On September 14, 2009, it was decided in court that Valeria Angel Norsworthy should be our newly adopted daughter!
On September 24, 2009, it was supposed to be the day we were to take Lera out of the orphanage, after a ten day wait period required by Ukrainian law for adoption! Deciding to wait a little longer to be closer to our departure date, we broke her out on September 29, 2009 instead, to try and keep the schedule she was already used to at the orphanage before leaving for our long flight. But we found out once we got there, that our fingerprints expired in country while we were adopting Lera, so we didn't all get on the plane together as planned for October 2, 2009! Instead, Jim went home ahead of us, as only he was able to, once we updated our fingerprints. He was able to return to our other waiting children, while Lera and I waited in Ukraine for our fingerprints to clear, before we could go home, too. Boy, was I missing Jim while we had to wait three weeks for them to clear! I was an unexperienced mom of a former orphan, that we'd only known for two months, and even though we visited her every day from the time we met her, it didn't help our years apart. She was a five year old at the time, but more like a toddler, ready to explore her world! Can't say I blame her, but it wasn't easy - we were practically strangers - we couldn't even communicate with each other properly! As her mother, that was the hardest part, because she took to our facilitator's language over mine. :( She refused to listen to me! She wanted his family over me because she understood them. We stayed in their home, her first home, with her first real family, (sweet family!) EVER. It lasted for three.whole.long.tiresome.weeks!!! The most confusing and awkward time for both of us, but we got through it. :) Soon, what seemed like an eternity, turned to us eventually, both getting "home" too. :) ~ ADOPTION! 💖 this is what it means...HELD - Natalie Grant
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