A quiet celebration

We took this picture with Oksana, who was our translator during the court hearing. Our agency couldn't be present inside of the courtroom (the judge's little office), because we are technically completing this adoption as an independent adoption, because no US adoption agencies are accredited in Russia right now. They changed the rules for all agencies back in June, and only families -- like ours -- whose paperwork was already in the country were allowed to complete their adoptions. But you had to complete the adoption alone when it came to court, and your agency rep couldn't be present.

So Oksana -- who we had met before when she filled in to help our agency with some of our visits -- did all the interpreting during the proceedings. We had a quiet little celebration after in the hallway outside the judge's office, because we haven't seen a lot of Russians smile while we've been in this country, so we doubted celebrating was permitted in the courthouse. It was nice that both the senior doctors from the baby homes came over and congratulated us after the hearing. Quietly.

I'm also posting a picture of the exterior of the courthouse. I was afraid to film much of anything on the inside of the Russian courthouse, for fear of being caught and sentenced to Siberia ... wait, we are in Siberia. What you don't see in this courthouse photo is that there wer two Russian soldiers stationed on either side of the steps leaving into court. I made the safe assumption that they -- like the inside of the courthouse -- would not be photogenic.