Officially Official

December 24, 2007

I spoke to our facilitator this morning. He called to wish us Merry Christmas and also congratulations. He had just picked up our court decree. We are officially new parents as of today! The ten day wait is over. Nobody contested our adoption. That news hits me with new emotion and pride. Thank you, God, for this gift. I won't be able to look at Christmas Eve the same ever again.

I then had the privilege to travel to her birth city to get the new birth certificate naming G and I as her parents. Now that is really real. The city was small but more than a village. The shops were nice. We stopped to pick up some chocolate for our friend doing the birth certificate and a sausage, bread, mustard drinks and a few pickles from an open bucket for our driver and us to eat for lunch. I felt like a real Ukrainian! We ate as we drove down the road. What an adventure. The lady at the office was also a believer and she was very kind to us. She basically saved us a day in the process. You could tell that she was one of the people that God had selected for us - one motivated by compassion. She prayed for us before we left. Man, how cool is that? Now let's hope she has a friend at the passport office.

So we are preparing for our Christmas celebration tomorrow. The two bio kids are excited. D can't really understand why. We'll see how it goes. We have decorated one of the (fake) house plants with lights and ornaments. D calls it our Christmas "flower." It will do just fine in a pinch. Yesterday we saw that some city workers were erecting an enormous Christmas tree. We'll get some photos of that later when it is lit. That was a pleasant surprise. There are several stores and shops that have decorated for the holidays. But overall the culture is still recovering from the Soviet religious oppression. They won't say "Santa" Claus because it might be construed to be religious. I'm not a hater, but little do they know that this jolly ol' fella probably has done more to secularize the holiday that any government could have.

The only thing that I'm missing is a leg lamp to place in our window. Beginning at noon today, I will be playing The Christmas Story for 24 hours straight. We are planning to go ice skating this evening and then scavenge the city for turkey and dressing. Tomorrow will be very busy for us as we have more planned to do than we have day to do it.

We will be missing you all and our cozy home back in the States. Christmas will not be the same here, but it is what it is and regardless of where you are, the birth of Christ can be celebrated and savored. So Merry Christmas to you all and at least some of us will be home for the new year. Please continue to pray that we can all make the trip together.

Blessing,

The Graces