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According to the courts of Aqtobe, Nurlan’s name will be legally changed to Gabriel Joel Nurlan Feliciano. We received a favorable judgment for Gabriel’s adoption today. The hearing lasted about 20 minutes. Joel delivered his speech and I followed. They asked a few questions about our heritage and confirmed that we understood our responsibilities as parents. The hearing was held in a small room, not at all what we expected. The judge was very pleasant and even made some jokes that weren’t translated. The prosecutor was a young man in his twenties and only asked one question. The baby house director and a representative from the Ministry of Education were also present. After our speech, the judge, director, prosecutor and representative from MOE went through their motions. Our translator could not translate everything but she motioned to us when were addressed. We were then asked to wait outside for their decision. The wait lasted about 5 minutes before we were called back in. They congratulated us and we were quickly escorted out. The hearing was over. Our 15 day appeal period starts tomorrow. This is mandated by law for anyone related to Gabriel that might want to appeal his adoption.
We couldn’t wait to share the great news with Gabriel during our afternoon visit. As usual, he greeted us with his heart melting smile when his nanny brought him into the playroom. Someone might have leaked the good news in his baby room because he was more excited than norm. He even mustered up enough strength to go on all fours. Our boy is making so much progress, he’s getting ready to crawl. He ate all his porridge today without any complaints and he was rewarded with a visit from his favorite translator, Bayanna. Bayanna has not been able to visit and Gabe initially was reserved when she first said hi to him. Bayanna gave him a kiss and it was all over. He smiled from ear to ear and showed off his dimples. He definitely has a major crush on her.
We celebrated our successful court hearing with all our good friends in Aqtobe. Great friends, great food and vodka. This might explain why Joel was not able to write today’s blog.
Thank you all for keeping us in your prayers and thoughts. We are almost home and could not have done this without all your love and support.
Spasiba!!
Joel, Gen & Gabriel
P.S.
Joel here, I’m editing this entry…I sobered up a bit 
