The judge came into the room. We all rose for this woman, in her mid 50s. She began to read our application to the court and our translator interpreted for us. Then they asked us to stand and answer the questions: why do you want to adopt these two children? Murray thought he was prepared for this question, but the heat and wait we had endured had dulled me and I stammered out an answer. Then Donna stood and was asked why we wanted to adopt from Ukraine. She went straight into babbling in Ukrainian about the connection to Ukraine with her baba and dido. Our facilitator furtively gave Donna the “thumbs up.” She had told us that it would be good for our case to speak Ukrainian, although it would be unlikely the judge would understand as she knew little Ukrainian herself, only Russian.
The prosecutor asked about the Ukrainian culture at home; again Donna spoke in Ukey about our “hromoda” (community) and lots of culture, language, church and a bilingual school. The court secretary read our three page application to court. She asked the other two reps for any questions, one from the orphanage and regional administration. They each had to make the case why the adoption can go ahead. Each did their thing and then the “crown” prosecutor (or persecutor as our translator called him) was asked if there were any objections.
Then the judge proceeded to go through our entire dossier. Although she did not read each page, she went through each section including the SDA stuff---registration letter, approval letter, and also all the letters we faxed to the SDA to accept our application. It was all there! We would have loved to have taken a photo of that 6 inch thick bundle of papers. It reminded Donna of how much work she put into getting us this far.
At the end, the judge asked if we had anything to add. Donna did her spiel in Ukrainian asking for a favourable decision to adopt the children and to allow us to change the kids name; that we love the children and have taken to them. Murray also spoke a few words in English. Then the judge, secretary and prosecutor left for 10 minutes. When she returned, she read the court degree. We were impressed how well she pronounced Saskatoon and Saskatchewan (better than many people from Ontario!). For each name---ours and the kids---she said it in full, and also added our birth dates. This was said numerous times. It was cute how she pronounced Murray’s name----Long, Moorai Rubart. And then it was over.
Subject to a 10 day waiting period, the Court decree will take effect on July 26th. Because it is on the weekend, we cannot take custody of the kids until the 28th. So, we know you are waiting for pics, but we’ve decided to wait until everything is final….We know you can be patient, we have been for 7-some years now.
5 comments:
Great news! I'm so anxious to see pics. I told William (our son) about you guys & where you were, and he keeps asking me if I know which little boy you're adopting.
Here's hoping that your wait period will pass quickly. I see you're doing a bit of traveling, which will help. We did the same (went to Berdyansk), mainly because we were only allowed to visit 3 times during the wait.
Congrats to the family of four!
That's wonderful! Glad everything went well. I imagine they were very impressed with hearing Ukrainian rather than Russian.
Take care.
We are so excited to read the latest instalments. It brought tears to my eyes as I read it. Can't wait for the next note.
Congratulations!!!
I was holding my breath while reading your post today....no doubt, the next 10 days will be filled with a variety of emotions for you. Considering all the time and effort you have put into your journey so far, these may quite possibly be the fastest 10 days of your life! Rob and I are thinking of you daily.....take care!!!
A most heartfelt Canadian congratulations to you all! Such wonderful news! Kudos, Donna on speaking Ukrainian, I am trying hard to learn the language, but I am afraid there will be no fluency for me:)
Keep on keepin' on, in a few short (or long!) days, those babies will will come home with you!
Post a Comment