The BIG Day!!

It's official: tomorrow we go to court to make the adoption happen! Our court time is 3:00, so it will be a long wait during the day. Please wish us luck, and keep us in your thoughts and prayers. More after the court hearing.

Went to Court (kind of)

We had a meeting with the local judge yesterday where we had hoped to submit our petition for a court hearing on the adoption. He asked for some minor changes, so we will try again on Monday. We are really hoping we can get the hearing next Friday (3/31), but won't know for sure until after our re-submission of the petition on Monday. Watch for the update.

Waiting for the Court Date

We are now in a waiting pattern for our court date. We hope to get a "Synopsis" tomorrow which is required for applying for the date so that will be a big step when it happens. Jerry and Jennifer are supposed to arrive in Kiev today for their appointment on Thursday so we look forward to meeting them!

Getting to Know Each Other

We have been visiting Andryi and Maryna every day and loving it!! They are starting to work on their English in preparation for their new lives with us. On a typical visit we usually play some games, toss around a small soccer ball, and use the translator on the computer to ask (and answer) each other questions. Our bond is growing stronger every time we are together.

Found Great Kids!

Yesterday was an incredible day! The children we met (Andrev and Marina) are wonderful!! Arlene and I both feel that these are the children that are meant for us to adopt. Today we will return with a doctor who specializes in evaluating children raised in orphanages just to make sure that we know everything about these kids that we have to. They don't appear to have any medical issues, but we must be certain. Can't wait to be with them again!

Big Day Tomorrow

Tomorrow (Monday) we go to an orphanage about 1-1/2 hours from Kiev to meet a brother(13) and sister(10) who we were referred to from the NAC. This will be our second referral as the children we visited on our first referral had some extended family members that we were told could make an adoption difficult. It will be a restless sleep tonight as we look forward to this next opportunity to find our new children!
Please wish us luck, and we'll try to get an update on the Blog after the meeting.

An Update

Yesterday we went to an orphanage a couple of hours away to see a sibling group of two ages 9 and 11. Unfortunately, there was a possibility that an extended family member of the kids might "contest" an adoption of them so we returned to try again. On Monday our facilitator willsubmit our request for another referral to visit a brother and sister in an Internat about an hour away. Wish us luck!