Progress

Yesterday morning, Shelby, Tammy, Lena, and I went to the appeals court to check on the status of my paperwork. When we got there, the girl that Shelby and I had talked to the day before told us to wait, then came back about 10 minutes later with our completed documents. She could not give them to us because the must go to the other court by courier, so we all headed over to our court to send the courier to get them. When we got there, the courier had already left and was at the appeals court. The secretary that has been so helpful in the past called the courier and asked him to go through all of the documents and make sure mine were there before returning. She told us that once she had them, she would prepare the additional court decree that I needed to get Vacya signed out of the orphanage. The papers were ready at the end of the work day Friday, so we didn't have time to officially sign Vacya out, but he's with me for the weekend. On Monday Andrei will come down to get everything taken care of with the orphanage, so other than going back for a few hours Monday morning, Vacya will not have to stay there anymore. Then on Tuesday we will head out to the village where Vacya was born to get his birth certificate changed. It's about a 2 1/2 to 3 hour drive, so it will probably take most of the day to get it done. If we get back early enough on Tuesday, we will apply for his passport; otherwise we'll do that Wednesday morning. I've been told that it should take 5 to 7 days to get the passport, but I know others who've waited much longer. I'm hoping that we don't run into another delay there.

This afternoon Shelby and I are taking the kids to the circus, then tomorrow is Shelby's birthday, so we should have a very fun weekend. Vacya has been asking all day how much longer till we go to the circus. He's so excited.