Happy BIrthday Rachel and Maryellen

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO OUR OLDEST DAUGHTER!!!! Hope you have a good day Rachel - it's my sister Maryellen's B/day too. I had Rachel at 10:40 PM - just one hour and 20 minutes before my birthday. The doc asked if I wanted to try and wait and hold off and deliver on my birthday. As any of you who have been in labor know - there was no way I was waiting!!!!

The pictures are from an outdoor museum here in Ukraine. It was neat seeing the way people lived here - and some still do. ANastasia got to ride a horse - which you can tell from the picture she really enjoyed. She also rode on Mark's back most of the day too.

Everything went GREAT yesterday. It was a bit nerve wracking as director was not too excited, but Nastia came in sat in our laps and answered in big loud voice DAH - that means YES - to every question she asked about leaving orphanage, going to America, having us for mama and papa, etc. We take Anastasia to meet with Educaatoin director today so she can talk to her, but we already met with her yesterday and Yuri said she even asked why it's taking us so long to get paperwork to her - she'll need to talk to the orphanage director about that. But orphanage director is all excited now and said this is God's will and we have ALL of the paperwork we need from her. Yuri will probably have everything he needs to go to court on Wednesday to request a court date for us. He doesn't know how long that will take. We've quit trying to guess on when we'll get home. Too many variables and people that need to sign off on different stuff. but Yuri says basically everyone who needs to approve stuff have done so - now we just gather paperwork.

We are feeling much more relaxed about things - and so is Anastasia. The second day we were with her she cried when the other kids gathered round us - she was jealous. Yesterday we had a crowd of 20 or so kids gathered round and she didn't care one bit. Yuri says that is because she is more confident and understands that we are taking her and not looking for other kdis. bunch of sweet adorable kids at her orphanage.
Please pray for QUICK court date.
Love Mark and Kim
OH - we will probably keep her name Anastasia - and add Grace as her middle name - Anastasia Grace Botto. And call her Anna for short.