  When the Communists came in, they had the entire family killed.  Ever since there have been rumors that she, as a very young child, somehow was saved or escaped and people even have come forward claiming to be the lost princess and presenting their case. In the early 90's there was a cartoon movie called Anastacia about the story.  I was familiar with the history and Bryan was familiar with the movie, so he suggested that as our name for the adoption.  When we opened the referral, my speedreading caught a glimpse of the name of the file as it was opening...Anastacia.  Now, I don't know if that was her birth name or if the orphanage renamed her, but, what are the chances that over a year ago we "accidentally" started calling her her real name?  Somewhere, God must have been chuckling.
So, here we are.  A list a mile long of visa confirmations and paperwork in quadruplicate notarized and apostilled and little boys to prepare for mom and dad being gone for a while and the house and food and allergies to get ready for Caitlin, my soon to be sister who is apparently going to get initiated by fire, to come care for them.  A LOT to accomplish this week.  We fly out to Moscow on the 20th and we will return the 26th.  This is our first trip -- this is the meet her and officially file to adopt her in Russia.  Hopefully we will internet access most of the time so we can keep this updated while we are over there!

Prayer Requests:
*Travel arrangements -- we have our tickets and our visas in progress, but we need to call and confirm something about the visas that we were unable to get done before the weekend.  This means that they should have been moving forward Friday and instead got put on hold. We only have a few days window of extra time for them.
*The boys and Caitlin here
*My ability to stay focused and able to complete the task at hand -- if you know me, you know I can get easily distracted...hey, look!  Something shiny!...I have a lot to get done this week and the sooner the better.