WOW!

Wow.

WOW!!!

We hoped to find out our court date today, hoping for sometime before next Wednesday (it's Thursday, I think.)  Instead, we got the call from our team this morning-COURT THIS AFTERNOON!!

Go time!

All the things I had planned on doing before court went out the window-hair and nails done, writing out what we would say to the judge, putting together a thank you gift for Director Tatiana, umm...giving the girls a much needed shower!  Instead it was crazy town.  We still wanted to go for our morning visit and would then go straight to lunch and then court.  Which meant we had to bring our court clothes with us so we could change, extra snacks and extra activities for the girls, our court clothes were still packed because I had thought we would be back in the second apartment before we would need them.

Now where is the iron??!!

We rushed around, pulled ourselves together, had a latte at my new little fave-La Boulange-and piled into Vitaly's car. It was a quick, slightly crazy visit and then we were off.  Vitaly found the nicest restaurant ever in the middle of nowhere.  I mean the bathroom in this place was the best smelling room I've been in throughout the last three weeks.  Remember that when I get to the next part of this story.

HURRY HURRY WAIT WAIT! 

The nicest restaurant in wherever I was.

So we enjoyed a nice leisurely meal with napkins folded completely over the girls because obviously the judge would never grant our petition if my children had pizza sauce on their dresses.  Vitaly joked that I dressed them in adorable matching dresses to melt the judge's heart.

Silly Vitaly, of course, I picked out those dresses a month ago :)

Then we were almost late!  We had to pick up someone, I don't know who, and we went to the regional court building-a bright pink building in some random neighborhood.  Now.  A little side note.  I've been a bit worried about Cici the past few days because she had a small heat rash, seemed a bit clammy, and wasn't going to the bathroom that much. I was sure she was a little dehydrated/sun sick-even though we've been pumping liquids down her like a reverse fire hydrant.  So, at the restaurant they had cold water and I was able to get her to drink a ton.  I mean it. A ton.  I said to Bard, this might back fire on us....

So we walk into court at exactly 2:30-our scheduled appointment.  But even though Cici went to the bathroom twice at the restaurant as soon as we arrived at court she said she had to go to the bathroom.  Let me tell you, after having spent so much time in Russia and expecting the bathroom situation here to be the same, I have been absolutely amazed that all the public buildings, stores, and restaurants have pretty decent restrooms. 

That luck stopped here.  First I asked the lady we had picked up, she said, "Niet twoilet, problem."  Remember this is a regional court building for the capital state. 

Nope.

We asked inside and it was confirmed, there were no bathrooms.  Cici is clutching herself and dancing.  It's 2:31.  Director Tatiana to the rescue  She runs up, has us follow her, and we go running outside, our facilitator is not happy and as soon as we go outside, neither I am I-I know what is coming.  I start prepping the girls as we are race walking, in our court clothes through an abandoned side yard-"Remember what I said, we never comment on things we don't like, we are grateful, we say thank you." They know what's coming too because we've warned them, so to be helpful, they start panicking, "Am I going to have to pee standing up in a hole? I can't do it!"  Too bad.  So we go into an outhouse that has holes and little grates on either side to stand on.  These were pretty common in Russia.  I strip off Cici's bloomers and underwear, hold up her flouncy Easter dress and bark, "PEE!"  You don't really want to know the rest, you probably didn't want to know that much, but afterwards Evelyn said, "I guess I can go to foreign countries because I can pee standing up!"

Okey doke.

Run back in-they're still waiting for the judge, whew!  It's hot, the girls are cranky, I'm anxious.  After about ten minutes, Cecilia Lynn had to go to the bathroom again.

Son of a Putin!

I tried to get her to wait, I mean seriously.  Nope, she whined for 5 minutes, so I gave Bard rushed directions for him to carry her and run, she's crying because she wants me to take her, I'm thinking about asking the judge for a swap, they leave, the judge's door opens and they say, "Sledyshay." Next.

I imagined going into court to adopt our son for the last two years.  I pictured it in my head many different ways, day dreaming, wishing.  Not ONCE did  I envision my three year old being carried off crying to pee all over herself while I went in and met the judge.  Not once.  Fortunately (?) there was a concern with the paper work-a glitch with his name and it needed to match exactly.  This was good because it allowed Bard time to come back and Cici to calm down-she LITERALLY came in the room crying and the judge asked her what was wrong.

Something I will remind her of when she asks me to pay her college tuition.

She calmed down, the judge talked with the representatives about the paperwork, she had us go out, then come back in-she was going to take care of it-we could present our case!  Not more than 20 minutes went by, we gave our names, why we wanted to adopt, why from Ukraine, our jobs and health insurance, did we know about his medical issues, I cried some and cried some more, the girls colored, she granted our petition.

WOW!!!!!

Just like that, two years of anguish floated away.  We were a family of five.

Now, you are probably wondering, who the heck is this 5th person!  Out of respect for him and the laws of Ukraine, and a few other wacky reasons, I have been deliberately vague.  Trust me it's hard.  Three times now I've written his name in the blog and only just caught it before publishing.  We have a ten day waiting period and go back to pick up the court decree on the 19th.  (Yes, I realize very much that makes it 12 days, they count differently here!)  Then, the adoption is final-we pick up his new birth certificate and then pick him up too!  Once he is legally ours and in our custody, I will drown you with information :)  Trust me!

After we pick him up, we'll all be here for about a week-we need his passport, visa, embassy Dr's appointment and a few other paperwork details.  So, looks like we'll be home the end of August, exactly what we planned for-it has not happened yet-but if it does, I'm chalking it up as an honest to goodness miracle brought about by countless people standing in the gap for our family.

Type A people should not adopt.  You can plan and plan and plan and it won't work out and will drive you crazy and make you start to think you should become Type B.  And then. . .ONE THING WORKS OUT WHEN YOU REALLY NEED IT TO!!! 

Type A people of the world unite-adopt away!!!  I know you can do it.

Cause I just did.