Day 27--Court Date #2 and #3--January 15, 2009

Day 27-- January 15, 2009

And the verdict is…………………………………….court was delayed until 1:00. Agh!

(11:40 a.m.) We didn’t have enough time to visit Aidar, so we changed clothes and went out to walk off some of this nervous energy and practice for the 700th time what we will say in court if given the opportunity. Our 1st court day the judge asked us very little about Aidar himself, and Olga suggested we talk about the emotional side of the adoption—how much we love him and he loves us.

We were at the court at 12:00. Our translator did not want to get held up by traffic, so we were early. We waited in our translator’s car and chatted. We saw the judge arrive, and the prosecutor leave. Then we saw what we thought was the judge leaving. OK, John didn’t think it was the judge in the first place, but Azziz and I were convinced.

1:00 p.m. Still waiting…….

1:30 p.m. The judge leaves the courtroom and passes through some doors to the world of the unknown. Uh-oh. Are we going to be delayed again?

1:32 p.m. Everyone starts speaking in Russian and stands up. Is this good or bad? They said it was time. But where was the judge?

1:33 p.m. They ushered us through the doors to the world of the unknown, and up some stairs. My knee is still blown out from falling the other day….ouch…ouch…ouch…with each step. They take us to an office. And then an office off of the office.

1:36 p.m. The judge arrives, sits down with two huge sets of documents and begins looking through one as our translator begins speaking to us while the judge speaks. John has rehearsed in his head a thousand times what he is going to say about the love we have for Aidar and how it is reciprocated, but the judge doesn’t ask us if we have anything to say. The judge apologized for the delay, that he was running behind because of criminal cases, he thanked us for waiting, etc. etc. etc. Finally……

1:42 We are approved!!!! John was grinning from ear to ear (or as he says “Like a mule eating briars”). Hooray!!!! I was listening to our translator continue on—did I really hear what I thought I heard? The judge asked us to not let Airdar forget his homeland, to bring him back to visit. Yes, it must be true! The judge said that maybe he would come to visit the U.S., smiled, said congratulations, and then we were whisked out of his office as quickly as we had come into it. We all signed our names on a couple of sheets of paper, and that was it. Can you believe it? If anyone wants to hear John’s speech, I’m sure it will be in his head for the next couple of years.

We then went to lunch with Olga to celebrate, and learned that when Olga spoke with the judge on Tuesday evening that he had asked her to again contact the birth parents and have them come to court on Friday. Olga was able to convince him that with the two documents she had from them relinquishing their rights to Aidar, that they are certain that they will allow this adoption. As such, the judge agreed to approve us today without pursuing any further action with his birth parents.

It is mind blowing to me how we can go through so much, and it can all disappear with a phone call. Or two.

I later thought that this was a lot like having a baby in that you forget all of the pain once you actually have the child. But, unlike having a second child, I don’t think I could go through the anxiety that goes with an adoption again. Thank God for Aidar and Karis. They are all we could ever want in children.

We saw Aidar this afternoon and decided that we must usurp his energy in the morning sessions because he was full of energy this afternoon. John bought him two more cars, and we played with them for a while. We brought him some apple juice again (shhhhhh—don’t tell anyone), and he loved it. He was so affectionate this afternoon. We’d like to think that he knew something was up. We were told that they’ve explained to him that he will be coming to live with us. We hope that he is excited about that and that he won’t miss his friends too terribly when he leaves. We know that he will be happy that he will only have to wear one layer of clothing.

John is already planning Aidar’s hunting license. Can he become a redneck that quickly?

We meet with the baby house in the a.m. to get Aidar’s passport photos, and then we meet with Olga at 1:00 to go over the embassy documents. Aidar will become our’s officially on January 30, 2009. Olga had requested on Monday that the judge waive the 15-day appeal period, to no avail. We wish we could bring him home today, but we know that we will have government documents to be finished.

We leave at 4:30 a.m. on Saturday to return home via Istanbul…and Munich…and Philadelphia. If we don’t get a chance to blog tomorrow night, we’ll fill you in on the much-anticipated details when we see you.

Thank you, everyone for following along with our blog, and thank you for your comments. We don’t feel half a world away when we know our family and friends are so close to our hearts.