At 10 am this morning, Wednesday, June 20th, Haley Anastasia Lambeth is officially our daughter! We had a brief court hearing and the judge smiled and told us that we were her legal parents. After the judge and witnesses left the room, the inspector (who oversees all the adoptions in this area) turned to us and smiled and said, "Anastasia finally has a family". She was visibly happy to see that after 2 and 1/2 years in the orphanage, she was going home to a family that will love her the rest of her life! :) We are so excited to begin this journey with our little one.
In 10 days we can take her from the orphanage. This is a mandatory appeal period.
We are off to Kiev to go to the embassy to get the marriage license name problem fixed. It feels strange leaving her the day the court decree is finalized, but we have to get this matter taken care of in order to get her new birth certificate and passport to take her home! From Kiev, we will take an over-night train to Chernofsky to visit the YL folks there and then to go to Sergei's town to meet his family. We will be back Sunday. We will have limited (at best) access to internet, so we won't be able to BLOG again until Monday.
We can't wait to come home!!
Blessings, -
Haley Anastasia's happy parents, Hunter and Lauri
Lambeth Family
And little one makes 3...
Map of Ukraine
With the Reynolds in the Square
Adoption Bloggers in the Cafe Chocolat!
Theresa and I catch up on our Blogging
6 comments:
Glad to hear that Hunter is going to Kiev to get his wife straightened out. Tim would fly back to Kiev in a heartbeat if he thought he could do the same.
-Robbie
WooHoo!!!
We have loved seeing this all unfold and cant wait to meet precious Haley!! I know you guys are soooo ready to get home, so I hope the time passes quickly.
We love you tons!
jan and the boys plus baby girl!
WAY TO GO, YOU GUYS! AS NICHOLAS CAGE SAID IN RAISING ARIZONA, "WHAT! ARE YOU KIDDING? WE GOT US A FAMILY HERE!" I AM REALLY LOOKING FORWARD TO THE PHOTOS OF THE TRIP HOME...WHAT AN ADVENTURE THAT WILL BE! LOVE Y'ALL LOTS, US
Congratulations! "And Haley makes three!!" That is so great! And I love the name choice.
We will certainly be praying for your trip. Our trick is always the DVD player and lots of movies. Don't know if that's an option for you. Abbie loves her little set of headphones. Do they have Barney in Ukrainian?
Dad comes for Jenna's bday on Saturday. I'll make sure he reads all the blogs. I read him some of it while he was here for Carly's party. He had forgotten his classes, of course. Unfortunately, the kids were playing some very loud wrestling game, and Carly was playing with a new, loud dancing hippo toy in the backround, and I think Dad was getting frustrated because he couldn't really hear very well. I'll make sure he sits down and looks at all this again.
Love you! Leslie
ok. so i cry everytime i read your update. CONGRATS! i did laugh at the 2yr old description of Haley. She sounds just like Sawyer and Ella. Ella is in the fits full swing now just as Sawyer is phasing out. Yep, learning boundaries and how to deal with emotions is a hard task no matter which country you are in! Cant wait for all the kids in the ole' community group to play together. That fish fry will be good! Love you all!
em spears
P.S. can you believe that Taylor is already rolling over and eating baby food now???
Hi Lauri and Hunter, cousin Bill here in DC. I've been lurking and reading all this for a while, I just wanted to say how happy we are for you!!! My mom sent me the link.
My own Ukrainian connection - I photographed the Orange Revolution in Kiev in Dec 2004. I was really impressed with the Ukrainians, great people turning out day after day to steer their country in a new direction, a real people-power vibe. I know they've had some disappointments and bumps in the road since then, but I always sort of root for them to make good on the hope and promise they fought so hard for.
Anyway, now we've been rooting for YOU and keeping tabs on your progress. Hope to see you someday soon, we'd love to meet Haley Anastasia and introduce her to our Sofia (ok, she's a lot younger at 15 months, but she can hold her own ;).
Enjoy the rest of your trip and thanks for blogging the whole experience. We'll stay tuned!
Bill, Mariama, and Sofia Crandall
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