Twelve hours from now

We will leave this apt. and set out to meet with the Orphanage Director on our way to the Irkutsk Courthouse, for our hearing before Judge Stepanova.

I am very nervous! I fear this Judge will evaluate ALL American families based on our testimony, and THAT terrifies me.

We've spent the last few days preparing for the hearing. I dream about court, and now without thought, recite my opening speech, over and over again quietly to myself. I know it well. I hope I remember it tomorrow!

I have had so much support from family and friends, and from the extended family comprised of other adoptive, and pre-adoptive families. For that I am thankful. When we received news of our court date 3 weeks or so ago, it was all about OUR adoption. As time has gone on, I have come to realize that it is not our family that will stand before the judge, just a representation of ALL US famillies. This is big stuff. Really big. I pray, daily, that I will not disappoint! Since we are the first Americans to receive a court date since she took off in the fall of 2005, SO MUCH rests on the outcome.

I hope and pray that we will represent all United States families well, and that our testimony will somehow ease theJudge's concerns, and knock down the barriers that stand between the children and the families who wait for them. I pray that our testimony will pave the way for the rest of the families who, like us, have waited far too long. I can only promise that we will give 1000%. Please pray for Mike & I, that we will do US families justice, and that all these families will soon be reunited with their children.