Things are looking good!

Again, I wish we had more frequent access to the internet and to phones... sorry for the delay, but we have some great news to share. On Tuesday we were able to get some papers signed and then were able to arrange to take ---oh, I guess we should share his name... Elijiah Cooper Zickel - Eli for short! we thought it sounded sort of like Igor and it just felt right to both of us!---- so anyway, we were able to arrange to take him to Kiev to the American Medical Center where we met with a pediatrician from New Jersey who of all things is a Rutgers grad... we had a nice exchange about the Big East rivalry. We wanted to get an opinion about some of the reports that were in his records that weren't adding up. The doctor evaluated him the best he could... Eli didn't want to cooperate much, he is not a crier and screamer, but just shuts down... the first thing we are going to tackle with him. Anyway after talking with us and the caregivers and doing a short exam he said that he couldn't with 100% certainty but he would not based on his exam recommend any additional tests/MRIs etc... and that he would most likely with proper nutrition, love and care develop into a healthy young little boy. He is little... at 4 1/2 years old he is 5% in height (38.5 inches) and 10% in weight 30 lbs. but the doctor was encouraged that he was at least on the charts. So based on that evaluation, and what our hearts are telling us, little Eli will hopefully be coming home with us in just over 2 weeks. We have our court date tomorrow- that is the next big step, the judge has to give us the OK and then from there it is a 10 day waiting period, then 3 or 4 days of getting paperwork, going to his birth city, getting a passport, another medical exam and clearance from the US embassy. God has been with us, Galya our faciliator has been able to work some miracles that has taken 4 or 5 days easily out of the process for us!!!! But ---Please continue to keep us in your prayers, it really is rough over here- we miss home a lot... We were sad last night when thinking about Jake being at his ball game and we weren't there to cheer him on.... Oh, Jennifer and Rick- we watched all of Season 1 of Entourage last night! most likely will tackle Season 2 tonight, we are HOOKED! Not sure when we will have access again, but as soon as we do we will update...

PS- for those of you who read my blog that are waiting to adopt from the Ukraine at some point when we are back in the states I promise to give a detailed overview of all the steps of our journey, I know when I was waiting to travel I read blogs to find out more information... I will share the full story - my prayers are with you as you get ready to set out on your journey!