SLAVA BOGU - PRAISE GOD

Thank you God for moving mountains that seemed so insurmountable this morning. You are an awesome God and we give you all the credit!

What a day! It has been a very long, tiring, stressful day that finally at 7:30PM ended with us becoming parents! PRAISE GOD!

We started out early to head for the courthouse to see if the judge would change the court decree. Tanya went in at 9:45 and we didn’t see her again until 10:45! When she came out, she said the judge was mad, very mad. She asked Tanya how she knew they were working today and explained that they were working for the election and not for the Atchison family. She then read the letter from the Registration Office and some articles of law. She told Tanya that we would have to have another court hearing and then another 10 day waiting period. You can imagine how our hearts sank! Our thoughts went to how in the world could we afford this, how could we stay this much longer, what would we do about my job, but more importantly, how could we tell the boys that they have at least another month in the orphanage. My heart just couldn’t bear the thought of it.

Tanya explained to the judge that everything was legal in the way our paperwork was completed. She explained to the judge that she could just rewrite the paperwork to make the registration office happy and we would be ok with that. Doing the court decree this way, means that we will have to readopt the kids when we get back to the states. We just wanted to get birth certificates and our kids. The judge told her to wait. So, she left her phone number and joined us in the car.

We might not have attended a church service in a church building this Sunday, but I can tell you, there were a lot of prayers going up to the Lord and a lot of worshipping in the back seat of Hasan’s car. We waited about an hour and Tanya decided to go back in and see what was happening.

About 10 minutes or so, she called and asked us to go to the store and get some coffee and chocolate for the secretary. So, we went and bought these things to give to the secretary. Lance and I have both thought that the secretary was a nice lady. Tanya said that is was Marina’s, (the secretary) persuasion that did get the judge to do the new decree today. The judge was not happy about having to do it, and didn’t want to work today. Luckily, Marina had a heart of gold and persuaded her to help us.

Tanya came out at 12:20 with three copies of the new court decree. Thank you God!! About that time, the judge walked out in her fancy fur coat and with her husband. She just kinda looked at us and you could tell that she was not happy about having to do the court decree for us.
The passport office was the next place we went to get some information. The boss was out, but would be in later. Tanya got his number and was going to call later in the day. We went to the restaurant that have been to a few times and really like for some lunch and to use the restroom. Sitting in the car all day, you don’t really have access to a restroom.
When we walked out after lunch, we were amazed. It had begun to snow and the it was really coming down. It was coming down so heavily that we could hardly see in front of us. Hasan had to wipe the snow off the windshields and before he could make it all the way around the car, the front windshield was covered again. Even though it was really coming down, it didn’t last too terribly long.

After lunch, we dropped off the pictures for the passports that we had taken yesterday to be printed. They said they would be ready by tomorrow morning. At least something accomplished thus far.

We got home at 2:00. I turned on the TV for a little while, but I had seen and heard all the Animal Planet and Discovery Channel in Russian that I could handle. Sometimes my way of handling stress is to sleep it off. So I covered up on the couch and took a nap. It was the best one and half hours of sleep I’ve had since we returned to Ukraine. I really needed the nap and it helped to refresh my spirit, mind and body.

We got to the passport office at about 4:45. The boss in this office told us that we had three options: 1. Wait until Tuesday to see how the elections go and if the passport office will be printing again. 2. Contact the US Embassy and see if they will place the visas for the boys in the light blue children’s travel documents that they have here in Ukraine. We don’t think this will work, because since 9/11 the US is pretty strict on entering the country only on passports, but we will call them tomorrow and see. 3. He said he would think over giving us a red passport. A red passport is the old style of passport that can be done in a short amount of time and nothing has to be sent to Kiev. Pray for red! Pray for red!

It was about 5:30 when we got to the registration office and it looked pretty dark inside. Tanya went in and about 30 minutes later came back out to get us. She had to fill out applications and would need our signatures. The first form she filled out, they found a few wording mistakes, so she had to redo it. And, because we are adopting twins, she had to fill out two of the forms.

Believe it or not, there was another problem in the court decree. Our address was left out of this new copy. This is a big deal here. Somehow though, they let us complete the paperwork. Thank you God!

The boss of this office came out after the paperwork was done and showed us the rest of the building. It was beautiful. This is where couples get married and it was very nice and classy. She let us sit in the waiting area since it was warmer there than where we were sitting to fill out the paperwork.

Finally, at 7:30PM, we were given the birth certificates! SLAVA BOGU! She gave us the birth certificates as she explained that our long drawn out adoption was just like a pregnancy! No doubt!! I feel like I just gave birth to two ten year olds! It was interesting to hear her say that, because while we were waiting, I was thinking the same thing. I was also praying that this “birth” would be similar to stories from other mothers I’ve heard. I was with my best friend Ashley in the labor and delivery room until they kicked me out with the birth of her first daughter. I can very clearly remember, her grabbing my arm very tightly and saying, “Debra, never do this! NEVER do this!” Of course, once she held that baby and as she has watched her grow into the most precious young lady, all of that pain and torture seemed to pass from her memory. She has since had another precious girl and says it was all worth it. I sure hope the pain and torture of this “birth” will too fade away and I will be given the strength to birth another adoption again!

The boss asked to see pictures of the boys, so of course, we were proud to show her! When she handed us the birth certificates, she handed one to me and one to Lance and said, “One for Mamma and one for Pappa!” HOORAY! SLAVA BOGU! We have birth certificates. She also gave another type of birth certificate that is for adoptions. They normally give just the one certificate, but since we will have to readopt when we get to America, she gave us one saying that the children were adopted. Just give me whatever we need to go get our kids! It feels like such a weight is lifted off of our shoulders. There are still smaller weights there, but a big one was removed today. Thank you God!
Hasan said in the car afterwards that he thought it was more than likely because of Tanya that we were able to get these certificates. That when he looked at our court decree, he didn’t think it was going to happen. Tanya has worked so hard these last three days for us and we are so glad to have her in our corner. Hasan also said that, “We narrowly escaped a dangerous situation today!” Praise you God!

All the way home in the car, we were praying a prayer of thanks to God for His amazing power in getting things accomplished and moving forward in our adoption today. I was humming praise songs in the car on the way home. You know the song, “God Is So Good”, well; I made up some new verses of praise to Him.

He understands,
He understands,
He understands,
He’s so good to us!

He made us parents!
He made us parents!
He made us parents!
He’s so good to us!

In the elevator on the way up to the apartment, Tanya just laughed and told us, “I’ve never gotten a birth certificate at 8:00 on a Sunday night before!” Thank you God!
There is a lot to do tomorrow, we have many papers to legalize, registration numbers to get, orphanage paperwork to sign, donations to make, passports to apply for, etc. It will be another very long day.

We don’t know if we will be able to get the boys tomorrow or not, but we sure hope so. Someone earlier today told us that there is no reason to get your boys until everything is done. Oh yes there is! We want to get them out of the orphanage the very first minute that we can. We don’t care if the four of us will have to sleep on the fold out couch, or if Lance and I sleep in the chairs. We want them out and with us. Not just selfishly because we want them with us, but for their benefit as they are so ready to say bye to the orphanage.

Thanks for your prayers…please keep them coming.