Scheduling News

Okay, so here’s the update…

Our facilitator Serge blew in today like a tornado, greased some wheels, made some phone calls, met with the judge this afternoon, and got a court date. After all that, he told us we had two options. Our court date is October 29, so here’s the first option:
— Keep that court date
— Go home for almost four weeks
— Come back in time for court
— Wait out the 10-day waiting period, visiting the kids every day
— Pick up the kids, get their birth certificates and passports in Donetsk
— Go back to Kiev for a couple of days, get medical exams and go to the Embassy for visas
— Fly home (so roughly 2 weeks for this whole trip)

The second option is to ask for a new judge, request a new (sooner) court date, and pray that would work. No guarantee of any change, plus more time at this nice but expensive hotel. So, to save dollars and vacation days, we chose the first option. We’re in the process of getting our flights changed, availability of those will determine when we can get home. We are definitely welcoming the chance to get home to prepare for the kids. Not to mention sleeping in our own bed!

We had a good visit with the kids today. There was a little teeter totter on the playground that was a huge hit. Somebody unearthed some ancient tricycles, and those were a hit too, except that the playground is sloped in several places, and there were a couple of minor crashes. We thought the kids were fast when they were running – the tricycles made them nearly impossible to catch. We spent a lot of time blocking off hilly areas so they could keep riding. After one particular crash, Alex Maksim got a tiny little scratch on his hand, and after I cleaned up his little owie, he definitely wanted papa. It was a good bonding moment. Another good bonding moment happened when I walked Vala back to her little group when it was time to go. She didn’t want to leave and we got the big booboo lip and real tears. That’s another good sign. Talia Ira is coming along. She’s very independent, but is challenging us less and less. She’ll even help us get Maks or Vala’s attention when it’s time for treats. That girl is definitely food motivated.




Who knew what was hiding under the red hat!!










Deep concentration. I can see we'll be needing some of these.









They all loved this, it was good for about 20 minutes. Notice the "good job" from Alex Maksim.







This was the big group today. Papa being his regular funny self.










Can you see the "I'm about to cause trouble" expression on Talia Ira's face? This was definitely after the cookies.





Tomorrow will probably be our last visit to the orphanage before we come back for court. And, it’s Vala’s second birthday. I’m not sure if she even knows, I doubt if they make a big deal out of birthdays at the orphanage. I can see where that would be really difficult. We have a small toy for each one of them, plus we’re printing out a photo of the five of us that they can keep until we get back. Four weeks won’t be long for us, but of course it’s a lifetime for a kid.

More later!

JoEllen : >