Time to shift into high gear!

We just got back from our trip to the Bahamas this evening and although my brain was actually able to take a short hiatus from the whirlings of Kaz trip planning, it's now back in full gear, though it hasn't even rested one night on its Pennsylvania pillow.

To backtrack, we had originally planned on taking the kids to the Bahamas over the summer, to celebrate our 20 year anniversary. When we thought we would travel for the adoption over the summer, we scrapped our plans. But then when it looked like we would never get our travel dates, we finally went ahead and booked our trip to the Bahamas. Anyone wise to the ways of the universe can guess the ending to this story -- no sooner did we book our trip than we got the elusive LOI! We talked about cancelling the vacation since it was only a couple weeks from our Kaz trip, but in the end decided it would be a few much needed days to reconnect as a family before we were ripped apart for several weeks. Boy am I glad we decided to stay the course, b/c the Bahamas was just what this Mama needed! Clear blue waters, rum drinks in coconut shells on the beach, river tubing over and over and over again with four wet, giggly children, and piles of sand on the bathroom floors that someone else cleaned up!

Anyway, now we're back, and tomorrow I start the heavy hitting: ordering crisp new bills from our bank (apparently Kazakhs turn their noses up at ripped, crinkled, smudged US cash), submitting the applications for our visas (would have done that one sooner, but we need to send out our passports, which we needed for the Bahamas trip), getting the last of our documents (which should have come in the mail while we were away, I will collect our mail from the P.O. tomorrow) notarized, then sent out to get apostilled, etc, etc. Of course, I still have a zillion other things to do, not the least of which is get my kids to figure out what they're going to be for Halloween and get their costumes together, and ... hello ... PACK! Ohhh, just one more rum drink?