We're back!

And just in time, too. European news organizations have inexplicably ignored the vital story of Anna Nicole Smith's demise and its aftermath!! Britney Spears's tribulations likewise received nary a mention. Apparently, there's a war going on -- and considerable debate about whether it ought to continue -- and the news there spent considerable time covering this and other such trivia.

Anyway, it was very hard leaving Svetlana behind, but hardest at the moment of parting. It gets a bit easier with each day, and we'll certainly be busy in the interim. For one thing, we have to get the house ready for her. Right now, the place is a shambles. It needs to be cleaned, toddler-proofed and furnished before we go back. (Notice the deliberate and clever use of the passive voice here to elide the question of who's to do all this. Greetings from the State of Denial).

Passover is only a little more than a month away, and we hope to be joining Alesa's family in St. Louis as we have most years since our engagement. And of course we both will be crazy busy at work. Alesa's maternity leave essentially begins with our flight to Moscow, and she is chief cook and bottle washer at her office, so she'll have a lot to do to get ready. I'll have a raft of make-up classes to schedule due to the trip just completed and Passover, and I'll have to grade all my exams (115 of them this term, but who's counting) before we go. I'm also coaching one of our law school's moot court teams, and will be spending half my spring "break" next week in Minneapolis at their competition (this is actually one of the more enjoyable parts of a job that I love, but it is time consuming).

We have a bit more paper work to complete for Russia -- medical exams for the two of us, primarily. That should be done by the end of next week. Then the documents go to Russia to be translated and lodged with the local court in Tyumen. Once the file is complete at the court, we'll be assigned a court date, and go back to get our little girl. We're hoping this trip will happen in May. Blogging will be quite light until we're notified of the court date.