Adventures Of The Chellson Family: Catching up and court!!

Hi everyone, I hope you all had a wonderful weekend and a great start to you week. I know we sure did! This past weekend was one of the busiest we’ve had since we’ve been here. We went to both visits each day, so David could get in as much time as possible with our little guy. Then yesterday we woke up early and our day was filled with applying for “Aaron’s” passport....(we had to do this since David went home this morning and will not be coming back)....and then we headed over to the court house for our appointment with the court (more on that in a second). Then we had a wonderful evening visit where I let David enjoy most of it with his little buddy! And we finished Davids last night here with a wonderful meal at the Irish pub right around the corner from our apartment. David left this morning at 3am to head back home...if we could have it our way he would stay for the whole trip but Ryan is missing us like crazy and David has to get back to work. So this means that I’ll be here finishing out our trip on my own but thankfully I’m not truly alone....I have wonderful roommates (Beth and Lee) to keep me company until we all leave in a few weeks!!:)

So not that I’ve gotten caught up, let tell you about court! It was not at all what I expected and thankful that we had nothing to be nervous about since Beth and Lee went through it on Friday! We got to the courthouse a little early, so Nicko (our driver) took us over to a little coffee shop where we were able to enjoy a cup of coffee/soda before going into court. Then at 12:30pm we were whisked into courtroom. And this is the part I was expecting to be different.....for some reason I envisioned a big courtroom like we have back home but really the court room was more like judge chambers....In the judges’ office the walls were lined with chairs for everyone to sit in and the room was packed!!!! The judge began reading our petition to adopt and things got rolling quickly. Each department representative agreed that they supported our petition and then the spotlight was on us. David spoke first and told about our journey to adoption. He talked about EVERYTHING from our struggles with infertility to how we found our little boy...thanks to a mix up with the Ray family and for Shelly sharing a picture with Beth who shared it with me!:)......next it was my turn I spoke about my knowledge of Down syndrome and about my little sister and then let them know since I was a stay at home mom I would be able to provide for any and all of “Aaron’s” needs......next it was the director of the orphanage turn to talked, he spoke about the birth parents and the struggle they have had with having children and that his was the second birth for the mother. The direct also told how they left him at the hospital after test came back stating that he had Down syndrome when he was only two days old. For awhile they visited him and brought him toys and diapers and things but upon the birth of their 3rd child their visits have stopped and his biological father comes every now and then. He stated that his biological parents know he is being adopted and will be going to America to live and they are so grateful that God is watching over their son and they know his life will be so much better in America with us.....this part was bittersweet for me but it confirmed what I have felt all a long....WE were meant to be his parents and this is why we have journeyed across the world to make him part of our family! After the director of the orphanage finished we were asked to leave while the judge and jurors made their decision.......not even 5 minutes later we walked back in and the judge began reading....this is the moment when everything stopped for me....I don’t remember what she said but I do know she approved our petition to adopt and we would be named the parents for our son and his name would be changed to Mykhaylo (Michael) Aaron Chellson!!!! And that was it....all done in about 35/40 minutes!!

It’s crazy to think that months of paperwork came down to just 35/40minutes of talking!! Court was simple and easy and I am soooooo happy it is over, now we have 10 days of waiting and we should be home sometime in early May....no exact date but once I know I’ll keep everyone updated!!:)

Now it’s time for the good stuff...PICTURES!!!!