Court Day

Our First Photo as Parents!

Well, we did get the nice Judge. It took about 30 minutes in total to answer all the questions and state our desire to adopt these boys. The decision of the court was given and we are now the legal parents of two twin boys!!! There seemed to be no problems and everything went smoothly. Greg did most of the talking as customary and in his case normal. Our ride started out normal, our regular driver Victor picked us up at 9:15am and took us to the orphanage. The orphanage director came out and we put her in the front seat with Victor. We left the baby house and then headed in a direction that we didn't expect. Victor weaved around a few streets amongst big block apartment complexes like the one we stay in and asked several people how to get to somewhere. At this point I thought we must be picking up someone else, but who? Then we found a building and Victor got out to ask her a question then she got into the car with us and we drove away. She was definitely upset or frustrated and I understood "Taxi" and "city center" in Russian, and all the body language. She continued to tell me the whole story all the way to the court house. I said nothing but nodded in understanding, and didn't let on that I did not speak Russian. She seemed like a nice lady and I thought she must be part of the medical staff or somehow related to the baby house or Director. Later we found out that she was the Juror for our case and had some difficulty with transportation this morning.

As we filed into a door we expected a courtroom but it was just his office. We took the only open seats and took our coats off. Olga did move her chair to be close to us. Our Judge was smooth headed and large stature. He seemed to be all business as I feel he had a long day of sessions in front of him. We introduced ourselves and stated our name, DOB, residence, occupation and education. There were questions about accepting the court staff and accepting the application in full and we just had to answer, Yes! Then the Judge had some questions like why did you choose Ukraine and why not the US? How well off are you financially and who will care for the children? Things like that which Greg answered and I just put in my 2 cents from the side. I got to say how much we love the children, and how excited we are to adopt them. The Orphanage Director and the social worker from the Local Board of Custody stated the history of the children. Then with no questions the Prosecutor declared that she approved the application for adoption and then the Judge gave the decision and we were done. Olga did her paperwork stuff with the Judge and we went our of the office as the next group of people filed into the room.

Victor took us to the best Pizza place in town to celebrate with Olga. On our way home we stopped to see the bridge lifting to let a tanker boat through. Much of the city stopped because there was traffic backed up and everyone got out of the cars to watch the boat go by.

Tomorrow we will see the boys for the first time as their parents.