Court

How to describe the day we became parents once more? We awoke early feeling both excited and nervous. We read with tears in our eyes all the emails from our friends and family promising prayers on our behalf for court. Our nervousness disappeared after that and we soon left for court.

 The courthouse is a new modern building located right outside of Moscow.(see below)

We waited for about 30 minutes in a nice open waiting room till the Judge was ready.(see below)

 We were then led into the courtroom(see above) and sat down. It was a “closed court” so the only ones in attendance were Shawn and I, our interpreter Irene, the prosecutor, a social worker, the judge’s assistant and of course the Judge. Shawn felt that since I love to talk that I should answer most of the questions. The Judge then began asking me about our reasons for adopting, why from Russia, how our family felt about this adoption and most of all how we felt about this child. She seemed satisfied with my answers and asked for some pictures of us with the child. She spent the most time looking at my favorite of us with Lena smiling at us and at a sweet picture of my three boys that I had included. We were then asked some questions by the prosecutor. He and the assistant then looked at the pictures pausing at the photo of the boys to giggle at the fact I already had 3 children and still wanted more (most Russians have only one child). He commented that he thought Lena resembled her new brothers. He then asked his last question of who would help me with this many children and seemed relieved to find out we had an assistant/nanny. The social worker then stated how many times we had visited the child, how well she responded to us and recommended the adoption as being in the best interest of the child. The Judge then asked Shawn if he had anything to say. My amazing husband replied that he thought Lena was so wonderful and he would feel blessed and honored if allowed to have her join his family. The Judge then excused herself to make her decision. After 5 very long minutes (at least long to us) she returned and congratulated us on the adoption of our daughter. Shawn and I were overwhelmed with excitement and wonder at the blessing we had just received.

We took our driver Yuri and his wife- our interpreter Irene to lunch to celebrate and thank them for their many hours of hard work. Yuri picked one of his favorite restaurants that serves Uzbekistan food. I had borscht (beet soup) and chicken kabobs. Shawn has spicy noodle soup and lamb. It was all very delicious.

We came back to the hotel and began making all the plans to come back and pick up our daughter at the end of the official 10 day waiting period. We will be coming home tomorrow to see our sweet boys for a few days and gather everything we need to bring our daughter home. We will then leave again on the 14^th for our last trip to Moscow. We will return to home with our Lena on the 26^th.

We want to express how grateful we are to our family and friends who have supported us in this journey. We would not have been able to do this without all the love, help and prayers you all have given to us. Tonight all of you will be in our prayers as we thank God for you, our newest child and our many blessings!