Vitamin C anyone?!?!- kinda long

February 3- Tuesday
We woke up early, showered, dressed in our Sunday clothes and tried to get Elijah up. He was really sleepy and we would have let him sleep but court was at 9:00 and we had to be there a little bit early. Keith was up with him a couple times in the night. I woke up very tired and with a full blown sore throat.
We rode a taxi to the courthouse. It stopped at this beautifully painted bright blue building. I thought “wow” nice building- wishing I would have brought my camera. I was going to but forgot, wasn’t thinking very clearly. Anyway, it happened to be the building NEXT to the beautifully painted bright blue building., which was very non-descript. Once you got inside it was very nice—inlaid granite (or some similar stone) on the walls, beautifully carved doors- but the outside didn’t fit my American expectation of a courthouse. We waited in the genkan--- oh what is the English word for that?!?! The place between the two sets of doors and you are inside but not actually in the building yet. Great! I’m becoming tri-illiterate. Anyway, we waited for what seemed like forever there but was probably only 15 or 20 minutes. Then the orphanage director came in and we all went through the metal detector (I didn’t set it off, by the way—I’m always nervous about that, even though I don’t carry anything worth detecting) and upstairs. We waited for a while there while the prosecutor and the social worker came. Then we were ushered into the courtroom. We all rose and in came the judge. She was all business and no smile. Everyone stood up and gave their name and any acronyms after along with credentials. Then she had everyone but Keith and Kostya sit down. She quizzed Keith about why we were adopting when we could still have children. She asked if we had the finances to support them. She asked him how we got a long with the girls; if the girls understood that they were being adopted and taken away forever (I’m not 100% sure they do, so I’m glad I didn’t get asked that). She probably asked more, but I can’t remember more. Then she had me stand up and asked if I had anything to add. I said that we were committed to adopting them and providing for them just like they were born to us, that we had a great support group. She seemed concerned that if we had more children we wouldn’t want the ones that we adopted.
Then the orphanage director stood up and told how the girls came into the orphanage on October 17, 2007. Then on October 23 (I think it was) their grandmother came and wanted to take them home but they wouldn’t let her because the girls needed a safe home and the chance to go to school. Since then no-one has visited them. It was about that time that Elijah started making a big fuss. I took him out. I even promised him candy (something I NEVER do, but I didn’t feel well and was somewhat desperate) if he was good and quiet. But he was tired (and probably a little sick) and wouldn’t cooperate. It turned out to be ok, Keith came out a few minutes later and took Elijah so I could go in and say that “yes, we still wanted to adopt” (in legal-ese, of course) and “could we change the names on the birth certificates?” She then declared that we were the parents of these four children. She then wished us well and hoped we wouldn’t have any regrets. I think she might have even smiled then.
Apparently, I missed the best part. The prosecutor got up and was basically our best advocate. He said that we were approved for 5 children. (Which is funny, when he grilled me in the orphanage I was hesitant about telling him that, but Keith- probably following the spirit- fed that to me when I was answering one of the questions. My wonderful husband!!!) He said that he had no reservations about our ability to parent these children. He checked the log book at the orphanage and no one had visited the children since their grandmother came. I’m impressed, he’s thorough. Wait a minute, log book!?!?!?!? There’s a log book!?!?! Anyway, I was glad I was quizzed by him at the orphanage rather than today. I wouldn’t have been very clear-headed today. He said that he talked to each of the girls and they all said they wanted to be adopted. K even wrote something down saying she wanted to be adopted.
Oh, I forgot. Apparently the orphanage director also said that K, when she was being hosted in America, left the house without permission and they wondered if she was running away. Oh, that would have been nice to know. And what a place to bring that up.
So, they are our children, but wait, not yet. We still have the 10 day-waiting period. That starts tomorrow. Looks like Gotcha day will be Valentines day. But not really, because the 10 days ends on a Friday and the courts are closed on Saturdays. So technically we can’t take them until that Monday, but legally they will be ours on the 14th. But we won’t take them until we get birth certificates and passport paperwork done. I must be tired. It sounds like I’m rambling.
After that was all over our facilitator was talking with the director out in the hall. Then he came to us and said that because of the logistics of taking the girls plus an orphanage worker, plus one of us, plus our facilitator to translate to get passport pictures taken, the director would arrange for all that to happen. So he needed money to give her NOW. Wait a minute, he told us just that morning that we didn’t need to take any money other than cab fare. Luckily, we did have some money stashed away. So we gave her 300 grivna. The next hour was kind of a blur for me. I was VERY tired. We got in a cab and drove to about 3 different places. Luckily, we kept the same cab and I stayed there with a sleeping Elijah and snoozed while Keith went with our facilitator to do busy work. I think it was all about passports and birth certificates. They do the new kind of blue cover passports, here. Without the long explanation, they are the ones with the pictures printed on the page, they cost less, but take about a week to process (as opposed to the red ones that can be done immediately). So we will be here at least a week after the 10 days, plus one or two days in Kyiv for embassy stuff.
Then back to the courthouse to get a draft of the court decree (I think to take to the SDA--- am I following all this?!?!?!). Then to the bus station to see our facilitator off to Kyiv. We are alone again. But not really, it has been a HUGE comfort that the missionaries and Elder and Sister Thatcher are here and have offered to help. Heavenly Father really knows what he is doing, doesn’t he?!?
Back to the apartment- morning visiting hours are mostly over at the orphanage. Dumplings for a quick lunch and then 3.5 hour nap for everyone, even Elijah, his second today. After nap I felt MUCH better!!
We took the computer for the evening visit. And they played ok with it, except somehow they got out of the program and hung the computer. We had better have a system at home for the kids that doesn’t have our stuff on it.
I got some good one on one time with Ryah, I helped her build a tower of blocks and then she sat on my lap and took pictures (of the ceiling, the window, the tops of people’s heads- she can’t quite figure out the close-one-eye-and-use-the-open-eye-to-look-in-the -viewfinder- thing). I still think she doesn’t feel well. It was nice to just cuddle with her.
Near the end, I finally communicated to K that we needed to figure out sizes of clothing. She ran and got our favorite caregiver and through a lot of pantomiming and “da”s we think we got sizes of coats, shoes, pants and shirts. It was kind of funny, most of the clothes the kids were wearing didn’t have tags. A1’s pants and shirts (she had on two) had American sizes on them. So the caregiver had them trying on shirts and pants. There were clothes and worn out kids everywhere when we were done. Whew!!
While we were doing that Tim Cox came in and said that they wanted to take us out to eat to celebrate our court date. Sure, except it is our treat, they treated last time.
So, despite being somewhat sick, it being bitterly cold (topped off with an icy wind) We rode the bus downtown to meet at Naomi bistro. We had a nice evening with them. They have decided just to stay until their 20 days were up (next week sometime) and see if the man who filed the intent to file an appeal actually files the appeal. If he does they will go home and come back after the court stuff is done. If he doesn’t they will be able to take their son home.
Sharon will also give our email to the two ladies who hosted K and A1 so they can communicate with us. Apparently, the one who hosted A1, was trying to pursue adopting the girls. Oops. Didn’t know that. Not that it changes.
We didn’t get home until after 9:00 and Elijah was pretty wired. I was hoping he would fall asleep on the bus, no such luck. It took us until after 10:00 to get him to sleep. Hopefully we can sleep in tomorrow. Vitamin C, anyone?!?!