Another day...another twist!

Today brought another twist in the process. We got going this morning at 10 (which seems like the starting time around here. The workday for the government offices seems to be 10-4 with a lunch break. Sweet hours if you can get them! Anyway, we began at the notary getting petitions done to take to the Inspector and the Judge. Then off to the Inspector’s office. That’s where the fun began. When we got there, the Inspector informed us that no matter what letters we had from the girls, she was not going to order the separation of them because the law didn’t allow it (why she didn’t tell us that days ago, I have no idea). She said that only a health condition or being in different orphanages was a legal cause. Over the next three hours, we made many calls to Kyiv to the SDA, our facilitator in Kyiv, another facilitator in a case where they are separating kids under the same circumstances, the Inspector in that case, and others. Still, she was unmoved. She insisted that this was the law and it was in the best interests of the girls. After 3 hours, it looked bad, and I must admit, I lost it! Denise and I both ended up in a pretty emotional shouting match with the Inspector. I finally asked her if she was going to be the one to go to the orphanage and tell N the it was in her best interests not to be adopted! Was she going to be the grandparent to her children? Was she going to plan her wedding? She just kept saying “it’s not me, it’s the law.”I told her that was not true because we knew of this other case. Finally was were asked to wait outside. After a while, they came out and said that they had discovered a new update to the law dated November 15th of this year that allowed other exceptions for separation! Because the law is vague and everyone here is wanting to cover themselves, they said that they would take our petition to a counsel on Thursday. At that time they would give us the necessary paperwork to send to the SDA but really they are not approving out petition, just passing the buck to the judge because they say the law is too new and vague to know what it means.

So, we left with that over. We decided against going to see N today. Until we have the petition, we thought it best not to go. So, we headed off to the open air market for some fruit and a very late lunch. Just before ordering lunch, Galya called. It seems that something else turned up. There has been a medical exception that has been discovered. We are choosing not to share it, but as of right now, we think everything changed at about 2:30 this afternoon, and the Inspector has no more basis to deny our petition to adopt N. We have been wrong before...today, but now we think we are right. We still have to meet with the Inspector's boss for an interview and that may take another day or two or schedule. We are frustrated beyond belief at the pace of things here! In our previous two adoptions in Ukraine, we have never seen a region operate this slowly!!!!

So, there are several big prayer requests that we are making tonight (today for you in the US):

1. That the Inspector will follow through with the adoption petition
2. That N will have no problems in the Psychologist visit tomorrow (routine visit for a report to be part of the adoption file)
3. That was can get a quick appt w/ the Inspector’s boss & get his report
4. That we can get our papers off to the SDA quickly
5. That the Ukrainian Gov’t halts the proposed adoption moratorium
   

Yes, the adoption moratorium goes before the Ukrainian Rada again this week! We are watching our email to see what the US embassy is saying. Pray that it goes away! We had hoped to be done before it came to a vote but at this rate, we don’t know.

Thanks for praying. It is noteworthy that every day we seem to be having major breakthroughs around 2 or 2:30 in the afternoon here. We have wondered if that has anything to do with the numbers of people that are going before the Father on our behalf in the mornings as they rise to meet the day back home. We know you are praying!!!!

We love you,

Rick