To T-land and back...

Whew! What a crazy couple of weeks it has been! It has been very busy, and at times quite stressful, but also very rewarding. We are so thankful that we had this opportunity to go 'home' for a bit!

We just arrived back in the capital this evening (Saturday) after spending a week in T-land. Our return trip went quite smoothly, and we are so thankful for how well our kids handled all the traveling, considering we woke them up early and they had to sit most of the day. We are now back at the guest apartment, where we plan on being until Tuesday morning when we head back to Germany.

Backing up a bit...

Our trip to Siberia (over a week ago) was long and tiring, but also quite uneventful, so that is good! The only thing was that our little Micah was having a difficult time. We had noticed that while at the Guest apartment, he began coughing this really dry cough. We weren't too concerned about it until we were at the airport, waiting for our night flight to Siberia. Our plane was scheduled to leave in an hour and a half, when Micah began coughing and coughing. He coughed so hard that he threw-up! (Micah is not a baby that spits up, so this was totally new for him!) David quickly grabbed him and took him to a doctor that works at the airport. After checking him, the doctor said that he is totally healthy. It's just that his little body is having a difficult time adjusting to the change in climates, as Germany is very humid, and R-land is very dry. We were relieved to know that he was healthy, yet felt terrible that he was having such a difficult time adjusting to the change in climates and traveling. Yet, thankfully, after a few days, he seemed to be doing better, and seems to be over it now. (David and I were jokingly wondering what we'd do if our baby boy was allergic to R-land?!?!)

Our time in T-land was very busy and went crazy fast! But oh, it was SO good to be home for a bit! The first couple of days were spent getting the rest of our documents ready for us to apply for temporary residency, the three year visa. The office that accepts applications for this is only opened Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons, from 2-5pm. We went there Tuesday afternoon, and received an application form that we needed to fill out. Alltogether, we had 16 pages to fill out, and of course, it was all in Russian. We were a bit surprised and overwhelmed! That evening, we put the kids to bed, and got to work. David and I didn't go to bed until early Wednesday morning, but we had filled out that application! (It was great Russian practice for me!) Wednesday morning, David worked on getting some other documents that we needed (documents that weren't on the list, yet we were told we needed), and then we went back that afternoon to apply. It was quite nerve-racking for us, as we knew this was the last day/chance we had to apply, as our flight was scheduled to leave T-land Saturday! We also knew that we had to have everything 'just so' in order for us to even be able to apply! After the lady spent quite some time reading through our application and looking through our documents, she took all our papers and said that we were able to apply! (She seemed quite surprised that we had all the documents that we needed!) We were SO relieved! It took us the last 5 months, trying to get all our documents ready to apply, and here, we finally were able to! Yippee! We were so happy! (Oh, David just had to make a quick trip to the store to buy some folders, as we didn't have our documents in the folders they wanted them in, but besides that, we had everything else!) After our papers were accepted, a man came up to David, and asked him how we were able to apply. He said that he's been trying to apply for the last 3 weeks, and they won't accept his application, as they always find something wrong with it! Right then, we realized what a 'miracle' it was for us, that they accepted our application! It takes up to 6 months for our application to be processed, so we won't know if we will get the temporary residency for a while yet, but at least we were able to apply! Thank-you SO much for thinking about that with us! We are so thankful! Also, please be thinking about our co-workers, David and Erin, that they will also be able to apply (and receive the temporary residency!) They hope to apply within the next couple of weeks.

We also had a great time catching up with David and Erin and their kids. It's so exciting to see how they are doing and all the new friends that they have made! We are so thankful for them, and miss them already! What a gift it is to have such wonderful co-workers and friends.

Well, there is so much more I could say, but for now, I need to 'call it a night', as my eyes keep wanting to shut. It's been a long day, and with the time difference... even longer. (So sorry for any mistakes!) I'll try to write more later. Good night!