It's Official!!

We are Maksim Jason Woods' parents! We couldn't be any happier. Court went pretty smoothly. At about 11:50, we were called into the Judge's chambers to begin the hearing. The Judge, his assistant, the prosecutor, Lena, the orphanage director, Tahesia (the lady from the department of education), and us we seated in a small office. The judge said a bunch of stuff in Russian and then we began our speech. We were pretty nervous. We would read a segment "My name is Jason blah blah blah, we live at blah blah blah, we will take care of Maksim, etc." Then Lena would translate. Then I started, "we are rich, blah blah blah, we have more than enough money and can prove it, blah blah blah." "We love Maksim!"

The prosecutor had no question for us. Pheww! Then Tahesia started. The prosecutor definately had questions for her regarding the circumstances of Maksim arrival at the baby house. She stood and vehemently asked Tahesia questions. It was scary for us because we couldn't understand everything and the tones in the voices seemed frightening. Lena would translate but they didn't stop for her to translate so of course we missed some things. We actually learned a bit more about his biological mother. The judge heard a few things from the orphanage director and then called for a break.

Before meeting with the judge again, a Russian man with a big smile told us "Good Luck!" We were pretty stoked to have someone say this to us. In this country and in public people are not friendly at all. They mostly scowl and stare. We have come to recognize this as normal behavior. It seems Americans are over-smiley. We met back in the judge's office at aobut 3 pm. It was a very short "You are now pronounced Maksim's parents!" We shook his hand and he gave each of us a very kind smile. We can count the number of people who have smiled at us on one hand. That includes the 2 today! We were elated. Lalalalala!!!

We went back to the orphanage and saw OUR SON for the first time. He was sweet and played machina most of the short time we got to spend. We shared an apple and Maksim wanted his Momma to have her own piece! Yeah! He shared with me. I was very excited. We taught him to say "America!" It comes out more like "Amarelica!" He loves to say it and boy do we love to hear it. "Amarelica!"

P.S. the "we are rich" comments are supposed to be silly..of course.