Nov 21: It's a Boy!

11/21/07: We woke up and began preparing for court. We were stressed and our fuses were short. At one point Zack couldn’t find his wallet. We began to panic and worry that he’d left it at Supermarket Moskva when we walked down there the night before. We looked and looked for about 30 minutes, and just as he and Leonid were about to walk to the market, we found it back behind a dresser. Nothing like a little added stress to make the morning interesting!


We went to visit William in our dress clothes, so playing was a little more subdued. We took one of his sweaters and put it on him so we could take some family pictures all dressed up. We planned to leave about 11:30 so we could make it to court on time. We ended up having to leave around 11:00 due to some unexpected visitors at the orphanage. So Leonid drove us down to the shore and we took some pictures of a part of Mariupol we hadn’t seen before.

We went to the court building and waited in the hall outside the courtroom. Finally we were called in. Luda instructed us that we should not cross our legs when sitting or clasp our hands in front of us when standing. Apparently these can be construed as disrespectful in Ukraine – who knew?! The judge, a secretary, and 2 jurors sat at the head of the room. We sat with Luda, facing them. To one side of us were the regional prosecutor and regional inspector, and to the other was the orphanage attorney (an attractive girl who looked to be about 23 or 24 years old).

Court began and the judge was a very stern woman who never once smiled and rarely looked at us. She began reading documents, and Luda would periodically lean over and translate. Zack was asked to stand and state his name, where he lived, a little about himself and why he was here. Then the judge asked for questions, but no one had any. Then I had to stand and do the same. A couple of questions were asked, but nothing too tough. The judge read pretty much our entire dossier, so it took a while. Then something was said, and everyone stood up. The judge and jury left the room. Luda advised that the judge had recessed us until after lunch, at which time she would render her decision.

So we went to the supermarket and got a bite to eat. Funny, as I read back over this it seems like anytime there was downtime we would go to buy food!

We returned to the court room about an hour or so later. After what seemed like an eternity everyone returned to the room. We stood again, and although I couldn’t understand the judge, I knew what was being said. I’d occasionally hear our names or the name of our son, and finally Luda leaned over and told us that she had ruled in our favor. We now had a son! This part of court took less than 10 minutes and it was over. We began to exit the room and one of the jurors smiled and congratulated us.

We began the drive back to the apartment. It was then that it was suggested we not visit our son during the mandatory 10-day-wait period. It’s a very long story, but there were some issues going on at the orphanage (that had absolutely nothing to do with us). And everyone just thought it might be best if we lay low so as to not jeopardize anything. We reluctantly agreed. It was disappointing to say the least, but at this point we just wanted to do whatever it took to get our boy out of there and home.

Leonid and Luda headed back to Kyiv. We had dinner and then decided to walk down to the market to get some Coke Light. On the way back to the apartment, the phone rang. It was Jonathan, and he was calling to ask how court went. We told him the great news that we were now William’s parents! He then invited us to spend Thanksgiving with them the next day. Needless to say, we were excited! We had been dreading spending the next day alone. So Jonathan said he’d come by early the next morning and pick us up, and then return us on Friday.