"Congratulations, you are parents!"

See our cheesy grins? That is the look of a couple that has just successfully completed a very stressful court hearing. We made it!! Carson Nikolai and Conner Naum are officially our sons! It has been a three-day emotional roller coaster, but we have made it through like all of you said we would, and now we are the parents of two beautiful little boys.

The adventure began with the doctor’s license fiasco. Thank you Tony and Catharine for the amazing job you did tracking down the document and sending it so quickly. It was nerve-wracking to spend the whole day yesterday wondering if that document would make it in time. Even more scary when we discovered that Rochelle’s doctor’s license had the same issue! Don’t tell anyone though, because we must have been the only ones who noticed!

Add to the drama, there was a new prosecutor on the scene, and she was not accepting anyone’s American psychiatric evaluations. Those of you who have been with us through this process know how infuriating it has been to deal with all of the mental health hoops. Now we were told that the court decision would be delayed in order for us to see an in-country psychiatrist ($400 fee…) Well, the good news is that for all our stress and fear and trepidation, the court date arrived and we breezed through it. We even got some serious pats on the back for our performance. We would love to go into more detail about the court hearing, since it was the biggest hurdle of this whole process. But suffice it to say, when the judge read her final decision after 1.5 hours, and said, “Congratulations, you are parents!” we laughed and cried at the same time.

We want to show you pictures of yesterday's visit with the boys, but we are having a tough time with the Russian computers and the inconsistant wi-fi. Plus, we're really tired!! More soon, we promise. Miss you all!

--Rochelle and Curtis