Thank you all for your prayers. After about 2 hours and 45 minutes of questions and many repeated readings of our paperwork by the Judge, she finally adjourned to discuss the final decision of our case with the jury. About 15 minutes later the judge and the 2 person jury returned. The judge read the court decree stating for at least the 4th time our girl had no family who could care for her, that no one had come to visit her in the orphanage, and that no Ukrainian family had come forward to adopt her despite her picture being posted. She then continued to read from the court decree that they felt it was in the best interest of the child to grant us custody! Praise the Lord! She explained our responsibility of submitting reports within one month of getting home, then every year for 3 years, and then every three years until she turns 18. Our coordinator/translator had prepared us during lunch for typical questions and told us to answer questions with as short as possible answers. The snowy drive to court on the icy roads was long and nerve racking. Our girl had to sit on my lap the whole way there because there was not enough space for all of us, with the caretaker and our coordinator/translator. The judge arrived about 10 minutes after 1:00. After reading why we were at court, she had everyone there introduce themselves and submit passports for verification. She then proceeded to read from our two inch thick packet of papers. After she had read the report about us, she asked Jason to stand and approach the microphone. She asked him what he wanted to add. He did not know exactly what to say so after a moment of studying the befuddled look on his face she finally said she would ask questions instead. She asked why he wanted to adopt another child when he already has 4 biological children. Jason's perfect answer was, "We still have room in our hearts and our home for another child who does not have a family." I wanted to cry because God has brought us so far! Other questions were why he wanted a child from Ukraine, who made the decision to adopt a child, how would we communicate with our girl because of the language barrier, how she has communicated with our children back home, what his annual salary was. She also asked for clarification on what subjects he taught as a teacher. She asked me the same question about why I wanted another child and I said I wanted to share my love with an abandoned child. She asked me how our children felt about another sister, what support I had at home to help with the children, how much time we have spent together with our girl, who first wanted to adopt, how we would teach her English. She asked for clarification on what "homeschool" was and I explained that I teach all subjects to each child for his/her age. For both of us she stressed that we already had 4 biological children and asked if we would treat her the same as our other children. The judge questioned our girl and asked some emotionally hard questions about her past. Our girl was very strong and mature. She explained how she became an orphan which was more insightful to us as well. She never cried and answered questions clearly and concisely. The judge asked her how she felt about her possible siblings and she said it would be good because she would feel like one of the family. When the judge said she could sit down, she looked relieved. I reached back to her and held her hand. She squeezed my hand for a while. I cannot imagine how hard it was to share about her mother not being able to care for her and then her great-grandmother dying, and her grandma not being able to care for her. Our coordinator/translator said that most judges have the children sit outside the courtroom until time to ask questions of the child. This is typically done so that the child does not hear repeatedly that they have been abandoned and no one has wanted them. This judge did not do that so our girl sat through all of court. Others present at court were the lawyer for the children at the orphanage, the inspector (who was the one who was with us the first day we went to our girl at the orphanage and helped her write and rewrite her letter), and a prosecuter who represented child protective services. Both the lawyer and the inspector shared with the judge and jury that they felt we would be good parents. They both said they had seen us a lot at the orphanage with our girl and that they had witnessed all positive interactions. They recommended us as good parents to adopt our girl. Since court took over 3 hours we were very worried about getting to the train station in time. We did not walk out of the court building until about 3:30 so we did not have time to take our girl and her caretaker back to the orphanage. Instead they took a different taxi back and our taxi driver took us to the train station. We were so happy about the court decision and then we were so sad to say good bye. We made it to the train station with a little time to spare. As we waited to board we saw the children from the orphanage. Once on the train, I went in search of our girl's friend who I knew was with the group. When I found her she was shocked and so happy! I also gave her brother a hug. Thankfully he is better enough to travel for hosting! Thank you for all your prayers for health and for court! "God is good all the time and all the time, God is good!"