joy

happy family (+yummy stick)



do we look relieved? (post-court)

Joy. Relief. One more hurdle completed. Tears bubbling out every few minutes -uncontrollably. The countdown begins. And we are SOOOOO thankful. Slava Bogu!
What a day this has been. We went to see our darling girl this morning only to find she was gone, yet again, to the doctor. The nurse didn’t speak English, but she managed to get across that we should wait. We sat outside because the weather was so lovely today – warm and sunny (so good for my emotional state) but with a little breeze. We listened to music for a while, then I walked a bit in the courtyard and Darren sat in the shade of the entryway. Just about an hour later, in came 3 nurses with Ivanna and another child. They let us take her around to the back to play with her. First, she and I had a wonderful cuddle and she snuggled right in and smiled. How that warms my heart. She then had a little snuggle with her dad and we walked around back. Once we got close to the chickens, she was ready to be on her feet exploring, so down she went as was off with one finger of each of us. She explored a bit, picking up various objects to share with us (pine cone, shovel etc…) then she headed towards one of the groups sitting at a table. She went straight to one of the nurses and sat on her lap for a bit (it’s good to see her in a loving relationship with the nurses). She seemed to be quite attached to that nurse although I was able to understand that the group of kids she was with was NOT Ivanna’s group - ? maybe her old group or caregiver? Ivanna kept picking up things and wanting to give them to the caregiver. She definitely seemed attached to her.
Our time with Ivanna was short – too short as we wanted to be back to the apartment in plenty of time to get ready for court. Vadim came to get us a few minutes late and said, “Sorry. Traffic very bad.” It took a while to get back to where Slava was to pick her up and by then it was 2:05. Our court time was at 2:30 and I was convinced we be late and began catastrophizing what would happen. In my vivid imagination I could hear the judge saying no – we were late so we’d have to wait for another court date. Well, Vadim, our fantastic driver got us there with about 2 minutes to spare. Once we got up to the hall where the judge’s office is, we found out she was running late (I initially understood that she was always late and this was to be expected). An hour later, I was getting the impression that the judge wasn’t actually in her chanbers at all – so I clarified with Slava whether she was there or not and NO if fact she wasn’t there at all yet (she hadn’t returned yet from hr 1-2 lunch break). So we waited a while longer. Eventually at about 4 PM she showed up. We waited about another 20 minutes and then headed in, only to be told to go back and wait outside by Slava. She came out a couple of minutes later to tell us that we had to wait for the attorney. What attorney you ask? Good question! Well, eventually Slava told us that she didn’t know who we were waiting for – that normally it was just us and the judge. So I clarified ‘it’s not our attorney then?’ ‘NO!’ she replied. (I need a little more boldness – a la Jenn Janzen - when it comes to clarifying what’s going on!!) Eventually we were called in (though I didn’t see anyone else enter the room – apparently the attorney arrived at some point – maybe through the window?) and the proceedings began. It was relatively informal in that we were sitting in her fairly casual office with 3 or 4 other people (one of whom was her son who ‘helps’ her in her work). Slava said a few things then the judge asked Darren some questions: name, date of birth, address. Then she asked me the same and what we were requesting, did we know Ivanna, where she is, had we met her, had we bonded with her (YES!!), did we know about her health, where I worked, where Darren worked. Then the attorney asked us if we would be able to support Ivanna and how much money we made. Then the judge briefly pronounced that ‘as of that time, YOU ARE HER PARENTS.’ So, in 10 days the judgment (which has already been made) will be finalized. And we were done. We said a teary ‘spasiba, spasiba’ and the judge smiled and said ‘congratulations’. And we were out of the room. At the time, it felt like the questions were never going to end and then in the blink of an eye the judge made her pronouncement and, in 10 days we will officially be her parents. Court is done. Wow. We are overjoyed.
On the way home, Slava clarified that we can’t pick up the court pronouncement until the 11th day after court, which makes it May 26th – which happens to be a Saturday, which means we won’t be able to get the papers and Ivanna until the 28th of May. We called Lesya when we got home to find out if we should be changing our flights as they need about 3-4 days after we get the paperwork from the court to get her passport, birth certificate and Canadian visa sorted out. She’s going to call us later tonight after she talks to Slava and ‘sees what she can do’. At this point we are expecting to have to change our flights, but somehow that just doesn’t matter anymore. Just knowing that on May 28th, we get to pick her up and take her with us means the world to us right now. We’ll figure out the details of exactly when we get to come home soon.