Court is tomorrow (Wednesday)!

We have our court date tomorrow (Wednesday) at 11:30. This is to make the adoption legal. We will be asked a series of questions as to our ability to parent the boys and we make our petition to adopt them, to change their last name to ours, etc.

The boys must consent as well. They seem excited about being adopted by us. I think we have a great connection, but you never know with little boys. Please keep us in your prayers. We hope that their answer is use, but simply pray that God's will be done.

Today we visited the boys for a couple of hours. We bought sleds for R and V's classes and delivered them. We gave the sleds a good trial on the playground. The boys gave me a good workout.

We also got their passport photos done. The boys behaved perfectly. They wanted to get to the toy store, but Natasha told them "Business first". R said, "I understand business first, but after that can we look at toys?" They both sat up straight and gave killer smiles for their photo. They may be the first people in history to have a good passport photo. (My recent one is not horrible. My previous one made me look like a thug).

The boys also made a special request for a New Year's present. We got them each a remote controlled truck that does wheelies and lights up. It also makes a loud obnoxious noise. I won't be surprised to see the speakers get mysteriously damaged.... Father Frost will be making that delivery tomorrow.

We got a bit more info about the post-court date period. The 10 day wait ends (of course) on 1/10/ But that is a Saturday, so the paperwork (and the really, real official adoption) won't be completed until Monday 1/12. At that point the boys will stay with us.

We then need to get revised birth certificates, but those aren't done on Monday, so that will have to wait until Tuesday. Then, we can apply for a Ukrainian social security number (Not sure why, but I think it is because the boys still retain their Ukrainian citizenship until their 18th birthday). But those aren't issued on Tuesdays so we will have to wait until Wednesday.

After that, we can apply for a Ukrainian passport. Apparently there are 2 types of passports as Ukraine is transitioning their passport standard (just like the US is doing). The old type will take about a day. The new type will take about 10 days. I'm not sure where this area is in the transition. We, of course, hope that the old type will be sufficient. If not, we will probably end up taking a short vacation somewhere in Ukraine.

After that, we will return to Kyiv for several days of final processing.