One Year Ago Today

Another year has gone by and it is hard to believe we are still waiting. One year ago today we sat before Judge Kokino in Irkutsk for our pre-adoption meeting with prayers in our heart that the murder of Nina Hilt would not affect our completing our adoption and we could have our court date on July 28. I sure some of you wonder why we were having a pre-adoption meeting--when you adopt independently (meaning we did not use an agency) then you have to meet with the judge 10 days before court date to present you dossier - all the documents you collect to help the judge make a decision.
We were the first Americans to meet with her after Nina Hilt was killed. She looked at our papers, asking several questions -which of course we did not understand. Several times Sergie looked at us and nodded his head, but near the end she found something she was not happy about, and he shook his head no. We were told that the papers were not acceptable and she did not let us speak at all, heartbreaking since we had spent most of the previous day preparing a speech for her.
After we left we met with our facilitator and Sergie who explained to us that she said that if we came to court she would deny the adoption. So we had two choices either withdraw our papers or take a chance and if denied go before the Supreme Court. In hindsight I wish we had gone
ahead, been denied and taken our case to the Supreme Court. But who would have believed that we would still be waiting a year later. We came home and rushed through a psych eval and parenting classes and waited for her return from her august vacation. Then she retired in September. A lesson in being careful for what you pray for?
1 year ago this Thursday was the last time we saw the girls. SIGH...