We Are Parents of Zachary Michael

Well, the day Mike and I have long awaited happened: our long and tedious paperchase paid off and we were approved by a judge in Moscow City to adopt our little precious one - Zachary Michael (named formerly Mikhail, nicknamed "Misha"). Conveniently, we can keep his birth name and name him after his dad). Mike did the talking in court and did a great job. So, thank you everyone all of your prayers and good luck wishes got us there!

The hearing went perfectly. At first, the judge was yelling in closed chambers and I was getting nervous. But, our translator informed us that the judge is training a new clerk. When she came to the bench, I had no worries. I could tell she was just getting what she had to on the record. In fact, she closed the file before she was even done asking questions.

I would also like to say how wonderful this orphanage director is. After hearing stories of my friends here in Moscow now, you tend to wonder. This orphanage director greeted me smiling, wanted to look at all our pictures that we had prepared for court, and even asked to keep some of the pictures. She was so helpful in court stating that we interacted great with the baby when we saw him in May. And, I really loved how after the judge declared that she was approving our petition to adopt Zachary, the orphanage director smiled ear to ear, and then came over and gave both Mike and myself a kiss and a hug congratulating us.

At this point, we have to wait 10 days before we can take Zachary home. We are sticking with the original plan of Mike and I returning home on Sunday, and then Ann Armstrong (Grandmom) and I will leave next Saturday (6/24), get here Sunday (6/25), and then we can bring Zachary to the hotel with us on Monday (6/26). We will have to wait here until likely July 2nd before we can get home (airfare was sold out, but we'll see if we can get back early if paperwork permits).

We went straight from court to the orphanage to visit. However, all the Armstrongs were tired. At that point, Mike and I were still energized with excitement. We should have been exhausted. Tuesday night we were flying red-eye flights to get here. That meant we got next to no sleep. Last night, I went to bed at 1:00 a.m. and woke up at 4:00 a.m. (excited? I would say so) Well, when we got to the orphanage, it was Misha/Zachary's scheduled nap time. The caregivers gratiously woke him up, dressed him, and brought him to us. But, we could tell that playing was not on his agenda; he wanted to sleep. So, I let him fall asleep and held him for a little while and then reluctantly let him go to his bed.

So, yay! Now we have a two new countdowns: 1) the countdown until we get to welcome him to the family full-time (Monday June 26th), and 2) the countdown until he is in his new home (tentatively July 2nd).