Malinga's Adoption is almost final

We have made some major progress with respect to Malinga`s adoption here in Tanzania. We presented to the High Court of Tanzania on March 14th only to discover that the judge who was presiding over our case was ill and would not appear that day. We were told to return on the 21st and this time he appeared but, our social worker (who was also present) had not yet filed our final social welfare report. He delayed us for another 2 days to allow time for her to file the report with the court...he was being very accommodating because Mama Minde, our lawyer, had informed him that we were returning to Canada on April 2nd. We were very grateful for the kind treatment since that same court had lost our previous file and not allowed us to re-file a copy of it for a whole year...when they were absolutely sure it was definitely lost!
We were all a little strung out after 3 separate trips to the court house but the judge was in a good mood (although very serious too) that morning. He asked Roman and I to each swear that we promised to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help us God. He then asked questions like ‘how can you prove that you love this child as much as your other children’ and ‘how can you prove that you will be able to provide for him for his whole life?’ and he asked Malinga ‘do these people treat you the same way as they treat their other children?’ ....it was pretty intense. I teared up at one point as wel because Roman had to go first and he said some pretty wonderful things about how much he loved Malinga as a son and it made me want to marry him all over again...we have learned a lot about ourselves, our marriage and being parents through this process.
The judge then wrote some stuff in his notebook and said ok, I will grant the order for adoption and you can pick it up on Friday...and that was it.
We now have to submit these documents in Canada to have his adoption processed by Social services in Ontario. Not sure what kind of obstacles we will face on the other end as we try to make Malinga truly Canadian. I am sure there will be a few.
Oh, and in case you are wondering...his new name will be Malinga Yeates Zablocki (Yeates is his new middle name..not hyphenated with Zablocki). I wanted to get a bit of the Yeates name in there...I think having it as his middle name is the perfect compromise.
It has been quite a journey so far..but as my friend Caroline always says..’everything worth having is worth waiting for,.....