Update on Complication

Up until now I haven't disclosed details about this part of the process, but here goes.  It's getting too hard to be vague.

There is an older brother.  There are actually two older brothers, but one has aged out of the orphanage system.  The other is 15 and is in an orphanage about 1.5 hours away.  Eli and Isaac rarely see him and don't have much of a relationship with him.  It sounds like he's rather troubled.  Eli and Isaac need to be legally separated from this brother to be eligible for adoption.  This process is called "breaking the family."  It sounds so harsh, I know.  All three boys understand that if Eli and Isaac are adopted, they will likely never see each other again, and all three have expressed that they are okay with that.  The meeting that was held yesterday was to officially break the family.  We'd been told that it was a formality and that the paperwork had already been drawn up as if the family had been broken.  Surprise, right?  The "no" really caught us off guard.  Today, Victor and I went to speak directly with some of the powers that be.  We are hopeful that they will edit their decision.  That would basically be kicking the can down the road, leaving the final decision up to the judge on our formal court date.  We have been assigned a very good judge, so Victor is feeling much more optimistic today.  This "edit" is not a done deal, but I think we're close.  Another thing this does is delay us, at least another week.  Best case scenario now for us coming home is Dec 14ish.

Bad news: I now have a full-blown cold.

but

Good news: While Victor and Den and I were out running around, Anya took the boys to her house and they made a fantastic lunch.  Den and I arrived just in time.  How therapeutic to have homemade borscht and hot tea!  Anya to the rescue again.  She has these boys reading some English words already.  They've learned so much in just one week.

It was a rough night last night but hopefully things are turning around.