A Great Visit with Zoya

Okay, we just received news that we got......the bad judge! Well Marina says he isn't "bad," he is just new and take A LOT of time on cases.  This is the judge who made another couple have 4 court dates, so we are in need of prayers! Apparently the head judge is assigning all adoption cases to this judge.  Oh joy!  Marina is going to meet with him tomorrow at 8:30 am and try to explain our case to him and get a better feel for what he will ask for.  Please pray for our facilitator, Marina, as she meets with the judge tomorrow to explain our case to him. She has asked us to pray for her as this judge is new and has probably never seen a case involving the adoption of a child with Down Syndrome, which we know, is taboo here. It could go either way I suppose.  We need prayers that God will give this judge his eyes, if only for a moment, to see our case with love and kindness.  Marina says she doesn't know if we will have one court date or several like the other couple had to endure.  If you are up at 2:30 am, please say a quick prayer that this meeting goes well tomorrow.

This morning we had a great visit with Zoya! We took her outside for a walk, where she fell asleep again.  She must be really relaxed outside (or tired around 10:00am) because she always falls asleep.  She is a loud snorer as you can see in the video below.  Her sweet little face looked like an angel while she was sleeping. 

Look at her eyelashes...so long!

Sleeping on Moma on the swing

She always has to have her hand touching her Daddy somewhere...even when she sleeps!

Here is a little video of her LOUD snores while she sleeps.  This chick is HARD to wake up too!

After walking outside, we went in and played a little on the floor.  One of the caretakers put down a thick mat-like blanket that we could play on with Zoya today (we didn't bring our blanket because it is getting pretty dirty and I will need to hand wash it tonight).  This blanket they put down worked much better and had a lot more padding so it was so much easier to play on the floor with her. She also likes this little car-thing she can ride on. 

Silly girl!

Her serious face....

Daddy making her laugh again

Sweet angel girl.  She is dressed like Dorothy today!

Don't you just want to kiss those cheekies?

Here is a video of her playing with her daddy:

Here is a video of Zoya rockin' to the music! She LOVES music.


When it was our usual time to leave, we got a little suprise.  The caretakers came out and asked us if we wanted to feed her lunch today...ummmm YES!  We had no idea what she was eating up until now.  All I have to say is this little girl is eating better than us here in Ukraine! We were shocked at the sheer volume of food and how fast they shovel the food in! First course was some fruit and juice with corn and bread all mashed together (eeewwww).  Main course was a huge heap of mashed potatoes and chicken that they mashed up together with ANOTHER piece of bread! She had a cup of what looked like warm broth.  As we were feeding her, the caretaker came out and said, "no no no...see?" and she started SHOVELING food into Zoyas mouth.  The poor girl definitely did not have time to chew!  It was like open and down the hatch!  Once they left I tried to feed her a little quicker but not so much shoveling the food in...I didn't want to get in trouble again! LOL.  She refused to drink out of the cup (which they told us she was working on) and so they brought her broth back out in a bottle this time.  This little chunk gulped and gulped that broth! Maybe she will need LESS food when we get home....or better food...it seemed her whole meal was carbs and sugar! It is good to know that whatever we are eating we will be able to mash up for her to eat too.  She definitely isn't eating solids yet, but maybe soon.

Messy girl!

Here is a video of Zoya eating...you can see off to the right some of her FEAST! And this was only lunch!! Oh my.  I wish we would have gotten on tape how fast they were shoveling the food in...but we were so in awe we forgot to pick up the camera!

I probably won't post tonight since I used all my internet minutes on this lonnnnng post...so don't look for my usual 2 posts today! Please remember to pray for us and for the meeting between our facilitator and the judge tomorrow morning at 8:30am (2:30 am home time).  Thanks for all your kind words and support...we have needed them to get through from one day to the next...without them this journey would be a lot lonlier.