WE ARE NEW PARENTS!!!

Court was successful today! I think we were very fortunate - we had a long wait (over an hour I'd guess) before the judge appeared because he was running late, so he did not spend a lot of time on our case when he arrived. It was short and sweet!

Basically, the judge read our petition aloud (one page) and asked us to confirm it, then asked us each to say a few words about why we want to adopt Meredith. After that, the inspector gave her testimony that she had observed us with Meredith and that she knows we will care for her well. After that, the prosecutor (whose task is to "make sure the law is observed") made a statement that all the proper procedures had been followed and that no family in Russia had petitioned to adopt Meredith so that it was in her best interest to be adopted by us.

This all took maybe 15-20 minutes. Then we left the room and waited 5 minutes for the judge to make his decision. He invited us back in and made the statement that we are approved for adoption of the baby, who would now be named Meredith Nadia Hamersma and her documents will reflect that we are her parents! We are done!

Of course, there is still the 10-day waiting period, but this is almost certainly a formality because Meredith was relinquished quite some time ago and we don't expect anyone to suddenly come forward to appeal the adoption. But rules are rules, so we will wait our 10 days without too much complaining.

After court, we got to go visit Meredith - in our court clothes!. Little did we know she would also have special clothes on - the very outfit we left her in last time! They even put on her little hat :) She was not crazy about us right at first - a little weepy, maybe tired or scared, hard to tell. But then she started cheering up. We figured out that lifting her up and down like she is flying is a sure-fire way to get a smile! And her smile now includes a little bottom tooth that is sticking out. Last time it was still a little below her gums. Our little girl is growing up! Can't wait to get her home.

Here are a couple of pics to capture the day. Look for the tooth in the first two!






Here's me trying to get comfy in my court clothes while Meredith checks out a new toy!