Two Weeks in Ukraine

We've been in Ukraine two weeks as of today and tomorrow is court at 10 am. When we think of it that way, it really hasn't been that long and we are so grateful. If everything goes as planned, then we will be Sofia's parents tomorrow around noon. At that point, we will tie up some loose ends, get some gifts for the orphanage staff and for our landlady, finish packing and hop on a train to Kiev at 5pm. We will arrive in Kiev at 11pm and we'll have Nikolai take us to the airport where we will camp out until our flight at 5:35am. We will fly from Kiev to Frankfurt then to DC and home to Sacramento around 7:45pm. It will be a LONG two days but we've rested up for this and we look forward to being home with the boys in time for Mother's Day weekend.

It will be very hard not to come home with Sofia. The boys will be so confused as it's the first thing they ask us when we skype with them. Is Sofia coming home? We don't expect the 10 days to be waived and even if the judge softened his heart to the idea, the prosecutor would be the first to object and possibly cause even further delays in us bringing Sofia home. We know Sofia is taken care of at the orphanage and we think she'll be shielded due to her age of feelings of abandonment. The orphanage is all she's ever known so we take comfort that she'll be ok until we return. I'm trying not to think about the fact that we might not see her for close to a month. She'll have changed so much!

We will most likely come back the first week in June. Our facilitator Marina is taking two weeks off in May to take care of her mother and although we could proceed without her, we would rather not. She is wonderful and amazing and she is also very glad that we want to wait and finish the adoption with her in June as she really knows the system the best here in Dnep. It seems so far away but I will keep busy during that time to prepare our home for Sofia and to make all the phone calls and plan all the necessary medical appointments so that when she comes home with us we can get her looked at immediately and start her Early Intervention services as soon as possible. It will also be just in time for summer break so the whole family will have a chance to bond with her and adjust to having one more little body in our home without rushing off to school routines.

So I'll leave this last post before the BIG DAY with photos from our last visit with Sofia today. I wonder if she knows she's about to become a Sanchez...a daughter, sister, granddaughter, niece, cousin, and friend to many back at home. Her eyes tell it all...she has the wisest, kindest eyes. She must know!