Court Day

Well, we were up early, got out the Sunday best and literally spit polished our boots. You wouldn't believe the mud here. Igor arrived at 9:15 and we were off to pick up an extra translator, the Judge wouldn't let Natasha translate for us. We arrived at the court house at 10:00 and waited for the others to get there, Social worker and orphanage director. The judge called each of us into her chambers and asked a couple of questions. We all then went to the court room and waited some more. Finally the Judge and two jurers, court reporter and some other guy came in. At this point Randy starts recalling some big court scene he saw in a movie with Jack Nicholson and Tom Cruise and I begin to get giddy ( my automatic response when I get nervous). And just like on TV she said "All Rise".

From that point things seemed to get fairly long. The judge began to ask questions such as "who is the head of the household" to which Randy replied "I'm not sure why don't you ask Debbie. WE all laughed except the Judge who was waiting for a reply to which Randy mumbled " we are partners". That seemed to satisfy her. The questions continued to all of us for about 2 hours. Questions like " will you make sure that this child maintains her Russian language and how will you do that" and Why are you not adopting her 18 year old brother ( he's living on the street and no one can find him). Will she have her own bedroom at your house? Do you own your house and do you have a document here that will prove it? All of these questions had been previously answered by our lawyer and translator. I guess she wanted to get our response and reaction. She also mentioned several times that it might be a good idea for Nastya to be there.

After the Judge and the Jurors had asked all the questions they wanted too, the Judge decided that she wanted to see Nastya and that court would be adjourned untill 2pm tomorrow.

We know this story is beginning to read like a bad suspense novel.

In all seriousness though Natasha believes that because Nastya is the first one in this city to be adopted internationally, the Judge is afraid to make any mistakes and she going a "bit over the top" with legalities. I am choosing to believe her and of course praying that all will go smooth tomorrow. We and our facilitators have done everything possible so we will have to Trust the One who knows the outcome already.
Here is a little poem that a lady of great faith gave to Randy one day and he always recalls it in diccifult times.

Trust Him when dark days assail thee
Trust Him when thy faith is small
Trust Him when to simply Trust Him
Is the hardest thing of all
Author Unknown

We will post tomorrow as soon as we get the judgsement from court.
Love Debbie