Court Date

We apologize for not posting anything yesterday. We tried, but the internet cafe was full and we didn't really have the time to wait. So, we found out when our court hearing would be.........do you wonder when it might be??

We appeared in court and were officially pronounced parents of Ethan Warren Baldwin this morning at 10:00!!! Yep, it was today. Natasha had suggested that we might be able to have the hearing before the 6th, but she didn't want to make any promises. So, on Monday night, she came to our room and told us we would be having court on Wednesday morning! How did she do it? We didn't ask questions, we just praise God. There is another American couple here who has been in Donetzk for two weeks now, and they still haven't had their court date. So, we know that it was God's plan for us to have this today. Actually, we are about two weeks ahead of the average adoption cycle here in Ukraine. Our facilitator is a wonderful christian woman who understands that there are no coincidences, just the hand of God at work.

This means that we will be traveling home on December 14th or 15th! We must wait here in Doneztk for another 10 days (mandatory waiting period) and then we can travel back to Kiev for Ethan to have a physical examination and to meet with the US Embassy to get an immigration visa for Ethan. We will be looking at the airlines today to see which day we will actually be flying back.

This is the first day we have seen the sun in Ukraine. We think that it is beautiful here today, because of what God has done.

We celebrated our becoming parents by eating at a new restaurant for lunch. It was good! OK this is Joe taking over since we are talking about food! Not only was it good it was great! I had borsch and some raw (well not really raw but cold and smoked) bacon as an appetizer, then I had a beef and mushroom dish that was served with a side of buckwheat and a side of cold sour cabbage---excellent! Steph had a seasoned pork tenderloin with what they called fried potatoes--technically they are correct french fries are truely fried potatoes.

Now I will tell you some about court. We anxiously waited in a court building that interestingly resembled the court house in Randolph County. Yes, a pre-WWII communist type building looked just like the Randolph County Courthouse inside. The judge came down the stairs in his black robe and entered the court room on the first floor right beside the waiting area. He heard a couple of cases then asked us to enter. It was very intimidating, we acted like we were not nervous but I was shaking in my Timberlands! The judge asked me to stand and state my name, b-day, yrs married, my address (which I momentarily forgot), my job and my salary. He wanted to know if we have any kids. Then it was Steph's turn. She really got put through the ringer! The judge asked her the same questions and then the "People's Advocates" two ladies who represent the state and apparently the state's concern for orphaned children started asking Steph questions. They wanted to know if Steph could handle being a mother, they were concerned because she has a job, they asked Steph why we were adopting not from the US, but from Ukraine. Steph did a bang up job! We showed the judges and the ladies pictures of our home, so that they would see we have sufficient space to raise a child. They asked who the children were in the pictures, we have pictures of all the nieces and nephews. One lady specifically asked about Logan. We told her that Steph's sister and her husband had recently
adopted him. They seemed to enjoy the pictures. (Plus, that picture of Logan is sooo cute!)

The entire process took probably twenty minutes and after the Inspector (city representative), and a representative from the orphanage testified on our behalf, the judge made his ruling that we were officially the parents for Ethan. We both cried, and I think I saw a tear in the eye of the lady from the orphanage.

Immediately following our court hearing, we went to the orphanage to see Ethan. Our normal visit is from 10 am to 12 noon, but because we were in court at 10:00, we were late. Ethan was obviously upset about that because he was pouting and giving us dirty looks when we first arrived. (He knew we were supposed to be there when the other American couple came to see their son.) But, he quickly got over his attitude. The director of the orphanage offered us his congratulations as well as several of the ladies who work there.

It has been an awesome day!