March 15th- Beware the Ides of March!! Those were Mike's words when we first found out our court date. I'm not a very superstitious person, but I admit I was just an eensy weensy bit on edge. But so far all had been going well on our trip and I wasn't really feeling nervous at all about going to court.
We get up around 6:45 AM to get showered and ready to head down for breakfast, allowing ourselves plenty of time before our meeting with our facilitator at 9:00 AM just before heading to court. I showered, got dressed, and then all of a sudden... I felt HORRIBLE. Lots of abdominal pain. I felt hot and sweaty all of a sudden. I went to use the bathroom.
Sitting there a few seconds (sorry for all this bathroom talk) I started feeling extremely light headed, nauseous, and like I wasn't getting enough oxygen. As hard as I was breathing, I felt like I was suffocating. I start having dry heaves. If I had anything in my stomach it would have been gone, but you may recall we really had nothing much at all to eat the day before.
I can't sit up any longer. I make my way back out to the bed and collapse- trying to catch my breath. Mike asks if I'm ok and I shake my head no. I can barely talk. My hands and feet are all tingly. I'm thinking to myself- is this my nerves?? I really didn't think I was that nervous! Why is this happening to me? This has never happened to me! Then the abdominal pain kicks back in. Gotta get back in the bathroom.
Sit there a couple seconds and all the same feelings come back. Can't breathe. Nauseous. Light headed. Must. Lay. Down. Make my way back to the bed.
How in the world am I going to get myself out of this hotel room let alone downstairs for our meeting or to COURT??? There is just no way I can do this. I had visions of Mike going down to meet our facilitator, bringing her up to the room, and calling an ambulance to take me to the hospital.
After laying there a couple minutes, I decide to try to eat a peanutbutter cracker. Maybe if I ate something I would feel a little better since I only ate a couple protein bars yesterday along with a couple other little snacks here and there- nothing at all substantial. Though with my abdominal pain, the last thing I really wanted to do was eat. But I did.
After one cracker I felt a little better so I went ahead and ate another. Sat up in bed for a couple minutes to see if I could tolerate sitting up now. Then decide I'm ok to go downstairs for breakfast. I really needed to eat.
We go down to the breakfast buffet and I put a few bland things on my plate- a blini (very thin pancake), a couple pieces of potato, a slice of bread. I take a small bite and the abdominal pain is coming back. It's worse. I only stomach a few bites of food and have to get back up to our hotel room. Finally (sparing the details) I felt much better. Not 100%- stomach still had it's issues, but I at least felt like I could function. We go downstairs for our meeting.
After Mike practiced his speech (we didn't have time to get through mine) and reviewed some possible questions from the judge, we headed out. Court was a few blocks away- I didn't realize how close it was, nor that we would be walking. So glad I didn't plan to wear heels! The sidewalks were covered in thick bumpy ice- the walk was a bit treacherous, but we made it. Go through the security scanners, walk into the quiet court room, and wait.
The two social workers we saw at our visit the day before were seated on the left side and we sat to the right- our translator seated between Mike and I, and our facilitator directly behind. After a few minutes the prosecutor walks in and takes her place. Our translator leans over and whispers to me, "She is a good one. She doesn't usually ask a lot of questions." One little sigh of relief! My stomach is still churning. Praying I make it through.
The judge enters from a staircase behind her seat and we rise. All the official stuff- rules of the court, introduction of the court staff. Mike is then instructed to go to the podium and make his speech. I was so nervous for him, knowing how anxious he has been, but he did a GREAT job. Got a little emotional toward the end, but kept it together. He shared a photo book containing photos of the three other children with DS who were adopted from this region- the judge seemed very interested in these photos, flipping through the album a few times. He shared a photo book I made on Shutterfly containing photos of us, our family, our home inside and out, and photos from our first trip visiting Lina. He also shared photos of her decorated bedroom. After his speech, the judge asked him some questions, and then the prosecutor asked a couple questions. All questions asked were questions our facilitator had prepared us for, so he was very confident in his answers and didn't hesitate at all.
