They said YES!!! We are officially a family of three...or five if you count the cats!

So, court was not nearly as bad as we expected.  Aaron got most of the questions and they actually picked on him about not being a "handy man."  Because in Russia, it is expected that the men fix things, do plumbing etc. and the prosecutor asked Aaron the silliest question...and I paraphrase: "So, if you, your wife and your child were on a desert island and you're not a handy man, how would you build a house?"  I forget how he answered it, but it was ridiculously silly to ask such a thing.  We were told that in Russia renting an apartment means that you can't afford a house and that you are not stable.  So, they don't understand that when you rent in a luxury apartment in the U.S. that all the maintenance is included.  Aaron explained it best by saying yes he does help me around the house with chores and left it at that.  I got asked why I stopped working since I had SO much education and on my toes, I said.." Well, having more education makes you a better parent."  I also said that my priorities changed when I got married and I wanted a family and not to focus so much on a career.  


They asked a lot of things from our home study!  The judge seemed pleased that I was going to be a stay at home Mom and it would all be well!!!  So, now I am behind posting this because our drive to the orphanage is an hour and 20 minutes, but this precious princess is ours as of today!  Aaron has already gone home to Ohio to wait for us.  I leave this afternoon with our facilitator to go to the baby home and pick up our daughter.  I just finished all the laundry and am very thankful for that!  Now, to rest and nap before I go to Ussyrisk and pick her up!!!  Yay!  Prayers to God that she sleeps tonight at the Vlad Motor Inn.  They already put a crib in our room so we will see how she handles her first night here with me.  I have lots of activities and Baby Einstein DVDs.  So that should work out well and start teaching her some English.  


I will write more later, but if you want to see all of our photos, go to:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2203085&id=42809441&l=74e8c3176b


Hope you enjoy!  Finally, the this long journey to get our daughter is coming to a close.  It will feel SO amazing to finally have her with me and even MORE amazing when I get to go home to the U.S. and all three of us are reunited once again!!!  Please keep us in your prayers as we brave Moscow and the Embassy papers and interviews.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Update and God's Purpose for my Life

Image
Do you ever sit back and ask God why you are here? Like what is HIS infinite purpose for you? I tend to do that a lot and if I had to guess, I would think most Christian women do, at times, wonder about the purpose of their lives. Firstly, before launching into this question, I want to emphasize that NOTHING I write is because of a desire for pity on me. This is my life and God has given it to me to live! I have for years and yet He showed me again this month, after having already saved my life two other times! If that's NOT God, then I am not sure what it is. On 9/28, I went in for a tummy tuck and breast reduction. Pain I’m having is temporary, but the former pulmonary embolism could have easily been at the finale of my life (I am 40 years old with a beautiful 12-year-old daughter an amazing husband). Our beautiful family, in 2011, in February when we took our last trip to Russia to bring Katie home. I only pray to God that he watches over myself and my family. God watches over...
Read more

Learning more about our daughter: Katie loves bananas & music

Image
Today, we visited Katie again at the baby home in Ussirysk and returned to find out that the entire city of 800,000 in Vladivostok has no water today.  They turned it off apparently to fix pipes before the cold season.  This is really roughing it for us! No showers tonight and no laundry either.  I was going to wash some clothes, but we will just have to do without tonight.  Often, as Americans, I think we forget some of the luxuries we are afforded when others in this world, like our Katie are not so lucky.  But WE are the ones who are eternally blessed that God allowed this match between us to happen. Here are some photos from today.  We will have to save the videos to upload when we return next week.  The internet is just too slow here.   Ussirysk Baby Home #3 Waiting for them to bring her to us today... She LOVES bananas!!!!  She already really loves walking around holding BOTH our hands... My favorite l...
Read more

Something to celebrate....yeah!!!

So, today we received an update from our agency on the status of Russian adoptions.  It looks as if (thank God) that the U.S. and Russia will reach an agreement and adoptions will not be halted like what was originally reported.  Our home study was sent to immigration on April 26th, so I am hoping for a speedy approval and that all-important I-171H to be in our mailbox before the middle of June.  Between Aaron, myself and our adoption coordinator, we agreed that I would begin the first dossier (which is the Russian documents we send in to get our referral--and meet our little Katie Allison).  We will get to begin these sooner than expected and will be doing so the last week of May.  I hope to have them finished so as soon as the I-171H comes in, we can send them to our agency for review and then I can take them to Columbus to the Secretary of State's office for their apostille.  I can't believe we are FINALLY at this point and it feels like we are moving in...
Read more