Well, it is official...we are now the proud parents of a wonderful 13 year old girl!!! Today was the best day of our lives! Court was interesting. We were slotted for a noon court time, but I think it was about 40 minutes late getting started. Of course, the official language of the hearing was Ukrainian (not Russian, even though that's what everyone here speaks) because the Judge is an official for the Ukrainian government & that is the official language. So, his first question to us was, "Do you know Ukrainian?". Well, kind of.... From there, he asked us questions from our paperwork that we submitted, about our family, our home, jobs, pets, etc. Then, he asked K some questions about her decision to live with us, whether she was sure, if she was going to change her mind, etc... Then, the city inspector (social worker) gave a short speech on why we should be her parents, followed by the orphanage director, then our lawyer made her closing statements. It lasted about an hour. Mainly because the judge reviewed every document between his 5 cell phone calls (keep in mind that we were asked 3 times to make sure ours were turned off). After the hearing, we left the room for maybe 3 minutes, then they called us back in & read the court decree to us. It's 5 pages, so this took a while also.
We are very lucky; we will have K's new birth certificate tomorrow & we will be applying for her new passport, with her new name. We have a hiccup with getting her passport, as there was a clerical error on a previous passport that had her listed as 'male' instead of 'female'. I mean really...how many boys would have such a girl-y name? Anyway, this will delay her passport for 1 day, but luckily, not our trip home (we hope). Once we receive her new passport, we'll be off to Kiev to complete everything here.
Tonight was a big celebration at the orphanage. In Ukraine, it is tradition that when a child finds a family, the other children will celebrate this day, as if it were his/her day of birth with the new parents, so from that day onward, the child will celebrate 2 birthdays. It is a great celebration for the children. So, from now on, K will have two birthdays that we celebrate each year. Also, the new family buys a plant/tree for the orphanage & they name the tree after the child that found their family, so tomorrow, we will be shopping for a plant/tree for K to give to the orphanage in her honor.
Today was also the (natural) birthday of one of the other girls in the house, who was 15 today. Presents were given, and a big feast of mashed potatoes, potato salad, crab salad, pizza, fish, bread, & regular salad was served for all the children, followed by cake & ice cream. (We missed out on the ice cream because we needed to leave the festivities to head home, but they are saving some for us to have tomorrow.)
So, tonight we are back at the apartment with our new daughter & still cannot believe it is now official and that she is finally ours!
We hope to be seeing you all very soon!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Oh, yay, yippee, woohoo, awesome, fantastic, unbelievable, wow, wow, wow!!!!!!!!!!! We are soooooooooo excited for all of you! You and Randy have entered into a new phase of life that will be the most amazing, exciting, expensive, frustrating, fulfilling thing you have ever experienced! Karolina has hit the jackpot, so to speak, and is blessed beyond her wildest dreams! She has the best and perfect parents who will make her dreams come true and her life complete! We love you guys and can't wait to hug you all!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations!!!!
ReplyDeleteMichelle :o)