I won’t keep you in suspense. Today was as good as yesterday was bad. The day got off to a good start because I was up early and got all clean and pretty while Diane and Jillian were still lazing around in their sleepwear. Sure enough Alona R’s guardians came busting through the door and sent them scrambling. They didn’t have Alona with them because she’s in Chernigiv with Uncle Wowza and family while she’s participating in some sports competition. Eventually Nastya showed up and we were all able to converse productively. It turns out Granny knows Julianna’s aunt and they had talked yesterday about the adoption. I guess small towns are the same everywhere. Granny reassured her that she knew us and we were a good family. Granny also told us that a fortune teller had told her that Alona would be rich but living in another country. The guardians told us they would be back to pick us up later and also that we would be going with them this weekend to pick up Alona. The LADA 1500 post traumatic stress disorder will be kicking in soon.
Nastya, myself and my two unbathed companions headed to the foster home to do some computer work. This is a really comfortable place to visit and Oksana feeds me lots of pastries and sugary tea so this place rates four stars on the Schors travel guide. Oksana was happy because up to this point she didn’t realize who we were adopting and she knew and liked Julianna. I was able to send some blog updates and Jillian sent her journal entries to her Senior Issues teacher. He was nice enough to cut her some slack for leaving early in exchange for reporting her travel experiences. It’s interesting to get her perspective. I think I’m funnier but she’s very insightful.
From here we went to pick up Julianna for Court Part 2. After yesterday’s fiasco we didn't know what to expect so the stress meter was pegged for all of us. Fortunately one of the Witnesses came by while we were waiting for Jerkov to show up and told Julianna that it was good and she had nothing to worry about. As long as I live I’ll never forget the look of pure joy that transformed her face. Diane and I were somewhat relieved but we wanted to hear it from the judge before celebrating.
We all entered the room and stood while the judge read a lengthy decree that summarized everything that happened yesterday (I could of summed it up with a couple of choice words but they didn’t ask me). Finally she got to the last statement granting our petition for adoption. The judge actually seemed very happy and the secretary started crying again so it was nice to see they cared. We all hugged Julianna and took some pictures with the officials we liked before we left the courthouse.
The prosecutor had given Nastya a note with his email address on it to give to Julianna so she could contact him when we abused her. Nastya gave it to me at the start of the official court proceedings and I immediately handed it to Julianna in full view of the court to show the prosecutor I wasn’t afraid to give her this power. After the court decree was read she walked up to the prosecutor and handed him the paper without a word and turned her back on him and walked away. Evidently she didn’t appreciate his insinuations about her family. Simply amazing.
After we left court to walk back to the orphanage she was actually jumping for joy. At one point she hugged me with her full strength and looked up into my eyes and said “I have a family now”. I told her “Not for long, you’re going to give me a heart attack”. Just kidding. Jillian told her she would have sisters to go shopping with and big brothers to protect her and scare the boys away. She was all smiles. I can’t wait for her to meet her other siblings.
We took a short break at the hotel and Nastya caught the bus back to Kiev. She’ll be back after the 10 day waiting period is over for the final court decree. There can be appeals during this waiting period but none are anticipated. Julianna has to stay at the orphanage during this time so we went over for our normal visit at 4:00 PM. This time we were in a different locked room adjacent to the entrance that has lots of plants and cultural artifacts.
Nadia was with us and Jillian spent most of the time working closely with her on a hemp bracelet. I was happy to see this as Nadia is a very hurt child and I worry about her when we take Julianna away. Julianna worked on some other crafts for a while but then she picked up an English book we had and told Diane she wanted to read to her. I’m not sure she understood everything she was reading but it was a difficult book and she did very well. I secretly videotaped her until she caught me and I had to stop. At one point Diane left the room to go outside and talk to her mom on the phone. Some of the boys must have been yelling something at Diane because Julianna was out of the room like a shot and let the boys know her thoughts. They stopped but she made Diane come back inside the room anyway. Feeling a little protective of her new mom I guess. We left just as they were unlocking the front door to let the kids outside to “play”. This was the first time I really got a sense of the large number of kids that are here. I wish we could do more.
G & G showed up soon after our return to the hotel. We bounced down the road and dropped Granny off at what appeared to be a random location. Maybe the fortune teller told her to get out there. We continued on to Alona’s school and Jillian was able to get a few pictures. Next we stopped by the farm to take care of the animals. We watched as Grandpa put the chickens away for the night and did other assorted chores. Granny showed up with the cows so evidently she had a reason for falling out of the car. They put the cows in the ramshackle shed and Granny started milking. Jillian was surprised that milk came from cows. She wasn’t too happy when I explained why they had pigs. I asked her where she thought her ham sandwich came from? The cow stepped in the bucket of milk so Granny wasn’t a happy camper. This didn’t stop them from serving it to us at dinner though. I thought it was really good but Diane wasn’t going to chance it and secretly changed glasses with me after mine was gone. I was tempted to switch back and ask her loudly how she liked her milk while pointing at her full glass but I wanted to sleep in peace that night so drank it down myself.
We were really tired and the communication barrier was making things very tough. Finally I asked if we could go back to the hotel but it turned out the car was gone with grumpy son Roma so we sat around awkwardly for quite a while. About the only successful communication we had all night was when I dropped my bread in my drink and Diane was able to compare me to the cow stepping in the bucket of milk. I’m not sure how she did it but they got it and thought it was pretty funny.
Sorry for the verbosity but it was a full day. Full and awesome.
1 comment:
What a great day! LMBO at the cow. DIane's trick also comes in handy with the vodka, btw. Maybe not so much WADKA in Ukraine...nah...WADKA!
Post a Comment