We left for trip#2 to Russia on October 24th. This was an important trip. It was our court date trip. We had to present ourselves to the judge in hopes that she would grant our petition for adoption but I will tell you all about that in a minute. Right after we arrived in St Pete we went straight to Sortavala to pick up Veronika. She was a little nervous to see us. It had been to long of a wait since the last time she saw us (July). We started playing cards though and she warmed up. After a meeting with her orphanage director we went to Petrozavodsk for the rest of the week. We had two days to go swimming, shopping, play games, read books and just have some fun with her before our Oct 29th court date. Veronika LOVED swimming!! Petro has a nice indoor swimming pool with a big slide. She woudln't go down the slide until the very end. Then she didn't want to leave because she wanted to go down the slide some more. FIGURES!
COURT - OCT 29th
The BIG day! We were to be ready for court at 2pm. We traveled with another family from Iowa who is adopting a little girl from Veronika's orphanage and their court time was 10am on the same day as us. Well we get a phone call at 10am, the judge wants your case FIRST! So we go from sleeping to the court room in 20 minutes. YIKES, talk about frazzled. I had wanted to my hair and Veronika's hair in hot rolls, nice makeup, jewelry, etc but that didn't happen. Anyway, court went well. The judge talked to me the most. The legal interpreter prepped us for court the night before so we were ready for all the questions. It isn't like we can get the questions wrong because it is just stating facts about our life. After 3 hours, the judge granted us our petition for adoption. So we have a daughter, Veronika Alece Johnson. That night, us and the other family went to a nice resturant to celebrate. It feels so good to know that she is ours. The judge's decision was a big deal for Veronika too. As soon as left court she starts bonding with us even more. I think we BOTH had our emotional walls up until we got the offical decision.
Right after court. Notice how red our faces are? It was very warm in there.
The next day Veronika went back to the orphanage and we flew back home to wait out the 10 day waiting period that Russia requires. So we returned home on the 31st. It was so nice to see Ryan. I miss him so much when we are on these long trips.
Now I am back in Russia (Nov 15th) to bring her home. Ben did not come with me on this trip. I do have a travel partner so I am not alone. The mom from the other family is with me. We figured it would be easier on the girls if we came together to get them so they can support each other on the LONG trip to America. I will tell you about this trip later. We just got here so nothing has happened to blog about.
Once again, she refuses to be photos so I don't have very many of her. She took lots of photos of me though.
RANDOM PHOTOS!
Jumping rope in her orphanage
Veronika and Ilona (the other families little girl) lovin on some stray cat they found as we were walking around
The girls flipping through a catalog picking out Veronika's bedroom
Group photo at our celebration supper - Ben immediately changed out of court clothes haha.
Veronika took this photo of us. I think it is cute.
One last fun fact. She lost a tooth while she was with us. It was the first time one of my children have lost a tooth. Of course, I kept the tooth. Ben and Veronika were playin around, she looks up and gives a sigh. As she is running to the bathroom she says "Thank-you, Poppy." She must have been okay with that tooth coming out.
I will be back to post about TRIP #3!