After Mike's turn it was then mine. When I got to the podium I got really nervous a quick second, took a deep breath, and began. Once I started talking I felt more at ease, though the judge was making a LOT of eye contact with me and I was trying to keep my look of cool, calm, collected, confident, and caring. When Mike spoke, she was busy looking through our court documents and photo books he presented, so she didn't make too much eye contact with him. I had all her attention. Toward the end of my speech I shared a couple photos of the kids holding pictures they made for Lina- one being the footprint butterflies they made to decorate her room.
The judge seemed really touched by this- she even motioned to the prosecutor to come look. She didn't offer any of our other photos or albums to the prosecutor, but she wanted her to see this. :)
She then asked me a few questions after I was finished speaking, and the prosecutor asked one or two questions. Again, pretty much all questions we had been prepared for, so I too was very confident in my answers and spoke without hesitation. My turn done. Whew.
Next, the social worker from the orphanage got up and spoke, reflecting on our visits as well as describing Lina and her development. She was extremely supportive of our adoption in every statement she made. The judge asked her a few questions, and then the social worker from the government agency got up and gave her speech. She too was fully supportive of our adoption. The judge asked her a few questions, and then it was the prosecutor's turn to speak.
The prosecutor was also fully supportive in her speech! She explained that with all the opportunities available in our home and in our community, this would be the best for Lina. She had not one negative thing to say. Praise God!! We were feeling pretty confident after her speech.
The judge then left for a brief recess. We asked our translator what she thought and she was confident we should have a good result. During the recess, the prosecutor got up and grabbed the photo books off the judge's desk and took them back to her own. She smiled as she flipped through all the pages. This totally warmed my heart. :) The judge showed no emotion at all on the outside, but I'm sure we struck a soft spot in there, especially with those butterflies! ;) After the prosecutor finished looking through them, she handed them back to us, but first the social workers wanted to see. :) So they had a peek too, also smiling.
The judge returned about 5 minutes later. She gave her decision. As soon as I heard her say (or heard our translator say ;) ) the adoption was approved- the tears started coming. I welled up and tried to contain myself as she continued speaking about all the legalities of the 30 day wait, of how her new birth certificate will be printed with the name Polina Mae Livingston as we had chosen. <3 Ecstatic. After she finished speaking, she left the room, and Mike, our translator, our facilitator, and I all embraced. Mike and I then hugged each other tight, both crying happy tears. We did it!! Lina is ours!!!
As we walked out of court, I looked at my watch- we hadn't been here but 2 hours. That is record FAST for court proceedings in this country! We had heard stories of other families sitting in court about 8 hours, and only the one family before us in this region who got through in three. It truly could not have gone any smoother. We are so blessed!!
We headed back to the hotel to take a breather, grabbed some dinner (the hotel restaurant was open this time, Hallelujah!!) and headed back to the train to begin our long journey home.
The scenery leaving Lina's region- much more remote than the big capitol city we came from...
We get up around 6:45 AM to get showered and ready to head down for breakfast, allowing ourselves plenty of time before our meeting with our facilitator at 9:00 AM just before heading to court. I showered, got dressed, and then all of a sudden... I felt HORRIBLE. Lots of abdominal pain. I felt hot and sweaty all of a sudden. I went to use the bathroom.
Sitting there a few seconds (sorry for all this bathroom talk) I started feeling extremely light headed, nauseous, and like I wasn't getting enough oxygen. As hard as I was breathing, I felt like I was suffocating. I start having dry heaves. If I had anything in my stomach it would have been gone, but you may recall we really had nothing much at all to eat the day before.
I can't sit up any longer. I make my way back out to the bed and collapse- trying to catch my breath. Mike asks if I'm ok and I shake my head no. I can barely talk. My hands and feet are all tingly. I'm thinking to myself- is this my nerves?? I really didn't think I was that nervous! Why is this happening to me? This has never happened to me! Then the abdominal pain kicks back in. Gotta get back in the bathroom.
Sit there a couple seconds and all the same feelings come back. Can't breathe. Nauseous. Light headed. Must. Lay. Down. Make my way back to the bed.
How in the world am I going to get myself out of this hotel room let alone downstairs for our meeting or to COURT??? There is just no way I can do this. I had visions of Mike going down to meet our facilitator, bringing her up to the room, and calling an ambulance to take me to the hospital.
