Done with Court and we are now Waiting Parents!

Sorry for the delayed update...but we ran out of internet minutes and had some communication difficulties which hindered us being able to buy more. Obviously we are all set now.

We prepared for court the day before by writing down "Our Story" and all kinds of details as to how we have prepared ourselves and our home for bringing in a child. As it is preferred that men speak at court, Jeff read the story and was first to answer questions from the judge. Then I was aksed if I would like to add anything and answered a few additional questions. It went smoothly with no difficulties, except for when the Judge asked about the stage we wanted to buid for "R" to perform plays. This was mentioned in our home study and didn't quite translate that well. Explaining this caused a bit of laughter in the room. With the court hearing over and a positive decision of adoption, we are now in the appeal process, or the 10 day waiting period. It is actually more than 10 days...so our Gotcha Day will be March
3rd. On this day we will pick "R" up at the Baby Home. He will then be officially ours as adoption are complete and final in Russia at this time. We will then post all kinds of photos at this time. We are dying to share them and I know all of you are dying to see them....but we should really wait until it is finalized. I'm not a superstitious person...but it has been long journey and I don't want anything to stop progress now.....so hang in there.

The first picture is us with Svetlana outside of the courthouse building immediately following our adoption hearing and the second picture includes Mike and Sandy another adopting couple, Helen (Regional Baby Home Social Worker) and Natalia (Baby Home #6 Social Worker). We went for a celebration lunch/dinner at a fantastic restaurant after this photo.

Looking forward to seeing you all soon!