Court Date

Here they call the court date our"appointment." This is much more appropriate as it really is just an appointment at the Adoption Center.
I don't know what I thought it would be but it was pretty simple. I think I expected "court" you know like Judge Judy screeming at us... just kidding.

This morning Gayla called us at 800 to let us know she would arrive at 815. Luckily we had prepared for this the night before since we did not know what would happen. I'm not sure if Marina, our temporary "translator" who can not in fact translate English, forgot to tell us or if we missed Gayla's call the night before while napping or venturing out to McDonald's without permission. hehe
It wasn't scary if that is what you are thinking. It is seriously across the street, well parking lot really. What was scary was ordering alone and not having enough money with us (we'd left the majority at the flat as we were told to do). We were told that eating at McDonald's is a luxury for most people--I'm not sure who these people are as everytime we pass a McDonald's it is packed full. Last night as we entered we realized that it was the happening place to be :) there were no tables so Andrew waited in line while I went in search for a free table, all the while trying not to stick out like a clueless American traveling alone in the suburbs of Ukraine... It wasn't too hard really, getting a table that is, not sticking out like a neon US flag was a bit more challenging. For one thing North Face jackets aren't really in here--although they really should be as I've found it very useful, packs up small and keeps me warm but not hot and dry when it rains-thank you to my Mother-in-law for buying it and North Face for being so very smart. Anyway back to my story...
So I am settled in at our table waiting for our oh so Ukrainian meal of a cheeseburger and fry :)
They have a few TVs up and they are playing their equivalent of MTV. Let me just tell you how entertaining that is. Most of the songs are in Russian but a few were in English. The winner of the evening for the most popular (and the one still ringing in my ears) was about a girl who thought she was a cat. A grown woman, not so much a girl. She was singing about being a red cat, then a black cat, then a white cat... very catchy. I think I'm going to try to find her CD when I get back home. Other than that our cheeseburgers were the same as in good ol US of A.

Back to court..er, uh, "appointment."
So unlike in America when you have an appointment time of 940 you are actually seen at 940. It is just dandy. We walked right in past what in my ever imaginative mind were other adoption applicants hoping that "Judge Judy" would approve them. I'm not sure how we breezed past the short line but we did. We went up 2 flights of stairs to the office on the right and walked right past Marina (our English translator that spoke no English) and pretended not to know her. It was kind of exciting... Well we did smile at her but we did not speak--"she should not know us" were her exact words and then she'd put her hands over her mouth like a child when they do something wrong. We really like Marina.

We were in the adoption room with Gayla our translator (who actually does speak English :) ) and a young woman who's name I don't know. They pulled out Yuri's file and it had a picture of him from when he was 7 years old... such a cute little kiddo. They spoke about his file and we sat there not understanding for a minute. Then Gayla said to tell her how we met him...etc. I know you all think I did all the talking right? Well no, I just sat there and made Andrew do it--don't ask me why. I apparently "choose" to play submissive and quiet when I feel like it. Haha.
The only part I added was that when we met him we fell in love with him. They seemed to like that.

Yuri is apparently about to be 10--we are still confused on this topic as it either hasn't set in or didn't translate well. I think that he is 9 1/2 but I'm not sure because I think we have his birthdate right on all the paperwork. So... we don't really know on that one.
They did ask us if we realized he was 10, or about to be 10 to which of course we said yes. They said that he has 3 sibblings (which we did not know) a 16 year old sister, 18 year old brother and a 22 year old brother. His 16 year old sister is now in school and is no longer at the orphanage. However, I think that is why awhile back he was moved to a different orphanage--to be with her. They are not close though from what I understand. His two older brothers are adults and I don't know if they were ever in the orphanage or not. He obviously hasn't been visited so he may not really know them. We found out that he is in good health and has actually only been in the "system" since 2005. This is good for him. His Mother lost her rights in 2005 and that is about all we know.
Once they filled us in and called the orphanage to make sure he was there and all was set she smiled and said he was at camp and would be back on Thursday. I know that he went to camp last year too. I was happy to know he is there--because I'm sure it is fun. And that was it... we left the building and took a picture at the door. Gayla said that it went very well--she said as we left " that was easy."

So all in all everything seems good and ready to go. We leave for Simferopal tomorrow by train. Once we are there Oxana will be our translator and take care of us. I think we will be able to go with the orphanage director to pick Yuri up from camp--but I'm not sure. Either way seems like we will be seeing him on Thursday!!!

This all feels a bit like a dream. We are very very very excited. So excited that the minute we left the adoption center we came straight to the internet cafe to tell all of you.
Thank you for being so interested in this exciting part of our lives. We can't even tell you how much it means to us. Please keep us in your prayers. Pray for Yuri too. Although this will be good for him I'm sure it is a bit scary as well.

I guess I better wrap up. Sorry if I babbled and I hope that all made sense :) Again, we are still tired a lot although we can't figure out why. We seem to have plenty of time to sleep... Oh well :)

Please email us if you can. Although we may or not be able to respond we love to have your messages. If you have any questions or things you'd like to read on the blog let us know and we'll do our best.

We miss everyone.
Love,
Kristen & Andrew