Court Day

Here in Sevastopol, they handle all of the adoption cases once a month. The morning of court it was cold and rainy. We all took a taxi to the court house which was across town near the orphanage. Our cab was a few minutes late so we were the last family to arrive. There were 4 other Ukrainian families there adopting. Most we recognized from our visits with Emory. One family was adopting a little 2 year old they named Roma. Another adopting two 3 year old sisters (not twins) named Angelica and Anna Stacia. Another adopting a four month old baby boy. Very exciting!

We all waited in the hallway while they called each family in one by one. I was sure we'd be first. We were last. :) Each family hoping to adopt would walk in and out in about 10 minutes with a smile on their face. I was so happy for them! Emerald was pretty content walking around with me and nursing once (oh the places I have nursed!). When it was finally our turn they decided we needed to move into a larger room, instead of just the judge's office. So we moved to one room and then another. A real court room with a caged area with a bench for criminals. It was Matthias, Emerald, and I, our facilitator Vanya, the lady from social services, the prosecuting attorney, the secretary, one or two jury and the judge. The judge was an attractive lady in her early thirties I'd guess. She was very relaxed and friendly and told us we could let Emerald run around the court room. LOL. Her and Emerald played peek-a-boo with the judge in her seat and Emerald hiding behind the podium. The judge let us sit for the rest of the hearing after we stated our names, address, and professions. It went really well!

They asked us a few questions. Were we able to support Emory? (Yes, Matthias has a great job with a growing company.) Do we plan to have more children? (Yes, "some day"...lol.) Will I be able to handle two children? (Yes, you should see my childcare resume!) Will they (Emerald and Emory) be the same to us? (Yes.) I remember sharing how I have always wanted to adopt, even specifically a child with Down syndrome and that Matthias and I discussed this even before we were married. She looked very surprised. Then the social services lady read up a summary of us since we had spent some time in her office being interviewed by her and her people a couple of times. She read that we did not know that Emory's anal atresia had corrected and were planning on adopting him anyway. She looked surprised again at that.

She asked if anyone had any objections to us adopting and there were none...so she wished us well and off we went!

In the taxi with my Amish husband on the way to the court house. It was pouring! No seat belts or car seats here as you can see.

Walking around to the back of the building...just following Vanya.

 

Mommy breaking the news to Emory. ;) LOL

After court...we were so happy. Emerald was ready to get out of there.

Daddy and Emmy jammin'.

Course we had to go see Bubba and tell him the good news!

He was happy!

Plop!