Our Newest Texan!

Introducing our newest Texan:

We had Artem's court hearing today to recognize his foreign adoption which will allow us to get a Texas birth certificate for Artem. This was not a readoption, rather a Recognition of Foreign Adoption. The trial was very quick and we had the nicest judge! The wait for court took longer than the trial. The judge's bench was lined with stuffed animals and Artem spotted the one car the judge had and yelled, "car" and the judge reached over the bench and presented Artem with the car. After the trial was over, Artem didn't want to leave and tried to hide behind the witness stand so we couldn't get him. Stinker. Randy's mom and dad are in town and were able to attend court with us. Randy's mom traveled with us to Russia for our third trip when we picked up Artem from the baby home so it was neat to have her with us again for this last step in our adoption journey. Here are a few pictures from today. I cannot get the slide show to directly post here, if anyone knows how to do it please let me know.

We had a great Labor Day weekend at the lake with our friends Kim and Brandon and their children, Randy's brother Bill and wife Amy, and Randy's parents. Artem did great with the newness of it all. We tried to keep him on his schedule as much as possible and make sure he took his afternoon naps and went to bed at a reasonable time. We camped in a spot that we had been to before and the last time we were there the lake was literally right behind our travel trailer. This time, the lake was a lot lower and we had problems with mud at the dock. My friend Kim and I took the jet ski out to play on the water and we got stuck on a mud island right behind the dock. I had to get off and push the jet ski out to the deeper water while sinking up to my knees in the mud. I finally freed us and we got to play on the water for a little bit but we decided not to take Artem onto the water b/c of the problem with getting stuck in the mud. He still had a good time playing at the camp site with his friends Layla and Lillee and he had plenty of relatives around to keep him entertained. Pictures from the weekend.

Rob and Dede made it out on Sunday with Liam and the boys had fun playing together and swimming. Getting a picture of the two boys together and both looking at the camera at the same time was like herding cats but we eventually got a picture of the boys. Liam, the sweet natured, happy, little boy that we met in Russia is exactly the same, just a little taller and was full of hugs and love for us. It was so good to see the three of them again. It was a great way to end the summer.

Tomorrow is our first PPR (post placement report) and our social worker will come to the house at 10:30 to meet with us. I can't believe PPR #1 is already here. We will have our second PPR in March of 2009 and then after that they are March of 2010 and the last one will be March 2011.

Melissa got a few sneak peak pictures up on her website of our photo shoot last week. She is a miracle worker with photo shop! There is no way I can pick a favorite from all the pictures she took and I can't wait to see the rest of them. She did a great job capturing our family and our personalities.