Court Day, The details, Part 3 Thursday - Day 19

Today was a HUGE day. We got up and met Sergey for breakfast at 7:15ish, had a nice long breakfast and talked about our day. We headed out the door and into Sergey's car to go to get flowers for the children.  When we got to the florists shop we requested roses and she brought out two different kinds, the first roses were mixed colors, yellow at the base and red at the top and the second were red roses. We decided to go with the red and had four sets of three roses in each,after this we headed to the courthouse and Sergey dropped us off and went back to the orphanage to get the kids, orphanage lawyer and also the inspector.


  Our court appointment was at 10 but we were supposed to be there at nine so we did pretty good on time and Sergey ended up only making two trips. When Sergey came back with everyone we went upstairs and waited while Sergey filled out paperwork,everyone was in a good mood, especially Vladik, but Kristina l was having a tough time it looked like. She wasn't mad or Crying she just was emotionless, not emotionless but sad with a straight face, it is hardest for her out of the four because she is the oldest, she has friends and people she knows as family,it is hard for her to let go of all she knows, shes happy but at the same time sad that she has to leave most everything she has ever known. They have been in the orphanage for 5 to 6 years,she remembers and knows most all that has happened to them and has gotten to know her friends for a longer time, it can't be easy for her.


 As we waited for Sergey to get done with paperwork so we could have court everyone was basically quiet except Vladik and mom, it certainly wasnt a dead quiet though, people running here, going there there was some talking among us too. Once Sergey was done, We went back downstairs and were ushered into the courtroom, all the kids including me were in the back row and mom,dad, Sergey,the Lawyer and the inspector sat in the front row. We stood as the judge walked in and then sat and waited a few minutes before he started talking. Sergey translated and the judge asked dad to stand and he did, asked him if he could support such a family and how much he made a year, how good were the hospitals and a few questions along that line, what chores the children would have etc.... Also if We owned guns and what was the murder rate where we lived, the population where we lived and such, after dad he asked mom to stand and asked if she had anything to add and asked about chores and what she did for a living if she did.  The judge had a great since of humor and asked if the kids through bananas at us, apparently that means they do or don't like us and after he was done with them he moved on to the kids.


 Lera went first and he asked if she wanted to be adopted and why she liked America, then Kristina went next and he asked the same questions but then when he got to Luba he asked if she spoke any english and she said no, then the judge asks if she knew how to say "Give me a piece of bread." in English!!! Everyone laughed at that and then he preceded to Vladik, asked the same questions but added and asked if he would join the American army! Again everyone laughed and then he was basically done, he exited the room to make his decision while we talked and smiled at each other, once he came back, he read from several sheets of papers of our adoption papers that felt like a very long time but after all this with Sergeys translating it was apparent that I had NEW siblings!!! Everything went fine,the judge granted our request to adopt.


 Everyone was happy, even Kristina. Once we made our way outside we took pictures and preced to give our gifts of flowers and the keys we had made for them. After the giftgiving Sergey took us to the orphanage and made the trip back to the courthouse for the others, when we all went in the orphanage we waited in the lobby to get called in to the deputy directors office, once called in we talked to her through Sergey and  gave our donation and gift to the orphanage. We then left and ran some errands with Sergey, we ran to a music store because we wanted to see if they had a Ukrainian guitar for Luba   to take to America, we asked about Ukrainian guitars and then we found out how rare they really are, they are family airlooms and someone bought one used for $1000 dollars, so I think you get the picture. Then we ran back to the orphanage so Sergey could string the orphanage's guitar(Kristina's guitar) and to tune it, once he was done he started playing and singing(see video in earlier post) and it was amazing, the video can't do it justice and neither can I, The band that sings it can't even do it justice. After the mini concert we had to say goodbye to Sergey, he had to go help another family and then go home to his to celebrate their holidays. We won't see Sergey for about a week and a half, we have come to really like Sergey and we hate to see him go, he is a man of many talents,facilitator, comedian, musician and a good husband and father, but we will see him again.  After he left we stayed a few more minutes and visited Kristina, we watched her play her newly stringed guitar and then made our way back to our hotel and ate then hit the hay.