Sunny and -14C_day6

Again we are so thrilled to get comments and of course especially excited to have my parents as #1 fans and followers - complete with comment privileges!!

Today we got beautiful sunshine even as it was freeeeezing cold. Thanks Angie for the Cincinnati forecast - at least we're not missing anything too exciting.

We had another great visit with the girls today. We had to make copies of photos of our new family for Galya (our facilitator) to put in the court file she is preparing and so we had the fun of bringing the girls extra copies of photos we have taken and they have taken since we have all been together these past few days. As soon as we got them out (multiple copies) they quickly divided them up between themselves and us, and so I am hoping to recruit them once we get home in helping me in the photo organization department (Wyoming Newcomers alert - how lucky is that?). It was fun to see them quickly insert them into the photo albums they have of their life in Sevastopol.

We continue to love hanging out with the girls and spending time getting to know them better. They are already learning English quickly as we continue to learn Russian slowly!! They like UNO much better than handwriting practice but they humor us and always put forth their best efforts on whatever project we put before them.

Our facilitator Galya works tirelessly for us each and every day. She made many trips just today to many offices and will try and speak with the judge tomorrow that will preside over our adoption hearing. She is trying to get everything ready so that we could have a court day next week - so we wish her the all the best. To make the date, she has to get paperwork to Kiev (processed in Kiev by the SDA - Ukraine Central Adoption Department) and back to her in Sevastopol in time for the court date she sets with the judge, so it is a bit of a balancing act. The paperwork will travel by train between Kiev and Sevastopol.

Just to share some good luck we have had...it turns out that we were the last flight to make it between Kiev and Simferpol last Tuesday evening and then the airport was closed for several days due to ice and bad weather. So Yipee, we made it out just in time. Another lovely thing today...we needed some Ohio Adoption Law info for Galya and we wrote to a lawyer, Nancy Burns, who lives in Cincinnati and has adopted four children from Kazackstan with her husband (who Pam, Len and Angella put us in touch with) via email today and she quickly replied with exactly what we needed!!! How great is that? We feel so blessed!!!

If any of you want to say some extra prayers or have good luck charms - one interesting challenge that lay ahead is that the company that makes the blank passports has been on strike here in Ukraine and the negotiations have not been settled. What that means is that here in Sevastopol they have run our of these blank passports, that we will need for our girls, for them to come home with us...all could go well with the court dates, etc., but then we could be held up waiting for blank passport books. As you can imagine, Galya is doing all she can to find us these booklets but a little help from prayers and love never hurts:)