We passed court!--UPDATED

--and the ten day wait was waived!

More later, haven't eaten all day, need to eat something and add to this post!

***

Ok, we're back.  I'm a little too whipped to add a lot to this post, but we had court at 10:30am and basically things went smoothly.  The court session was a little on the longer side but we expected that since they have not had an international adoption case here in so many years.  It was held in the judge's (very hot--hot day here!) office, 11 people crammed in there: the judge, a recorder, a prosecutor, two court assessors, the social worker, the director of the institution, our "advocate" (think lawyer), our facilitator and translator, and the two of us.  A lot of it was people pronouncing assessments of us and our bonding with Alex, and details about Alex's "orphan" status.  The middle of the court is a section called "debate", really more questions directed to us and answers provided by us (and then translated for the court record on the spot).  One court assessor asked us lots of questions--good questions, but quite a few--and before anyone fainted in that room, the judge reviewed the documents in everyone's presence, and then dismissed us.  We waited 20 minutes and he called us in and said that he granted our adoption petition immediately.  (OK, I'm no lawyer--I may have gotten a few details wrong here, but that was the gist of it.)

Woohoo!  and Alleluia!  Jerry and I had a big hug, the institution director hugged us (she really seemed thrilled) and so did our facilitator. 

The rest of the day was spent running around with our facilitator filing and completing paperwork all over town.  We did go to the institution (and were treated to some excellent apple juice by the director), to pick up Alex and take him to a photo shop in town for the paperwork.  Despite it being naptime, he was super excited to be in a car...I think this is a true rarity.  He giggled over all the potholes, and pointed around saying "look! look!" in Russian.  He was REALLY sad when we dropped him off, but I do think part of that was being tired--he was almost drifting off while we waited for the picture to be developed.

Tomorrow we go to the bigger city nearby (40 KM) to get a passport photo done, if they don't accept this one, and put in the passport application.  That will take a few days to process.  Our tentative plan is to pick up Alex on Monday and travel to the capital city to get that work done, but it may be pushed out a little bit if "life happens" in the bureaucracy....We wouldn't have been able to get any of that passport work underway for 13 days if the court hadn't waived that wait (13 because of how the 10 days fell on the calendar).

We are so grateful for your support and prayers.  We're on the downhill slope!

Peace, Susan