To all,

Today the interface to the blog is in English (I think this is going to be a lucky day). Last night when I went to upload pictures the interface was in Russian and I was having all sorts of problems. So, the picture posted last night was not the intended post as the picture does not to just to either Andrew/i.

We have met another American family from Colorado that we have been spending time with during our visits with Andrei. They are also adopting a little boy and brought their two older children with them for the experience. The Houghton's leave today for court tomorrow and will be flying home for the 10 day waiting period and then returning. Andrew and Alie the Houghton kids have been great with Andrei and having all the kids interact makes the whole time go by just a bit quicker.

The pictures in sequence (note the last uploaded pictures show first).

Picture 1 - The Houghtons - Richard (Dad in hat), Cindy (Mom), Alex (Translator blue and gold shirt - great guy), Ali & Andrew

Picture 2 - Drew & Andrei

Picture 3 - Andrei, Andrew & Ali

Picture 4 - Drew, Audrey & Andrei

Picture 5 - Andrei in position waiting for the ball from Papa

Picture 6 - Lev our translator (we look forward to seeing him again soon we have been on our own since Saturday)

Picture 7 - Mom & Andrei

As you can see we have a lot of A's in the group. We actually met yet another family from Mission Viejo, CA and the mothers name is Angie. Angie and co. are staying in a place with air conditioning and an inside hot shower and will be staying the 10 days in Skadovsk (where we have been since Saturday - by the Black Sea) and offered Drew the use of their facilities.

We called Lev to check on the status of things and our documents have been delivered to the SDA and we have been informed that we should have their consent to proceed with the adoption either on Friday or Monday. Once we have the SDA consent we will be able to get a court date. I am praying that the stars are all aligned and that we have a court date on Monday morning in Khearson. Once we have court we have to get some POA's in place to authorize Drew to take care of the balance of the documents with out me and the last step is I need to visit the US Embassy in Kiev sign some documents to the same effect and then I am on a jet plane out of dodge en route for the good old US of A.

I am working on making sure that one or another cafe that we have frequented in this last week can make sure that Andy has one good meal a day without to much of a struggle with ordering.

We have been enjoying seeing how quickly Andrei is already learning English and remembering his manners. I think his transition will be easy given what we have seen already. The kid is completely heat resistant. Today Andy's legs were cramming from the continued oppressive heat that we have been experiencing and I though I was going to wilt. Not a complaint but there really is no such thing as ice in this country given the state of refrigeration and electrical capacity etc. I have to give in up to the Ukrainians as they are made of much tougher stuff than we are at this point in our lives.

We are getting to the down hill slide and have seen the light. Thanks again for all the e-mails, comments on the blogs and phone calls. You all have provided a lifeline to our reality back home.

Just a bit of additional data. Andrei's full name is Andrei Eli Hoeller date of birth 9/5/2002, currently he is 43 inches (slightly shorter than Jackson) and weighs more than Jackson by a couple of pounds.

Much love,

A3 + Jackson