Thursday, July 8, 2010

Court Approval!!

On our way into the court house.


Our first (and hopefully only) Ukrainian Court session at noon was a success and we were approved to adopt Sergei! Even though most everyone here speaks Russian and we are slowly recognizing and speaking everyday phrases, the court session was in the native Ukrainian language. Sergey our translator repeated the Judge's every word in English.

The court proceedings were quite similar to court in the US. All participants rose upon his entrance and the session was called to order. Present in the small court room were the judge, a court reporter, two jurors, a prosecutor, a representative from the orphanage, a child welfare counselor, Sergey our translator and the three of us. He spent most of the time reading our dossier out loud and asking us to confirm information included in the report. Several times he inquired about Dana's part time job as a librarian which I confirmed was not accurate. The judge commented (jokingly) that someone would be in trouble for the inadequate translation. It wasn't until afterwards that we realized librarian was a literal translation of my part-time job as bookkeeper at Harbor (keeper of the books=librarian).


The judge came across as a compassionate man, especially considering he hears all of the cases for the kids living at the orphanage. Sergei was definitely nervous because he really had no idea of what to expect, nor had he ever been in a court room. After reading the specifics about Sergei's earlier years and the reasons he is now living at the orphanage, the judge asked Sergei a few questions about why he wanted to live in American. Sergei shared that he lived with us in the winter, he loved all four of us, and he wanted to be part of our family. The judge then lightened things up by joking about America being too clean and that the roads being pothole free.


After a brief deliberation with the two jurors, they returned to the courtroom and announced that this adoption was in the best interest of the child and that we were approved to adopt Sergei. What a relief to have that behind us and how happy we were to know we are moving forward.

Afterwards, we learned that the judge was really trying to accommodate our schedule and was pushing through the proceedings because he knew Craig had a two hour drive to the airport and a 3:50 pm international flight. What he didn't know was that Craig and Sergey needed to stop in Sergei's home town to sign a document to retrieve his original birthcertificate. Everything was tight time wise but they were successful. Sergey managed to travel 150 kilometers in 90 minutes. His return trip to the hotel in Sevrodonetsk took 2.5 hours just to give you a sense of their velocity.

All is well. Friday begins day #1 of the mandatory ten day waiting period. Craig is on his way home via Munich to Frankfort to Philadelphia. Dana has downgraded to a single room at the hotel. Sergei is still having fun at Camp Alliance in the country. We are happy and thankful to be moving forward and closer to home.

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