Court Decision...

Praise the Lord! We have a new little boy! After some nerve racking questions in the judge's chambers (court), the judge and jury decided that Dave and I could adopt little Dima. You cannot imagine the relief we felt when we heard those words! As part of the court decree, we were allowed to change his name and will be able to get a new birth certificate with his new name and with our names listed as parents. We have decided to name him William Dmitri Steyn. For now, his nickname will still be Dima. It will be hard to call him anything else! After looking through some name books, we decided on the name William for several reasons. The main reason we decided on the name was that we had been praying for God's will this whole time, and when we found out that we were going to get him, we decided that he is God's "Will". When we met him, we felt that the name really fit him too. He is definitely our little angel, and we cannot wait to be able to take him home and have him meet the boys! Our house is definitely going to be wild! By the way, I think we must have forgotten to mention, but his birthdate is March 18, 2006. Now all we have to do is wait the manditory 10 days for the court decision to be final. After that period is over, we will be able to go get his new birth certificate and then take him to the apartment with us as we wait for his passport. When we get his passport, we can then take him back to Kiev for the final medical exam and the visa to go home. This whole process we hear can take about 1-2 weeks. We are guessing that we will be able to travel home around the first week in September. Please continue to pray for safety and a quick end to this process. We love and miss you all!

Love, Candace and Dave and Dima Steyn!

Here is a picture of little Dima and proud Momma!

Our Court Date

Hello from beautiful Odessa! Dave and I are having a good time (despite being really homesick!) here in Odessa and staying with our Christian Ukrainian family. They have really been a blessing to us and we have to say that we are eating REALLY well!! We are going to have to readjust to our plain hotdogs and macaroni and cheese when we return home! Thank you again for all your thoughts and prayers for us and for all your comments.

Today we had another good day with Dima at the orphanage. Every day that we go makes it harder and harder to leave him there at the end of the day. All we want to do is take him home with us! He is such a sweetie and has really been bonding well with us. He also seems to really enjoy the freedom he has to go all over the orphanage grounds when he is with us. His group tends to stay in just one section, while the older children can run all around. It is so cute to watch Dima walking around, swinging his arms like he is a "big kid"! Dima really enjoys reading books, coloring, and looking at the photo album we brought with us. He knows exactly where the cats and dogs are in the album and loves to look at them.

Well, our good news for the week is that we were able to get a quick court date. We have court tomorrow (Friday) at 12 noon (5 AM Louisville time). We are really excited and hope and pray for a smooth appointment. We will post an update as soon as we can after court. Take care and we will write again soon.


Candace and Dave

Here are a couple more pictures of Dima.

Another day, another city

Hello everyone. We hope all is well with you back in America. It has been a very busy week for us, and we are now getting comfortable in our new place. We have travelled about 6 hours out of Kiev to Odessa, Ukraine, also on the Black Sea and the main port city in Ukraine. The weather is beautiful and we even went to the beach yesterday.

Now to get past the suspense! We have found our Ukraine Angel! He is a little 2 year old boy with blue eyes and curly blond hair. His name is Dima (short for Dmitri) and everyone at the orphanage seems to love him. Dima has a very sweet personality and interestingly enough reminds us of both our boys. He likes to pick up trash around the orphanage and throw it away and also hates his hands being dirty (sound like Bennett?). He also looks alot like Samuel and reminds me of Sammy when he laughs. The first day we met him, the poor guy had a hard time accepting new people in his life (which we will have to remember when we get home!). He cried and did not want us to come near him. Two days later, he actually cried when we left. He is quickly bonding with us and smiles when he sees us and loves to get hugs. Of course, I am sure that the cookies and juice that we bring him everyday have nothing to do with it! We are very blessed and love going to see him every day.

In Odessa, we are staying with a host family about an hour from the orphanage. While we think we are really only about 10 miles away (as a crow flies), the streets are all curved and packed with traffic. We were very happy to learn that the family is Christian and also speak English. After about a day, we already felt like part of the family. This is exactly what we needed after such a hard time in Sevastopal. The cooking is wonderful and Dave is experimenting with food once again! While many of the new things that we have tried have been very good, we highly recommend NOT drinking KBAC (pronounced kvaas). It is an Ukrainian version of non-alcoholic wine. They call it Ukrainian Coke and you can find it practically on every street corner in big tanks.

Below is a picture of little Dima so you can put a face to those prayers you are sending--the prayers are working! Please continue to pray for us and little Dima. Today we found out that he had an ear infection. We really don't know how bad it is, but we went and bought some medicine for him. He really has a tender heart and we already love him dearly. Please continue to pray for a quick process and safety for us with everything going on in this region. We love and miss you all and hope to see you soon.

Candace and Dave