Mama and Papa

Well, after 2 hours of grilling by the judge, she declared that the girls are our daughters. For the first time publicly, let me introduce to you, Alexandria Faith Falstad, and Darya Caroline Falstad. Pictures will come later. Alexandria (Sasha) has kept her name for the most part, and is named after MaryEllen's grandmother. Darya (Dasha) has kept her name and is named Caroline after MaryEllen's mother. We are proud to be able to pass on our family names to our daughters. That is a tradition in my family.

We were exhausted last night after a very difficult court hearing. Our judge was very difficult, and in our opinion, not very nice. I think she need Jesus. Without going into too much detail, she grilled me very hard on our taxes, and then attacked MaryEllen about her ability to care for Dasha. She was not supportive of us using child care during the day and going off to work. In Russia recently, more emphasis has been placed on mothers staying home for the first 3 years of the child's life. In the end, she ruled in our favor though, and we are now parents. We have to wait for the manditory 10 days until we go get our daughters, but in the mean time we will have the chance to visit them 2 - 3 times starting tomorrow.

We have met some wonderful Americans, and today we went up to the ski slopes and took the chair lift up the mountain. From there we hiked along a trail for about an hour, and then went in the lodge for a beverage. It was a wonderful morning of fresh air and great views. I was not crazy about the chair lift, but it was all worth it. We didn't know you have to put the rail down across your lap on the chair lift, and the guy was yelling at us in Russian to put it down. We figured it out in short time, and no one fell out of the lift. They don't have chair lifts in the flat lands of central IL.

We are looking forward to going to the zoo, the flea market, and the perhaps the opera while we are here. We have some time to burn. Krasnoyarsk is an interesting city, and we hope to learn more about the birth place of our daughters.

Next up is our visit tomorrow to the girls, our first as their Mama and Papa.