I'm a mom!

It was a day of court and paperwork. I only have a few minutes and will complete this later but just a quick word to say that court went well, the judge waived the 10 days and I am officially Amanda's mom! We'll go to the orphanage tomorrow to get Amanda and Reese, Elizabeth's daughter.

I got more emotional than I thought I would! When the social worker got up to talk about the interactions she observed, how Amanda called me Mama, that I brought her many toys and we seemed to bond right away - I don't know, I just started tearing up and couldn't stop!

One of the questions asked by the judge - why have you not married? Good grief, like I know the answer to that one! I really was stumped as to what to say to a judge - I finally said that I hadn't found someone I wanted to spend that much time with. What a dumb answer! I hope Anna translated something better than what I said. She then asked, if I met the right person would I want to be married? I answered yes, of course! I should have been prepared for that.

We went to the "city hall" and got the girls' birth certificates and some other document, then to another government building to file the paperwork to get their passports. We will get those tomorrow. We exchanged money after that, and that was accomplished by pulling over to the side of the road, having a guy come over, telling him the amount US$ to exchange and he did the exchange through the van window. Ok! Strange! We had heard of this so it was not unexpected, but still interesing!

I asked Anna if she could drop me at the hotel while they went to get Reese's plane ticket, but that office is close to the internet cafe, so they dropped me here. I don't know how much time I have, though, so will close this and maybe will post later tonight. Otherwise it might not be until I'm in Moscow Wednesday afternoon. We'll see.

Congratulations to the new Grandma & Grandpa and all the new aunties and uncles! =)