Young Family Adoption Miracle

7/31/2006

Thank Heaven for Little Girls and Little Boys Too...

We are counting down the days now. Chris has talked about looking for a job so I know its time to come home. He also is talking about building a racetrack and running a LADA division as there are so many of these cars here. Maybe we can get a NASCAR Sanction....
The highlight of our day is visiting Leah for 1.5 hrs in the morning and 2 hours in the evening. Heck we know every inch of the baby house now and have named all the ants in the small playground. What worse is they come when called.

This is day 19 and Christopher is still smiling. He also can re iterate all the words to National Geographic and probably will have a PHD in science when we leave.

Our court is Thursday at 4pm which is 6am NY time so set your alarms as we will be in active labor. Thanks to everyone who have been emailing and posting to our blog. Reading these messages everyday helps us feel closer to home.

7/29/2006

Court Date Aug 3 2006

It is on this date we will become Leah's parents if the judge rules in our favor. We believe in our hearts his decision will be favorable. As you can see by this photo its hard to decide who is smiling more. Each morning when we come together everyone in the room watch these two and cannot decide who smiles first. They both light up a room not to mention what they do to our hearts. They already have a bond and we can tell the joy that is in store for us as a family already. We feel blessed.
The care givers are most definately angels and these children are surrounded by love and dedication. We cannot say enough about them and what they give of themselves to these children. We can tell already that when we come for Leah on gotch ya day there will be tears. We know they love her. We can only hope they know we love her too....

7/26/2006

Day 15

It is hard to believe we have been here 15 days already, yet it also feels as though we have been away from home forever. As you can see by the photos we have been blessed to be given the opportunity to adopt this precious child. She brings a smile to all our faces each time we visit and she has come to know us as her family. The care givers tell her every day that we are her Mama, Dada and Brother and when we arrive each day she is as excited to see us, as we are to see her. We cannot wait to bring her home and begin our lives together as a family. However we need to complete the process and the schedule of events go like this. Tomorrow we will be taken by our coordinator to petition the court to adopt. Then on Friday our coordinator Alma will meet with the judge and find out when our court date will be. Sometime next week we will appear before the court and ask to adopt Leah. All our documents will have been reviewed and a representative from the Ministry of Education and Orphanage Director will also speak on our behalf. Then the judge and prosecutor will ask questions and a decision will be made. We believe it will be favorable and we will be granted permission to adopt Leah. We will be told the decision that day and then, there is a 15 day waiting period for all the paperwork to be completed. It is then that we will make plans to fly home. Leaving Ust Kamenogorsk will not be easy as we love that little girl but we know for us it is necessary to come home. Her caregivers will, as they always have taken good care of her and we know they will talk to her about us. We will leave a photo book for her as we already know she likes to look at books and pictures. We pray she will remember us and when we return we can pick up where we left off.
Please keep us in your prayers tomorrow as the legal portion of our adoption proceeds.