Court, etc.

The court hearing went great. It was very friendly. They asked the girls individually at the end whether it was their desire to become part of our family. When it was Svieta's turn, she smiled and announced enthusiastically, "I'm ready to go live in America forever!", then turned to look at us and giggled.

The woman who takes care of Svieta's sister called Natasha to say that if we wanted to adopt Victoria, she would let us, so as not to separate the sisters. When I think of how important my Mom was in my life at the age of three years old, I cannot even imagine the horror of being separated from her. This woman is the only thing this little girl has ever known, and Victoria has no idea she even has a sister. I think it would be way too damaging to her to pull her out of her secure life. I just can't do that. Svieta doesn't seem to be too attached to her anyway, just curious.

On Saturday, when we went to pick up the girls, Zhenia's grandmother was there. She invited us to her home just outside of Poltava, so we went and met some of her family. When we got out of the van, her little cousin Katia ran to throw her arms around her and began sobbing. That made her aunt Natasha cry too. We felt so bad. But they were very gracious, fed us dinner, and we spent about an hour and a half talking with them. It was a very touching experience. I felt bad that they kept apologising for how small their home was, and for not having a better spread for dinner. I thought it was great. We fit 14 people in a room slightly smaller than my small bedroom growing up. If you have love in your home, the size just doesn't matter as much. I wish I could post some photos, but my hard drive crashed so I can't load any onto my flash drive to take to the internet cafe. We time things great, don't we?

We took the girls ice skating this week. My hips are still sore! We also took them to a movie that was recommended as safe for children by the ticket agent. Unfortunately her idea of safe for children and ours is vastly different. We'll be even more careful next time!

The girls wanted to come to church with us on Sunday. Their uniforms were being laundered over the weekend, so all they had were jeans. They came anyway, and nobody even looked twice.

Loren leaves on Wednesday, and at this point, it looks like I will be here until around the 10th of October. I tried replying to some emails this morning, but after the first two, hotmail continues to kick me out everytime I try to send something, so sorry! I love reading them and the comments on our blog so much! It's so fun to share our excitement with everybody. This has been such a life changing experience.