The Day Waited A Long Time For!

Dave sez, This is the day that Cathy and I have been waiting a long time for. Cathy has been waiting since mid-November 2012. I've been waiting since early December 2012. That was right around the time we both last saw Masha.

We are both very honored that our children have found us and that they each have chosen us. Justin found us toward the end of 2010, and I spent the first week of January with him. Cathy and I hosted him on his final week of a three week visit to the states from the Cradle of Children's Hope orphanage in Kiev, Ukraine. When we came to bring him home in the Fall of 2011, he introduced us to Ethan as, "This is Ethan, my brother!" Over the early Winter of 2012, when we came to bring Ethan home, he introduced us to Masha with the question, "Masha...sister?" We spent some time getting to know Masha before Ethan's court date. After Ethan's court date, we were pulled aside and told that Masha had picked us. She didn't want to be adopted by any one else. She wanted Cathy and I to be her parents. She had even picked her new name, Isabella.

The boys had been excited to come to America. Masha was anxious and desperate to come home. To a family.

Today was an early day. We had a nine-thirty appointment with Valentin and the social worker from Children Services. Together we were driven out to the orphanage. We brought our dossier and the referral we picked up yesterday afternoon. The social worker asked how we came to know Masha and how we were handling the language barrier. When we got there, Masha joined us in the Orphanage Director's office. The social worker told Masha to write out her letter of intent that we adopt her and become her parents. The social worker and the orphanage director both signed the letter. Masha was nervous and had to re-write the letter a second time. We were driven back to the Department of Child Services office and we said "Baka-baka" to the social worker. We will probably see her again on Masha's court date. We went with Valentin to the Notary. When we were done there, we headed back to the orphanage to visit with Masha.

She was not as nervous as she had been earlier. She ran and leapt at Cathy nearly bowling her over with how excited she was to see her new mother. It's nice to see Cathy experiencing what I have gotten to experience on the last two trips with the boys. Justin and Ethan leaned more toward me. We played soccer and wrestled and rough-housed. When they ran out of steam - which wasn't very often - they curled up with Mom. When they wanted candy, they went to Mom. When they wanted to play Uno, they came to both of us.

Masha is naturally leaning toward Cathy. I think that is awesometacular. I can't wait to see how this changes all of us.

 

Masha's birthday is coming up this Saturday. Cathy's birthday is next Wednesday.

 

We certainly do appreciate your prayers so far on our journey. We are grateful for the opportunity to share our journey, the ups and downs of how we came from there to here. It has been a long journey. Some days it has felt like an uphill hike. It's a good feeling to be able to see the top of the hill from where we are now.

 

"King of the world!"