She's OURS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

AS of 11:55 am on Friday June 20th - We have a new daughter!

(Of course a soon as we return to pick her up and sign off all connections with
Russia we will post her full picture and new name. Until then she will continue to be referred to as ‘Rose’ - sorry :)

Court went well and the Judge was very nice. We appointed John as the main question answering person…and I told him he had better NOT forget our anniversary date! She asked John why we chose to adopt in Russia, and he told her he had already started learning the language, so he didn’t want to have to learn another. LOL… He actually did pretty good considering all the questions he had to answer, and only forget Aidan’s birthday, so all in all was not to shabby for a guy!

During the rest of the questioning she made a comment that we shouldn’t stop at one daughter…we should just get 2 or 3 while we are here…and then after they all laughed real hard they told our translator not to translate that for us, but it was too late. She stated why not have a football team? I then held up one finger and she laughed again.

The Judge appeared to get a big kick out of John and his answers. When they asked John if he ‘liked the child’ he said “Are you kidding? We love her!” and the orphanage director started talking wildly with big smiles and hand gestures. Our translator told us she was stating how great we were with Rose and how she runs to us and holds on tight to her Papa. Then she held up her hand and made the motion of ‘wrapped around her finger’and we didn’t need a translator to help with that one! Vlad stated that the whole orphanage is buzzing about us and Rose. We are the ‘perfect family’. I can’t help but concur and I take that as a great compliment.

After the Judge left the court room for about 5 minutes, she came back in and read the verdict. She said a lot of stuff…including her new name and birth date (We kept the original one) But all I heard was ‘Waa waa waa’….like on Snoopy. All I wanted to hear was when she stated we would be her new parents. When she finally said those words John and I both yelled a small Yahoo and hugged each other. Everyone laughed and applauded. It was great!

Later on in the elevator the Social Worker from the orphanage said she was so glad the two children at court today were getting such wonderful parents and how lucky they were to find terrific homes. I told her we were the lucky ones.

We returned to our apartment to change clothes and went to the orphanage to pick up Rose and take her for her passport picture. When we walked into the yard she was in the covered play area. When she saw us we heard a big OH! And she was trying to get out of the gate and it would not move fast enough. She shook it hard until the care giver assisted in opening it and of course she came running into her daddy’s arms. As we rode in the car she sat in my lap and looked out the window happy as could be. After the pictures were completed we returned to the orphanage to play with her for another hour then we had to leave. She hugged me good bye and let me drop her off at her Groupa.

We then met up with Tamara and another family form FRUA for dinner. We were late, but it was fun and Tamara’s daughter Mia is adorable! We had terrific Uzbekistani dish of savory rice with beef and it was very good. We enjoyed the couple there and met a family now living there and they have made a mission of assisting adoptive couples. They gave us their contact info and we can reach them if we ever find ourselves in need. What a blessing!

So, our great day has come to an end. We are both pooped and emotionally spent. We will see Rose one last time tomorrow then we will leave for home Sunday morning – it will be hard to leave her….But we will return in 10 days nad then she will be home for good...signed, sealed , and delivered!

So, guess where I will be spending my 24th wedding anniversary? You got it...Russia! I have been told I have to be here to get my daughter :) And I am thrilled to be able to do so...

Good night!

Queen Bee