Just a quick update.  We got our itinerary information in the mail today, and more importantly, our visas.  Approval of our visas was the last piece of the puzzle that needed to fall into place.  Not that there would be any reason to deny us, but the trip just wouldn’t happen without them!  We feel so much better now that it is done. 

We will be gone 8 days.  To me, traveling to Vladivostok from Missouri via Moscow takes a very long time.  But let’s face it, there was a time one couldn’t have gotten across his own country in 8 days, let alone to the other side of the planet and back , and we will have time to accomplish meaningful tasks.  But an interesting point.  By the time we get to Vladivostok, we will have traveled roughly ten thousand miles.  The point I find most interesting is that once we arrive it would be closer to home if we just kept going east.  So with the two round trips we are going to make we will have traveled 40,000 miles.  That is enough to circumvent the globe more than one and a half times.  Talk about going to the ends of the earth for these boys!   

Prayer requests right now are that finances would continue to be provided.  God has always provided just enough to get us to the next step.  We don’t yet have enough to cover everything until the end, but we are getting close.  There does seem to be light at the end of the tunnel!  Also, pray for safety in travel, for our children who are staying here that they would get through the week while we are gone, and Grandma to get through the week we are gone.   Also for the boys we will be meeting.  I have no idea how it will go- language barrier, their own history… things we just “don’t know.” 

Thank you so much to everyone for your kind words and prayers.  Feel free to make comments!

We leave two weeks from today!