Court Date

At noon today Mark and I entered the courtroom along with our translator, two witnesses, a representative from the orphanage and a local official. The first thing I noticed was the big cage where the accused would sit if it were a trial. Thankfully, we sat on a little bench outside the cage because we were just gathered to meet with the judge so he could grant our adoption petition. It was very simple and not scary at all.After a few procedural questions and a half hour break to deliberate, our petition was granted and Sayid became Andrew Alexander King! Everyone happily congratulated us and said they were glad that Sayid would have a family and a home.

There is a ten day waiting period (during which appeals could be made) until it becomes official on June 7th. On June 7, we travel to the town where Sasha was born to get his birth certificate and his Ukrainian passport. We should be able to get those documents and then pick him up from the orphanage by June 9th. Then we,'ll travel to Kiev to go to the American embassy for a quick medical exam for him and a visa so we can go home! Hopefully, we'll be home by about the 12th.

After our court appointment, we went to the school to see Sasha and tell him about it all. Thankfully, our translator, Luda, was still with us so she could explain it to him. He didn't have to apoear in court with us because they simply accepted the letter he wrote saying he wanted us to adopt him. Sasha looked a little nervous, but was really very happy. Luda also talked to him briefly about Mary Evelyn and told him that sometimes mommy cries because she misses Mary Evelyn, but that doesn't affect how we love him or how happy we are about him. We wanted him to be told that now while Luda was here and could answer any of his questions. He didn't have any.

After that, Luda needed to meet with the Director, who is very impressed with her, and we were left alone our new little son. He sat happily in Mark's lap and played games on the iPad. We had a short but happy visit today.

This evening, Mark and I went out for ice-cream. On our way back to the hotel, we walked by the church I wrote about in the last post. The same woman was there and she insisted we come into her house for tea and cookies. She must be the Matushka - the priest's wife. We sat and drank tea, ate cookies and tried really hard to understand what she was telling us for the next hour. We really had no idea most of the time because neither of us speak Ukrainian, but she was very kind, friendly and enthusiastic. We did a lot of smiling and nodding while she expressively tried to tell us things we had no clue about. I told Mark that we must have missed out on some great stories. Mark said that the way we felt was how Sasha will feel for the first weeks in America, like he's with kind, friendly people who seem to have nice things to say but he'll have no clue what we are saying. It was a good experience for us.

Our family is very excited about their new brother/ grandson/ nephew/cousin and it'll be lots of fun to bring him home and introduce him to everyone! Thanks for all your prayers.