Court Date, finally!

Yeah! We got the call early this afternoon and life has been chaos ever since! :) We go to court for custody of the kids on July 14th. That means we fly out on the 12th. After court, there is a "10 Day Wait" law that means we have to sit around and wait for 10 days to go by before the court edict actually goes into effect and we can pick up Maya and Tristan. Then we have a week of getting their birth certificates, adoption decrees, Russian passports and American visas, as well as their medical appointments and U.S. embassy interviews. If all goes smoothly (a big "if" I hear), we will return on August 1st.

Initially we were going to go home during the 10 days, but we have since decided that these children need us to stick around and visit them a couple times each day so that it won't be so scary leaving the orphanage with us permanently. I'm honestly not sure how I'll survive without seeing Alex, Isabelle and Emma that long. I had a hard enough time with our 1 week stay last time. Luckily, my awesome mother-in-law is coming out to care for them. After raising 6 kids herself, I know they will be in good hands (not to mention the incredible husband she raised for me!).

Today we sent off a package for Maya and Tristan to a couple who is leaving on Sunday on their first adoption trip. They are with our agency and are going to take it with them to deliver on their trip. We really appreciate it! The kids had a lot of fun drawing pictures for them, Emma wrote little notes to them, and I included treats and stickers for them to share with their group, as well as photos from our first trip together. I also made this little circle of pictures of everyone in our family, including them and wrote in the middle "Our Family" "We love you!" all in Russian so the caregivers can read it to them. I cannot describe how fun it was to see all of our children together, if only on paper. I am so excited for them to get this!

Next week we are headed for our annual camping trip with our friends to the Pinery in Canada. I can't wait to go, but that has definitely put the pressure on to get all this done today! Somehow we always seem to have a trip scheduled right before we leave to Russia!

So far today I've got the passports and visa applications mailed off (luckily we don't need passports to get into Canada right now :), and I just purchased the airline tickets--we are flying Delta this time. Now, I just have to figure out where we are going to live for a good portion of July. :)

Sorry this post is not very cohesive! I can't believe this is really happening! I am so excited to bring these little ones home!