April 8, 2010 - COURT DAY!!!!!

The picture is of me with the Judge from court this morning!!
What a glorious day today was!!! We had court and couldn’t have asked for things to go better. We had a wonderful judge and the whole process was fairly quick and simple. I was there with my facilitator, the judge, the prosecutor, the court reporter, two jurors, and the “guardian/inspector” (in US he would be called a guardian ad litem), also Ira and the director of the orphanage were there. We were supposed to start court at 9:00am but started court about 10:15 and were finished about 11:10. I was granted permission to adopt and the official name change was made. We have a 10 day waiting period now and that will be over on Sun. April 18. We should be leaving this area on Monday morning, the 19th, and if all goes well will be flying home the following weekend!
I can’t begin to express all the emotions I felt this morning while in court. It was truly an amazing thing to experience. I was so proud to see Ira stand there and answer all the questions that the judges asked of her. She was strong and secure in her answers. I had a series of questions that I had to answer as well – they were all fairly basic. The judge was very friendly and she was very pro – adoption.
When she had finished the court hearing, she and the two jurors left the courtroom and went into what was called the “deciding” room. They were back there about 5 minutes, then they came back out and the judge read her decision allowing me to adopt. She read the entire decree with all the rules and legal information. Then we were done. By then I was in tears of happiness and relief. Ira had already left w/ the orphanage director. The courtroom then cleared out except for Dima, the judge and I. I then was introduced to the judge – she was so very friendly and supportive. She was happy for this adoption, was pleased to hear all the wonderful things that the orphanage director had told her about Ira and me and our relationship. She wished us luck and said she was not worried about this adoption. She then allowed me to take some pictures of the courtroom and of her at her bench. It was one fantastic morning. I feel so relieved this afternoon!! I am tired but in a good way – the stress feels like it is slowly leaving my body!