Court is finished!

We had our court hearing this morning and it went very smoothly. It lasted a little under an hour and they didn't ask any difficult questions. Our time in court was much more formal this time and we were asked to stand each time that we had to speak to the judge. We had a female judge and she was very pleasant. She even told Scott that it must be destiny to have this child because he looks so much like Scott. After the court, we got to see Matthew one final time. Scott will return now in 30 days to bring Matthew home. We found out that he'll be staying around 8-10 days when he returns to finish all of the paperwork. He was a bit shocked and will have to become a full time daddy because he'll have Matthew with him in the hotel room.
It has been a wonderful trip and it was such a great experience for Sarah. She will now have these great memories of meeting her brother and getting to see what kind of life he had. We feel blessed and our family is complete.

Freezing and a day at the beach??

It was so cold here today and it actually snowed last night. Such a big change from the warm weather we had in China. Sarah and I had fun walking around the beach and collected some beach glass before our hands were too frozen to hold another piece.
We saw Matthew again today and he was extra shy. He was crowded in a room with 6 adults though and 5 of us are true strangers. That's a lot for one little boy to take in. Once we got to take him outside and play with him, he warmed up and we got to her him speak an entire sentence! He's been so quiet, we didn't know if he could really talk as much as they were saying. I put a few photos of him without showing his face. I'll have lots of photos after we bring him home in May.

Made it to Vlad

We are finally settled down at the Vlad Motor Inn and our jet lag is wearing off. It's amazing to think that we are now 15 hours ahead of our time in DC. We all woke up the first few nights at 3am and had a big "can't sleep" party. It's really nice getting a chance to spend time with Sarah and we have LOTS of time in the hotel.
We also got to see Matthew yesterday and it was nice to see that he is still so happy and growing. His face is thinning out and his laugh is still cute as ever. Sarah got to experience the small room or I like to call it a closet that we get to play with him in. It is so tiny and adding one more body doesn't help. We're headed out to see him again in 30 minutes. We have to wait for him to have his breakfast of rice and milk. They told us yesterday that he also loves to drink hot tea. Sounds just like Luke!
I'll post more later on our doctor visits. There were interesting...

Easter dinner??

We arrived in Beijing and had a great time visiting some of the sites. It doesn't quite feel like Easter without a beautiful church service, Easter eggs, hunting for baskets, or cute kids in their Easter outfits. We are so blessed though because we are safe and spending family time with Sarah.
China is pretty amazing. It's one of the cleanest cities I've been in and I've been in quite a few. The parking garage at the airport had painted floors and workers were buffing them! Never seen that before! We had a 14 hour direct flight here that went very quickly. We slept through half of it and that makes it a short flight.
Today we got to see the OlympicVillage. I loved it! The Bird's Nest was incredible!! We also drove by Tian An Men Square and saw some cool night markets. Tomorrow is going to be a little easier with a short flight to Vladivostok.
Good night from Beijing!

On our way!!

We're headed to the airport with our important documents!

Paperwork complete and 3 days 'til Departure

I'm so thankful that I've had this week off of school. It's our spring break and it's been anything but a break for me. My break begins after we take off on Saturday and head for China! Until then, I'm taking it one day at a time and checking off the packing list. Today, I finally went over the entire documents list and made sure that everything was in place. I only needed to print our home study and add it to the growing pile. What a relief to be at this point.
Tomorrow, Luke and I will head to SC to pick Sarah up. We're staying at a hotel with a pool so we can have a little fun! I am feeling a little guilty about leaving Luke behind for the next 7 days. He'll have a great time though and I know that he's in great hands.
Here's a photo of our paperwork ready to be packed up! Yes, we have to carry large x-rays for this trip! Bet you haven't packed that before when you've traveled! We have medical appointments in Russia this time around and we want to carry all of our own documents. That way, we won't have to have this done while we are there. I can't imagine how much that would cost.
The countdown is on and we are getting super excited!