Court

Today was the big day in Jonquoy—court. Our court time was 1pm and Andrew and I seem to be the only ones worried that we might be late. Ukrainians tend to take things at their own pace. I’m guessing that 1pm was more of a suggestion than a command—with 15 minutes to go and we were still walking around the orphanage waiting on our social worker who appears to be a bundle of nerves. Even Oksana was a bit frustrated at our departure —this is a shocker as she walks at a glacial pace on a daily basis.
For the past week or so since we’ve been in the Ukraine we have been staying in Simferopal and traveling by bus to Jonquoy to see Yuri on a daily basis. Yuri can’t stay with us until after the court date and that is only if the orphanage directors will allow it. In case you missed the part about how much we love Jonquoy…we are not fans.
We made it to court 2 minutes before our scheduled appearance and not to anyone but Andrew and my own surprise—they are still on lunch break…oh well, at least we aren’t late. The director has already given us permission to take Yuri with us to Simferopal after court during the 10 day waiting period. Yuri was elated and we realized something good had happened after we signed a paper and he gave a punch in the air and took off running like crazy to get what little he had. He and Andrew and I lugged 2 backpacks half full and the bike we’d just bought him from the orphanage to the courthouse. Not counting the stuff we had given him everything he owned was on his body or filled a small backpack halfway full. Most of the things he had were from us and the others worn and old. I must add we bought him a kickin back pack—he looks so cute—people stop to smile at him, seriously they do—I know they are saying how cute he looks. We dress him like a little American and he loves it.
Back to court….. The walls inside the court are Ukrainian Blue—big surprise, trimmed with white. There are no lights on. The Ukraians are not big on wasting electricity---everyone works in the dark, its enough to drive an American insane. Still, it is strange to be in a court room with the only lighting streaming in from the windows.
The court room is small, about 10 benches, a podium in the center and a long table in front with a chair on either side of the judge a cage, yes a metal cage to the right. I kept waiting for barney fife to stroll in. The process as best as we could understand seemed much like an American court hearing. Even as the judge proceeded into the court room we all stood until we were asked to sit by his assistant. Aside from the lighting and lack of up keep…except for the cage to our right it felt pretty normal.
Court lasted about 15 minutes, maybe 2o. We got a good judge. I would love to give you a minute by minute rundown but unfortunately Oksana is better at being a facilitator than a translator. For most of the time we sat there smiling like fools hoping we looked like good trusting parents. We didn’t have a clue what was going on. We’d ask Oksana but in typical Oksana style she’d fade away mid translation… so we gave up. Basically they asked about us, our names, ages…blah.. the biggest question from the judge was as to why we didn’t have our own biological children or babies as he said—we are at a ripe age. I told him my Mother wonders the same thing, until she learned of us planning to adopt Yuri. There’s nothing like adoption to silence the grievances of a grandchild hungary parent. We politely explained that we plan on having children, but once we met Yuri we fell in love and wanted to wait until we had him. He seemed baffled but accepted this answer.
They also asked Yuri a couple questions, he seemed nervous. He said he did want to go to America and talked about meeting us and also added something about Babushka (which is Grandmother in Russian). We later found out he told the judge about meeting Babushka (My Mom) and having his photo with her. He told the judge “Babushka is good, I love her.” It was really cute. Finally he smiled and seemed satisfied and said “Take this citizen of the Ukraine to far America” (Oksana translated that part  not sure if she could sense our anxiety or just remembered we couldn’t understand a word!!) The translation was no sooner off of her lips when Yuri ran to Andrew and hugged him. I’ll never forget it. Andrew had tears streaming from his face and it looked as if 100 pounds had floated off his shoulders. We stood with Yuri in our arms, smiling, relieved and hugged. “We made it, we finally made it.”
Now we just wait and pray we slip through the 10 day appeals period with no complaints from family. So far so good.