Making Progress

Today was a good day on the adoption process front. We didn’t hear much in the morning. I tried to write some this morning on a curriculum project that Tony and I have in the works. I got a little bit accomplished while we were waiting to go for our interview late this afternoon with the Inspector’s boss. At about 1:30, we decided to walk down to McDonald’s. (Btw, we have decided that we may be like Jim Bob and Crystal and eat there every day! I am admitting it. It’s such a drag to shop here and we don’t really trust the meats the in little groceries in downtown. The Potato House is good too, but we figure McDonald’s for one meal plus fruit and vegetables will probably balance out. With all the walking, we’re going to be in great shape by the time we get home!) Anyway, just as we sat down to eat my phone rang and said we needed to get to the Inspector’s ASAP. They were ready for us. So we choked down our lunch and dashed back to the apartment.

We got to the Inspector’s office and waited for Galya to go over our paperwork to edit out any mistakes. Then, we went into an interview with the Department Director. We have been through two of these interviews before. Ordinarily, we wouldn’t have been concerned. This is the interview where they ask about why you want to adopt. Why you want to adopt from Ukraine. Do you know about the child’s history and medical condition and can you afford another child and so on. Our concern was the unknown from all the drama of the past week. Well, I am happy to report that there was nothing to be concerned about. The interview was routine. It took about five minutes. There is an Italian couple here adopting now too and their interview was much longer! I guess he figured if we had done this here twice before how much could there be left for him to ask!!! Anyway, our paperwork is done here and off to the SDA for processing. It should be submitted there Monday and picked up Wednesday. That would mean that it would be back here Thursday evening or Friday morning. From that point, we are just waiting on the Judge to set a court date. As we understand it, the Judge will not consider our petition for a court date until January 4 but could act on it almost immediately as the court docket is empty until January 13. Since there is this Italian couple also trying to get a hearing now, we are hoping and praying that the judge will go ahead and get us out of the way while she has time in her schedule.

We had a little confusion about seeing N today. We were supposed to see her after our meeting, but she was late coming back after a holiday outing. We waited at the orphanage for 2 hours and only got to see her for a couple of minutes. We hope to get to see her more tomorrow. We did get to sit in on a presentation that one of the local businesses did giving a bunch of toys and sports equipment to the orphanage as a Christmas gift. We got to see two of the older boys from this past summer and the one boy left from last summer and the two remaining girls from this past summer. There were hugs and smiles all around. I did think it was pretty funny at one point. I caught a look at the Italian couple who saw us hugging and greeting so many of the kids, they look a little puzzled. We’re going to have to figure out how to point and grunt our way through explaining it to them! They probably won’t care. They have their hands full with a 5-year-old little ball of energy from the boys group that will keep them on their toes for sure.

We know that things are winding down and gearing up back home as everyone gets ready to celebrate Christmas. We love and miss you all so much. Half a world away, it brings an interesting perspective on the Season and the Reason. Don’t forget as you treasure the gifts and the foods or the family and the friends that the greatest gift of all is the news God sent forth His only Son into the world that we might have the opportunity to be adopted into the family of the Most High!

Blessings,

Rick