He's grown a foot or two

We spent the morning walking around town and visiting the open market waiting for Natasha to acompany us to the school. We arrived at the school about 4:00pm. Natasha lead us to the Director's office where we met the wonderful woman that runs the boarding school. She called on the phone to someone and told them to bring Ruslan to the office. Our hearts were pounding as we waited for what seemed like an eternity. Footsteps in the hall got louder until a woman appeared and told the director they had sent Ruslan outside. After what seemed like another eternity, our phone rang (our kids) just as Ruslan appeared at the door. I told Cort, call back...call back... and Ann and I ran to Ruslan. Ann got there first and gave Ruslan a big hug, with me in close pursuit. The best thing about it was how he hugged us back. It was a long hard embrace. He was sweating, we think from running in from outside once he was told we were in the office. He was definitely taller and looked more like a teenager than last year when he was with us. Let's just say he is one handsome young man. One of the things we missed most in the last year is Ruslan's smile, it was back today. Even with the language barrier his eyes seemed to be saying he had placed his trust in us to care for him. We can't even describe the emotion we feel today. (Thanks to Louise for capturing pictures of the moment)

Natasha quickly took the three of us to a notary in town to sign some documents petitioning the court for adoption. We later took Ruslan to dinner with the Evensons and their two daughters. It was a nice ending to a perfect day.