It's a boy

Finally! After four years of paperwork & waiting and  5 court hearings, our adoption of Harry was granted in the Irkutsk Regional Courthouse, Siberia, Russia.

We'll be here another 2.5 weeks or so, waiting out the mandatory 10 day waiting period, then gathering his new paperwork, and stopping in Moscow to register him at the US Embassy.

Then, we'll be home!

Praise to our God!

Baby Home 2

We're less than 24 hours from our court hearing tomorrow, and although I've been to visit Harry many, many times while he's been at BH2, it was so pretty today, will all the new snow, and I couldn't help but snap lots of pictures of the grounds. 

 We first came here in the summer of 2004, to pick Skip up after our court hearing, and here we are more than 4 years later, preparing for our court hearing for Harry! These are a few of my favorites from today.

Life in Siberia

Yesterday Mike took Skip outside to play in the playground here in the housing development we are staying in, and took some really nice shots of the neighborhood. As ususal there was lots of activity - people walking to do their errands, parents pulling littles ones on sleds and kids playing everywhere. I love the way the birch trees look in the winter, especially in the morning after a fresh coating of snow. It sticks to all the branches, and it's truly a winter wonderland. Skip really enjoyed sliding down the tall slide on cardboard, then skimming across the ice at the bottom. Apparently the neighborhood kids pour water down the slide when it gets cold enough, and as a result, it freezes in one long stretch, making it extra fun!

A cross-post ...SKIP, THEN & NOW

I put these then and now pictures of Skip on my private adoption blog but wanted to post them here as well. this one was taken when I came here to visit him in 2004, at the age of 14 months.

This one was taken here yesterday, a fews days after his 6th birthday.

Arrived back in Russia 5 days ago...

and have been visiting Harry daily as we await our court date on Monday. Here's a pic of my boys watching a DVD on their new travel DVD player!

Nope, haven't fallen off the face of the earth

Last time I blogged here was 3 months ago, just before we left for Russia for our court date to adopt Harry. Well we stayed almost 7 weeks, had two court dates and STILL didn't bring him home. We are about to return for a court date in January - and we're praying that as the adage goes, "Third times the charm"...I've been posting about our journey in another blog, but due to privacy restrictions, we can't make it public until after we are successful in court. So hold tight, as soon as that happens, I'll be back to bloggin' regularly!

Gotcha...

Home...

In our state of  pure & absolute utter mild chaos here, I neglected to mention that yesterday was the 4th anniversary of Gotcha Day for JR. Now I know you faithful readers are scratching your heads saying, I guess she really has lost her mind huh? Didn't they have that already? Well you're kinda right. We had Gotcha Day - but yesterday was Gothcha HOME day. We touched ground at Boston's Logan Airport on 12 September 2004 with our 20-month old son, and in doing so, he legally became a U.S. citizen. For me, THAT, was perhpas the most emotional part of his adoption - and for the life of me can't tell you why, but as soon as the airplane touched the ground I felt an overwhelming burden lifted. Despite the fact the judge granted our adoption weeks earlier, for me, arriving safely back home with him made it all "final" and I cried for a long time. Just sat in my seat and cried. 

The toddler we arrived home with is such a different child than the one we now know and love. For one thing he didn't speak a word at 20 months (Russian OR English) and now he doesn't stop talking from the second he wakes up in the morning til the second his eyes finally sweetly close each nite at which time we all breath a huge sigh of relief that we can finally have a little quiet around here!

Since JR has been totally a little  neglected this past few weeks as we prepare for our journey back to Russia, I decided we should do a little something to celebrate, and take a well deserved  short break from the never ending task of attempting to keep this relentless judge happy.from our work.  We got a small ice cream cake from Friendly's, Mike sang (rather poorly and in quite silly manner) "Happy Gotcha Home Day" and then we happily stuffed our faces enjoyed our treat.  Just what the Doctor ordered, and a bit hit with JR who enjoyed being the center of attention again!

Still can't believe we've been home four years but I'm so grateful to GOD each day!