It happenend! We are now proud parents of Andrey Chase Dini! We just returned from spending 1.5 hours in court telling a judge and "prosecutor" about everything from our financial situation to why we want to adopt... and... They said we are a great match with Andrey, yes we can tell you his name now :) The man, me, is the one who stands for a majority of the time in court and answers the bulk of the questioning. I think i was "on the stand" for a little over an hour. The translator stood beside me and we made it through. the court room looks similiar to one in America, but is a little simpler and the prisoners sit behind a big white cage. They use this room for both criminal and adoption cases. And we apparently got lucky, because the "stern" judge went on vacation, and we got the judge who smiled a little more. She kept asking why we would want to adopt even though we can have kids. it is something they have trouble understanding. Russians don't want to adopt their own. Anyways... it was good. I think the real plus was having Thomas with us on the first trip. The Ministry of Education (MOE) loved the way Thomas interacted with Andrey, and thought they would be wonderful brothers! so... take a look at some photos, since we can now post them :)
The next step is we visit Andrey now for the next few days until we finally take custody of him, probably on 3/14. They have a mandatory 10 day waiting period. So we just sit back and enjoy sunny and 40 degrees in Siberia! Not bad :)
and just to back track really quick, we did visit Andrey yesterday, and it was great.. we bonded and really made progress getting to know him. (bringing goldfish to eat never hurts the cause) he hugged us, laughed, it was wonderful. Thomas almost went into full blown depression when Andrey had to go. "Daddy, where's Andrey going? When do we get to bring him home?" it was really something to see..
see the attached photos from today and yesterday:) PS, the scar between Andrey's eyes is due to a gang fight in the group of 17 kids his age he lives with. You sholuld've seen the other kid! That's my boy!!
Greg, Jeanette and Thomas.
Monday, March 3, 2008
I now pronounce you, mother and father... and big brother to Andrey Chase Dini!
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4 comments:
:) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :)
Not many words to express how cool this is. Glad you convinced the judge that the Dini's are perfect for Andrey. ;) and Andrey perfect for the Dini's.
-Lori
So wonderful and what a handsome little guy!!!
Oh, Wow! It get goose bumps every time I see you've updated the blog. But, I never expected the tears to flow as they are... seeing Andrey's smile in those pictures is precious. Thank you guys for trusting God, for letting Him lead you to this little man who desperately needs you!
Congratulations, Mommy, Daddy and big brother Thomas! We can't wait to meet you, Andrey.
Congratulations! He is beautiful! I am crying tears of joy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Wonder if my little guy was involved in the gang fight?!?!
-Lyn Franks
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