Court Pictures & Adoption Day

We haven't talked much about our court hearing up to this point. Overall, it was rather anti-climatic in some ways. We were definitely nervous about it, but it went very quickly and smoothly. People who have been through the experience say that is typical, but there are always exceptions.

Here's a view of a governmental building around the corner from the building that housed our "courtroom". It was just down the road from the Russian White House and was very convenient to our facilitator's offices and our hotel.


This is the entrance leading up the building that contained our courtroom. Now this wasn't a fancy courtroom. It was more like a school room. The only items in the room that really made it official looking were the flag of the Russian Federation and a crest of the double headed eagle.

The flag of the Moscow Region is on the left, the Russian Federation flag is on the right. Too bad it had gotten wrapped around the pole. Someone should have fixed that while we were in court!


Sign outside of the door announcing this is for the Moscow Region of the Russian Federation.

The next picture is the door leading into our courtroom. When we arrived there were two girls age 13 and 10 waiting outside along with an interpreter. They were being adopted by a couple from Stuart, Florida. Their parents were already inside for their own hearing. In addition to the two girls, the couple was adopting the girls' seven year old brother. The brother wasn't at the hearing because children under 10 do not testify in adoption hearings.

We got to see each girl go in and come out of court. You could really sense their excitement. At the conclusion of the hearing the parents exitted the courtroom and we got to hear them say for the first time, "You are ours!" The girls were estactic. Wow! It was quite a moment to witness and a pretty big morale boost for us just before our own hearing.


After that, we had our hearing. It was different than we had expected. The atmosphere was pretty cordial. The prosecutor and the court recorder/secretary were young women, probably just out of college. They didn't do or say much during the process. There were several occaisions where they were laughing and carrying on like a couple school girls. Weird. It was quite a contrast to our nervousness. The judge wasn't really too into the hearing, we thought. I think she was just trying to get it finished so everyone could go home for the day at 4:00.

The judge didn't ask many questions. I (papa-Jason) spoke for the two of us. She asked me to say my name, where and when I was born, and how long we have been married. I managed to add a year to how long we have been married and forgot to say when I was born. So, I guess I gave false testimony. Oooops...

They then asked me about my education and what I did for a living. To avoid discussions I didn't really want to have I told them I was a "systems engineer" which evoked some giggles from the bubbly prosecuter and cohort. Maybe they thought I played with trains or something. My fly was up, as it should have been, so I don't think I was really embarassing myself. I wasn't drooling, so I can't figure out what the joke was.

They asked why we were adopting and if we had the ability to care for the child. Pretty easy stuff.

They asked Wendy similar questions for the most part. The one that was different for her was if we had Jason Alexei examined by an independent doctor.

Then, Nina, the social worker responsible for Vidnoye spoke on our behalf. She was an advocate for us and said she had no objections to our desire to adopt Jason Alexei.

The judge then asked the bubbly young prosecutor is she had any objections to us adopting and she had none. Then the judge took a short recess.

When she came back she went through a statement that was longwinded and I can't remember all that she said but meant that Jason Alexei was ours. There was no gavel, but nevertheless, it was in out favor. The social worker congratulated us and the prosecutor and her cohort wished us good luck.

Here's a picture of us outside of the building after a verdict in our favor. Smiles all around!


The next picture shows from left-right, Wendy (duh), Nina the Russian social worker, Svetlana Batsula our agency's Russian facilitator, Violetta our translator for this trip. They are pretty important people in making this happen for us. I'm wearing a ribbon that was being passed out to commemorate Victory Day. Victory Day is normally celebrated on May 9 to celebrate the end of World War II in Europe, but this year we are celebrating it on April 27 for obvious reasons.


After we got back to the van, Violetta and Svetlana purchased us Russian pastries stuffed with meat and covered in butter. Hmmmm.....butter..... Just had to get that out. After all the ups and downs, when all things were done I was HUNGRY!?!?!? I can't remember the Russian names of these things. I had two!


Lori and Antoine partake in Victory Day Russian thingy's with meat inside...


Once we got back to the office, it was paperwork time. I don't think any of us were expecting to have to do a bunch of paperwork about an hour after the end of court. On top of that, the room was a chaos scene. It was like having dinner with the Clumps times 10. I got a headache with all the yammering going on trying to figure out the forms. Wendy has the good handwriting between the two of us so she got stuck having to fill them out.


Later that night we went out to a restaurant on "pretty stinky street". The Russian name for the street transliterated into something like "Prechistinskaya" but it was more fun to pronounce it "pretty stinky". It was next door to a gallery featuring the work of a Georgian sculptor. I can't remember who. The food and champagne were great.

It was great to celebrate the end of a very long process, yet it bothered me all evening that the little guy we were celebrating is still in his crib at the orphanage and not with his parents. That will end very soon, I promise! We just have one more lap to go until we truly celebrate another great victory on May 17!