One year ago today Brandon and I stood in a tiny, hot, basement courtroom packed full of people in Krasnoyarsk, Russia. We stood there with our legs and voices shaking, ready to share our hearts and convince a judge why we wanted to adopt two girls with Down syndrome.
Our court hearing went smoothly, there were no surprises and the judge said Da! (yes) The only surprise came while waiting for the judge's decision in the hallway (we stood in the hallway with our facilitator/translator, all the reps from both girls orphanages and the Ministry of Education, AND the prosecutor and court reporter) - the prosecutor got extremely emotional and was so in favor of our adoption, that it surprised Marina. So she asked her about it while we were waiting for the judge's decision. Turns out the she (the prosecutor) has a nephew with autism, and she's seen him struggle there and she recognized that our girls would have even less of an opportunity in Russia if they weren't adopted. She even asked us if children with autism can go to school in the US. Amazing, and totally a God thing!
Dasha and Emily - happy 1 year anniversary of legally being our daughters (there is just no eloquent way to say that!) - what a year this has been. (Remember we still had a 30 day wait before we could take the girls into our custody) We love you so much, we are so proud of how much you've grown over this past year! We are so blessed to be your parents and proud to call you our daughters!!!
P.S. I know my blog is sadly neglected. I owe every one a HUGE catch up post about the end of summer, the girls starting school, etc. It'll happen....someday! :)
Our court hearing went smoothly, there were no surprises and the judge said Da! (yes) The only surprise came while waiting for the judge's decision in the hallway (we stood in the hallway with our facilitator/translator, all the reps from both girls orphanages and the Ministry of Education, AND the prosecutor and court reporter) - the prosecutor got extremely emotional and was so in favor of our adoption, that it surprised Marina. So she asked her about it while we were waiting for the judge's decision. Turns out the she (the prosecutor) has a nephew with autism, and she's seen him struggle there and she recognized that our girls would have even less of an opportunity in Russia if they weren't adopted. She even asked us if children with autism can go to school in the US. Amazing, and totally a God thing!
Dasha and Emily - happy 1 year anniversary of legally being our daughters (there is just no eloquent way to say that!) - what a year this has been. (Remember we still had a 30 day wait before we could take the girls into our custody) We love you so much, we are so proud of how much you've grown over this past year! We are so blessed to be your parents and proud to call you our daughters!!!
3 comments:
Wow! All I can say is Wow! Your girls have changed SO much, and they are absolutely gorgeous! Happy 1 year anniversary to all of you!:)
Love looks good on them!
Oh goodness! They look wonderful! Happy and healthy and full of life and love! This post makes me so happy :)
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