The Day of the Court was all of wonderful, tenuous and eye-opening. The Dodges, Susan, Natalie and I caught the bus by our apartment at about 9 am to make our 9:30 appointment at the district court in downtown Sumy. We arrived at the courthouse and waited a few minutes outside for Vladimir to arrive with the five children from the school. He and Natalie had worked to prepare the children for the questions that they would likely be asked by the judge today. (We learned that Vladimir had also told Dasha of the possible delays due to her and Toli’s births in Russia and that it may take up to two months. He had also assured her that he would do all in his power to get her to America as soon as possible. Knowing that, I put off any hounding I was planning to do and will let things take their course. All I asked is that he inform us as soon as he has a feeling for how long the delay will be.)

We were all invited to enter the lobby inside where we waited until our turn. Susan, Vladimir, Natalie, our three children and I were called and ushered first into the large office/courtroom of the court’s chief judge, a stern-faced, middle-aged woman. We were directed to sit in the seven chairs against the far right wall. The judge sat near the wall opposite and about twenty feet away from us. Teeing off her broad desk was a long table at which sat a young female prosecutor and three assistants. Against the exterior wall between us and the judge were Viktor Ivanovich, the school’s director and the Inspector who had interviewed us at the school.

We had been told that frequently this court appearance is a mere formality that passes briefly. However, some intelligence acquired by Vladimir pointed to the chief judge’s presiding at ours. Knowing that this judge would be much more inquisitive than others, Natalie prepared us for the types of questions she might ask us. I asked Natalie to translate however she felt was appropriate regardless of what we said. That would not work, however, because there may be a decent understanding of English among the officials there.

The judge asked me, and then Susan, many personal information questions. Then she inquired about our decision to adopt, our ability to adopt and care for the children, our relationship with the children, and solutions to the language barrier. Then each of the children was asked to stand in turn and give personal information and to express their feelings about being adopted by us and going to America. Viktor was then asked to represent the school. He stated how long they been at the orphanage (since February 2003); that these are good children; and that they had never had any family visitors since they had arrived. The Inspector then stood and recommended that we be permitted to adopt the children, as she had seen us with them, and that the children were very happy with us. The prosecutor was asked if she had any questions (No). Did we have any? (No). We were escorted into an adjoining office to await deliberation, which took about two minutes. We re-entered the judge’s office where she rendered a favorable decision in our behalf. She informed is that we would have ten days to reconsider our decision to adopt these children (– as if! The decision was made eighteen months ago before we promised Stan that we would bring him, his sister and his brother to America to be part of our family. After that, there would be no reconsideration on our parts). After the ten days, the decision would be finalized. We were then dismissed. Dodges were called in next and their court also went well. Their girls stated that their natural mother had contacted them, but that all she was interested in was money from the Dodges.

We all rejoiced afterward and decided it was time to celebrate. We all went to the apartment so we parents could change out of our Sunday best. While we were changing Natalie took the children and Paul’s money and bought some roses for their new mothers. We then crossed the street to the pizza restaurant for lunch. While there we mentioned to Natalie that we intended to ask the children to tell us what they could of their genealogy. Natalie asked Dasha about her Grandma in Krolovets. Dasha said their mother shuttled them back and forth between their grandmas in Russia and Ukraine. Much of their lives were spent with their grandmas and she wished to see her paternal grandma in Krolovets (Stan’s birthplace) before we leave. We plan to go to Krolovets a week from Friday, when the ten days are up, to get Stan’s birth certificate, and will try to arrange a visit with her then. If it works, we will try to glean what we can of genealogical value on their father’s side. We may videotape the interview.

Most of the children wanted to go to a movie and to the fun park nearby. The next showing of the new Mr. Bean movie was three hours later. So we walked to the park which offered a couple of small car driving tracks, a trampoline, a boat pool, a castle with slides, and a man-eating inflated shark. The boys went for the latter – over and over – and then a couple of other rides. Toli wanted more, but I felt I had spent enough money at that point and that it was again time to let him know he could not have everything he wants when he wants it. I turned him down. He pouted and kept his distance from us. We all walked back to theater. On the way we stopped to get the kids some ice cream. Toli would not go in with us. Stan and Dasha bought some for him, but he was upset because it was the wrong kind. Furthermore, he was not going to see the movie and walked away around the large theater building. I soon followed to try to keep him within sight. Meanwhile, Susan had tracked him down. Natalie intervened. He told her he wanted to return to the school. No, Mom and Dad could not go with him; no, not even Natalie. Natalie called Vladimir, who is an authority figure to the children. He showed up a few minutes later. What he got out of Toli was that he is frightened to go to America because he is certain he won’t be able to learn English. Vladimir tried to give him confidence and told him that in six months Toli would be writing to him in English. Apparently, it worked and we all went in to the movie together. While this could be a significant part of the cause of his behavior, we feel he may have had a “past the point of no return” realization today. Limits imposed on him may have contributed to the snap into reality. So be it. What was difficult for us in this situation is that it happened in front of everyone and that there is little that we could do in such a setting because of the language barrier. We had to wait for someone else to find out what was wrong; and every translator came away with a different idea of what it was. We know that when we get them home it will also be a challenge, but we will be able to more privately and patiently determine what is going on and work to resolve it.

The movie was fun. We parted on good terms today. The good, the bad and the ugly.