Its official!

We are now OFFICIALLY the proud new parents of Vladislav Joseph Walls. This is a picture of us with the judge after he rendered his positive judgement.When Vladik was asked about why he wants to be adopted by us his response was that "he has no parents and he wants us to be his parents". During court they discussed that both Vladik's parents were deceased, which he seemed to already know, and that he had no relationships with any other relatives if there were any. Before court, the attorney for the orphanage asked Vladik if he had spoken to his brother, meaning his 18 year old biological brother Roma, and Vladik said he spoke with him on the phone yesterday. Keith and I were surprised to hear this. But after a little more discussion we quickly realized that he was talking about getting to talk on the phone yesterday with Jackson, his OTHER brother! He is so sweet and has already felt like a part of our family for a long time now but it is good that it is official. The importance of today was not lost on Vladik either. Yesterday, when we were talking about going to court today and the questions the judge would ask him, he said "today, you Julie and you Keith" pointing to Keith and I and then he said "tomorrow you mom and you pop"! After court today we told him that he was now our son and we were so happy. We are so blessed. Now we have a mandatory 10 day waiting period before we can pick up the court decree, however, our 10 days ends on Friday 3/11 so we can't pick up the court decree until Monday 3/14! Once we pick up the court decree we go to Vladik's place of birth and we get an amended birth certificate with his new name and Keith and I listed as parents. But there is a possibility the office that would do this in his hometown is not open on Mondays so that would have to wait until Tuesday. Once we have both of those in hand we will be able to get Vladik (Joseph) from the orphanage. Then we will travel to Kiev where we have 2-3 days of things to do (go to the embassy, get his passport, see a doctor, etc...). My goal is for us to fly home the weekend of 3/19 (so I can return to work on 3/21!). Please pray for a speedy process that week so we can get home quickly. Also, please pray for Keith's traveling. He left tonight on an overnight train to Kiev and will fly back home on Thursday.