Court Date and Gotcha Day Too

Today we went to court in Vladivostok. We were scheduled at 11:00. We arrived about 10:20 because traffic was in our favor. Irina had us leave extra early because sometimes Vladivostok traffic can cause major delays. When we arrived, we saw Jeff and Jennifer’s Rep in the lobby waiting; they had a 10:00 appointment. They came out at about 10:30 to wait for their Judges decision. A few minutes later, they had a positive conclusion and it was our turn. Since we were early, our judge went ahead and started the proceedings at about 10:45, I was impressed. I am used to having to wait at official proceedings.

Irina and Lana had spent time describing to us the court proceedings and had told us how to act in court. When addressing the court you should stand to state your answer. Remember to direct our answers toward the judge and not to Lana who is speaking to us in English. It seems adoption court is a little different than any other court. In other types of court proceedings you answer with simple yes and no’s, to say more may cause confusion or self incrimination. But here in Vladivostok adoption court it is best to answer with emotion and the full embellishment of the story. The judge will stop you when they have heard what they need to hear. Irina and Lana also told us some of the questions the judge may ask to help us prepare for the correct answers. Even with this preparation the questions tend to make you nervous. In our case most of the difficult questions were directed at David. They were concerned with the amount of hours he spends away from home doing his work and the ministry. They asked questions about the stability of our marriage and wanted to know if divorce was a possibility. They asked if he would have enough love for our daughter. There was also a question about his family life when he was a child. Why he knew Danielle was the right child for our family. She asked him to tell her the medical and family background. There were several other difficult questions that are still swimming around in my head. When it was my turn, I was asked several probing questions. I was asked what I could give to Danielle. Why should the judge consider waiving the ten days? Then the most difficult question came to me. The one question I had hoped would not be asked. Some of you may know that about a month ago a West Virginia Real Estate Broker had went to his office with his new son adopted from Russia, as I recall they had the child for only three months. The father forgot to drop the son at daycare and left the baby in the car all day. The little boy died. I was asked what I thought about this. I choked up and started to cry right in the court before the judge. When I had first heard the story, I had cried and prayed for this family for 3 days. My heart still hurts at this tragedy.

There were some paperwork formalities and then the prosecutor had the opportunity to ask questions. She argued against waiving the 10 days by stating that according to Russian law the 10 days may only be waived for severe health issues. She chose not to ask us any questions. We were then asked to leave the room. A few minutes later we were asked back in to hear that we had been granted the parental rights for Danielle and would have our official papers in 10 days. Yea God!!!! Two years, six months into Danielle’s Journey, we have adopted our daughter.

Now the surprise. Jeff and Jennifer’s rep from another agency and Irina were able to double team the social worker and had her overrule the director of our baby home to give us custody of our children during the 10 day wait. Yea God it is also GOTCHA DAY!!!!! Future adoptive parents from the Usserysk baby home please understand this is very rare. We thank God for this decision and we were fine with custody or no custody during the 10 day wait and did not press this issue. There are pros and cons about early custody, so we came to Russia prepared to handle the wait either with our without the custody of Danielle. It is normal for Irina to try to request early custody, but most of the time she is turned down. The biggest reason I am currently looking at the beautiful face of a precious little girl sleeping in her crib is because the weather is very very nice right now. The two girls released today have not been prone to severe or repetitive colds. And both couples have one child at home already, so we have some experience with children and illnesses. When I heard it was a strong possibility that we could have Danielle during our 10 day wait I prayed and asked Jesus to allow the decision to be the best situation for Danielle.

I was actually very concerned about taking Danielle from the baby home today. Yesterday she was more upset than comfortable with our return visit. Today they woke her up just a little bit early from her nap to bring her out to us. She cried when she saw us. I picked her up and she buried her face in my shoulder and cried. I took her over to the window to see outside and she calmed down. We played for a while and then papa wanted me to hand her to him. When I did she buried her head in his shoulder and cried, he also took her to the window to look outside which calmed her down. Then she realized papa was holding her and she likes being held. She began warming up to him quickly. Our paper work was now done and we signed for the custody of Danielle during the 10 day wait. We had already stopped to buy the orphanage gift of diapers and a cake. Then we changed Danielle. The moment we began to change her clothes, she changed too. It was like she was ready to put off the old and put on the new. Her attitude changed and she was ready to go on her new big adventure with mama and papa. We put her between us and put the lap seatbelt on her. Filled her lap with dolls and drove two hundred feet away to the grocery store. Papa and Danielle stayed in the van and Irina and I went in to get about a weeks worth of food for Danielle. She rode the whole hour and a half back to our hotel between us in her seat belt. I wanted to start the pattern out properly because it will be a car seat when we get home. Unfortunately, we gave her some snacks and she got car sick twice on the way back to the baby home. We got back to our room, changed her and papa took her outside for a walk. I put away groceries, unpacked the toys we took with us and prepared Danielle’s dinner. Papa left the room for a minute and when he knocked on the hotel door I said papa, and she said papa three times. Her first word we understand is papa. David is flying high as a kite. After dinner, we went for another walk outside, then inside for a bath. She really liked the bath and liked the toothbrush cleaning I did on her toe nails and finger nails. We wrapped her up in a towel and then treated all of her little scratches, scrapes and bug bites, as well as a rash on her rear. We put her PJ’s on and papa sat with her and went through the 1000 first words in Russian book. We were surprised when she started pointing at animals as either making a sound the animal makes, or calling it by name in Russian. She was one happy little girl all snuggled into papa’s lap looking at her book and communicating. It was definitely the right decision to have custody of her for the 10 day wait. Thank you Jesus for orchestrating (again).