Day 16: It’s Official!

On our 16th day in Kremenchuk, our 23rd day in Ukraine, we attended our court hearing in Kremenchuk.  Present were a male judge, two jurors, a prosecutor, a representative of the orphanage, the local inspector (similar to a social worker), our facilitator, and, of course, Matt and me.  After about 30 minutes of questioning and required procedures, with the agreement and recommendation of our adoption by all persons present, the judge took a 30 minute recess to consider our petition to adopt.

 

While we waited for the judge’s final decision, both of the jurors thanked us for giving these boys this “unique opportunity”.  One of the jurors, a man, teared up and had to turn away to dry his eyes.  It was a touching moment, indeed.

 

After 30 minutes and 3 power outages, the judge returned to declare that he approves Matthew and Lorraine as the adoptive parents of Conner and Cooper Patterson!!!

 

We still have to wait 10 days for the final adoption decree, but we were officially approved to become the adoptive parents of our two newest lovies!  We’re so excited and grateful to God for this opportunity.

 

We’ll go back to Texas for the 10 day waiting period, so please keep Conner and Cooper in your prayers that they will be protected and loved upon during our absence.  We left both with a soft blanket (which we’ve slept with since we’ve been in Ukraine so the blankets would smell like us) and a soft photo album so they can remember our scent and our faces.

 

As hard as it will be to leave these boys here during the mandatory waiting period, we are very excited to love on our other kiddos who have been patiently waiting on us back home.

 

Praise God for His abundant provision during this time.  We couldn’t have done it without you and our Father!!!

 

We’ll leave you with photos of our precious lovies, Conner and Cooper:

 

 

A favorite photo:

 

 

 

A favorite photo: