[xsl] Document processing order

["Joseph L. Casale jcasale@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" <xsl-list-service@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I have a situation where I need to remove child elements from two distinct
paths
relative to the root, however the second path from document order is inferred
by
an xpath query that depends on the existence of the earlier child elements.

How does one accomplish such a task in xsl?

Thanks,
jlc