What a day. I am going to start by going back to last week. Last Wednesday, Thursday or Friday (can't remember exact date) we were told that our court date was Friday November 4th at 11:00 a.m. On Monday we were told by Y that it may be pushed to Monday November 6th as the judge may have to go to Kiev on business. We found out on Wednesday that it would be on Friday, but we did not have a time. Y was coming in on the overnight train from Kiev and would be arriving here about 8:30 a.m. She told us that she was going to come to our room to shower and then she was to call the judge at noon and she would tell us when to come. Today she called us about 9:30 and said that she was on the later train and would be at our hotel for 10:30. Brad and I were just heading out from breakfast when 5 minutes later she called us and said that court was on for 11:00. So we ran downstairs to the cafeteria, had a quick breakfast, ran back up to our room the get changed.

The best part...for those of you who remember I was having some problems with my left eye in June and the optometrist said that I had a viral infection in it, probably caused because of a cold. So I wake up this morning with a bit of a cold and with 1/2 an hour of waking up my eye is killing me.

So we get to the court at exactly 11:00 a.m.. Run up to the judges office, and my eye was killing me. So we sit in the packed office with the judge, her secretary, two jurors, the inspector, the lawyer from the orphanage, the prosecutor from our region, Y our facilitator, Brad & I. It lasted for an hour, I am ready to rip my eye out. Then we have to wait in the hallway for 50 minutes while they did their thing....so finally at 1:00 p.m. they pronounced us parent sot Nadia Ann and Stanislav John. Brad was so happy, I was in pain. I went back to the hotel for an hour to lie down, take some good drugs and 1/2 a bottle of eye drops. Good news is I am feeling better and day one of our 10 day wait starts tomorrow!!!

We had a nice visit with the kids tonight. They were being extra goofy...I think they we showing off to Y. She is back on the train to Kiev to meet her next set of parents, our friends S & H also from back home. We will be seeing Y on November 14th, day 11 when we can start working on our paperwork. It's looking good that we will be able to fly home on November 18th. We will keep you posted on that day as we know more.

p.s. I forgot to tell you that the weather is still wonderful here. No snow. We have walked to the orphanage twice now, Wednesday and Thursday and hope to keep walking daily. It's about a 45 minute walk and great exercise. We will continue to take the bus home as it's dark by six. Since tomorrow is Saturday and there is no school the kids made sure that we knew that and that we were coming at 10 as well as 4 for the next two days!!!