It's Official!

Introducing Levi Nazar Yoder!

We have chosen the name Levi, which means "to join" in Hebrew. We plan to call him by both his first and middle name during this transition (as it will be hard as we all have known him as Nazar for so long!)

At 2:00 PM today, we attended court to become Nazar's parents. We entered the empty court and sat in the red chairs pictured on the left, next to Angelina, our interpreter. The regional social worker and legal representative of the orphanage sat in the red chairs opposite us. Then the judge entered the room, flanked by two older men who are local adoption authorities. They sat in the three chairs below the national Ukrainian symbol.

The entire proceedings were held in Ukrainian, and Angelina translated for us. We each were asked to stand (Steve first) and explain to the court why we were here, and why we wanted to adopt Nazar in particular. We were also asked questions about our jobs, awareness of Nazar's condition, our family, etc., and were given the opportunity to add comments. At this point, Jamie (guided by Angelina) asked if the court would consider having the mandatory 10-day waiting period waived, due to Nazar's special needs. The judge then asked Angelina, the social worker, and the legal representative if they felt that this was an appropriate request. They each agreed that it was best for Nazar. It was stated that since being at the orphanage, since his birth, Nazar has never been visited by anyone (until we came along).

The judge and two men then left the room while we waited for about 20 minutes for their decision. When they returned, the judge then read the eight-page court decree while we stood at attention and Angelina interpreted for the next half-hour. It was one of the longest half-hours of our lives! The whole process was extremely repetitive and each time they mentioned our names or Nazar's it was always followed by each of our birthdays. At the end, the court decreed that it would be in Nazar's best interest for us to become his parents. They also agreed to waive the mandatory 10-day waiting period. Thank you for your prayers on that one!

Tomorrow we begin another round of paperwork to allow Nazar to immigrate to America. During this time, he will stay at the orphanage as we have a lot of running around to do in a cramped taxicab. When that is completed at the regional level, we then travel with Nazar to Kiev to complete the final documents to be able to come home!

We would like to thank each of you reading for your interest, support, and prayers during this journey that has led us to our beautiful son!