Day 14- He is OUR SON!!!

Yes, he is.... we passed court today!!!

This whole process is so sureal-- unlike what I expected in many ways.
I expected our first day of meeting him to in a dream world be full of tears, happiness and maybe a few hugs, oh and LOTS of pictures.... well if you go back and read my blog you'll say, Hmmmm I didn't see any pictures of your first meeting.... NO?  no?  Really.... you don't see any??   That is because NONE were taken!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I know I will be sad over this for a little while-- but in the end it is over and we must move on!  The first day was so so hard.... there were many people, many expectations and many interesting faces and gestures.   Many things were LOST in TRANSLATION!

All the rest of our days meeting with our soon to be son-- were SO WONDERFUL-- I really loved each and every visit.  We have many pictures of each visit (mostly taken by him....but that is good too).   Every day was wonderful, each day we grew closer to him... every day he grew closer to us.

Then came today-- the BIG COURT day-  it shook me to the core.  For many reasons, some of which I am not sure I am going to make public here, but it was very mentally exhasuting.  The actual court "session" was not near as hard as I imagined.... there were ups and downs... but the judge was VERY kind... very very kind.    One of the people present who were allowed to ask questions (I forget their technical name) asked if we were Christians when we said "We love having a large family and doing things together, we are so excited to expand our family again".  SO that was neat, that she would recongize that there MUST be something different about us.   There were some downs too-- but I will have to speak with Jason before posting.   But in the end-- WE PRAYED and had a POWER house team of people PRAYING for/with us-- that we would have FAVOR with the court-  that the Lord would give us favor and that we would be this little boys FOREVER mama and papa!!  And we are---

Well-- we are pretty darn close-- you see-- we are now on what is the "10 day wait"  I thought this meant 10 days we were waiting for the court and papers to be processed and so forth-- but no in reality-- this is actually a time when anyone could contest this decision and we would have to apeal.  We pray this is not the case, and do not forsee any reason for this TO be the case.

Our court case was delayed a bit-- and that was okay with us, we were actually able to go visit our son in the orphanage while we waited, of course then it was a short visit, and I did not bring anything to do with him so we just played out side and laughed and talked... 

I do not know exactly how much he knows about where we are right now-- it is unclear on what they will tell him-- but I pray he knows WE WILL BE BACK-- we are his mama and papa!!

We are 2 hours away from leaving for our 3 hour drive to the airport in Odessa, Ukraine.  We are on our way HOME!!  I cannot wait to return home to see my children....they are missing us terribly, I can hear it in their voices.  Soon, my sweet babies... soon!! 

Although I do feel my heart is torn for my son here in Ukraine... who is left back in the orphanage-- we WILL be back VERY soon for you as well my son!!  VERY SOON!!!

Oh-- the 2nd day I really thought we'd have some excellent pictures-- COURT DAY!! right... that would be a memoriable day-- right???  Yeahhh-  No-- no pictures-- not one!! :(  See very interesting how this is all working out--

But in the end-- we will have so many pictures-- pictures of Matthew/Dima in his FAMILY-- in HIS HOME-- with his brothers and sisters who are so excited to meet him!!  SOON