7 Jakes: Vova Jonathon Jacobsen

Well it's official! Six Jakes has now become Seven Jakes! Welcome to our family Vov! This afternoon at 1:30 pm, we met our translator, the orphanage lawyer, along with Vova at the Courthouse. As you can see below, the Courthouse is not like Courthouses in the United States. In fact, nothing by its appearance would tell you it is a courthouse.

While Judi and I were dressed up, Vova shows up wearing a t-shirt, bathing shorts and Nike flip/flops. Yikes! Apparantly, no one at the orphanage got word to Vova to dress up for court? Hello! It was too late to go back and change and we were assured the Judge would not care. So we all walked into the courthouse, took the elevator up to the 4th floor and waited outside the Judges chambers.

After about a half hour of waiting in a hot hallway, the judge swung the door open and invited us in. Inside was the Judge, court reporter, prosecutor, state attorney and two regular citizens who were acting as witnesses. The Judge went through our entire adoption packet and read our homestudy verbatim on the record. Afterwards, the judge asked Judi and I why we wanted to adopt another child when we already had four of our own (something that several people have asked us by the way). We said we had never planned on adopting a child, until Providence sent a 10 year old Ukranain boy to stay with us for what we thought would be only a 4 week visit. That four week visit turned into a year and a half commitment to adopt Vova. A journey we would never have imagined we would take just two years ago. We thank God we did.

Lenin..... After Vova officially became our son, we went to the mall and purchased a new vaccuum cleaner for Vova's caretakers, Mariana and Olga. After that, we drove back to the orphanage and made a little time for some basketball.

Yes, I am sure my friends will note the "air" that Jake is getting on his jump shot. Guess I have lost a little leaping ability. After some basketball, we got ready to go back to the apartment. While we waited for a taxi, we ran into a few of Stass Funk's old pals, Kola and Pasha. We told them we knew Stass and they asked us to take their photo with Vova for Stass. Stass, this one's for you.

Well, now we wait until May 29, after the 10 day waiting period expires. After that date, we are fast tracked and hope to be home early the second week of June. Not much else to say except What a great day!