4 Years a Family!

Yesterday marks the fourth anniversary of our court date in Russia and when the Judge said yes, entrusting to us one special little boy! Since it was so late in the afternoon, we could not pick him up that day (our 10 days were waived), so we had to wait one more day!

Troy and I were so tired from our long day and 4 hours in court (that were pleasant, but long) and we celebrated with an exciting PB&J for dinner in our room!! We laughed that Daniel was already on a sleepover and then we barely slept anticipating and packing our things to pick up Daniel and fly back to Moscow.

Oh how I miss that sweet little baby boy we picked up. But oh how I love the little man he's grown into!

Then....

and Now....

2 YEAR COURT DATE ANNIVERSARY!

Today is most importantly our anniversary for Daniel's adoption. We spent four hours in a courtroom asking to be Daniel's parents. While the length of the court process seems really long, it was relatively painless and every one was so nice to us. We had an unusual situation in that Daniel had been placed in a hospital to await our return due to a chicken pox outbreak so we had to wait for arrival of a doctor from that hospital to sign over guardianship.

All in all we were exhausted when it was over a bit disappointed that we couldn't pick him up the same day, (because it was so late), but we celebrated with peanut butter and jelly sandwhiches and barely slept, awaiting the arrival of the next morning!!

Here is an excerpt from an email I sent to my closest family and friends TWO years ago today!! I am sharing the email and not the post from my blog as this was much more detailed of the events and also because I wanted every one to see how kind the judge was to us. Read on...

"We are proud to announce that after 4 hours of speeches (by us, the social worker, orphanage director, children's hospital doctor) and being questioned by the judge and prosecutor that we are the parents of a very active, 21 and a half month old little boy named Daniel McQuin Williams!!

Today has been very emotional and we are exhausted. We tried not to cry when the judge finally announced her decision that we had satisfied the Russian courts and we were to be Daniel's parents. She also approved our motion to waive the 10 days as I (Rachel) gave a speech and then the social worker and the orphanage director supported my motion. This means we can return to the US on the 22nd as planned.

After the judge read her decision she came down to stand before us and said she wanted to talk to us not as a judge but as a mother and grandmother. She said to love Daniel well and let him be the light of our lives. She said he would certainly bring us much joy. She said she hoped when we were older he would return the favor and care for us as we care for him. Then she congratulated us and it was done.

We were then rushed to the vital statistics office and we have a new birth certificate listing us as his parents and a formal adoption certificate. Unfortunately we are not able to pick up Daniel today as it is after 5 pm. Troy and I will be celebrating with peanut butter and jelly sandwhiches as we ate out a big lunch during a break with everyone and we are just plain exhausted.We will pick Daniel up tomorrow in Votkinsk and then come back to Izhevsk to fly to Moscow. Wish us luck on the almost 2 hour flight. Love to all..."

I can't even begin to explain what that day meant to us and still means to us. That we were entrusted with this precious child to call our own. Did we think it would be easy? No. Were we prepared to work at it? Yes.

A lot of people didn't know at the time (except our family) that Daniel had a medical condition that had already required two previous surgeries in Russia. He was not considered special needs but we knew most likely he would have to have another surgery upon arrival in the US.

I want to point out in light of the news lately that the orphanage director was extremely honest with us about Daniel's medical condition. We received a ton of information and they answered all the questions we had.

Daniel's condition which you can read about in a previous post here may have given a few families pause about his adoption, but we truly believe Daniel was a gift from God, sent straight to our family.

Finally, Daniel is everything we ever wanted in a son and more. We are so thankful to be able to call him ours.

Lazy Winter Days

First of all, thank you so much for all your comments and prayers on my last post. We received our next appointments and they aren't until April 15th, so I am thankful for the break. April 15th is our one year anniversary of our positive court decision to adopt Daniel! We consider it our "Family Day" even though we weren't able to pick Daniel up until the following morning. We joked that Daniel spent his first night away from home! Spending the day in the hospital wasn't exactly what I had in mind for that day, but that's alright!!

So, lately we've had some nasty weather and I haven't been feeling the greatest and Daniel has been a little bored. So here is a post from him.

Hey everyone...it's been really boring around here, so I wanted to show you what I do to pass the time.

First I check on the dogs. I can't believe they are being good...for the moment. Mommy rushed for the camera just to prove that the dogs really do use the dog beds and not the chair, the bed, etc. I laughed because we all know where they really sleep...

Next, I had mommy build me a fortess. She sets it up real nice next to the table and then gives me a juice box and a neat pad thing I can write on and then erase what I just wrote. I keep trying to write on myself, but nothing happens. What's up with that?!

I've figured out that if you take a riding toy and set a ball on top the seat and then sit on the ball that your feet barely touch the floor. Hence the riding toy has now become a motorcylce. Mommy laughs everytime I zoom by and yell "motorcycle"!

Playdoh is really cool too. The Octopus is a little hard to do so Mommy sits and reads and helps me push the hat down to make disgusting turtles and other weird creatures. I always yell "eeewwww" when the stuff squishes out.

Lastly, I take good long naps. Can't you tell by my hairdo. Mommy said she was leaving it that way all day and that I must have slept so good on one side then flipped over for the rest of my nap. I still can't figure out what's so funny!!

I love lazy winter days!

Proud Parents!!!!!!!!!

What a day today!! After almost four hours of court we were finally given the decision that we are to be the parents of a very handsome, wonderful, very active, 21 and a half month old.

Not much can get better than that. Except for the fact that the judge was very kind and waived our 10 days!! What a blessing!!!

We will post pictures tomorrow once we have the official documents and return to Moscow. It was too late today to make the drive to the orphanage to pick him up. We can’t wait to scoop him up in our arms tomorrow!!!!!

We are here!! Long time, no post!!

We are here. We had a crazy flight over. Our original flight turned out to be delayed and we would have missed ourconnection to Moscow so Delta had to send us to another airport pronto last Wednesday and we had to rush through to catch another flight. Delta was great and there's more to the story, but it will have to wait.

We spent the night in Moscow and then traveled to Izhevsk by plane Friday morning. Windy!! Need I say more.

We spent three nights in an apartment with a woman and her mother. All was well. No internet so we couldn't post although our rep did everything within her power to find internet for us. We finally got a couple of emails home by using a neighboring apartments email yesterday.

Court tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. Bright and early - midnight eastern standard time. Please pray. We are nervous and will have to go in by ourselves and use the court translator. All should be fine, but again we are nervous.

Our son is wonderful! We have spent the last four days bonding with him and he now calls me mama and Troy papa and he runs to us with open arms and great eye contact. And when he giggles - boy he giggles and it will just melt your heart. Wish us luck!!!

We Got Our Court Date!!

We are completely in shock, but we just found out we got our court date already!! It’s April 15th and it can’t come soon enough!! Please say some prayers as we have to redo our police clearances and they take a minimum of two weeks. I have called the Virginia State Police and am working with a lady who seems to think we can have it back in time.

We should get official travel dates tomorrow!! I can’t believe it. We are again over the moon at seeing our angel again so quickly.

As to our surprise shower, my sister left me this comment on our last post:

"shower rsvp's are good, especially you out of towners!!!....RAE YOU HAVE NO IDEA!!!!!!! HAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Uhhhh, what in the world does she have planned? As Becky mentioned to me, it’s starting to sound like a Bachelorette Party!! With her...somehow I wouldn’t be surprised!! I’ll keep you posted if I get any hints!