It Took Seven Years

It took seven years but we can finally call ourselves “mom” and “dad”. The judge’s ruling was that we “be allowed to adopt Artem”!

We were supposed to have court at 11:30 but there was a fiery crash on the road and at 11:25 we were still sitting in our apartment waiting for our driver. We made it to court by 12:15 but the prosecutor had left and we were told she would return at 1:00 and we would have our case heard then. At 1:00 we went back into court. The apprehension of court is worse than the actual trial. Randy made his speech; I made my speech and then the social worker spoke for a little bit. The judge did not ask us any questions as Randy’s speech was well written and included all the necessary information. A few minutes later the judge came back in the room and gave us her decision. After court we went to the notary and signed some documents for our agency to get our court paperwork next Friday. We paid our 840 rubles and we were on our way home. We made it back to the apartment by 4:30 p.m. It was a long day but an incredible day!

Gotcha day will be next Friday, April 11th and after that our lives will be changed forever. I’ll leave you with some pictures of us in front of the court house. We are on our way out to dinner with Sally and Carlos (who also had a successful court hearing today) and Michael and Carrie who had their trial last week. We are going to Old Arbat tonight for dinner at Hard Rock Café to celebrate the three newest sets of parents. Tomorrow morning we are being picked up at 7:30 a.m. to fly home again. Thank you for all your prayers and support, we’ll see you all soon!