She's ours!
It's official! Elizabeth is ours. The court hearing went very smooth. It took about an hour and a half. There was a judge, prosecutor, a rep from the Child protective services, and the Minister of Education. They had a lot of questions about our parenting style, our finances and guardianship of her in the event of both our deaths. They asked some questions that really surprised us. Like, “if you divorce, who will get custody of her?” We have to admit, that's not a question we had considered. But, we managed to come up with an answer that was satisfactory to them.
So, now we start our 10 day waiting period. We will be allowed to see her once a day everyday, except Sunday during the 10 days. We will take her from the orphanage on December 10. Then we have another 5-7 days in Astrakhan to get her passport and translated adoption papers.
Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers, I think they worked! But, keep it up, because we're not outta here yet!
UPDATE: Recently discovered this map showing the entrance of the orphanage on yandex.ru