Friday April 23 A Very Special Day

I'll try to keep the build up short and get to the good stuff. We had time to waste this morning so left our room at the Hilton and walked back to the souvenir area to exchange something we got yesterday and, as it turned out, buy more stuff. We checked out of the apartment at noon and went with Nastya to get some paperwork notarized. After that we raced back to the SDA and waited around to get our referral. There's a statue outside the SDA that's very popular for wedding pictures so it was cool to watch all the wedding parties dropping by. We then headed to Schors at breakneck speed. From now on when I say we went somewhere you can insert the phrase "at breakneck speed" and save me some typing. We picked up Inspector Olga and drove over to her office to fill out more paperwork. We could tell she was agitated by the way she was talking to Nastya so we were worried something was up with the adoption. It turns out some local guy bludgeoned three people to death out on the road so she was scared even though the guy had been captured. Whew, what a relief! (Not really, forgive my sick humor)

OK, here comes the good stuff so grab the Kleenex.

We drove over to the orphanage and spent some time in the parking lot organizing donations, gifts, paperwork , cameras, etc. We started walking toward the building and this small group of people were walking toward us. I didn't realize it at first but Olena was in the middle of the group crying. Diane recognized her first and gave her a hug. Next she came to me and I did the same thing which kind of choked me up as you might imagine since I didn't know how she would respond. Many of the kids in the orphanage and the Deputy Director were watching. We walked into the office and started the paperwork process. The child has to write a statement that they want to be adopted and they understand all the implications of this decision. Sometimes it may take days for them to do this or they may never do it as they are understandably nervous about leaving everything they know. They asked her if she was ready and she showed no reluctance in writing the statement. Diane couldn't control her emotions at this point and made some kind of weird joyous noise. We're not completely out of the woods yet as she can still change her mind but this is a very positive step. The next big step will be court, possibly next Thursday.

After the formalities were over we had Nastya read her a letter Justine wrote welcoming her to the family:

"I'm writing this letter from your future brothers and sisters to let you know how excited we are to have another sister. All four of us are very different but we truly love and respect one another and consider everyone in our family like a best friend. When my parents decided to bring you into our family, we were all very excited. We want you to know from the moment you walk into our life, we will treat you like a sister, like one of us. We will protect you, respect you, and love you forever. It will be like you were always a member of our family.

Our mom and dad are amazing people. They have devoted their lives to parenting us to be good, happy, and healthy people. They love one another so much and have so much more love to give. My parents have always encouraged and supported us in our life passions. You will have so many opportunities.

We can't wait to meet you.

With Love,
Jacob, Justine, Joseph, and Jillian"

It was a great letter and she really enjoyed looking at the pictures of her new siblings. She made a comment about all the "J" names. We then showed her a photo album we prepared for her. She looked at everything carefully but the pictures of her bedroom really made an impression. She really liked the make-up station and bed. Tomorrow we get to go see her at 10 AM. Nastya and Alexiy are gone but we have a local interpreter and driver which should help. We're staying at the railroad hotel in Schors for about $16 USD a night. The beds look like an upgrade from the plywood mattress at the Hilton in Kiev.So tomorrow the three of us decide on a new name and hopefully see Alona Rebenok. We're not sure if she knows that we're here.

We are very happy.