Nov. 19th- it was official!

November 19th, 2009 was our official court hearing. Russian officials decided that we could officially adopt the boys! From this date, we had a 10 day waiting period until December 2nd. This gave anyone that disapproved of the adoption to step forward and contest it. We were pretty positive that it was final, but we still held our breath until those 10 days were up!

These pictures are from outside the court house in Vladimir (about 3 hours east of Moscow) AFTER our court hearing. All smiles ta this point! We remember going into the building with some unsettled nerves. What questions would they ask, were we prepared to answer everything, and did they have all of the documentation needed to make the decision? Thankfully, we had a very good translator and it went very well!

It was a cold, wet day. Imagine that, in Russia. ;-)

Right after the court hearing, we drove to the orphanage in Murom (about 2 hours away) to see the boys again! Woo hoo!!! We hadn't seen them since the middle of October!