Well, it has been a crazy day, and for a country where time doesn't seem to matter to anyone, court started early. :) 45 minutes early! And while there were tough times, and tough questions about how young we are and how old dennis is, the judge recommended the adoption. :) YAY! We had wonderful people fighting for us -- especially an amazing woman - Tamara from Child Protection - who spoke on our behalf. Denis's official new name will be Dennis Merryman. Cool, huh? He gets to add an "n" to Dennis so people don't call him Denise. :) We tried to make Morozov his middle name - but the judge says that is silly - he can't have two last names. So for now, just 2 names for Dennis - Dennis Merryman. :) We told him he could add "chuck" as his middle name, but he didn't think that sounded good... :) maybe bob... we'll see...
We went to the french coffee shop to celebrate and ran into a friend from Nashville - Bekah Beasley! Just one table over! Then we went to a nice restaurant - Pani Pit - and waiting for 2 hours for all of the parties to show up. We had a wonderful celebration with the adoption folks, Ms. Galnia - the director of Internat #2, and the other American family who were approved for the adoption of their 14-month-old boy Marin. It has been a long, exhausting day but all is well and we are finishing up last minute details and making sure Dennis is set for the time being - we'll be back in Moldova mid-February it looks like to pick him up and bring him home.
So even with all the stress, the uncertainty, and the crazy drivers who made us fear for our lives -- we are a family. The situation is definitely unique -- as the judge told us -- but we know that it's okay to have 2 moms. It's okay to have lost your dad and to have a new dad. Family doesn't have to fit into some kind of mold that we create. And after 4 years of writing, loving, supporting, and praying for this amazing young man, he is our son.
God is amazing and if I would have tried to map out his plan for our family 4 years ago or even 2 and a half years ago when we got married, there is no way we could have guessed that God would bring us together. But as we look back, every word of this story has been written by God since the beginning of time.
I have to go shove tons of dirty clothes into a suitcase now -- so thank you for praying... We can't wait for you to meet Dennis soon.
Noapte Buna. :) (good night)
jon, emily, and dennis merryman
2 comments:
Congratulations, Jon and Emily! I'm so excited for you and your family!! :) ~Kristal
About the name thing - can you change it on his SS here after he arrives? We have the 2 last name thing in our family. Actually, in Brazil, I have 5 :O), my husband has a middle name that is one of his last names, and Hava's is: Hava Caldwell Leite. We haven't naturalized her Brazilian yet, but it will be the same.
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