Didn't expect to journal so soon, but there was a message at home when I returned from the dentist this morning. Jeanine, someone on our 1st trip with us, called with news. They received a phone call early this morning informing them their court date of the 25th was moved UP - as in, pack your bags, baby, they're leaving tomorrow!

Excitement for them came first. Wow! Can you imagine! Plus they have a little girl at home already. Talk about rearranging plans! Then came disappointment for ourselves. Gosh, that's two babies from our 1st trip that are going home early! And we've still heard nothing.

Then came fear, because of what Jeanine explained next. Apparently one of the couples slated for this trip had horrible news - a set of birth-grandparents of their baby had rethought things and wanted to raise the child as their own. That's how a court date opened up. Pretty rare, but it does happen. It's Russian law that "one last check" of all living relatives of the children has to be made to make sure no one wants to raise the child. It's rare because family members have 6 months to decide (that's why kids don't go on the international registry until they are 6 months old, to give families or other domestic Russians a chance to adopt them first).

So wow. What emotions in a span of a couple hours! But that does give me a wary, little ray of hope. Because that now opens another court date for the 25th of March. Perhaps...