It's Official - Tuesday, Mar.10th

Well it is official. The Sevastopol Court has accepted our petition to adopt Elona and change her name to Elona Marie. Ben, you have a sister. Now there is a 10 day waiting period (which will be more like 12 because of the weekend), we will get the offical court decree, and she will come to live with us. Then all is left is process of coming home to the United States, which is not small thing.

We arrived at court today about 10:00 AM after picking Elona up at the orphanage. She was wearing a black pant suit with a white blouse and white bow in her hair. The exterior of building housing the court is a dump. The neighborhood surrounding the building is made up of abandoned buildings and apartment buildings that look like section 8 housing. Inside the building is just as bad. Peeling paint, iron pipe railings and concrete steps. The lighting in the narrow corridor where people are lined up on benches waiting are vertically hung exposed 24” fluorescent fixtures. The lamps are blue; Roger says it reminds him of the movie “Brazil”. Would have liked to take pictures, but that would have been un-cool.

We only have to wait for about a half hour and we are called into the Judge’s chambers. Inside the room is quiet comfortable with a large desk with a conference table placed against the front with seating for up to 10 people. The Judge is much younger that we expected and handsome. There are ten people present, ourselves, Galya, Elona, the orphanage representative, the government representative, the Judge, his secretary and two other women (not sure who they were). The Judge’s reviews the paperwork and asks if we agree with the petition to adopt Elona, we say “da”. He asks us some questions about employment, our home, and schooling. He asks Elona if she would like to be adopted by us and if she understands that she will be leaving the Ukraine and that we will not speak Russian. She answers “da” to both questions. The judge review some more papers, speaks to the other people in the room. The whole thing lasts about 20 minutes and he announces that he will accept out petition to adopt Elona. It is over. We all say thank you and leave the room. This is when Mama starts to cry and almost brings Papa with her. She is ours.

Kostya and Galya accompanied the three of us to ‘The Greenwich’ for lunch. We found that Elona likes black tea, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and grilled chicken. She doesn’t like black or green olives, or feta cheese. Galya told Elona all about what is coming up after the 10 day waiting, the frantic work to get the passport, the trip to Kiev for the visa, and the 8 hour flight to the United States. It is exhausting just thinking about it. After lunch we take Elona back to the orphanage. From now on will be able to take Elona out of the orphanage every evening from 4-6:30 and longer on weekends.

It was a beautiful day, so after shopping briefly at the market we walked down by the water and took that long way home. The trees are starting to bud, and areas of the main street are very beautiful.

Kelley and Roger