Birthdays and Christmas are meant to be celebrated with family and friends.Thanks to a King County Court commissioner, Maile Metalwala will spend both with her father and his family.

Maile will be reunited with her father Solomon Metalwala on or before Dec. 17, one day before the child’s fifth birthday.

The commissioner gave full custody to Metalwala during a hearing Monday morning in King County Court in Kent. The girl’s mother, Julia Biryukova, was also granted limited visitation rights with her daughter.

“I feel very good. I am excited to have Maile back in my life 100 percent,” Metalwala told the Reporter following the hearing. “I can’t wait to just talk to her.”

The Kirkland father also has many plans for the holidays.

“We have never really celebrated Christmas, so I’m going to start some new traditions because Christmas is a beautiful time of the year with the birth of Jesus,” said Metalwala. “So I want her (Maile) to really embrace all that for the first time. I can’t wait to share Christmas with my daughter and hopefully with my son.”

The state placed Maile in foster care after her 2-year-old brother, Sky, went missing Nov. 6. The kids’ mother, Julia Biryukova, claimed her son was kidnapped after she left him in an unlocked car when it ran out of gas in Bellevue.

Biryukova, who had full custody of both children at the time, took Maile with her to get help but claims that she left the boy in the car because he was sick.

The only hurdle left for Metalwala in gaining custody of his daughter is for a restraining order, filed by Biryukova, to be removed.

The woman’s lawyer said during the hearing that Biryukova would not remove the restraining order but she would also not contest it being removed by the judge.

Solomon was able to visit with Maile four times in the last month while she was in foster care. But he had not seen either of his children since December of 2010 prior to those visits.

Editor Carrie Wood contributed to this report.