Angelina's Day In Court

Because Russian adoptions are considered "full and final", there is no need to re-finalize an adoption here in the USA. However, we were told that this re-finalization will make it much easier in the long run to get birth certificates and adoption decrees for Angelina in the future. So, instead of asking Moscow for copies (hahahaha) we can just ask the state of New Hampshire.

Our court date was scheduled for today and we even had the option of not going if we did not want to. Both Ken and I felt that it was important to go so that we can have this memory for us and Angelina. We had a nice family morning, and the mood in court was light and fun - much different than the mood of the Russian court 3 months ago!

Our social worker told us that the specific judge that will be hearing our case loves the "adoption" part of his job. She warned us that he will want Angelina to sit on his lap and he will play with her and ask us questions about our trips. What I thought was funny was that she even said that many members of our agency have tried to talk to him about the attachment process and how having a child sit in his lap could be harmful to that process, etc... So, when we walked into the room, he immediately fit the profile of what our social worker said. I wasn't going to complain, though her comfort with him just shows me how much more attachment work we have to do.

After court we went out for a family breakfast, then back home for nap. It was a nice morning.

Oh, we also had Angelina's eye appointment this week....that's a blog post all on its own, let me tell you! I will post about that next week when I can share some pictures of Angelina in her new specs!