It's a girl!!

Okay - so you already knew that - but it's official. AFter a 2 1/2 hour court hearing - with some screaming in Russian that we did not understand - more about that at another time - the end result was they approved the adoption!! WOOHOO! After they asked us a bunch of questions and read over a bunch of stuff - they took a recess to make their decision. Anastasia took out a pad and markers from my purse (she knows where the stash is) and wrote, "Kim, Mark, Rachel, Wesley and Carter - My Family" HOw sweet is that. Her English is just improving so much. I think she got the spelling of all our names from the many letters we sent. She even put the "and" in. They asked her a bunch of questions - and she did great. Said "I'm fine where I am, but I want a family." She answered quickly and confidently when asked if she wanted to be adopted, go to America . . . They even asked her if she was worried about not understanidng English, and she said, "I know some English and I will study English." Also asked a bunch of questions to her about how she knew that her brothers and sister wanted her - since she hadn't even met them, she told them that she'd seen pictures - they kept going on and on about that so finally she said, "I know they want me cause they've bought me a bike." That ended the questioning on her siblings!! Even got a smile from the judge!

SO now the 10 day wait begins but at this point we're so thrilled to have the court hearing over - we'll take the 10 days!

WE're starved - going to dinner. Thanks for your love, support and especially prayers throughout this six month labor - hey and this was the first delivery I did "naturally!!"
Love Kim and Mark
can't do spell check - this computer has Russian prompts!!!