Memories from Court

We are home and everyone is getting adjusted - Cole, the other kids, the cats, the dog, momma and papa....I wanted to take some time though to write about our trip before it all blends together.

We arrived in Smolensk the day before court and got about a 2 hour visit with Cole. He saw us and immediately did a u-turn to go back inside! Not sure if he remembered us or not! Papa coaxed him with some goldfish and juice, though. It amazed us how much he had changed in 2 months, hair had filled out and he had gained at least 2 lbs. I began to worry if the clothes I brought would fit! He acted differently as well. Hitting, hyperactive - we wonder if he knew what big changes were coming. Here are a couple of pictures from the first trip and the second trip. The one in the hat is trip one in June. The second is from two weeks ago:

After our visit we did some paperwork and sat down to prepare for court. It went exactly as our translator told us it would. It was about 1 hour long. The judge read through our petition to adopt, asked if we had any questions and if we had any applications. We asked to have the ten days waived. Then the proceedings started. He basically read through our dossier - focusing on the homestudy and financial statements. The prosecutor, social worker and orphanage representative all retold Cole's story and asked us a few questions. Most of the questions were either about why we wanted to adopt or financial in nature. Nothing difficult or unexpected. The judge then left to make his ruling. While he was gone we showed pictures to the others. They oohed and aahed and told us we needed to come back for a girl very soon. The judge returned in about 10-15 minutes, pronounced us parents, waived the 10 days and we cried. It was then off to do a lot of waiting at government offices for paperwork to be done. Our facilitator was excellent and was able to get both the adoption certificate and the birth certificate done in one day. Each office told her it would take 2-3, but she worked through it! We didn't get to pick up Cole that day, but we knew that would be the case. So, it was a nice dinner at a restaurant in the Fortress Wall and then off for what would be our last full night of sleep to date.

More later...I'm off to enjoy a cup of coffee while Cole and Papa are at the park!