It's official...Nicholas William Morton is ours!!!!!

Sorry to be so secretive ot this point with Nick's name and picture, but we wanted to make sure that everything was complete before we published anything in a public forum. Today, we crossed a big hurdle in the process, but we are far from done.

We awoke at 3 A.M. to leave the hotel at 4:30 headed to Odessa. We stopped at the train station to pick up Yana, our facilitator.When we met up with her, she had a little troubling news. We found ou that Nick had been registered in 2002 on a piece of property in Sarata. Getting the registration released could be a problem that could slow things down. We are praying that she will be able to resolve the issue today in Odessa, but the worst case scenerio would involve us having a meeting with another inspector for a hearing. Who knows how long that would take to schedule. Please pray with us that things will go smoothly, and we'll get his release with no problems. Once we got Yana, we came about 120 K back the other direction to Sarata (the town where Nick was born). Once we arrived in the town (about 5000 people) at about 8:30 A.M., we found the vital records office, and Yana went in and got the ball rolling on the birth certificate petition. They told us to come back in about an hour and pick it up. We decided to try and find a resturant and get some breakfast while we waited. In a small town like Sarata, that was no small feat at 8:40 in the morning. We found a little resturant...but it was an adventure. First, when we walked in there was no heat (and it was about -3C outside). Then, we asked if there was a bathroom (Erick had to go). The answer was no. The lady suggested that one of the other places in the little strip shop might have one he could use. The only thing open was a little bar at the end of the row where a lady was stocking. She suggested that I take him around back and let him go on a tree. I think that might have been the highlight of his trip!!!! And, judging from the condition out back he wasn't the first!!!! Unbelievable :)

We enjoyed a breakfast of fried eggs and salami. To put it bluntly, I hope to never eat fried eggs and salami ever again. At least I got a thimble full of instant coffee in a clear plastic Dixie cup! After breakfast we went back to the vital records office. In a Ukrainian hour (that's two and a half in U.S. hours), we got the form we needed. One problem, the registration date on the certificate was different than the court decree. On the way back to B-D, Yana spoke to our lawyer and decided to have the court decree ammended to match this form. She dropped us off at the hotel to get a nap (and get warm), and she headed off to get the ammended court decree then to Odessa to register the birth certificate and get the tax registration problem worked out. We haven't heard anything else, and I am hoping that no news is good news!

Tomorrow, we will get Nick from the orphanage for a few hours to take him to Odessa to get him "scanned" for his passport. I guess that is an electronic photo, but it sounds sort of Star Trek cool to say "scanned." "Beam me up, Scotty!" I'll try to surpress the urge on the flight home to yell, "Captain, I'm givin' her all she's got" in my best Scottish brogue.

So for now, things are progressing well, and we might make it to Kyiv as early as this weekend. We are anxious to get things complete here and get home. I just hope Cracker Barrell hasn't started substituting salami for the smoked sausage while we were gone!!!!

Blessings,

Rick