Unfortunately . . .

Sergei picked us up at 8:30. We arrived at the court house in time to have a cup of coffee nearby. At 9:00 Sergei went in to talk to the secretary. The judge was not in yet, but the secretary said to come back in an hour, but could not promise the judge would sign the decree today. We drank some more coffee. In an hour he had all eight copies we requested signed, stamped and sewn together!!! We are off to the orphanage for Daniel's birth certificate and then to his home town. Hurray - thanks God. A very big thank you!

The trip to his home town took about an hour and ten minutes - a lot of that getting across Kharkov. Sergei had checked with the Vital Statistics Office in advance to be sure they would be open today and had been assured they would. However as we walked up to the door we saw the bright yellow sign announcing that they are closed today because of Woman’s Day yesterday. They are usually closed on Monday, so in order to have a true holiday they also took Tuesday off. We suspected this was a possibility.

Our elation is a bit deflated, but Daniel is still legally our son and no one can petition otherwise now. Back to Kharkov. We can have our application for the passport completed at the notary’s office today, although we will have to wait to submit it until tomorrow. We will also buy train tickets today for the overnight train to Kyiv tomorrow night. We will see if the Inspector will be available tomorrow at 4 PM. She needs to be present as we take Daniel out of the orphanage. Sergei will also come with us to the orphanage to ask for the insurance letter and other information we have requested. We will try to take care of any little thing to save time tomorrow.

We still know absolutely that God is in control and has all the details worked out.