WE HAVE A SON!!!

After two journeys far into Russia and miles of paperwork we are now the proud and joyful parents of Alexander William Kaminski. We can't wait to go to the baby house and tell baby Alex that he is coming home with us!!!

We left early yesterday morning and drove four hours to the town of Kudymkar. Court was scheduled for 2:00 PM and we were to arrive at 1:00. At the hearing it was only the Judge, a Prosecutor, a Court Reporter, a Social Worker for the Perm Region, our translator and us. The Judge openned the court session by re-stating our petition then asked us to introduce ourselves. After the short introductions we were asked to give our statements to the court so we each got up, talked about Alex, our experience during our visits to the orphanage on both trips, our desire to bring him home and our motivation for adopting a child from Russia.

Chris had to give a full speech on our jobs, finances, the layout and safety of our house, our kids and how they were doing in school and their feelings on the adoption. There were several questions to both of us from both the judge and the prosecutor regarding our beliefs in disciplining children and she made one last statement about Russian children being abused and sometimes even killed in the United States.

As soon as she brought this up my heart started going a hundred miles an hour. There was a case in Utah of a couple who killed their Russian adopted down-syndrome child just a couple of weeks ago, and the news of it is still fresh in their minds here. I have heard that if/when something like this were to happen, following adoptions are often delayed and even cancelled so we were really nervous. Chris did most of the talking and was asked for closing statements or additional requests. The Judge asked me if I had something to add so I got up to the podium and talked about Alex and our feelings for him, summarized our visits, his medical needs, and I also acknowledge the awful news from Utah, which by the way, I only found out about two days before court. The Prosecutor and the Social Worker gave their closing statements, which supported our adoption, then the judge called for a fifteen minute break.

She came back and read a long page that summarized everything that had been petitioned, then told us we were now the legal parents of baby Alex. This was a very emotional moment for both of us and all I wanted to do was jump up and down but I had to keep my composure until she left the room. The Judge lady, the social worker and the prosecutor were all really nice, and we felt so lucky and thankful for our coordinator/translator who did a remarkable job and ensured we had a smooth process.

We can't wait to go visit our son today and tell him he has a Papa, a Mama, a brother and a sister, grandmas and grandpas, aunts, uncles and a bunch of cousins who can't wait to meet him!

Life Is Terrific!!!