The news we have all been WAITING for!!

Hi Everyone,

It is a beautiful day in Dniprodzerzhinsk!! We are the proud parents of young Mr's Brady and Lucas Donahue!!

Olga arrived this morning on schedule at 6:20AM. She took the overnight train from Kiev and I got up to let her in the building upon arrival while Andrea stayed in bed!! We had a driver pick us up and head to the orphanage at 9:20 as we were asked to pick up the O's doctor who would testify at the proceeding. Aside from the doctor there was also two representatives from the two local inspector's offices. From the courts perspective there was the judge, the prosecutor (that is what they call her!), two resident jurors and the judge's assistant who would also take notes from the proceeding.

Court started when Olga was asked to stand in front of the judge and give her credentials. That lasted a couple minutes after which we were asked to stand. The initial questions were basic - state our name, address, place of employment, salary etc...Olga would then translate the information to the court. After each round of questions from the judge the prosecutor was asked if she had additional questions. The first round went by without any additional questions.

The judge then read our petition to adopt which was a summarization of our home study, the kids life to this point and some other items. It was also a legal contract between us and the country of Ukraine where we agree to inform them of the boy's well-being and what not. After the judge read this he asked us to stand again in order to "ask them questions to get to know them better" - as translated by Olga - the questions this go around were more personal and pointed about family, religious beliefs, health, anticipated care for the boys medical and developmental welfare. Going into this Andrea and I discussed who would do the talking and how we would respond to the anticipated questions. I took the lead but Andrea also spoke many times to clarify and more importantly to let the court know that we both were responsive to their questions. Interesting to us was the fact that the court kept asking us "are you sure you want two" meaning do you want two boys/kids to which we simultaneously replied "yes".

The next phase of the proceeding was to have the third party's testify. They would offer their recommendation to the court regarding our petition to adopt the boys. Each party offered a favorable opinion of us as parents. During this time the judge and jurors (who were standing at his side) spent a lot of time looking at the pictures that Olga took during our first week here. The doctor from the orphanage had some kind words for us in particular.

So - there you are!!! We are now in the ten day waiting period. We did find out that we can pick up our court decree one day earlier than expected however unless the registrar's office (that issues birth certificates) agrees to open for us on Monday June 25th we are not in any better position to be out of here sooner. Stay tuned for more on this - as of now we are still looking at July 4th to fly out.

Regardless - we are very happy to be where we are and to be through with court. It is just a matter of time at this point.

We are now off to buy the orphanage's doctor's office the fan and heater we agreed to purchase a couple weeks back. We are still trying to gather information on donations and how or if they can be sent directly to the orphanage. The question revolves around custom's duties and fees. We will get to the bottom of it as many of you have expressed an interest in sending items here.

That is it for now - thank you for all of your thoughts, prayers and kind words throughout this process. Without your help and support we wouldn't be in the position we are now!! The boys thank you too!!

C&A

PS: the boys are feeling better although they are still congested. Hopefully this will clear up over the next week or so.