Court

So our court hearing was scheduled for 10 am this morning. Because you never know what you will get with traffic in Russia we arrived about 45 minutes early. When it was finally time we went into the court room where there was the judge, a "prosecutor", a clerk, our translator, the social worker representing the boys and a representative of the Department of Education.

Much of it was your typical court room procedure as you would expect. We had to state who we were, our birth dates, addresses, etc. (It is really difficult, by the way, to listen to your translator when the person speaking Russian never takes a breath!) Then our petition to adopt the boys was read aloud and we were asked if this was what we wanted to do. The each of us had to stand and be questioned by both the judge and the prosecutor. Most of the questions were basic things like "Do you have all the medical information about the boys?", "Do you have room in your house?", "Does your extended family support you in the adoption?", "Is your daughter happy about the adoption?". Nothing really difficult, but they did go back several times and ask about whether we could support 2 more children and there were lots of repeated questions about our parenting style. They were trying to be sure that the boys would not end up abused or worse. They even told us that several Russian children have died recently in the care of their adoptive American families and they wanted to be sure that would not happen here. We also had to share what happened on our first 2 visits with the boys and what their personalities are like.

After they were done questioning us, the social worker presented her case. She described the situation the boys were removed from, the birth mother's few (2) attempts to visit over the last year, their health at the time they were placed, and more. She was questioned by the judge and the prosecutor quite vigorously as they made sure that the decision to place them for adoption was the right one.

At about 12 noon they took a break so that the judge and the prosecutor could call the court and the Minister of Education in Borovichi (this is where the orphanage is) to confirm that there were no further petitions from the boys birth family to regain custody. That wait was very stressful!! But it wasn't long and they came back about 15 minutes later and said that neither the court or the MoE had received anything from the family. This was when I was finally sure it was going to happen. At that point, they read through some more documents and asked us again if we wanted to proceed with the adoption. We obviously said yes and then asked if the judge would please waive the 10 day waiting period since we had a 6 year old at home who is missing school as well as us. The judge left the room one last time to make her final decision and returned about 12:45 with the ruling in our favor for the adoption as well as waiving the 10 day waiting period. I am so glad that is done!

It's Official

Well it's official, we are the parents of 2 little boys. And the 10 day wait was waived! So we'll all be coming home together next Friday. More details to come......
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On the road to Novgorod

We're about 7.5 hours into this drive and I'm ready to be done. At least we have a full size van this time so we aren't all crammed in. Our driver is different this time and he's a smoker so it's been a pretty stinky ride.

Our court hearing is scheduled for 10 am tomorrow morning and we are told it will last about 1.5 to 2 hours. Then assuming the judge waives the 10 day wait, I think we have to go and get new birth certificates for the boys which I think we'll get either late Thursday or Friday. The we'll travel to Borovichi to the orphanage to pick them up. It is my understanding that we will stay in Borovichi Friday night and then head back to Moscow on Saturday. I'll post again after court tomorrow. Pray for no 10 day wait!
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We're Here

So, after 18 hours of traveling, 1 hour of sleep, mechanical malfunction delays in Frankfurt and lost luggage we have arrived at our hotel. I forgot how long this trip really is. We left Alexis with Uncle Brian at Dulles airport during our first layover. She could hardly wait to go and wasn't the slightest bit sad to be away from us for 2 weeks. The prospect of time with her cousins has had her on the verge of ecstatic for weeks. Hungry and tired, Jim and I are going to run around the corner to TGI Fridays for a quick bite (I know, I know but it's something Jim will eat and it's cheap. We will have plenty of time for good local cuisine later in our stay.)Then we are going to bed. We debated trying to stay on Eastern time like we did last time but I don't think we'll be able to. The last flight from Frankfurt was really long and cramped and we couldn't sleep at all. Tomorrow we'll check out of our hotel and make the 8 hour drive to Novgorod for our court date on Thursday. Hopefully we'll have a bigger car this time. :-O
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We're on our way again...

So after weeks of waiting and buying and canceling plane tickets twice, we are officially on our way to Moscow on Monday. The delays in Russia have apparently worked themselves out. Sorry I haven't posted, but there hasn't been much to say except "We're waiting and we don't know when or if we are going back".

But now it's official. We have bought our 3rd set of plane tickets and we are going back to get our boys. We have a court date in Novgorod on Thursday the 11th to finalize the adoptions. If we get lucky and the judge waives the 10 day waiting period after court, we will be home on the 19th. If she does not waive the 10 days, Jim will come home and I will stay until I can leave with the boys. We're not sure exactly how that will work yet so we're just going with the flow and planning to be home on the 19th. I will post updates and pictures like I did on our last trip so stay tuned....

Waiting.....

Well, we are still in limbo. We do not have a court date on Monday, so I have canceled our plane tickets again. Grrr.... I'm not sure exactly what is happening in Russia, but we are delayed again and are waiting to hear when we will leave. So to all of you who are lined up to help us out when we go, I am sorry! This has been very frustrating (and expensive).

The Latest News

So sorry for not posting for 2 weeks, life's been crazy! The short version is that we finally got our immigration approval. Our Congresswoman, Chellie Pingree, was completely useless as she has still has not returned my call, but Senator Susan Collin's office was very helpful. They were in contact with immigration as soon as I contacted them and found out that USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services) was missing our homestudy (even though it was submitted with the application). So I had to run an original copy over to the local office on the 30th so they could do their thing. Senator Collin's office followed up everyday and we got email confirmation that our approval was on it's way on Tuesday. It arrived in the mail on Wednesday. WOOHOOOO!!

So we bought plane tickets to leave the 15th and return on the 29th (hopefully they will waive the 10 day waiting period after the court date) with our boys. It has been a whirlwind trying to pull everything together and arranging someone to care for Alexis because she cannot go with us. Everything is all lined up though and then today I got a call that everything is getting backed up a week. Apparently, our USCIS approval did not come quick enough to get our paperwork to Russia a week before our court date so they've moved it back a week. So now I get to change everything. Ugh! Oh well, it's only a week. Hopefully it doesn't cost me a fortune to change the plane tickets.....