Wham Bam Thank You Ma'am

That basically sums up how court went! The judge said YES!!

We prepared our speeches the night before with our translator Ainura. Ceric picked us up and the apartment 15 mins prior to court. We met Ainura and Gulnara outside court and walked in together. We stood in a small very cold hallway for a few minutes and then were ushered into a room that was about the size of a small bedroom. Davis had been up since 4:00 and was sick and exhausted. We prepped him all morning about being quiet in court and behaving. We were more scared he would act up than the actual court case! The head orphanage Director, Meirambek (the guy from the Ministry of Education), Gulnara, Ainua and us were all in the room. The judge walks in fully robed and sits down. Then the prosecutor walks in. Ainura whispers to us that they don’t have a court room available so we will do the proceeding in this room! We all stood up, then sat back down. They were mumbling a lot in Russian. The judge asks if Davis was ours. He then asks Milon if he had visited the child. Then he asks me the same question. He asks Milon why we wanted to adopt a child. Milon answers. Then he asks me if Davis was excited about having a sister. Then he tried to ask Davis if he was excited but he got shy and wouldn’t answer. The judge jokingly waved his hand like forget it and carried on. Everyone got up and we left the room!! It was done, over, just like that!

It wasn’t until after the court that we got the full story. Apparently, Gulnara went to the judge earlier in the morning and expressed that it was her last case working for our agency. She had asked him to make sure that the court case went thru with no problems and was quick. Since the prosecutor was late (literally 1 minute late) the judge said he had to keep his questions to a minimum. Apparently, he is known for grueling families. I don’t think he had time to think of any questions to ask! It was very informal, very quick and to the point! We didn’t even know what had happened. I asked Ainura if it was over and she said yes and the judge approved! Wow…Leah is ours!

We took everyone out to lunch at a Turkish restaurant called Taksim to celebrate. Meirambek (the MOE guy who was very serious when we first met Leah) was extremely nice. He loved Davis. He was a former High School History teacher. He drew several pictures of super heroes and Kazakhstan symbols in a Spiderman notebook we brought. He also wrote in Kazakh “Davis! Be Happy! Don’t forget us! Meirambek February 25, 2009” Ainura translated it for him.

All of us at Lunch

Ceric and Davis

Ainura and Gulnara
So, there it is. Mostly said and done. Now we have to wait for the appeal period that lasts 15 days and on the 16th day Leah gets to finally leave the babyhouse and we all get to start our new life together as one big happy family!