More about court ...

Court is held in a tiny room of a random building, although that doesn't say much coming from me because pretty much every building here is random to me since I can't read the sign when we go in! The people present in the courtroom were the judge, the prosecutor, the secretary, the doctor and social worker from the baby home, our translator and us. Our agency did an awesome job preparing us for court, so we pretty much knew what to expect. The judge asked us to confirm our identities, to include our birth dates and places of birth. She wanted to hear from me first. She asked me if we had been given Addison's medical record ... and I said yes. Then she asked if I still wanted to adopt the child, after having seen her medical record ... I said yes. She asked me why I would want to adopt such a child, a child that has "syndrome of Down". I explained to her that we have a biological child that has Down syndrome, making us very familiar with what Down syndrome entails. I went on to say that we are very familiar with the therapies that Addison will need and that we just want to give her a chance at life. She then asked me what my country has to offer people with Down syndrome when they get older. So I explained all of that to her, and I'm so mad that I totally forgot to add that there are people with Down syndrome that live independently! How could I forget that? Oh well. LOL.

Moving on to Kyle ... pretty much all she wanted to know from him was about our finances. And that was that. Kyle gave our "closing arguments", during which he basically said that our first wish was for our adoption petition to be granted. He then said that our second wish was that our 10-day waiting period be waived. I would like to take a second here to explain that Russia has basically stopped waiving the 10-day waiting period due to the death of a little boy {with Down syndrome, actually} that was killed by his adoptive family in Utah. The Russians were obviously disheartened to hear of the boy's death and they began refusing to waive the 10 days. I believe our adoption {and one other today that involved the adoption of a little boy with a major heart defect} was the first to have the 10 days waived in a long time through our agency.

Both the doctor and the social worker from the baby home spoke. They both nearly brought Kyle and I to tears ... they were SO sweet and they were very complimentary of us. The doctor mostly spoke about how good it will be for Addison to have a family ... especially a family in which she has a sister that is just like her. The social worker mostly spoke about her interpretations of our visits with Addison ... she said the initial visit was heartwarming and emotional as she watched Addison laugh, smile, giggle as she interacted with us. Both the doctor and the social worker asked the court to waive the 10-day waiting period, as Addison's entire extended biological family has "released" her and it would obviously be in her best interest to get home. We brought pictures of Kyle and I each with Addison from our first trip, and I think those pictures did a good job in showing the court the bond we have formed.

The prosecutor had no questions for us and he recommended that our adoption be approved. I don't believe he made any recommendation about the 10-day waiting period ... at least if he did, it was not translated back to us.

The judge left the room for about 10 minutes to deliberate. During that time, our translator turns to Kyle and says, "Nice hairdo." ROFL. It was totally random and after we had been sitting there with her for about 20 minutes. She laughed and said she was so busy translating, that she hadn't even gotten a chance to look at his hair. So funny.

When the judge returned, she announced her decision and told us that she hopes that Addison will get the same opportunities that we give to our biological children. {Of course she will!} She also said that she is happy that the girls will have each other and that Mason will be there to be the head of the family. LOL. Good big brother!

After court, we had to rush around to do paperwork. First we went to Office of Deeds to get Addison's birth certificate and an adoption certificate {both bearing our names}. When we got there, we found out the office was closed for a birthday party {go figure}, plus Wednesdays in Russia are non-public days and everything is closed {except court, apparently} ... even though we had an appointment. Our coordinator got them to make a special arrangement to get us our documents and we were in and out in 15 minutes. Apparently it normally takes about an hour and a half, so we were off to a good start!

Next we had to go to the police station, but we found out the woman who had to help us was out sick. Strike two! However, our super awesome coordinator arranged for the woman to meet us there {even though she was sick} and we got what we needed. Whew!

Tomorrow we have to get Addison's passport and then we will be off to Moscow tomorrow night on a train. Fun times! In Moscow, we have to get a medical exam/clearance for Addison and we have to clear her through the U.S. and Russian Embassies.

So yeah, I think that pretty much sums it up! LOL.

Decision Day

On November 12, 2008, at 12:00 p.m. Russian time, we appeared before a Court of Law in St. Petersburg, Russia. The reason for our appearance was to discuss our petition to adopt a little girl named Veronika. The judge asked us some questions, most of which had to do with the reason we wanted to adopt a child with Down syndrome.

After a brief recess, the judge entered the room to announce her decision. Congratulations, your adoption is approved, effective immediately. Translation: our 10-day waiting period was waived and we leave for Moscow tomorrow!

Our first day back ...

We didn't really start the day off on a good foot ... we woke up at 9:40 a.m. and our ride was picking us up at 10 a.m. I guess in my tiredness last night I set my alarm wrong ... now I know I set it to wake me up at 8:30 a.m. EST instead of 8:30 a.m. Russian time. Nice work, eh? Apparently I had no problems sleeping my first night here like I did on our first trip, even though the time difference is eight hours.

Anyway, we made it to the baby home around 10:30 a.m. When we got there, we were told that Addison was having testing done. We later found out the people from PITT that are involved in the research study of Baby Home 13 are in town and they are doing their testing on the kids. I believe they come every three months and the purpose of the testing is to see if the changes that they have implemented (i.e. making the environment similar to that of a home) have made a difference in the development of the children. This has been going on for a few years now and I know they have seem improvement in the kids, which is why Addison's Baby Home is such a great place.

After about 10 minutes or so, they brought Addison to us. She was a little hesitant at first and was sort of shy all day ... we broke her out of her shell a few times, but pretty much she just wanted to cuddle and suck on her two fingers. She is taking a little longer to warm up to Kyle this time, which sort of leaves me wondering if she has had any encounters with men since we were here last. The kids in the baby home are not used to being around men since most of the staff are women, so I was anxious to see how she would respond to Kyle back on our first trip. Clearly, she had no problems that time and she warmed up to him as the day went on today.

She is progressing with her standing unassisted and her walking. She took about 10 independent steps to me today ... I don't think it will take her long once we get her home. The woman in the baby home who does massages said she was giving Addison extra massages trying to get her walking by the time we came back for her ... we thought that was so sweet. Her caregivers love her so much and I think some of them got emotional today when they were asking when we would be leaving with her. I anticipate that the day we take her from the baby home will be a very emotional day for all of us.

Luggage update ... our luggage is here in St. Pete ... it came in on the flight at 5:10 p.m. (Russian time) this evening. It is going to be delivered to some hotel at like midnight and then our translator will pick it up for us tomorrow morning before she picks us up.

So tomorrow at noon (4 a.m. EST) we have court. We have a good feeling about the whole thing, but please keep praying that our 10 day waiting period is waived! I'll update when I can ... I think we have some running around to do tomorrow after court ... until then ...