Our family of three is now a family of FIVE.........

WOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  We had court today and we are now officially the parents of Brayden Sergey and Abigail Elena :) :)  The judge liked us very much and said that we look like a very nice couple.  The court hearing only lasted about 30 minutes.  They asked Chris a few questions about his buisiness, our income, etc.  And they asked me a few, like how we are getting along with the children, how we are communicating, about school when they get home, etc.  We felt very comfortable the whole time and not the least bit nervous.  Alysssa was allowed in the courtroom with us and she did very good!  That could also be for the fact that she knew she was getting an ice cream afterwards if she behaved.  She sat very still for the first 10 minutes, and then she fell asleep :)  So, we celebrated court afterwards with an ice cream in the cold windy weather.  I am not sure if I mentioned this or not but the weather has been pretty hot the whole time until aout 3 days ago, the temp dropped about 15 degrees.  I hear it is even colder in Kyiv. 

We aren't going to see Brayden and Abby tonight because it has gotten too late, but we did get to see them this morning.  We pulled up to the orphanage about 8am to go get their blood taken.  They looked so sweet standing there waiting on us with a caretaker.  Their eyes were as wide as saucers as they got into the van.  When they sat down they had a grin on their face and the grin was on their face the whole way to the hospital.  They were just amazed, registering all of what they saw into their little heads :)  When we got to the hospital, we walked into a hallway and waited for them to call them in one by one.  Abby went first and came out about 2 minutes later like nothing ever happened.  I couldn't believe it, I was for sure that she would atleast have tears in her eyes.  Then when it was Brayden's turn he was the same way. 

Tomorrow morning we are taking them to get their passport photos.  A little bad news is that the director of the orphanage is in Simferopol until Saturday.  So, we may have to wait until Saturday to get the children.  Sveta is going to call him tonight to see what he says.  Our 10 day wait will beover on Sunday the 22nd and we have a few papers to pick up on Monday the 23rd.  If all goes well and we pick up the papers on that day, we will hopefully get to leave on the overnight train that evening and arrive in Kyiv on the 24th.  That is IF there are train tickets available for the 6 of us.  If not, we may have to wait a day or two, or we could fly.  So, if we get to Kyiv on the 24th as planned, we could "possibly" be free to come home by the 26th.  And that is IF we can exchange our airline tickets for the 26th.  I, however, am not holding my breath and am assuming that we will not be home until atleast November 1st or so.  We'll see, but I don't want to get my hopes up.  But most importantly is the fact that we had court today and the children are officially ours :) 

Thank you all for your prayers!!!!!

We will update more tomorrow hopefully.

Love,

Chris, Julie, Brayden, Abigail and Alyssa