Ukraine Adoption

The Ukraine part of our journey has come to an end as Natasha and Sasha are now home safe and sound in California. Dreams can become reality as is the wonderful story with these two beautiful children. We are so happy to have them as a part of our family and look forward to the next part of our journey together.

We want to thank all of you who have taken the time to follow our story of adoption. We have decided to keep this blog and update it every so often with news of Natasha and Sasha and the story of their new life.

Our best wishes to all of you and Happy Holidays!

Yesterday was Natasha and Sasha's last day at the orphanage. They were both very happy and are looking forward to heading home.

The process has moved along quickly since my return to Ukraine. Received the court decree on Tuesday and got new birth certificates and passports done and headed to Kiev. We are now in Kiev and have done their medical exams and filled out paperwork at the US Embassy. Tomorrow it looks like we will finish all of the US paperwork and head home on Friday!

The court hearing went well today as the Judge gave his official "Stamp of Approval" for the adoption. The whole process took just over two hours. The Judge went throught everything and had some questions, the Regional Director and Orphanage Social Worker spoke on our behalf and their were no objections. The court decree will be ready on December 15th and then I can return to fininsh the adoption.

After court, I visited Natasha and Sasha and they are so very happy and are now counting the days until they get to go home.

I am leaving early in the morning to return to CA and will keep you updated upon my return to Ukraine.

Ok this is the real deal now. I have a court date set for 10:00am tomorrow (Thursday Dec 3rd) to be in front of the Judge with all of my paperwork and petition for Natasha and Sasha. The kids have each written statements, I have signed and notarized so many papers I have killed a forest all by myself.

From what I am told, I may be in court for several hours as the Judge will read all of the paperwork out loud for recording and then he will make a decision - yes or no - let's all hope and pray it is YES! After he gives his approval for the adoption, there is a mandatory ten (10) day waiting period. During this time there is nothing I can do except wait until my time is up, then return to the court for the final adoption decree.

I have decided to head home during this time and return after the 10 day period. I will be leaving on Friday and return on Sunday December 13th. Upon my return, I will go back to the court, get the decree and then finish up the US paperwork required to bring the kids home. This should take about 7-10 days. Then we will be on our way home, hopefully in time for the holidays.

More good news, Sasha is out of quarantine and feeling better. He is still sick, but I think it is only a cold and will be fine.

Stay tuned....... I will do an update before I leave on Friday with what happens in court.

First the fun stuff and then an update on the adoption progress.

As you know, Soccer "Football" is huge here in Ukraine and the two rival teams are Kiev and Donetsk. The city of Donetsk recently built a multi-million dollar soccer arena (huge thing here) and the main game of the season was yesterday in Donetsk.

Natasha & I and her two friends Yulia and Anasti went to the match in Donetsk. We rode the bus for 3 hours there and back. Donetsk (the local team here) won 3-0 and the girls and I had allot of fun.

Sasha was not able to attend the game with us as he has been sick and is in quarantine at the orphanage. I have not been able to visit with him for several days. Yesterday I did go by his window and was able to speak with him briefly and he looks good and I believe he will be better in a couple of days.

This week I have been very busy meeting with the Regional Director, Orphanage Director, Government Officials and the Regional Court. I have done all of the necessary paperwork to get to the review process and have petitioned the court for a court date. I should hear about the court date next week and hope to be in front of a judge late next week or early the following week. Will keep you posted.

Until the court date I am able to continue to visit the kids. I will keep you updated on Sasha's progress, the court date and any news.

For now, all is good and we are moving along and hope to be home for the holidays.