Court-
Vanya came back Friday morning on the train, we went to have a paper notarized for the boys’ passports on our way to court. Getting something notarized at home is so easy, I print out the paper and take it to Kim who works with Jeff. (The poor woman should have carpal tunnel from all the notarizing she has done for us in the last 4 years, Thanks Kim!) We sign the paper; she signs it, dates it and puts a pretty seal thing on it. That’s it, done.
Not so in Ukraine, First you have to find a notary who is willing to notarize something for you, then you wait while she talks on the phone, files her nails, talks some more on the phone, then asks to see our passports. If you are lucky she will then have her secretary type something up for your facilitator to proofread, after which she will make you wait some more. She will then have her secretary print the document out on fancy paper, and have you wait some more, all the while the secretary is telling your facilitator to tell us to make Matthew sit down, be quiet and not touch ANYTHING in the office. Then you will be required to sign your name: last name first, then first name, then middle initial, then last name followed by you first and middle initials. Then you will be required to sign, initial, sign small and bigger underneath in a fancy journal type book stating that you signed these documents. She will then scrutinize your signatures, study your passports, talk on the phone and then slip the document into a clear plastic thing. Then you will be required to pay this woman (who by the way is usually dressed like she is heading to the nightclub at any minute) anywhere from 100 to 350 grivna.
After we left the notary we walked to the court house through Gorky park-not the real Gorky park that is in Russia, but this is little Gorky park. It has a permanent carnival going on inside all the time. We arrive at the court house at 12:10 or so, court is at 12:30, but no one else is there yet. Remember this is supposed to be a landmark trial- one that will set precedence for all others involving the SDA and lawsuits against them for not approving the other family. So we wait for an hour and a half for everyone to show up. We go into the judges room, he has a very long table with lots of chairs-they were all full and Matthew didn’t get a chair so he had to sit on my lap. OH I missed a very important thing. The boys arriving, Vasya came first with his director, then the prosecutor, social workers from both orphanages and then came Sasha and his director. He ran up the stairs and grabbed Matthew and hugged both Vasya and Matthew at the same time, I didn’t have time to get a picture of it. But this was the first time that all three boys have been together and the older two hadn’t seen each other for many months. OK back to the judge’s chambers…. I am not really sure about all that was said, Jeff sat next to Vanya who translated to him and I couldn’t really hear much, plus Matthew wasn’t feeling well and wouldn’t be quiet. The judges apparently stated the problem, said that he had heard that the other family decided to drop the suit (which we had heard the day before) but it didn’t matter since the judge said last week that they had no legal grounds and it was ridiculous that they were trying to do this. Then he had Jeff stand and answer a couple of questions, do you want to adopt these boys, have you communicated with them? Then I had to stand, do I still want to adopt the boys, am I ready to be a mother to two more boys? Sasha had to stand up and answer two questions, he replied Da (yes) to both. He was shaking and smiling; the judge was kind and kept smiling at the boys to calm them. Vasya had to answer one question, another Da. Then the children’s representative stood answered a couple questions, then both directors had to stand and give their opinions. The social worker from Sasha’s orphanage stood next, I heard this part. She said that she favored the adoption, had seen us spend quality time playing and talking with Sasha. She also said that she received a call from Olga (remember Matthew’s director that we visited). Olga told her that she wanted it known in court that we had brought Matthew to visit her. She said that Matthew left her orphanage almost three years ago, barely walking, not talking, and developmentally delayed. She wanted it known that Matthew has blossomed in our care, is above average in intelligence, extremely bonded to us and that we were fantastic parents who would be able to take on anything that parenting these two older boys would require. She is a wonderful woman. Ok here’s the funny part: the social worker for no.4 stood up and started talking about how the other family would make much better parents etc etc etc.. Until the judge told her to shut up and sit down, that nothing she said made any sense and had no legal basis. He proclaimed the adoption legal, said that he prayed no one would contest during the ten day wait and he wished us well. We hugged the boys and took a picture and they were whisked away to their orphanages. That was it, ten minutes! Seven weeks and it only took ten minutes.
We visited both boys later on Friday and told them we were going home but that I would be back next week to take them home. Vasya was fine with it, Sasha cried when we left. We took the overnight train on Saturday to Kiev, Matthew absolutely loves this. He sat in the dark looking out the window until we made him go to bed. We always get a private compartment, it costs about $200. It has to benches that you sleep on and we use the extra blankets to make a bed for Matthew on the floor. It is relatively quiet, nice but a bit hard to sleep because the train stops every so often to pick up more people. When we get the boys we will get a compartment with four beds.
The train arrived in Kiev at 7:45 a.m. where a driver was waiting to take us to the airport. He was very nice but drove 180 kmph to the airport which is outside of Kiev about 35 miles. He dropped us off and we had to wait until 9:30 to start boarding the plane which left at 11:45. We waited in the cafeteria, while I was looking at custom sheets to fill out Matthew and Jeff watched a stray dog wander around in the airport cafeteria and then pee on the floor. Matthew thought it was great. Jeff and I spent some time reminiscing about leaving Ukraine with Matthew the first time, He screamed, ran around and we had problems with his ticket. We almost missed the flight.
Matthew was great this time, except his compulsive need to climb every check in counter to see what is going on. We traveled from Kiev to Amsterdam, then to Minneapolis for a 5 hour layover and then on to Omaha. I can not sleep on airplanes, any suggestions?
So we are home, I am sick and Matthew is getting sick. We like being home-even though our furnace was broken for the first couple of days, but I need to get better so I can start packing for Tuesday and work on getting things ready for Matthew’s birthday.