Earlier in the month Ira one of our facilitators traveled from Kiev to join us in Khmelnytskyi.  She was assisting with the paperwork required by the Social Services department as well as meeting with the judge to set our court date as well as asking the judge for an online court appointment.  The meeting with the judge went very well. He was down to earth and had the appearance of a kind family man.  He thankfully agreed to arrange for our court appointment to be online.  This would mean that either Inna along with the director of the orphanage, social worker, and Anna and Artem would appear in person before the judge, while we will appear online on a TV screen in the courtroom.

The day before leaving Khmelnytskyi, we had one of the hardest moments of our life, saying goodbye to Anna and Artem.  We assured them that no matter what happens, if they get in trouble, or anything happens, we will be back to bring them home.  Little Anna asked, “Even if I break a vase?”  To which we replied, “Yes, even if you break a vase!”

We had long tight hugs from each of them before Artem engaged us to hug all together as a family.  Ryan and I both were crying and Anna and Artem kept pulling back to look at us so innocently, probably wondering what was happening.  Walking back that day, I balled my eyes out.  Feeling terrible for crying like that in front of them, not being able to hold myself together.  We also feared that they would feel abandoned by us.  Knowing we had to go back to Canada, the time away was going to be so incredibly hard on all of us.

Our last day in Khmelnytskyi was spent with Dima driving us to the Social Services office to pick up documents, then we drove to a place to make copies and put the 4 dossiers together.  Last stop was the court house to pick up the court document confirming out court date set for July 15th.

The train ride back to Kiev was interesting.  We boarded the train and there was a child sleeping in our seats with bags covering the floor.  The train was packed with no where to even place our luggage.  Finally the father came from near the front of our car to tend to his child, but they were refusing to move.  We stood for about 15 min as the train was moving on route to Kiev.  Without knowing the language, it was hard to communicate with anyone.  We got placed in other seats by security on the train, but then were moved again when the person came back to their seats only to find us sitting in them!  After the mass confusion, about 30 min later we finally got to our original paid seats.  The ride was extremely uncomfortable as there was no room for our luggage but between our legs.  After an emotional day, and challenging train ride, we finally made it back to Kiev arriving at 1am.

Flying home we were constantly thinking of Anna and Artem and how the journey home will end up being with them alongside us.  Where will we sit, where will we eat, how will we manage all our luggage?  Exciting to think and plan ahead like this that we will be coming back as a family soon one day!

We are now back home for about a month and lots has happened.  The ministry office was unable to provide their consent of the adoption in time for our court appointment on July 15th.  We discovered this on July 14th, at which time our court date was postponed to September 3rd.  The approval from the ministry office ended up being received on Aug 4th; however, the judge is on vacation for all of August and cannot hold our hearing now until September 3rd at the earliest.

This unfortunately means more waiting for us and more time apart from our sweethearts.  We have been able to keep in touch with them online having FaceTime conversations and mostly texting.  Anna has been busy making lots of drawings for us and texting them to us, she also introduced us to their pet turtle at the orphanage.  We hear from Artem occasionally, but he seems to be keeping himself busy while we are away.

Praying that this time will fly by quickly and that we will be able to bring our children home soon!