We Are Approved!

Court was rather uneventful (thank goodness!). The judge was very nice and laughed at various times during our hearing. I'll put a detailed analysis of court for all of those that will be coming to Moscow City after us (first photo is the Moscow City Court House and the second is of us with the Chief Doctor of Baby Home #14. She's a really beautiful woman with 'Russian Red' hair. We had heard that red hair is considered lucky in Russia.)

You must stand when the judge enters the room just as we would in the U.S. There were two women who seemed to be taking notes, one prosecutor, one judge, the chief doctor of your baby home, the social worker for the district that your baby home resides and your translator (Masha in our case). Note: You will need many photos of yourself with your child that the court, the social worker and the chief doctor will want to keep. I would recommend printing four sets of four photos for all your photo needs including your set for the Embassy. We had a little photo book because we knew they wanted to see the photos but we didn't realize that they would want to keep them. We now don't have any photos of Nathan and Mia for our Embassy visit and will work to have them printed out for our Embassy trip. Not a big problem just something that all others should be aware of (the photos are of me in front of Starbuck's which is for all my fellow FRUAers ... we had to stop and get mugs of course to honor the day that we came to 'Starbuck's' and got the sweetest little latte ever. The other photo is of us having lunch at Hard Rock).

The judge calls the court to order and describes the case. She will ask for the primary spokesperson (we .. I mean I ... had voted on Nathan for that role). They will be asked the most questions. These questions include full name, birth day, residence, description of your house, annual income, when we were married, who is the primary care giver, does your wife stay at home with the children, current children, adopted or biological, how are the children doing, do they require additional services such as therapists, doctors, etc., how many times have you seen the child that you'll adopt (for us we had seen Mia on four days - 3 on the first trip and one of our current trip), do you understand your child's medical condition, are you prepared to provide medical treatment for any special needs that he/she might have, what name will you give the child, etc. (The photos are of Mia's 'last supper' at baby home #14; talk about the queen getting dressed, Mia had four 'hand maidens' readying her for her introduction to Moscow; Mia and I posed for a photo op with the two caregivers on duty. Notice the same 'pleasant demeanor' on the poor blonde caregiver's face. She was much nicer in person :) And finally, our little princess dressed for an 75 degree day. We probably should've chosen a wool hat and gloves but it was the best we could do :)

After the judge finishes asking questions, she'll ask the prosecutor if she has any questions. She didn't for us. Then the second person is called up.

The judge will ask your full name, birth day, how long have you been staying at home, were there any problems with our first adopted child (I said that he was behind in English when we first brought him home since he was learning Russian when we picked him up so we hired a speech therapist to work with him and he's almost completely caught up now .. in fact he never seems to stop talking ... which she laughed at), is your son excited about having a new baby in the house, etc. (If you're the nervous type I highly recommend you picking to go second :) (Photos - Nathan and Mia awaiting our driver on the playground. Notice the barettes already askew).

The Chief Doctor for your orphanage will get up and talk about your child. The Chief Doctor mentioned that there were no Russians interested in Mia and that most of the children she has in the orphanage right now were 'Asian''. She mentioned that Mia's ethnicity is Iranian which is interesting. She also talked about the hospital where Mia was born. She mentioned that we had good contact with Mia during our visits, that she laughed and seemed glad to see us. She endorsed our petition to adopt.

The Social Worker gives her report. She said that no Russians wanted to adopt Mia. She supported our petition to adopt Mia.

The prosecutor then had nothing else and said that she supported the adoption.

The judge will then ask if you want to keep your child's birthdate and birth place and the name that you will give the child. While in retrospect I should've asked for a June birthday so we didn't have to plan more winter in Illinois birthday parties, my mind wasn't working that fast so her birthday remains February 23, 2007 :)

Then the judge will leave the room to decide the case. Within a few minutes, she had returned with a positive verdict that she read at a breath taking pace that really kept Masha on her toes. Yea!

The Chief Doctor granted us permission to take Mia from the baby home this afternoon at 4 p.m. We hadn't known whether we would be allowed or not as we are the first family to go to court in the last six or so months for this baby home. We met another couple from Chicago that were visiting their twin boys. Wow .. all these folks adopting two children at once as first time parents. They are so brave ... or crazy ... but I'll keep thinking they are brave. They were very nice and were on their first trip and had just come from the notary where they signed their letter of intent to adopt. How exciting! (The photo: We're packing up to leave the baby home).

Our pick up trip went well. We stopped by a grocery store and picked out various baby foods. We purchased a cake, some coffee and some tea to leave with the number 5 ladies to thank them for their support of Mia. We helped the caregivers change her into a cute outfit. Yes, it's pink of course! The poor caregivers were trying to put her pink sweater under her cute top which might explain why she looked so poorly dressed at times. Perhaps they just don't understand our fashions. They helped me put cute barettes in her hair and we topped off the outfit with a coat (this is Russia after all) and a pink hat (not wooly though). She looked too cute. And it's a good thing that she looked cute because we were whisked away to have her visa and passport photos done. Fortunately her outfit wasn't some crazy crocheted number like Sasha's but I will say she looked more like a child of the U.S. than a child of Russia. (The photos - Mia and I saying farewell to Baby Home #14 and getting ready for our journey to our apartment).

We're attempting to put Mia to bed at the moment. Like all children she doesn't want to go to sleep and she's struggling with the new environment. She's a cute girl ... more later.