Tuesday April 1, 2003 - All Fools Day

Clarke:

“Scuzche cookie”

Natalie in her brand new outfit

Again, trying to get Natalie to say cookie was our task at hand. After giving her sweet animal crackers and trying and trying to get her to say “cookie,” I ate the last one. I shocked Natalie and Mom even more! Of course, Mom dug out a cookie in a flash for her sweetheart. Right now her pleasure is far and above more important than hearing those first English words, which may be weeks away for her.

Today we were told that we would have a preliminary court hearing at the courthouse. Actually, we were first told that we would go to make our hearing appointment for Thursday or Friday. We were quite surprised by the entire sequence of events. This ancient building was not special in size, style or location. Our driver Sasha maneuvered  his car so as to allow us  the least amount of deep mud to walk through when entering the building. Marina the psychologist, Kris and I enter the dark concrete building into a somewhat narrow stairway. On the right, we passed a jail cell. Kris notices some characters inside. The place is busy with people entering and leaving. A handcuffed man is ushered by us in the stairwell. The place has many police and officers, all wearing slightly different uniforms. One thing they have in common is the serious looks on their faces. They are clearly with more purpose than the grocery store KGB type. It doesn’t take a sidearm to discern this.

We are told to sit, move or sit, move and sit. And finally called to a private office. George and the district director (for orphans) have joined us to his uninviting “chambers.” We passed through a small office in between two desks, watching not to trip on the heater that is at least 45 years old and is placed on the only open space on the floor, which we end up stepping over. This basic and small office is in the corner of the building. The floor has such a sway in it, I fear that we will lose our balance and go crashing through the fragile and cheap desk. We are seated in this crowded room, still wearing our coats. We now realize that this  is actually the judge, and this is actually the real hearing.

Transportation around Lugansk

We are asked basic questions about our income, home and reasoning to adopt. We have been prompted by Georgiy earlier in the morning, and so have thought of concise answers to our existing reasons, facts and feelings. I am caught a little off-guard when asked what ails this child. I hesitated for a moment and see urgency in Georgiy’s eye. Suddenly, it dawns on me that there needs to be something wrong with our perfect little angel. I am searching for an apparent eternity, when I remember our office visit last week. I reply in short phrases, allowing George to translate. “She is slow in speech due to lack of cognitive ability, struggles emotionally, has a crooked back, a prolapsed heart, enlarged glands, and a nasal passage.”  Wow, I completely forgot about these statements, or even what kind of game we are on now playing. Georgiy and the director chime in for a while in our defense. We testify that we are fully prepared to take their mess of a child, and clearly we don’t understand all that has just happened.

We exit without any special announcement or date set for Thursday or Friday! In the hall, Georgiy and the director engage in much more conversation. Our friendly Italian family’s translator  tells us “congratulations” as we look at each other puzzled, and reply “Thank you”.

At our favorite café, we discussed that our “Olga” from the NAC is taking a day off today and that we will hope for our permission to adopt to be granted on Wednesday. We are reserved about any real feelings of completeness, but decide to celebrate a bit with a splurge of food costing nearly $10 USD for 4 people.

Playing with stacking dolls

We later try to use the phone service building, much like a telegraph office, but are unsuccessful in calling Berthoud. We are disappointed that their outdated books and systems reflect no such area code of “970” in the USA. (A 7-year old area code). We feel bad, since we slept through Alex calling last night at 10:30 pm. Georgiy tried to wake us, but was unsuccessful. Georgiy did enjoy talking with Alex and thought to ask if everything is all right. Still we want to talk and move to plan “b."  We used our cell phones and it is crystal clear.  Unfortunately we have advanced on daylight savings time before the US and we  jumped the gun by one hour. I briefly say hi to Annette and agree to call back in a hour. Plan “c” is to purchase time in one of their phone booths, and to call Annette’s cell number (303 area codes) at the right time of 6:00 MST USA for our hello to the kids. All is well and it costs only 50 cents (US) per minute! Much better than the nearly $5.00 USD a minute on our cell!

Kris:

We had a preliminary court date today. Well actually, it WAS the court, but we did not know it until after we met with the judge! That’s how much we know! I don’t feel like writing today…

“These movies are endless and stupid!”

            Georgiy’s quote about soap opera movies from Mexico and Brazil.