Court Hearing Went Great

The Court Hearing was at 4:00 on Thursday. Instead of just the Judge, there were two jurors (local upstanding residents who were nominated and approved by the populace), a young female prosecutor, the Regional Inspector for Children's Rights, a Representative for the Orphanage, the Court Reporter who was recording everything on a microphone and typing, and Mari!

We again gave our names, address, we were both asked if we work, we were read our rights for the court hearing, and they got down to business. The Regional Inspector spoke for a while about Mari's time in Colorado during the hosting program. John was asked what his job is and where he works and how much he makes per year. He was also asked to confirm that the children will be each given their own room. John was asked why we selected Ukraine when choosing where to adopt a child from. I was asked if I knew how much extra work this is going to entail ... as I imagined teaching Misha about the entire household rules, and sharing, and being gentle to the pets, and the extra laundry and ironing ... I said yes!

The local Prosecutor had a few questions - we did not expect her and did our best to answer. The Representative from the Orphanage then spoke about how much fun Mari had in Colorado and the photo albums that she shared with her friends upon her return. She said that Mari wanted to be adopted by us and cared for us. She also mentioned how Misha spoke to his caregivers just a few days before we arrived, during one of the visits with the Kreb's Family, and told them that he wanted a Mommy and Daddy like Ruslan was getting. Then we showed up ... Heavenly Father heard one little guy's prayers and answered quite quickly apparently! Mari was then asked by the Judge to approach the bench, stated her name, and that she would like to be adopted.

The Judge then asked us to officially make our request to the court. We asked to have the children's names formally changed, and to have their patronymics removed (their father's first name which is their middle name Mikailovich in Misha's case and Mikailovna in Mari's), to have passports issued, and not to change their birthdates. The Judge then proceeded to read how the children's mother is deceased, and that their father had lost his parental rights, that no relative has had any contact, and that no one in Ukraine wants these children. It was hard for me to hear and I know it must have been really hard for Mari to listen to ... I reached back and held her hand as she sat in the bench behind us with the Attorney for the Orphanage. The Judge then went through every page of our Dossier and the titles of each document ... this part was painfully slow and the Regional Inspector was doing all she could to not drift off (I can imagine how many hearings she has sat through). The Judge and the Jurors then adjourned to discuss the case.

They returned in less than 10 minutes and approved our request ... now the 10 consecutive days of waiting! We took pictures at the end, including one of the jail cell within the courtroom, and of the blonde Regional Inspector and the brunette Atty. for the Orphanage. Our Facilitator said the Judge would not appreciate a photo - but he was blonde, around 40, in blue robes with a beautiful thick blue and yellow gold ribbon (the colors of the Ukrainian flag) with a medallion on it (he reminded me of my little brother Wally). He was serious the entire time and honorable - just what one would want in a judge! The entire hearing took an hour and 10 minutes and we were pretty emotionally exhausted - so we returned Mari and did not visit Misha.

That evening, after our successful court hearing, we decided to celebrate by going out for pizza (we had heard of a restaurant) with the Kreb's Family. They had little Joseph (2) already and were picking up William and Patrick early in the morning and heading out with all 4 boys back to Kyiv to wait for their Tax ID’s and their passports to be processed. At the "Pizza Bistro", we had a hard time explaining that we wanted tomato sauce on all of our pizzas (it was offered only on one or two of the ten types of pizza) and NO mayonnaise. She tried to get us to put just a little bit on. "No, thank you, tomato sauce".
The waitress was dumbfounded that we would want pizza without mayo ... what would it be like? "Good" John muttered under his breath! The guys enjoyed the local beer, the girls Pepsi and Coke, and Peter a Sprite! I had the Hawaiian ... complete with pineapple, just like home! It was a fun, relaxing evening and our last hurrah (for now) with the Krebs' Family! Looking forward to sharing some real NY pizza with them sometime in the future when all the little ones are speaking English!

We hope everyone is fine. We have kept up on the financial news as this is primarily what we get. After I drew a picture for one of the locals at the pizza restaurant, we confirmed Joe and Lisa's careful research that the instrument is a bandura! Thanks for the research - I don't realize how much I rely on the computer until I haven't had it.

Stay tuned ... "Attack of the Lice" tomorrow...