Paperwork has started!

One more day of updates from Rachel and then hopefully we can hear from Tonya and Joe tomorrow or Saturday as they return to Kiev for the weekend.

I spoke with them live today for a few minutes. They sounded tired but encouraged with the events of the past few days. I am not going to pretend to understand all the paperwork (Tonz and Joe will have to help us out with those details) but they did receive a letter from the orphange today regarding their intentions to adopt the children and they also received a letter from a Notary stating that they intend to adopt the children, so the process has begun. They said that the paperwork process at this orphanage is slower than at some of the others so they anticipate it to take two weeks to be completed.

Konstantine had arranged for Oksana to talk on the phone with a 19 yr old girl,now living in the USA, that had been adopted from the Ukraine at age 15. This was awesome because the 19 yr old was able to speak to Oksana in her language and tell her about the USA, the opportunities, what her life might be like, etc... Tonya and Joe said they could see an obvious change in her demeanor following the phone call. She seemed to be more relaxed and was starting to show a little more emotion than previously. Hopefully each visit will provide more of a comfort level as they get to know each other.

Hopefully the next post will be from Tonya and Joe. The last thing they said before we got off the phone was "keep us posted on the tournament". Go Heels!