We're Leaving, On A ...

... train. Wait, that can't be right. How did that John Denver song go, anyway?

Anyway, it's been far too long since we've updated this, and for that I'm truly sorry. We missed our "once a week" goal by almost a full week, but it's been a full one and there really hasn't been much time. Lots of things have happened, and I promise we'll do our best to catch you up in the weeks to come.

However, for now, you'll have to make do with a brief summary, because it's almost 1:00 am and I don't want to be on here much longer. Basically, our friends and future coworkers David and Erin and their kids came into town last Monday, and we've been spending a lot of time with them. They're much more faithful bloggers than we are, and if you want to see their pictures pf our time together just go to their blog linked to the right or click here.

Also, we've been gathering the necessary documents for our trip, so that we hopefully have everything lined up to take to the immigration office once we're there in T-land (that's what we're calling the part of Siberia we'll be making our home, in case you hadn't noticed that by now). That's meant some trips to the lawyer's and translator's office, and a lot of stress by me. Of course, we had our regular language lessons while all this was happening as well.

Finally, the lovely B somehow managed to get herself volunteered to be the main cook at a Valentine's Day Banquet that our family group had for about 55 couples. That means that she's been up to her neck in chicken curry and punch bowl cake since Saturday. I'm sure you'll be getting a post on that at some point, replete with pictures of the events in question, but I don't know when that will be.

That's because we leave tomorrow (!!) on the train for Siberia. It will be our first time visiting the place that will hopefully be our home for the next, well, bunch of years (10? 50? only he knows). We'll be applying for residency there as well as just getting a feel for the town and work there. After two weeks or the acceptance of our residency paperwork, whichever comes last, we'll return, but I'm really, really looking forward to it.

Well, maybe not the actual trip, but just being there. It's exciting to start to feel closer to the final goal, as well as meeting the people we've come here to serve for the first time. The three days in a train with two small children, followed by 6 hours in a taxi with the same children I could honestly do without. We'd really appreciate your thoughts for the trip, that the kids would handle being cooped up in a train that long well, and that we wouldn't have any unexpected headaches with our paperwork once there.

Siberia. Of course, it doesn't really look like this in February, but let's not get hung up in the details.

This has already gotten longer than I thought it would, so I'm sorry but I'm going to hang it up for the night. We love you all and thanks for thinking of us. If we get a chance, we'll try to post from out there but internet access is sketchy so you might not hear from us for a few weeks until we get back. You can check the links to David and Erin's (the "Privyet" blog) or David and Christy's (the "Family Footprints" one) blogs on the right; we'll be spending our time out there with those two families and they have internet access, so maybe you can catch the news about us from them in the meantime. Thanks for your thoughts!

Note: We've arrived, safe and sound, in T-land! Only 81 hours travel time! Our internet connection is very slow, so I'm not going to put up a new post for a bit, but thanks for thinking of us.