A Successful Day in Court!

Dad, Yuri, Mom and our facilitator, Nataliya, on the steps of the court building minutes after having our request for adoption approved. While it is not completely official, for all practical purposes Yuri is a member of the Berger family! We are told the only way to prevent our adoption from taking effect would be if an opposing party to challenged us in court. It is HIGHLY unlikely this will happen. The official 10-day waiting period starts tomorrow. We anticipate being home around April 18th. At one point, we talked about Paul flying home immediately after the court date. Paul decided to stay and see the waiting period through to the end and fly back home as one family.


This day was made doubly special because Yuri's friend from Internot #4, Sasha, (above left) is being adopted by the Weddington family of Florida. The Weddington's adoption is running on the same time line as ours so, the family's had consecutive court appointments today.



The Weddington's and Berger's "patiently" wait their turn before the judge. It takes a small army to appear before the court. Of course, there are the prospective parents. Add to them the facilitators, translators, sponsors and officials from the Internot who all have an interest or role in the proceedings.


The Weddington's adopted two children today. Sasha, from Internot #4 and Katya, from Internot #88. Above, the two happy families celebrate together over lunch. From left to right are: Suzette Weddington, Katya, Sam Weddington, Sasha, Paul, Yuri and Renee.

The rest of the day seemed a bit anti-climatic. This afternoon, Yuri and Dad took a two-hour shopping trip to the market while Renee worked on the computer. This evening we had pizza at Mario's and soon, Yuri will get his turn on the computer and celebrate with a couple hours of computer games. Yuri will live with us for the remainder of our time in Ukraine. Our facilitator will be in Kiev through Easter so, we will be on our own but, we have lots of help only a call away. By default, Yuri has already been forced into role of translator and bit by bit, we are prying more English words and short sentences from his lips. He is doing a good job. ;-)

Thank you! On this big day, instead of a prayer request, we simply say thank you to everyone who helped make this day possible. Grandma Rose (and Grandpa, too) for taking care of the kids and house back home. Employers, siblings, friends, facilitators, officials.... all of you who have contributed in some way big or small. Thank you!