There and Back

I haven't posted in several days because once Thursday hit our worlds were in a tailspin. On Thursday the 10th we left our hotel at 9am for the one hour drive to the orphanage. Once we arrived there we met with the orphanage director. She was a wonderful woman and very open with us about the information which was in the child's files. She went through the social and medical histories and the translator interpreted for us. Once she had read the information in the file, we were then able to ask her questions. She told us that our oldest son has been making wonderful gains in his motor skills in the last few months and our youngest son was the "star of the orphanage". As we were finishing up, I could hear the sound of children outside the director's office. She called for the door to be opened, and in came the boys. Those first few moments were surreal, as we had been waiting SO LONG for this moment. I was not sure what to do at first as I wanted to pick them up and hug them but essentially I was a stranger to them. We pulled out some Goldfish which they thoroughly enjoyed and then I gave them some blocks. They spoke to us in Russian and began to imitate my models of words in English along with some sign language. Our youngest little guy thought we were quite funny and giggled quite a bit. His laughter was infectious. Our older son is more reserved but more likely to give out hugs (as he did when we arrived the second day).
I wish we could share pictures and videos from our trip, but we cannot post any until the adoption is finalized. The boys were amazing and I really enjoyed our trip (with the exception of the flights). Chad didn't enjoy things as much as I did (the different food, language barrier) except for our time at the orphanage. We were sad to leave the boys on the second day but happy to head home. We missed the girls, sleeping in our own beds, and our dogs.
This week we are working on finishing the paperwork required for our court date. We will submit it next week to our agency where it will be translated and then be sent to Siberia via FedEx. Our judge will review our documents and then we will be invited for court. We hope this process will be quick, but most families have to wait two to three months for a court date.
Thank you for all of your thoughts and prayers. We are so close to bringing our boys home!