Our Big Day

It was another “hot one” in Mariupol, humid with the temperature over 30C. And it was our day in court. We went into a room the size of a normal school classroom, with no air conditioning nor fans. The front of the room was dominated by three large wooden chairs with high backs. Carved into the backs was the old style Soviet hammer and sickle.

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.