Brian left this morning to start the journey home. Please be praying that he can get home through all the snow and that he is not stranded at an airport somewhere. I anticipate the next two weeks will feel even longer than the previous ones now that I’m here alone, but we’ll see.
Monday was a pretty typical weekday- slept in a little late, played some cribbage, and ate sandwiches. C and I went down to sit with Aleksey when he ate lunch and Brian started work. Then, we headed over to the orphanage for our visit. We were in the playroom again today. We brought the computer and showed V*ktor the pictures and videos of the Valentine program. He played some Angry Birds. I got Sa and J2 to come in and watch the video, too. Sa had lots of smiles getting to watch it, and J2 played with C while they were in there. S popped in for a few minutes to watch the video, but she didn‘t stay long. When it was time to go, we headed outside to the cold! Aleksey keeps telling us it’s spring. Somehow I don’t quite believe him. Brian got to work. Aleksey, C, and I went to B*lini. It was really good - again. I had spaghetti - yum yum! C was not on her best behavior - lots of screeching and squirming. Yes, I had a Mommy fail moment - She wanted to eat and I had a bowl full of ketchup with a tiny spoon. So, I fed her ketchup to keep her quiet until the food came. It worked for a little while anyways.
Yesterday was our court date!!!! Aleksey spent the morning going to Uz to get the documents for court. I was a little nervous most of the morning. We wanted to send back all souvenirs and chocolate with Brian. I have seen tons of “the” chocolate in stores for the last 2 weeks. Yesterday, I found 2 whole pieces. Really? Ugh! Good thing I had stockpiled some, but it wasn’t as much as I wanted. Oh well, guess it will be going in my suitcase. It felt like such a waste to pack a 35 lb suitcase when you can have 50! Brian showed me the tiny auto parts store in case I need to get another cotter pin, we got a scarf for V*ktor, and then we headed to the room for PBJ and cribbage. C stayed awake through lunch, so I was hoping she would sleep through court. I bundled her up and got her to sleep in the stroller just before we left. She slept the whole walk across the street and up the 3 flights of stairs. Then, she woke up just as we started signing in.
We were in a hallway with a table (and bailiff I assume). They needed our passports to check us in. After a few minutes, V*ktor got there accompanied by the school psychologist. V sat with me on the bench, and I could tell he was a little nervous, too. As I sat there, knowing the approximate width of the building, I just couldn’t picture how they had room for a typical “courtroom” in this place. They didn’t. When they called us in, it was basically the judge’s office. The setup was like a conference room. The judge and his secretary sat at the head of the table, Aleksey and we sat on one side, the prosecutor (a very serious looking woman) and social worker sat on the other side, and V*ktor sat at the end with his school psychologist. Two men, who were the jury members, sat behind V. The judge read a lot of documents, which Aleksey translated as he went along. Most all of it was just information about us, our house, salary, kids, family, etc. At one point, he asked if we knew the adoption laws of Ukraine. He was holding a booklet of adoption laws and appeared that he would read the whole thing if not. So, we said yes. We have learned a lot about how it all works, so weren’t sure we would learn that much more - haha! The judge was very serious and no big smiles, but he wasn’t unfriendly. I was more worried about the “prosecutor.” The proceeding continued with the judge asking questions, verifying information, etc. and Aleksey translating. At one point, we weren’t quite understanding the question, so the judge decided at that moment to let us in on a little surprise. He speaks pretty fluent English, so he just asked us the question directly - lol! The prosecutor only asked one question about our plans for school when we return, and the social worker asked how far to the school from our house. The jury-members didn’t ask anything. The judge asked V*ktor some questions about whether he wanted to live with us. He asked if I would make Ukrainian food sometimes, and I told him I already had a good borscht recipe and have made pelmeni. C, who wanted out of the stroller the second we all were seated in the room, did pretty good. She sat in my lap observing for awhile. Then, when she got restless, we started popping Cheerios in her mouth. I was sooooo thankful that her time to fall apart was Monday at dinner and not Tuesday in court! After awhile, they sent us all into the hallway so they could make their decision. I felt like it had all gone fine, but it still has to be officially approved by the judge and jury. So, everything wouldn’t be “good to go” until we got the okay. It was pretty quick and they called us back in. We walked in and I was holding C. I hadn’t noticed that nobody was sitting yet, so I took the seat again. Aleksey said we stand for the “verdict,” so I started to jump back up. The judge, who was also standing, insisted I sit, though. They approved us! The judge said he thought we were a good family and that it was in V*ktor’s best interest to be adopted. Yaaaaaaaa!!!! Big smiles from all of us! I really wanted a picture with the judge, but I was pretty sure it wasn’t okay for me to ask. So, we headed out into the hallway to decide what to do the rest of the day. The director couldn’t be reached, so V needed to return to school. We said we would see him at 3 as usual, then.