After laying there a couple minutes, I decide to try to eat a peanutbutter cracker. Maybe if I ate something I would feel a little better since I only ate a couple protein bars yesterday along with a couple other little snacks here and there- nothing at all substantial. Though with my abdominal pain, the last thing I really wanted to do was eat. But I did.
After one cracker I felt a little better so I went ahead and ate another. Sat up in bed for a couple minutes to see if I could tolerate sitting up now. Then decide I'm ok to go downstairs for breakfast. I really needed to eat.
We go down to the breakfast buffet and I put a few bland things on my plate- a blini (very thin pancake), a couple pieces of potato, a slice of bread. I take a small bite and the abdominal pain is coming back. It's worse. I only stomach a few bites of food and have to get back up to our hotel room. Finally (sparing the details) I felt much better. Not 100%- stomach still had it's issues, but I at least felt like I could function. We go downstairs for our meeting.
After Mike practiced his speech (we didn't have time to get through mine) and reviewed some possible questions from the judge, we headed out. Court was a few blocks away- I didn't realize how close it was, nor that we would be walking. So glad I didn't plan to wear heels! The sidewalks were covered in thick bumpy ice- the walk was a bit treacherous, but we made it. Go through the security scanners, walk into the quiet court room, and wait.
The two social workers we saw at our visit the day before were seated on the left side and we sat to the right- our translator seated between Mike and I, and our facilitator directly behind. After a few minutes the prosecutor walks in and takes her place. Our translator leans over and whispers to me, "She is a good one. She doesn't usually ask a lot of questions." One little sigh of relief! My stomach is still churning. Praying I make it through.
The judge enters from a staircase behind her seat and we rise. All the official stuff- rules of the court, introduction of the court staff. Mike is then instructed to go to the podium and make his speech. I was so nervous for him, knowing how anxious he has been, but he did a GREAT job. Got a little emotional toward the end, but kept it together. He shared a photo book containing photos of the three other children with DS who were adopted from this region- the judge seemed very interested in these photos, flipping through the album a few times. He shared a photo book I made on Shutterfly containing photos of us, our family, our home inside and out, and photos from our first trip visiting Lina. He also shared photos of her decorated bedroom. After his speech, the judge asked him some questions, and then the prosecutor asked a couple questions. All questions asked were questions our facilitator had prepared us for, so he was very confident in his answers and didn't hesitate at all.
After Mike's turn it was then mine. When I got to the podium I got really nervous a quick second, took a deep breath, and began. Once I started talking I felt more at ease, though the judge was making a LOT of eye contact with me and I was trying to keep my look of cool, calm, collected, confident, and caring. When Mike spoke, she was busy looking through our court documents and photo books he presented, so she didn't make too much eye contact with him. I had all her attention. Toward the end of my speech I shared a couple photos of the kids holding pictures they made for Lina- one being the footprint butterflies they made to decorate her room.
The judge seemed really touched by this- she even motioned to the prosecutor to come look. She didn't offer any of our other photos or albums to the prosecutor, but she wanted her to see this. :)
She then asked me a few questions after I was finished speaking, and the prosecutor asked one or two questions. Again, pretty much all questions we had been prepared for, so I too was very confident in my answers and spoke without hesitation. My turn done. Whew.
Next, the social worker from the orphanage got up and spoke, reflecting on our visits as well as describing Lina and her development. She was extremely supportive of our adoption in every statement she made. The judge asked her a few questions, and then the social worker from the government agency got up and gave her speech. She too was fully supportive of our adoption. The judge asked her a few questions, and then it was the prosecutor's turn to speak.
The prosecutor was also fully supportive in her speech! She explained that with all the opportunities available in our home and in our community, this would be the best for Lina. She had not one negative thing to say. Praise God!! We were feeling pretty confident after her speech.
The judge then left for a brief recess. We asked our translator what she thought and she was confident we should have a good result. During the recess, the prosecutor got up and grabbed the photo books off the judge's desk and took them back to her own. She smiled as she flipped through all the pages. This totally warmed my heart. :) The judge showed no emotion at all on the outside, but I'm sure we struck a soft spot in there, especially with those butterflies! ;) After the prosecutor finished looking through them, she handed them back to us, but first the social workers wanted to see. :) So they had a peek too, also smiling.
