CARPE DIEM!

 MARCH 21, 2011

Today (Monday), the first day of spring, the sun was shining and we woke up ready for our preliminary court hearing.  As you’ll recall, this hearing was regarding the separation of “S” and his now 18-year-old sister. 

Prior to this, we visited “S” in the orphanage late yesterday afternoon. Our driver pulled into the empty parking lot and WHO do we see walking to the office but our little man! I think we both opened the car doors while the car was still moving, jumped out and swung little “S” around in our arms. He had on a HUGE smile! The first question he asked was, “Where is Gavin?” We told him Gavin had to go to school and could not come. He hugged us again and couldn’t stop smiling….. neither could we. We had brought 3 hot pizzas and drinks for the kids. Since it was a sunny day, all the kids were outside playing. We asked the young woman who was supervising them to tell the kids in his wing we had pizza and drinks for them. They all eventually made it upstairs and the party started.  I’m always amazed at how polite these kids are! Nobody touched the pizzas but all asked politely if they could have a piece and patiently waited until I broke slices off onto napkins.  My Easter egg hunt proved very exciting too! When I showed them the bag of eggs with “konfetti” (candy) in them, the kids went wild! Scott had a hard time containing them all behind a door while I hid the eggs all over the playroom and one of the dorm-style bedrooms. I counted to 3 then they all began scurrying for eggs and eating Hershey kisses with the wrappers on (which I grabbed, literally, out of their mouths, and unwrapped).  Jellybeans were another American invention they quickly became accustomed to. We also passed out 50 glow-in-the-dark bracelets to about 15 kids……which quickly disappeared. I began asking “where did all the bracelets go?” Soon I was taken by the hand into the bedroom by one young boy and lead to his “cabinet” near his bed. Here he showed me his stash. Now  I thought “S” horded………...this kid had him beat by a mile! Not only did he have most of the bracelets which were glowing like the neon lights of Vegas, he had multiple pizza crusts, my entire package of Wet Naps and about 6 Easter eggs in there! I asked him to please share the bracelets and he said “nyet” with a silly grin at first, but then sheepishly gave me back a few to redistribute. I asked him “Why Wet Naps?” He shrugged with his same sweet smile.  Later on I saw him pull a girl from another floor into the room and present her with a pizza crust, wrapped up in a greasy napkin, like it was a coveted gift. I love when I witness the sweetness of the soul of a child. These kids have so little but still rejoice in giving. We left right before dinner (oops, nobody’s hungry) and told “S” we have a big day planned tomorrow.

This morning, we picked up “S” and drove to the courthouse. Our translator/agency contact, Lana from the first trip, was back with us. We love her bubbly personality and positive outlook on life! She prepped us well for what she thought the judge’s questions would be.  Many of the Ukrainian judges are women yet, men are the ones requested to speak in court. So Lana and I quizzed Scott during the entire 40 minute drive.  We picked up “S” who was all decked out in black slacks and a nice sweater with a red turtleneck underneath. He looked so handsome! We met the rest of our party at the courthouse (the sister and her social worker, the Inspector from the local Adoption Commission, the jury which consisted of 2 very friendly women and a representative from the orphanage). We had to wait about 1 hour for our case to be heard. During this time, little “S” sat very patiently, I was so proud of him! I tried reading him a book which I had transliterated (thank you Lena!!) about a boy being adopted and the parents going to court to talk to the judge.  In the book the little boy accidently belches in court! “S” was very entertained and giggled – at least he shares our family’s sense of humor and will probably love Scott’s tasteless fart and booger jokes that are not far off in his future ;-(  After about 50 minutes, I fed him some Whoppers left over from the Easter egg hunt and Scott finally pulled out his cell phone so he had some time to improve his Brick Breaker Game. Finally, our case was called and we all filed into the courtroom, along with the prosecutor.  The room was spartan with only a gold Ukrainian insignia decorating the mint green walls. On one side of the small room, was an even smaller rebar cage, I assumed held bad guys during criminal trials. On a wooden riser at the front of the room sat the judge, a nice looking woman about my age and the court reporter. Scott, “S” and I sat scrunched together with Lana on one of the benches, very close so we’d be able to hear her whispered translations. The judge began reading the case and the Prosecutor began writing furiously in a notepad. This scared me even though Lana had put us at ease by letting us know it is customary to have a prosecutor  play “devil’s advocate” to insure both sides are heard in each case. Scott was asked a few questions and so was I (yippee!) and I tried to answer in Russian when I could.  We were basically asked to confirm things in our file and asked if we trusted everyone in the courtroom. We answered “yes.” Scott was then asked how we plan to communicate with the sister over the long term. He answered via email, phone, Skype and that we will have her visit as soon as she is able to leave the country.  Then the Prosecutor called the sister to the stand and asked her many questions about why she couldn’t take “S” (she has no money, no means to care for him, no place for him to live, plus she wants to start college). She also asked the sister about the mother’s other daughters (“S”’s half sisters), who we learned are 14 and 2 years old.  In the end, since the mother’s rights were taken by the court in 2007, there is nobody to care for “S”, the judge ruled in our favor. But wait, we’re not out of the woods yet! The Ukrainian system seems to wants all parties to unanimously agree, so the judge requested an updated resolution from the Adoption Commission, stating “S” can now be adopted. The plan is to receive this on Friday and have the actual adoption hearing then. We will keep our fingers and toes crossed and be knocking on A LOT of wood until then! After Friday, a 10 day appeal period will begin. Barring any unforeseen circumstances,  on day 11 little “S” becomes ours!! I told Scott I would start celebrating with him on Friday (since we did no celebrating on our last trip). We read about families cracking open bottles of champagne on the train ride back to Kyiv last time and were very jealous!

We hope the next few days are just quiet play days for us at the orphanage with “S”.  No news is good news in our case!



SUNSET NEAR THE ORPHANAGE