We Have Our Court Date

We have been having a lot of trouble with internet access lately, which limits our contact with our kids at home and our ability to access our blog and e-mail. I got up this morning before everyone else (always last to bed and first up) and I am posting while the web is up. Now I know why they call it "surfing"; you jump in when it's up.



I can relate to Dr. David's post regarding "the paper" yesterday. All of our paperwork is done, we met with the mayor's assistant yesterday for about five minutes and our court date is tentatively scheduled for Thursday, November 13. I say "tentatively" because when I asked our translator if I could start arranging my trip home, she said I should hold off in case Kiev doesn't get all the "papers" to the court in time. They handed us an armful of papers to bring down with us but, apparently, there are even more papers that need to be sent.



We had a good day with the kids yesterday. The Clarks and our kids are involved in a "winterfest" competition, where the kids perform against other troops from the region. Justin is a soloist in their singing group, with a clear strong singing voice. If they win the local competition, they are supposed to move on to another competition in Kiev. The orphanage puts a lot of emphasis on this and they practice a lot. The director asked us to buy Justin a new suit, shirt and bow tie for the show, so we get to take him out of the orphanage to the outdoor market today. The Clarks will be going with their kids to do some shopping as well.

We saw "D" yesterday and she sat with us while we watched the practice. She seemed in better spirits. We were told that she didn't know anything about what was happening, that she withdraws from change like new people in her environment. She may have been frightened that she might have to leave with us. Who knows, we are just happy that we had a nice visit with her.