Did I mention?

I believe that I announced that Molly and Zac are from Kemerovo. In fact, the region is Kemerovo but the city itself is Novokuznetsk. (Pronounced: Noo-voo-koozsh-nick)

We've been spending all sorts of time on the internet finding out about the city, the sites, the hotels, the orphanages. It appears as if there are 5 different orphanages in the city of Novokuznetsk. Around there, they call them baby homes (BH). So we have BH#1, BH#2, BH#4, BH#5, BH#95. I suppose you're all wondering what happened to BH#3. So are we. Additionally, I'm sure you're really wondering how in the world #95 got its name. Once again, so are we. Perhaps we'll find out this bit of trivia while on our trip.

It turns out that Molly and Zac are from separate homes, so we'll actually be able to visit 2 out of the 5 homes while on trip #1. Needless to say, we'll take pictures to post on this site. (Don't worry, we won't post any of children).


One a side note: Way back in 2004, I ended up doing my own taxes by hand. This is because the software I was using (TaxCut) was terrible and screwing everything up. Being a CPA, it wasn't too difficult of a task. But here's the catch. Like an idiot, I forgot to make a copy of it. And because I did it by hand, there is no way to get it back without going through the IRS. This really hasn't been a problem for me... until right now. It turns out that one of the last steps is to show all your up to date financials... including our last 3 tax returns. ARG!

Fortunately, we don't need it until the 2nd trip so I've got alittle time. I submitted a request to the IRS yesterday and they told me to expect about 1-2 months. 1 month will be fine. 2 months will be cutting it close. I'm counting on the IRS to not be very busy this time of year. We'll see.