Court Date, July 30th - Day 20

Yesterday was our court date.  We spoke to several different folks who had already appeared in court, read blog posts about it, and prepared for it the best we could.

Our facilitators met us at the house where we are staying at 9:15 a.m., and we followed them to the disctrict where we were to appear in court.  We arrived about 11:45 and were scheduled to be in the court room at noon.  The  judge was out and we were told that we may have to wait a bit for her to be available.

While we waited, we were introduced to our translator and found out that he had put a rush on translating some documents regarding our state's adoption laws that were requested by the judge.  We are thankful for "R", and his willingness to quickly put in the extra work that was asked for.  Without his  extra efforts, we would have waited at least another month to get our bonding date.

As it turned out, we were brought into the courtroom right at about noon.  After some preliminaries such as reading the purpose for the court appearance, the judge asked me some questions.

1)  Why did I want to adopt?
2)  Why did we choose Poland?
3)  Did I feel that the bonding was going well?
4)  How are our other children responding to their new sister?
5)  Did I want to continue with the adoption?
6)  What name do I want DD to have?

Then she asked Mark questions 1,2,3, and 5 from the above list.  She also asked him for confirmation about his salary and if any changes had been made to our financial situation since our information was submitted.

The Courthouse 

Our judge was very patient as "R" interpereted for us, and we are thankful for her kindness.

Twenty-five minutes later we were directed to wait in the hall while the judge made her decision regarding the adoption.  We were prepared for a court time anywhere between one and three hours, and the look on Sasha's face when we walked out less than thirty minutes later was priceless. :D

Less than ten minutes later, we were brought back into the courtroom, and the judge ruled that DD is ours. :)  We were told that our appeal time will be three weeks and were dismissed to wait for a short time in the hallway for a copy of the judge's decision. We checked over the information there to be sure it was accurate and headed for our vehicles and home at about one o'clock.

Everyone was hungry, but familiar options for "grab and go" food is limited, so we waited until we were close to home before grabbing McDonald's for a late lunch/early dinner.

We ate and since no day is complete right now without it, guess where we went?  You got it - the park! Everyone was cooped up in the car for several hours and needed to burn off some energy.

 Riding is hard work too, so we headed for bed a short time later.  We were all exhausted and DD actually let us sleep in until 6:35 this morning (Friday).  Woohoo!