The judge returned about 5 minutes later. She gave her decision. As soon as I heard her say (or heard our translator say ;) ) the adoption was approved- the tears started coming. I welled up and tried to contain myself as she continued speaking about all the legalities of the 30 day wait, of how her new birth certificate will be printed with the name Polina Mae Livingston as we had chosen. <3 Ecstatic. After she finished speaking, she left the room, and Mike, our translator, our facilitator, and I all embraced. Mike and I then hugged each other tight, both crying happy tears. We did it!! Lina is ours!!!
As we walked out of court, I looked at my watch- we hadn't been here but 2 hours. That is record FAST for court proceedings in this country! We had heard stories of other families sitting in court about 8 hours, and only the one family before us in this region who got through in three. It truly could not have gone any smoother. We are so blessed!!
We headed back to the hotel to take a breather, grabbed some dinner (the hotel restaurant was open this time, Hallelujah!!) and headed back to the train to begin our long journey home.
The scenery leaving Lina's region- much more remote than the big capitol city we came from...
We passed by a little town from time to time, but mostly just all snowy fields.
One of the many train stations we stopped at along the way
With a group of policemen congregating outside
After we arrived back to the capitol city and met our driver, we stopped for some breakfast since we were several hours early for our flight- train arrived at 6:30 AM and our flight departed at 12:35. When our driver asked if we wanted to stop, I took him up on the offer since I didn't want to chance going through what I went through the day before!
Some Baskin Robbins inside the cafe (no, we didn't eat any):
And chips which were part of our lunch on our flight
And of course we couldn't board our flight without just a little drama.... ;) We had plenty time to spare- arriving at the airport around 9:00 AM and had to wait for the airline counter to open before we could get checked in and go through security. Once they opened we got to the counter- as the girl is printing out our boarding passes she sees we were flagged for an extra security check at the gate. She was quite confused, saying to another woman behind the counter, "But they are American!?!" Apparently the TSA from the good ole US of A decided to choose us for extra security screening before we could board. Only us, right? Sheesh.
So we get through passport control and security, and head to our gate. After we are standing around for a while, a man starts bringing out all these large partitions and making a huge wall around the whole waiting area. After he gets it all set up, he makes everyone clear the area "for security purposes". Oh boy. All this for us? There was a smaller area sectioned off right by the doors leading to the ramp. The girl there had this odd looking scanning device and a bunch of plastic gloves. Yikes!! What in the world are we in for???
We make our way to the back of the line after they made everyone move out of the waiting area (we were right up front before, of course). Every single person had to have their carry on bags hand searched before they could board the plane. We weren't sure if this was standard procedure for a direct flight to the US since we had a layover in Germany on our first trip home, and had to go through separate security screens through that airport before we could board our connecting flight. But since Mike and I were flagged, we got to go to the "special" little area sectioned off with the scanner lady.
We first have to stand up and hold out our arms while she swipes sections of our skin with a small piece of paper. Then she inserts the paper into the scanner. She does the same, swiping each compartment of our bags, and thoroughly inspects our shoes. Oddly, she didn't really look into our bags searching for materials we weren't supposed to have, like the half empty bottle of hand sanitizer they swiped from someone else's bag. The scanner was used to detect explosive materials. Thankfully they didn't find any! LOL We weren't really concerned about this extra security check since we had nothing to worry about. There were two other people flagged on the flight as well that had to be searched. All seemed to go fine.
Goodbye, {snowy Eastern European country that shall not be named until we get our daughter home}.... We'll be back in a month- hopefully not as snowy! Can't wait to bring our baby girl HOME!!!
LOVE reading this, Amy!!!
ReplyDeleteyeah - can't wait until to hear about the next trip!
ReplyDeleteWhat an amazing story...many bumps in the road, but the end result is great. thank you for sharing in such great detail. We are a few steps behind you in the road. Found your blog through Jennifer Willis Blog hop. so glad I did. :)
ReplyDelete