Court Day

Sasha came in last night after 11:00. I hadn’t really fallen asleep yet. I think the extra chocolate may be helping with the accidents, but eating too much too late in the day is definitely not improving the sleep.

I was up at 7:30, John up at 8:00, Sasha around 8:30. John went out on a successful pastry hunt, buying them just out of the oven. Sasha accompanied us to the orphanage. The woman who answered the door at Dennis’ room didn’t recognize us, but one of the regular caretakers was coming up the stairs and explained. She accepted my passport and Dennis came out shortly (after all, no one is all that tall at 18 months, right?) – we needed to wait another moment for his hat. Then it was off to Nick’s room. We could hear the music upstairs, so when the door to his room was locked we went outside. We spread the blanket out under the shade of a tree not far from a bench that has no play equipment, but is frequently used. Sure enough, Dennis’ group came out and settled there. It turns out there is another Dennis in the group, one who was curious and unafraid: quite willing to hang out with us and play with our toys. Our Dennis was quite willing to go to his group and caretaker, accept one of the toys from their bag and hang out at the bench. When I went to him with arms extended and funny voice he was happy to return. But for the rest of our time there, our Dennis felt compelled to obey every time the other Dennis was called back to the group, and the other Dennis kept responding when we called ours back.

When Nick joined us he was quite unthreatened by this younger group of children and showed none of jealous behavior that was apparent when his own group was nearby the other day. John got the bubbles out at one point. It was a big hit – with another group of slightly older toddlers from the play area across the small field of grass. It was like the Pied Piper – they came en masse, delighted and enthralled by the bubbles. After John put them away, two stayed to see what was going on at our blanket. They complied when their own caretakers called them.

We relocated before bringing out the juice – didn’t want to upset the other children further. We found out today that when Nick sounds like he is saying “bug”, pointing out ants or whatever, he is actually saying the Russian word for ‘spider’, something like “bah-uug”. Oh, another correction, the cucumber soup may be more correctly translated as “Okroshka” rather than “Akroshka”. Sure would like to get it right one of these times.

When it was time to leave we were able to communicate to each caretaker that we had court today, and probably wouldn’t be back until tomorrow.

Andre had taken Sasha to start the paperwork to request the passports for the boys. When he picked us up at noon we went to the Notary’s office. The documents weren’t complete yet, but we didn’t have to wait as long. They needed our passports, Sasha had to proofread the document before it was printed on official paper, and then we all signed in four places.

For lunch we asked Andre to take us to a new place. He took us to an Armenian restaurant that specializes in shish kebobs. We all ordered the very thin, flat bread ‘lavash’ and Andre ordered a bunch of things to wrap inside: cilantro, dill, cheese, green onion tops, cucumbers, tomato, a spicy red sauce. We also had bread with cheese melted inside served pizza style – then we had our entrées! John had the chicken kebob, I had beef kebob, Sasha had a pork fillet, Andre said he was already full.

Back to the apartment with an hour before scheduled departure for court. I laid down for a little while, drank coffee I had put in the refrigerator yesterday afternoon and had chocolate (of course). The landlady stopped by to pick up the rent. We paid for 10 more days. We were both just waiting for the time to get dressed – and at 2:45 we did – both in our suits, me in heels, John with a tie. But we still had time to wait! At last (3:10) we headed out. Andre was waiting for us. We picked up the inspector at her office, then the orphanage official from work. We arrived at court right at 4:00. Other cases were running later, no surprise, and it was HOT! After standing in a very small hallway for a little while we were invited to sit down in a larger hallway where large windows were wide open. While we were waiting Sasha indicated that a man passing through in a polo shirt and khakis was our judge. I thought he was joking. I’m not sure exactly when we went into the courtroom, but it was after 4:35. It really was our judge, and he was still dressed in the polo and khakis. The court room was also quite warm. the orphanage official was there as representative of the children. The inspector was also present, along with the three of us, the judge and the assistant/secretary. The prosecutor had already reviewed the case, made a recommendation and was present “virtually”.

