MOSCOW — After weeks of anxiety, plodding in the opaque Russian legal system and spending thousands, two US women have custody of their adopted Russian children and are preparing to take them home to start a new life together.

Jeana Bonner of South Jordan, Utah, and Rebecca Preece from Nampa, Idaho, spoke Saturday of the confusion and emotional swings they have gone through since arriving in Moscow in mid-January, expecting to quickly leave with their children, both of whom have Down syndrome; the Bonners and Preeces each have another child with Down syndrome.