Monday, June 27, 2011

COURT DATE!!!!!!!

We have our CONFIRMED court date!!!! We leave next Wednesday, July 6!!!!! AHHHHHH!!!!

For the last few weeks we have been waitng impatiently on pins & needles for our July 12 court date to be confirmed. Wouldn't you know it....the day after my birthday we get the phonecall with 10 days to prepare! We had expected this & planned as much as possible in advance with babysitters, packing, booking dr. appointment for our bloodwork & chest x-rays, preparing for baby.....Today was spent running on complete adrenaline!

At about 9:00 this morning I was working out on the NordicTrac bike & Andrew was asleep when the phone rang. I jumped & checked caller ID, but it just said "out of area."Stupid solicitor" is what I thought, BUT it was our Russia program coordinator from our adoption agency :) She had the GREAT news we had been waiting for.....July 12 court date & travel dates!!! YAY!!! Andrew woke up from 2 hours of sleep after working graveyards last night & was ecstatic. Then the MADNESS began!!

I was reminded several times today that God has gone before us in this journey & has all ready set things in place. It just so happens our dr. appointment was all ready set for today & one of our babysitters was all ready set to come over to go through details & watch the kids for the afternoon :) We managed to get our airfare confirmed for $2,000 LESS than we had thought it would be. I found the flights online & all the travel agent had to do was call Aeroflot to get the price I found & add one way fare for baby. She didn't even charge us her airfare booking fee since I did most of the work :) We got passport photos done quickly (yay for girl at Walgreen's photo center!!), headed to doctor, Andrew ran to Fed Ex while I waited in waiting room, he got back in the knick of time for our exams & bloodwork(our dr. & his staff were WONDERFUL), & then we made it to the radiology office for chest x-rays about 5 minutes before they closed :) We walked out with our big yellow envelope with x-ray films which we get to carry on the plane.....we are so relieved that's done!

We are almost there & I can hardly believe it. Our entire trip is 29 days....one whole month in Russia. Our 10 day wait period after court ends on a Friday which means the judge will not sign the adoption decree until the following Monday morning :( That adds 2 days & means we won't get baby until that Monday. We head back to Moscow with baby on July 27, submit visa & citizenship documents for baby to the U.S. Embassy on July 28, then get his visa on the 29th. We have to register him with the Russian Consulate on Monday, August 1 & then head HOME on Wednesday, August 3rd!!!!!! I CANNOT wait until that day :)

The kids are SO EXCITED, but there are definitely some emotions & tears starting about us being gone for so long. We have great babysitters who will keep them busy with fun activities, but it will still be hard on them & us. We know it will all be worth it & all 6 of us will be together SOON! Thank you for praying...keep them coming!!!

No comments:

Post a Comment