It’s Official

The ten day wait is over and we have picked up the official court decree legally declaring Elizabeth our daughter. We are blessed and thrilled with this addition to our family. Elizabeth is a wonderful child and we are amazed with how natural our family feels. We shouldn't be surprised, but . . .

From this point, our vacation is replaced by a hectic schedule to secure the remaining documents required to bring Elizabeth home.

Tomorrow morning we will leave Berdyansk at 3 in the morning and drive 5 hours to Elizabeth’s birth village to change her birth certificate. We will then proceed to Kherson to register the new birth certificate with the regional officials. Once completed in Kherson, we will drive approximately 5 more hours to reach Zaporizhzhya and attempt to secure Elizabeth’s passport before the close of business. If we are successful, we may take the train to Kyiv Friday night (assuming we can get tickets at the last minute). Otherwise, we have a hotel room reserved in Zaporizhzhya and train tickets for Saturday night.

On Sunday, we are looking forward to a day of visits with friends in Kyiv and attending the circus with the Passanita’s, who are arriving to pursue an adoption of 2 children. Monday will require a medical visit, followed by an appointment at the US Embassy to request a visa. We hope the embassy will be able to turn the visa around on the same day so that we can be on our flight Tuesday morning.

Our last few days have been much of the same mixed with a few sad emotional moments for Elizabeth. On Tuesday, she said good-bye to most of her classmates and roommates and was very tearful when leaving school. She recovered quickly, however, and we had each of the girls sit for a charcoal sketch portrait. The artist was very good and we are looking forward to framing and hanging the portraits.

On Wednesday we took the girls to the market for clothes and then to the sea for swimming. The market was humorous as Taylor & Kate kept complaining that the jeans were too tight. However, the Ukrainians thought it was a perfect fit and they were more than a little perplexed at our girls’ attitude.

Today, Jim looked at more potential properties for a group home and then we all attended a track meet in which Elizabeth was competing. She is a very good athlete and won both of her races. The team also won the overall event. The remainder of the day was spent with visits to the orphanage to say goodbye to a the head teacher and the director. We have has also been packing and preparing for our early a.m. departure.