No Court Today

We haven't blogged over the last few days on purpose this time-not internet issues BUT nothing really has changed until today...just the same, you wake up, drink coffee, get showered, go to the orphanage for of course a wonderful visit with our Nastiya, then back to the flat to sleep. If we're lucky, we'll throw in a meal at our favorite diner-the pizza parlor.

As for today...We arrived at the orphanage and brought Nastiya her Court clothes only to find out an hour later that Nastiya is "too young for Court". After Nastiya's tears dried up, we left for the Mariupol Court house (which is a hallway with a few chairs outiside the entrance to the "Court room" i.e. the judges chambers (office))-not the typical courthouse experience like that in America and the best is we didn't have to go through any detectors or the all invasive Douglas County live strip-show booth. After a few minutes waiting in the hallway, the Court Clerk came out and informed Nadya and the Attorney from the orphanage that the Judge was ill and would not hear our case today but possibly next Monday. I, after holding my feelings in, quickly advised Nadya how the Court process works in America and that we needed to find another Judge that would hear our case. Clearly that is NOT how it's done in Ukraine.

So, immediately we head to our attorney's office to plead our case with him. However, the attorney (who knows the judge personally) couldn't get through to him either. We're promised that everything is being done that can be done. Keep your fingers crossed for Court possibly this Friday and I (Brian) am trying to fly home ASAP. We (through the Garrett's) bought Nastiya some roses thinking that today she would be officially part of our family. Back to the orphanage to break the news to Nastiya who took it ok after Nadya explained to her that Tami and she will be leaving Mariupol around the 27th of October irregardless.

The orphanage allowed Nastiya to leave with us and the Garrett's for an afternoon of great Mariupol adventures! Nastiya, since it was her day, decided to go to McChicken and Pizza for lunch. After several pizza's and chicken and fries, off to one of the many local museums to learn more about the foundation of Mariupol and the Ukrainian/Soviet Union era's. Both Nastiya and Anya appeared to be having a good time. I think Nastiya was just excited be be able to leave the confines of the Orphanage gates. After learning more than we wanted to know, off to the photographers to get Nastiya's and Anya's passport photos. Nastiya asked Nadya if Tami and I would stay with her for a little while upon our return back to the Orphanage. How could we turn that down.

During all of this-the dreaded phone call back to the States. Tate's first question to me was "when are you coming home?" Of course, this kills me more than anything to inform our girls that now it is unknown when I'll be home. Promising to still try to make it this weekend Tate appeared to be okay with it. However, I know she was disappointed but not more than me.

To our Girls-Nastiya was hoping to be part of our family today but knows that we are doing everything possible to make this happen so that we can bring her home as soon as we can. Keep Praying that we get to Court soon so Nastiya will be in our family, finally!

To Tate-keep your chin up and Daddy is trying to get home as soon as I can;

To Reaghan-keep your cheerful attitude and big smile flowing as we all need that right now;

and To Kenzie-we hear you are doing wonderful in school and are happy all of the time and hope you know that we love you and miss you.

We're trying to get home as soon as possible. We love you!

As for watching the horror movies...girls...you know mommy and daddy do not let you watch those movies. Our rules are the same if we're there or not.

More pictures are added on the link to the left.

This is Tami now, today was a day of mixed emotions. We were very stressed, but excited about court this morning, and I had my mind set that my ten day period would start today. It was extremely disappointing to have that not happen and just minutes from when we thought it would be done. However, God has led us in this process from the beginning and He has His reason for everything. We may not understand what that is, but we will trust that the reason is good.

We then went on to have a nice lunch, and a good afternoon away from the Orphanage for a change. We enjoyed the museum and Brian took great delight in proving to Nadya that America actually won WWII, not Russia. We also found a wall dedicated to the Orphanage with pictures of Ludmilla from the 1980's. That was pretty interesting. We took our children to the wax museum, which was like a horror show in wax. I will post pictures also. There were figures of George Bush, Osama Bin Laden, and Hitler standing together. Hmmmmmm

After we left the museum, we saw a burnt out building next door that the boys decided had been bombed out and never rebuilt. The girls took pictures of themselves inside this building and chased the street animals around a bit. All in all, it was an okay day.