COURT!

We went to court today, at 2:30 our time. The judge asked Wade many, many questions about finances, if we can take care of three children, why adoption, why Russia, health concerns, who would become legal guardians of the children if we were both to die, if we were familiar with the post placement requirments, our religion, she even asked, 'so you are going to choose her religion for her?' of which we answered-yes! Did she think we should ask the three year old who doesn't speak english what regligion she would like to be??? Then she asked me some of the same questions and some new ones, she tended to dwell on the fact that I worked and kept asking what I would do if her emotional or health concerns were so great that I could not work; would the loss of my income make it so we could no longer care for three children, asked if my hours could be flexible if needed, asked how much time I would be allowed off before I would have to decide to continue work or quit my job....on and on and on over this. She asked about how we discipline the boys, how we will discipline Jill, what kinds of activities we like to do on the weekends and if having Jill will change our lifestyle (no), and how we eat (cook, eat out, eat as a family, is Dad home to eat, etc). The other thing she dwelled on like the my working thing, was that we know no information about the father. She kept asking us if that concerned us. She asked Wade, she asked me, later she asked us again together, and at the very, very end she asked us again! But then she, the prosocutor, and secretary all left the room for about 10 minutes and when they came back read a few page long statement that in summary, granted us the adoption of Jill Asiyat Williams!!! We now have to wait 10 days to take custody of her, as anyone can appeal the case in the next 10 days. Soon here we are going out to dinner with two other AMERICAN couples! One couple is from Alabama, and the other one is from Tennesse. They had their Ministry of Education appointments this morning and met their children earlier today, they are still on their second visit and should be back shortly so we can show them around town!