Goodbye Rostov, Hello Bryansk

Looks like we have to say goodbye to Rostov-on-Don before we even get there. I'm not sure what to make of all this. We were told today there are not as many available children in Rostov-on-Don as they had anticipated. Therefore it was still going to be a wait so they moved our paperwork to the Bryansk region. They believe we will have travel dates to Bryansk on Friday but given our current situation I am staying caustiously optimistic about that.

In the meantime, I have a whole new place to learn about so of course I've been googling Bryansk all afternoon. Like Rostov, it is on the Ukraine border, but it is further North. Here's what I've found out so far:

-A city in western Russia, southwest of Moscow. It was part of Lithuania until the 16th century.

-The first written mention of Bryansk was in 1146. Local authorities and archaeologists, however, believe that the town had existed as early as 985.

-Today Bryansk is an important center for steel and machinery manufacturing, and is home to many large factories. Railway wagons and locomotives are important products. Bryansk also has two universities, three theatres and a technical academy.

That's the update for now. I'm going to go google some more :) Friday can't come soon enough and hopefully I'll have some concrete news to share about our travels.