Judge Decrees us Parents!

This morning at 11:30 we had our court case. Monique, Valery, Ruslan, Yuri, Alina, Natalia, and Tatiana were there. The judge asked us some questions about our family and if our desire to adopt these children. He also asked the same question that has been asked of us every step of the way "Why do you want to adopt three children when you already have three children?" We told him that we have thought about this for many years and prayed about it. We knew that our family was not complete and wanted to adopt children from Ukraine because of my heritage.
After more questions, he then asked us if we still desire to adopt these children and, of course, we said YES! He asked each of the children one by one if they wanted to be adopted by us, and they all said YES! He had some questions for Natalia as well as Tatiana. After checking documents, verifying information, the judge then read the decree naming each child individually and pronouncing us the proud parents of Ruslan, Yuri, and Alina HORB!!!

Then it was off to a celebratory lunch! After lunch we went to get their passport pictures taken. It didn't seem like a big deal, but when we went into the store to get the pictures made, the man began yelling at us! He told us that we didn't need as many pictures as asked for. We needed the photos for passports and paperwork at the US Embassy. We thought it made more sense to get all the photos at once. He did agree to take the pictures and was angry while he did it. What is wrong with these people?

The next steps in the process involve getting the court decree, birth certificates, and passports. Ten days from today, July 7th, all the court documents will be ready to be picked up. Our attorney Valery will begin the next steps of the process for us. After the passports are applied for it can take up to three weeks for them to be done. We have decided to come home on Monday and then we will come back to pick up the children when the passports are done. This means we will be home anywhere from three to four weeks. Then we will return to Ukraine and bring our children home!

Our biggest frustration today was trying to get a notary to sign a power of attorney for our facilitator. We went to several offices today and were told the following reasons why our papers could NOT be notarized: 1. Done working for the day (it was 3:30pm and the office was open until 5:30pm) 2. Come back tomorrow at 10am (didn't say if she would do it, just come back) 3. I've never seen that document done before, so it's Impossible! I've never seen it so it can't be done!(Our attorney had examples of the needed document, and said yes it can be done. He's done it several times before.) 4. Your American Passport will not work for identification (Are you Kidding Me?!?!?) 5. You need an Ukrainian identification card (I am an American Citizen-and don't even live here). 6. Have your power of attorney done and apostilled in America-then send it to us. 7. Why do you need Power of Attorney? Adopted kids in Ukraine don't need passports--I've done this for 30 years. (WHAT??? In the Free World, Everyone Needs a Passport to Travel!! --except I suppose if you are coming in small boats from Cuba or sneaking in to America from Mexico.)

We arrived back at YWAM and Monique called one of the missionaries here. He called back to say that he found someone who will be able to do our notary papers in the morning. YEAH!

After the court hearing, we all went out for a celebratory lunch!











Alina and Monique