Words cannot express our joy and thankfulness! After leaving on the fast train from Kiev early this morning we arrived in the region of our girl's orphanage. We went to her orphanage for more paperwork and questions. Then we were escorted into another office where our girl was asked to come join us. When she came in and saw us she smiled and sat right down. We gave her the stuffed puppy that traveled so far to get back to her and she smiled again. Then we gave her some gifts, of which the colorful socks and chocolate seemed to be her favorite. We showed her the video our children made for her before we left for Ukraine. She enjoyed watching as each child said hello and introduced themselves. We gave her the cards each child made and we had translated. We know she cherished those cards that were made with love because she looked at them again later and carefully placed them in her backpack. We showed her the pictures in the album we made for her and talked about our family, our house, what we like to do, etc. She then looked at our coordinator/translator and told her that she wanted to be adopted and be a part of our family. She did this on her own before the coordinator or inspector even asked her what she was thinking. Praise the Lord! The inspector who had asked us questions earlier now told our soon-to-be daughter that she was making a big decision and suggested she take time to think about it. She said she did not need anymore time because she already decided she wanted to be adopted and join our family. God answered our prayers of preparing her for us! The translator asked her if she would like having 4 siblings and she said yes, she would always have someone to play with! Then the inspector asked if she would like to change her name. She decided that she wanted the same first name just spelled differently to have the American spelling. She said what she wanted as her middle name which we think is beautiful. I wish I could share her full, beautiful name with you but that will have to wait until later. She happily wrote the letter stating she wanted to be adopted by us and what she wanted as her name. There was a misspelled word so,she had to write the letter again. The second letter passed "inspection" and received the official seal. Each step we are getting closer to her becoming an Aldridge! We wished we could have spent more time with her but we were called away by our coordinator. Before we left, we went outside to take some pictures and give hugs. As we walked our separate ways I looked back at the same time she did and we waved. Tomorrow cannot come soon enough for this mother who cannot wait to give her daughter-to-be more hugs! Tomorrow will be a busy day of more paperwork and getting signatures notarized. We get to go back to the orphanage at 3:00 to spend time with our sweet girl. It will be good that we are busy or we might not be able to patiently wait:) Please continue to pray for God's speedy timing and His hand to be in all the details, both large and small. Please also pray for healing for our coordinator/translator who has not been feeling well all day. The train ride made her feel worse and we can tell she has been in pain and not doing well. She apologized several times for being ill yet she has been doing an amazing job. We were able to FaceTime with our children today to share this exciting news. Our children were happy to hear that their new sister is eager to be a part of the family! Please pray for patience and understanding for our children as they wait for us to return. It is especially difficult to be apart as we approach Thanksgiving. We have so much to be thankful for even though we will celebrate away from our children back home. Thank you for your prayers. God is faithful! Your prayer support means so much to us! (Please also pray that our internet here will be more cooperative. I typed all this and then lost it because we lost internet connection. Hopefully the second typing is better than the first! It has taken me hours to finally be able to post this update. Just a silly thing to try to get in the way of sharing God's greatness, but God is bigger than any internet problems!)