On our way home

We had court this morning and are now the proud parents (and big sister) of Nathaniel Arman Bookman! The attorney we had was the same attorney who represented us for Irina’s adoption. We had to give speeches to the judge, who spent most of the time flipping through our paperwork. It was wonderful to see our paperwork finally in court during our adoption proceeding after all the headaches we went through doing and redoing our paperwork. (Thanks to all of you who suffered through the stories and our paperwork frustrations throughout this LONG process!) After court we went back to the apartment to change and finish our last minute packing. Our facilitator came by with some rolls that had different fillings. They were quite delicious!!!! The x-ray lady got a kick out of our carry-on being filled with CHOCOLATE!!!!! Our facilitator has been so kind to us while we’ve been here. Our friend who we’ve known for the last 4 years, she was our translator for our trip with Irina, came by to say goodbye. She brought Irina two little dogs that are connected. It was a teary goodbye (again) with her; she feels like family to us. We are so very excited because she is saving up for a trip to the States so it was more of a “see you later” rather than goodbye.

It was wonderful for us that she brought the stuffed animals for Irina because Irina talked to them for most of the 2 ½ hour drive from Karaganda to Astana. We are currently sitting in the airport waiting to board our plane to Almaty before continuing on to Frankfurt and Brussels. There is a baby laughing who sounds just like Nate. It is very hard to be sitting in this airport without our baby but at least we know his paperwork is being processed so that he can finally come home. Now the countdown is on to come back to pick him up. We don’t have any idea when we’ll find out when we can return for him but hope it won’t be too long. We can’t wait to introduce him to all of our friends and family-we know you’ll fall in love with him quickly, just as we did!