I neglected to provide an update about Katya's adoption earlier so I will now. Just the nitty gritty details.

Tomorrow is Jon's doctor's appointment to get needed papers signed. The requirements for Katya's country are very strange, and Jon's doctor acted taken aback when he described them to her. So we're hoping she'll cooperate tomorrow. We're also hoping to apply for our passports tomorrow.

My brother has volunteered to help with fundraising and is going to make some calls to his football and music friends to see what he can get them to donate. Then we're planning to sell what he collects on e-bay. I have a few other fundraising ideas, too. Some friends from Facebook have already generously donated, which was really unexpected and made me feel good. I also found out that the state has a $1500 tax credit on top of the federal tax credit; it may take a couple of years to collect the money back from our taxes, but that makes taking a loan feel a little less risky. So money stuff is looking pretty good, relatievly speaking, I'd say. And thanks to everyone who has already helped out!

Also, I have been doing lots of "researching" about Katya's medical issues ("researching" means "googling"). And I really feel that Katya may not have Crouzon's Syndrome at all, which is her given diagnosis. From looking at lots of pictures and making connections between lots of articles and websites I've perused, I actually think she might have plagiocephaly with torticollis and possibly hip-joint dysplasia. Overall, this is GREAT news. It means that her brain growth has probably not been affected. Also, she can probably have a very simple neck surgery to correct the torticollis (sideways neck), which probably caused the plagiocephay (misshapen head). The sad thing is that this all would have been very likely correctable when she was an infant without any surgery at all had she received appropriate therapies.

So that's it. And we are just praying all will go smoothly and quickly.