Nine days????

Hi everyone! Well we got the call yesterday afternoon telling us we had to be in Poland on July 10 to meet Paulina on July 11. WHAT????? We're traveling in nine days???? So I haven't slept much since receiving the referral on June 17, but I may as well forget about it now (or magically produce a whole lot of Ambien).

I'm now frantically on craigslist trying to find another crib, little girl bedding, etc., etc.. Paulina is currently living in an orphanage in Czestochowa, Poland. This is south of Warsaw and is considered the most beautiful part of the country. It's mountainous with lots of picturesque little towns. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cz%C4%99stochowa , http://www.krakow-info.com/czestoch.htm

So, logistics! Tom, Hayden, and I will depart July 9 - arrive Warsaw July 10 and travel by car tot he Czestochowa. Paulina is living in an orphanage there - we'll meet her on July 11 and the bonding period will officially begin on July 14. Hopefully the judge will allow us to have custody sometime that week, otherwise, we will visit her as much as possible daily at the orphanage. Our first court date is July 31. After that, Tom can come home. Hayden, Paulina and I have to remain in Poland until August 29 to get the final adoption decree in Czestochowa and then the US visa in Warsaw. We'll get an apartment in Czestochowa 7/11 - 8/1, and then 8/2 - 8/30 in Warsaw. I was fortunate enough to find a family in Round Rock who just completed their Polish adoption in January of this year, and they have been a HUGE help on the logistics part and understanding what to expect daily. It has been an enormous comfort just meeting someone who has done this before us. Because the program in Poland is so small, there aren't a lot of online resources or support, so it's been a little tough finding information...

So, that's all I have for now - we still have to book tickets and all that good stuff... if anyone is going to be in Europe this summer, hop on a train and come visit us :-) We're going to try to update this at least weekly while we're there.

PS - we're taking the house in Houston off the market and putting off the construction on the new house. ENTIRELY too much going on to go there right now!!! I am hugely relieved.