Trip One News and Where We Are Now

I am so sorry it has taken me so long to update the blog since we received our referral! We left for Russia on the afternoon of Saturday, Sept. 22 and flew to Chicago, then to Frankfurt, Germany, then to Moscow, then finally arrived in Krasnoyarsk on Monday morning, Sept. 24. We had breakfast at the hotel and then changed into our clothes to go to the Ministry of Education (the officials that are in charge of adoptions). We were there about 20 minutes while the official, Galena, asked us questions about our occupations, why we wanted to adopt from Russia, etc. From there, we went back to the hotel to drop off the couple that we traveled with. Then we went to meet the orphanage director, and she asked the same questions and told us all about our daughter's medical history and what they knew of her background (which was not much). After that we drove to the orphanage and met with her doctor, and were able to ask her questions. After about 15 minutes with the doctor, they brought Dasha in to meet us. She is so adorable. We played ball, read books, played with dolls...she is very energetic and lively! She was calling Chris "Papa" on the very first day. We were able to stay with her for about three hours, then we went back to the hotel to sleep. We slept a few hours then got up for dinner at the Cafe at the hotel.
The next day, we went to have some papers notarized at the notary's office, then off to the orphanage for another visit of about three hours. Leaving that afternoon was one of the most difficult things I have ever done. We had dinner that night at a russian restaurant with Yelena (our facilitator) and Serge(our driver).
The next morning we left for the airport around 4:00am, and arrived in Moscow around lunchtime. We toured Red Square and had dinner with our guide, Ana, at TGIFridays. Then back to the hotel to sleep a couple hours before leaving for the airport at 2:00am.
We left Moscow and flew to Munich, Germany, then to Chicago, and then we got home to Richmond at 9:30 Thursday (Sept.27) night.
What a whirlwind of a trip! We're not allowed to share photos of her face until after the adoption is final so here is a picture of her I can share :0)

We are now doing paperwork that is required to get a courtdate (about 20-30 documents), having an evaluation by a psychiatrist, having our medical exams redone again, and having our homestudy updated again. Once that's all completed, we send it in and the judge assigns a courtdate for at least thirty days after receiving all the paperwork. So we're probably at least looking at December, maybe late January if not in December (since Russia shuts down for two weeks for Christmas in early January).

Please pray that we would get all of our documents in very quickly, that they would be completed correctly, and that we would have a court date before Christmas. Please also pray that we would be able to come up with an extra $1000 dollars that they have just added to our fees as an orphanage donation for our 2nd trip that was not previously required. (We took some donations on the first trip, but these do not count towards the $1000 that they are requiring.) We are already way over the amount that we had originally thought we'd need and since it has to be cash, I don't know where this is going to come from. Pray that God would continue to provide as He has been. Thanks!