Relief and Joy

As you already know our court appointment went well. If you are interested in the details, please read on.

Yesterday Olga came back to Sevastopol and stayed at the apartment for the night. She wanted to prepare Ed and I for our court appearance. It seems that the judge we were to have was brand new and we were to be the 3rd adoption case of her career. The family Olga served before us were her first case so Olga had an idea about the different questions she might ask. Some were very personal and really rather hard to answer. But we were certainly willing to answer any question in order to bring about the adoption of little "K".

We rounded up our tutorial at 1 AM. That is why there was no blog last night! The kids were up until 11:30. They were going to have to sit nicely in the court room with us. On little sleep and over the lunch hour, you could say I was a bit worried about their behavior.

We got to the courthouse at 11:45am for our 12:30pm appointment. Our judge told Olga that we were already delayed. Olga decided to take us somewhere to wait until our appointed time. More on that at the end of the post!

We entered the courtroom and all stood as the judge entered. There was a prosecutor, our government official who gave us good favor in our meeting with "K" and 2 jurors. I have to say that both Ed and I were quite nervous. We each had our notebooks with all of the things Olga went over with us. The very first thing the judge asked of us was not to use our notes. Oh boy! Good thing 1 am was not that long ago and our memory was somewhat fresh.

The judge was particularly interested in Ed and his answers. Ed confidently stood for approximately 50 minutes and answered question after question. Not once did the judge let him sit down. I was praying for him every second that he stood there. Olga explained later that this judge's opinion was that the idea of adoption usually originated from the wife and she wants to make sure that the husband has the appropriate interest in the adoption to really make it work. Sounds reasonable. Still I felt bad that he was being grilled while I sat.

It was soon enough my turn. Would I be able to love another child as I do my biological children? How was I going to find time in my schedule to care for a 3rd child? Was I ready for this challenge? All of my questions seemed to be emotional in nature. That was fine, I could handle that. We never did get those difficult questions that we prepared for, specifically regarding death and divorce. The Judge told Olga after court that she had intended to ask us those questions but seeing Lydia in the room and knowing that she was old enough to know what questions were being asked of her parents, the judge did not want to worry or disturb Lydia's emotions. We thought that was very kind of her.

After our questioning there was some discussion among the people of the court and then the judge and jurors left the room. After about 10 minutes, they returned and we were granted custody of "K"! Two hours and we have another child. Amazing.

And - by the way - the kids did a wonderful job sitting quietly in the back of the court room entertaining themselves and listening to the proceedings. Very proud of their behavior!

Now we enter our 10 day waiting period. During this time, an appeal could be made to the court and our adoption could be stalled. So we are not officially parents yet. Consequently, Olga has asked that we continue to keep "K's" name and picture unavailable to others until the 10 days are over. So on Monday August 13th we will have a special post to introduce you to our newest family member!

Now to our hour that we had to "kill" before our court appearance.

Olga thought it would be good to leave the court building. It was family court day and the hallways were filled with feuding family members - very animated, loud and honestly some a bit scary.

We got back into our car and made a crazy dash to a "park". There was a quiet, shaded and well manicured park not far from the courthouse. Seemed like a pleasant place to pass some time. No, not where we were headed.

After a bumpy, horn honking, gas pedal/brake race, we made it to the park. It was some sort of psychedelic children's amusement park complete with mud, free roaming hogs and donkeys and bizarre decorations. We had enough time for the kids to run through a maze and then back in the car and break neck speed driving to make it back to the courthouse on time. I could not help but wonder what purpose this little venture served. But a part of our day it was and quite memorable at that.

Thank you to everyone who lifted us up in prayer today. Our path was made smooth and straight. God's mercy and grace were with us. For that and for the decision of the court we are truly grateful.






















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