Court: Because I Don't Already Have Enough Grey Hairs

I started getting a few grey hairs when I was 18 thanks to genetics.   When I got married at 20, I was up to about 12 grey hairs (yes, I counted) and my mother-in-law used to help me tweeze them (plus a few surrounding hairs when she missed the grey ones).  You know the old wives’ tale that says, when you pull out 1 grey hair, 10 more will grow in its place?  Well, it’s not a wives’ tale because it happened to me.  So add in 3 kids, a master’s degree, 3 international adoptions, etc etc and now I have to “touch up” my grey roots every month.  It’s a good thing I had my roots touched up the day before we left for Ukraine because court today would have made me totally grey!

All was going well, court was supposed to start at 2pm, and it actually started at 2:20.  I’ve covered the fact on this blog before that time is very different in Ukraine.  When something begins at 2pm, it actually means “give or take 20 minutes.”  So court started on time today.  We stood when the judge walked into the court room.  We then stated our names and birthdates and all the wonderful things we know by heart since we’ve been to court 3 times now.  The judge spoke, the inspector spoke, the prosecutor spoke, the orphanage lawyer spoke, but just when I thought court was just beginning the judge said from what I could understand, “Okay, that’s all.  Good bye” in Russian/Ukrainian and walks out of the court room along with the two jurors.  My heart sank.  The judge hadn’t even asked us what we were asking of the court, or any questions about us.  I had my whole speech ready about why I wanted to adopt from Ukraine and why we have so many kids and I didn’t get to say any of that.  “That’s all.”  What does that mean?  Does that mean the judge disapproved the adoption?  No Edik?

Our translator was clearly nervous, her face red, hands trembling, papers scrambling as she said a few words quickly to me something about “today only being preliminary court” and she ran out of the court room after the judge.  So. NOT. COOL.  

She came back 10 minutes later with a paper for us to sign that said our “actual” as in our “real” and not preliminary court hearing was going to be held on January 20, 2014.  God, please NO!!  That’s another 6 days away!!!!!  We already had preliminary court on December 16, 2013!!  How many preliminary courts do we need?  

She was gone another 20 minutes.  Finally she came back in the room and asked for our airline ticket stubs.  Thank goodness I had printed them out from the email I got from Golden Rule Travel.  Our translator was able to plead with the judge that we needed court this afternoon because we had already purchased tickets to leave tomorrow morning.  

Praise God, He moved in the heart of the judge and she agreed to hear our case.  We were asked four or 5 thousand questions and court took forever!  The judge finished with our questions and she turned to Edik and asked him to stand and “say a few words” about himself.  Edik stood and said his name, birthdate, and address of the orphanage.  He boldly said that he loves our family and wants to come with us to live in America.  He said he liked us from the very first day he met us.  He said we are very nice people and we will make great parents.  And he said will do his best to obey what we ask of him.  I was so impressed by how confident and brave he was to stand up in the court room and say all of that.  I was certainly more intimidated that he was and I’ve been through this 3 times!

Anyway, the jurors and judge left the room again for 10 minutes (give or take 20 minutes).  When they came back in the judge read the decision that our adoption is approved.  Matthew Edward Kerr is our son after the 10-day (give or take 20 days) wait!!!    The judge said YES, but not without giving me a few more grey hairs to color next month when I have my root “touch up.”