Next Step . . . Court . . . but When?

Our paperwork is complete and was turned in to the SDA in Kyiv on Friday. They have up to 5 business days to process and return to us. Once we have the documents back, we will have our court hearing the next business day. Sergey has scheduled a court hearing for May 3rd, but that appears to be impossible at this point. Because of the holidays, our court hearing will probably be on May 4th, 7th, or 11th. We have appealed to the SDA to process our paperwork so that we can be at court on the 4th since either of the other two dates will require us to change our return flight, which is scheduled for May 22nd. We have been warned by another family that return flights on Delta are sold out through the end of May, so are anxious to avoid any change to our tickets.

Elizabeth has been with us consistently since Wednesday and we are having a great time as a family. The girls are bonding and enjoying each others company. We are all ready to complete the adoption and return home, particularly Elizabeth. She was very displeased to learn that we still had 2 or 3 weeks left before we would leave Berdyansk. She is diligently working on English and corrects us to say “Elizabeth” when we call her “Olya”.

We continue with our routine, which includes schoolwork in morning, lunch, walking around town, dinner, and then a DVD in the room. However, later today, Kate’s sister, brother, and niece arrive so we will have some new variables to factor into our days. We are nervous about how our visit will be with them, particularly for Kate, the language barrier, and their interaction with Elizabeth.

We have spent very little time at the orphanage (and almost entirely without a translator) and have only seen a couple of the kids in passing. We went Saturday to give gifts that we have carried to Marina, Yana, Natasha, & Vika, but the director telephoned and requested we wait until she was there on Monday. All of the girls look fine and inquire about people in America. On Monday we plan to meet with each of them, give them the gifts and answer their questions.