Day 18 - December 24th

Today was a big day for the Majer Family. We had our court appointment this morning. We were picked up at normal time and brought down to the courthouse. The building was a very old building. We had to wait in the waiting area until it was our turn. We were after the 2 families from Spain. We met them in the hall and all thumbs up from them. Congratulations were passed along and we were next in line to see the judge. We were brought into a small office type of room. In this room was the Judge, prosecutor, stenographer, a woman from the Dept of Education, Rosa the Orphanage Director, a Doctor from the Orphanage, Tamara the Facilitator, Natasha the translater and us. It started by the judge apologizing the the small room were were in instead of the courtroom due to renovations that were being done. All members that were talked. The Director explained how Eva got to the orphanage, the timeframe and her experience in the orphanage up till now. The Doctor reveiwed her medical records, Tamara explained our application, the woman from the Dept of Education gave their conclusions from our review. Prosecutor and Judge asked questions. After questions we went out into the hall while the judge deliberated for about 5 minutes. Once the judge was ready we went back into the room for the verdict. Of course all speaking was not in English - we had no clue what anyone was saying (expect for the little bit Natasha was able to translate quietly as they were talking). The end result and words we remember loud and clear are Congratulations! We wish your family good luck in the future. Of course Lisa cried (happy tears of course). The best Christmas present we could ever ask for, Eva Josephine Catherine Majer!

After court we went back to the hotel. Carl, Gretchen and ourselves had a nice celebration lunch. After lunch both of us couples were on the hunt for a new bag for escorting. Our bag was not big enough to hold what it needed to. With luck, we all found what we needed and back to the hotel. We got a great deal on the bag, 1000 tenge which is 6.67 cents -big spenders.

The afternoon visit was a great one. The first "official" day with our daughter. She was in a very talkative mood. Elizabeth and Josef came in w/Muraiha and the 3 girls (Muraiha, Kai and Eva) had a ball. In our shopping travels we picked Eva up a cute pair of slippers. Unfortunatley they were too small. Hopefully tomorrow we can trade them in for a bigger size.

Also this afternoon we found out that we will be able to see Eva on Sunday for a morning and afternoon visit (our normal day off). This was very exciting news for all of us seeing that we leave on Monday morning from Karaganda.

Tomorrow at the baby house we will be having some parties. The morning visit we will have a tea party with all of the doctors at the orphanage. The afternoon visit we will be having a party in Eva's room for all the caregivers. It should be a fun filled day for all.

Today we also received Eva's daily routine schedule and her 8 month measurements.

Here are some pix from today.