Aleksey called a taxi and we headed to the notary. By the time we finished the documents it was after 2:30. So, Brian, C, and I walked across the street to the orphanage, and Aleksey headed to put documents on the train in U. When we came in, the little kids (around 9-10 year olds) were all out in the front hallway with us. They played with C, jumped on Brian, asked for hugs, and tried out a few English words. V*ktor was trying to speak to the director about whether we could go to the restaurant. He came back and said we had to wait until 3. That was fine - we were having fun with all the kids around. We walked down to see the gym which V*ktor had been trying to show us. All the kids followed us down pushing C’s stroller and chattering to us. When it was a little after 3, V*ktor said we could go. Three adorable little boys were playing a clapping game with me and each kept wanting “one more” turn. Sooo sweet. I gave them all hugs, and we left.
At the restaurant, we didn’t have the computer or tablet with us since we hadn’t been to the room since before court. So, we couldn’t skype. We ordered food, talked, looked at pictures on the camera, etc. About 15 minutes before we needed to leave, we saw a familiar face. The judge was there at the restaurant! He came over to talk to us. He said he was really happy for us and that he knew V*ktor would not have the same opportunities here that he would by coming to America with us. He told us that he thinks we are good parents and he is very thankful that we were willing to come here and adopt since it’s such a long process. When I said Brian was leaving and it would just be me here for the 2 week wait, he told me to come see him if I need anything. He said just come up to his office! Wow! How awesome J
Because this conversation had gone so well, I decided it wouldn’t hurt to ask about a picture. He gladly agreed and I got a picture of V with him. I also got a picture of Brian, C, and V with him. He gave me his email address and asked that I send it to him. What a neat experience! It was definitely different than some of the other stories I’ve heard. We walked V back to the orphanage and met Aleksey. On the walk back, we told him about seeing the judge. He was VERY surprised at the picture and everything. Kind of cool!
Back in the room, we packed up Brian’s 2 suitcases and C took a much needed nap. Then, we went down to dinner in the hotel restaurant with Aleksey. After figuring out the train schedule for the morning, we ordered food. The only other restaurant patrons were a big table of about 10 men and a woman. All of a sudden, they stood and started singing (above the quiet roar of techno music playing in the background). It wasn’t a drunken sing-along-with-the-jukebox kind of thing. It was really pretty melody and harmony though I didn’t understand the words. Aleksey said it was some kind of hymn or prayer or something. At the end they all took a shot of something. Alllllright! So random! Oh the experiences that continue to make me laugh around here!
After supper, Brian gave C a bath and I ran over to the grocery store for some yogurt, juice, and ice cream. Brian definitely needed some ice cream for his last dinner here. We played a few last rounds of cribbage and finished packing.
This morning, Brian and Aleksey left at 4AM. If you haven’t been to Ukraine, there are a few things to understand. These people do NOT use lights unless it’s pitch black outside. Hallways are dark, stairwells are dark, and you are constantly wishing somebody would turn on the lights in a dim room so you can really see what you‘re doing. Also, they don’t really have fire-safety around here. Doors may or may not be unlocked. They may or may not open to the outside (you may have to pull them). Stairwells may look like an excavation of Mt. Everest. It’s just different. At 4AM when Brian and Aleksey started to walk downstairs, I remembered something I hadn‘t thought of. Once they know everyone is in the hotel for the night, they lock the giant solid-wood doors. So, you’re locked in. Also, the stairwells are pitch black. C was fast asleep, so I went after them. They were attempting to navigate down a death-trap of a stairwell carrying 2 large suitcases using A’s flashlight from his cell-phone. The light was burnt out on that stairway, but I knew of a nearby light and turned it on. When they got to the bottom of the stairs, it was confirmed that we were, in fact, locked in. Just as I started to call the owner’s son on my cell phone (I had his number for such a time as this), the housekeeper appeared and started talking to Aleksey about how to get out. I figured they had it covered, so I went back to the room. I just had a video call with Brian and he made it safely to his hostel!
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