We went to court!

We had our court hearing today at noon! It went very smoothly. The judge asked us a lot of questions that we were prepared for and then declared the court approval for our adoption of Lauren Valerie and Donald Joseph (their new names)!

Wow, hard to believe after the mandatory 10 day wait, they are legally ours!! Even the judge asked "do you know what you are getting in to?". We said we know it will be challenging; but we are prepared! (LOL)

The kids continue to do very well with us. We have even seen them without the 15 layers of clothing they have on to play outside. They look much smaller without all that stuff on them. They are 102 cm tall and weigh about 35 pounds each (medical from october). Lauren is a little taller than Donnie. George says maybe an inch. I'm guessing she had a little growth spurt; he'll catch up, I'm sure.

It feels great to know that there is an end date to all of this! George is going to make his flight home on the 20th. It is sketchy whether I will make mine with the kids on the 29th.

The 10 days is over on the 25th. That is a Monday and they don't issue birth certificates on Mondays here in Odessa. I need to get the kids new birth certificates and passports here in Odessa. That generally will take 1-2 days. Then I need to travel by bus to Kiev (7 hours). I have to go to the US Embassy and get their medicals and visas issued (this is usually 1/2 day process). If all goes OK we might just make it out on the 29th (that is if I can get tickets for the kids). The flights are packed full leaving Kiev. The Ukranian holidays officially start on the 29th and last until mid January. So everyone wants to get "out of dodge" including us!

I also need to check the US Embassy hours here in Kiev. I do know they are closed for Christmas Day; I'm just hoping it is not the entire week.

Sorry I haven't updated more; we don't have a good connection at the apartment. We brought the laptop to court today because we knew we were half way to downtown Odessa. That is where we are now.

Downtown Odessa is really a very beautiful city. It is right on the Black Sea. It has a lot of history we are just learning about.

The pictures are from this morning as we were waiting for the cab to go to court. We also have a picture with the judge and then the legal staff from the orphanage. Also I'm posting a couple of miscellaneous pictures.

We need to start heading back, I'll post more as I can!
Thank you all for your emails and comments!!!