The process and the rights of all present were briefly read, then translated by Sasha. We had to indicate if we wished to change the scheme of the process (no) and if we trusted the court (yes). They verified Sasha’s identity and credentials (seemed rather protracted) and then our identities: full names, birth dates, place of birth, current address. We each had to explain our occupations, the judge asking whether I worked in a private or public clinic, if enough public clinics were available to care for people, etc. He commented on the fact that John is younger than me (fortunately we already knew this), and asked John about the difference in income and whether he had built a home yet (supposed to plant a tree, build a home, raise a son and write a book before you die). He asked about any biological children, why adoption (did I not like babies and just wanted to skip changing diapers?), why Ukraine, and our plans for child care. After we told him we had come on mission trips he wanted to know what specific denomination we came from. We explained that the mission trips are non-denominational, but when pressed that we are Lutherans. He asked if there are many Lutherans in Ukraine. We had to admit “not many”, and he indicated that we are not very successful in evangelism. He asked about the size of the home, how many rooms, why two people needed four bathrooms. He asked if I, as a doctor, was aware of the children’s medical conditions. I said yes, and started recounting them. He wanted it in “human” language. The inspector began to fill in details and the judge whispered behind his hand that he didn’t understand any of it.

He asked if we still wanted to proceed with our petition (to adopt, to be named as their parents, to change their names): yes. Were we firm in this wish: definitely! At last he said the recommendation of the court was to grant the petition, and that it would go into effect in 10 days (after the appeal period). He also said John needed to build a home of stone and/or brink (something substantial, not with aluminum siding to save costs), that we needed to continue to try to have biological children (specifically two girls), to hang a Ukrainian flag on the other side of the house (the photo we showed him had an American flag flying) and provide the children with love – he would be checking on that himself. And so we became parents at 5:20 PM Ukraine time.


We were then invited into his air-conditioned office while they negotiated the date we could actually have the petition, Sasha persuaded them to let us pick it up late on Friday the 8th, rather than waiting until the following Monday. That will possibly allow us to go to the children’s home town to get the documents needed there on Saturday, giving us more time to complete the necessary paperwork in Kharkov on Monday and hopefully go to Kyiv that evening.

We asked for a photograph. He laughed and indicated his casual clothing – commenting that of course we understand it is very hot in the court room – then opened a wardrobe and donned a black robe and his medallion: very officious-looking.

Then we went outside where Andre waited with the other two women. The inspector also told us that we must continue to try to have other children. She specified another son and two daughters. We told her as God wills, we will accept this directive. We asked for a photograph, but the inspector wasn’t happy with her appearance today, so we will try to do this before we leave. The woman from the orphanage we see frequently, so we will do it at one of our visits. After dropping off the two women Andre took us to the Stargorod, a microbrewery and restaurant for a celebratory meal. He didn’t join us, assuring us he was still full from lunch, but also telling Sasha, we learned later, he wanted to pick his wife up from work and had other plans. We thanked him and paid him, and will see him next week.

The meal was quite good. Menus in the restaurants here are frequently more suggestions as to what might be available, or was at some undefined time in the past, not what is really being served. Three steak options were listed in the English menu, four in the Russian version – but only one, the “Lumberman” was actually available. We all had it and were very satisfied. The dessert menu included hot raspberries with ice cream, and ice cream with nuts and ground chocolate. I asked for ice cream with both raspberries and chocolate. Our young waitress assured us they were two separate choices. Sasha was able to persuade her that I wanted those three items together, and to ask the chef. When it came it was so good, John decided to order one, too. That didn’t make her too comfortable, since she had had to persuade the chef, and it hadn’t been easy. Sasha encouraged her to ask again. It did eventually arrive as ordered. Getting the check took a long, long time (with apologies) – the register was down and they were forbidden to add up the items by hand, and they were having difficulty getting the computer to do the job.

Out of the restaurant we oriented ourselves, found the Metro stop on Pushkinskaya Street we used last week, and located a store still open where we could purchase more Internet minutes (hence the lack of a post yesterday). John and I headed for home, Sasha went on farther to the train station to purchase a ticket for tomorrow. Enjoying our ability to function independently here, we will have no further work for him to do on our behalf until next week Friday. He will go to Dnipropetrovs’k to continue working on an adoption there.

It’s nearly 11:00 PM now and I’m tired. Time to get this sent by e-mail and posted. Back to the boys tomorrow!