Kazakhstan Court

This is Kevin posting... since the courts here require the man to do all the speaking, I'll do the update on how court went. Teresa only had to answer - "Do you agree with what your husband says?"... if only things were like that at home! :)

We were surprised to have court so fast, but glad that we'd be able to get it done. It was set for Friday at 2 PM. I was a little nervous. Just the fact that it's a court, it's a big step, and I didn't want to mess up, since it was all on me. We got there on time, but our facilitator didn't get there until 2:15... which made us a little nervous, since she had our petition translated into Russian. Finally, she showed up and we went into court at 2:19. It was really more of a big conference room, with the judge's desk at the end, facing the middle. We just took 3 conference chairs and sat in front of him (with our interpreter). I had to stand this time, but thankfully I could take notes. I had to say what we asking the court to do (adopt, change their names, keep their place and date of birth, and register us as the parents of the children). I then had to make the case on why we should have immediate execution (not wait another 15 days).

I have to say, even though the doctors told us what they'd say, it's not good to hear them say our kids have "serious diseases" and "need immediate medical attention". But healthy babies aren't allowed to be adopted. So while our kids are fine, they had to say all the things that they have, including "respitory infection". So I went through that as the reason for immediate excecution. During the whole process, the judge didn't really pay a lot of attention, occassionally just asking the questions he was supposed to ask. He even checked his email a couple of times.

At the end I did a little speech, which wasn't much, but obviously, the judge didn't want a 15 minute dissertation. We apparently had a new prosecutor, who normally (we heard) recommends that couples don't get immediate execution. In fact, one of the couples we met went to court the previous day, and he recommended that they didn't get it (the judge still gave it to them). This couple was getting a 6 year old boy who actually did need some minor surgery, AND they had 3 kids at home who wanted to see them. So we were quite surprised to see that they prosecutor recommended both the adoption and the immediate execution. Perhaps he didn't know he could support. At one point the prosecutor started to stand up to make his recommendation, and the judge sternly said "Nyet, Nyet" and waved him down. Everything has to be in order....

So after all that, the judge gave his decision approving the application for adoption, and in granting immediate execution. At 2:46 on December 9th, 2005 we became parents of two kids!

Meanwhile, our travel partners were freaking out. Because of the delay of our coordinator, their driver was told that he didn't need to pick them up for another 15 minutes. Except no one told them that. They were scheduled for 2:30 court... and kept wondering where he was. They made calls to the interpreter who tried to find the driver. Apparently, someone tried to call them, but the phone lines in the court were busy (meaning, the phone network wasn't working, which isn't that uncommon). Eventually they were picked up and there in plenty of time. Their court went good as well - Troy & Paula Ford are now the parents of Carter Ford.

We came back home, and changed, then had to go and sign the official birth certificate and more paperwork to get their passports signed. We then came back home for an hour. Troy, Teresa and I celebrated by drinking a Balticka 9 - it's a popular beer here that is very smooth and light. The 9 references alcohol content - so it was quite strong. In fact, Teresa had maybe 6 ounces and was buzzed (of course, she usually doesn't drink beer).

Our travel partners and us then went to dinner with our interpreter Aliya, and our drivers Igor and Phillipich (Olga, our facilitator, was supposed to go, but got held up doing paperwork). We went to the Pushkin hotel - more on this place in a minute. It was a very fancy place, and had great food. It was great to hear stories from our drivers, who have lived in Uralsk their whole lives. Unfortunately for Aliya, she had to interpret and eat, but she did a great job. It really made us reflect that people are good wherever you are, and that it's easy to enjoy a meal with people regardless of their background. The drivers said they were told to hate America during the Cold War, but they were happy now to see how great Americans were as they help on this process. Our driver said that he's driven for 33 couples, and 57 children - we were surprised that so many had gotten multiple kids. We thought were the only crazy ones to adopt 2 kids!

One funny moment came as we tried to explain the plot of the film "Red Dawn" to them. They looked at us like we were crazy as we said Russians invaded Colorado (coming in on commercial airliners), and with the help of Cubans took over America. The only thing that saves America was teenage boys. They thought it must have been the government who came up with such a patriotic movie. Unforuntately, no, just a bad movie. Of course, we all agreed that we loved the movie when were were teenagers.

Regarding the Pushkin - we found out a few days ago that they have a special for adoption couples. It's a rate that is only a little more than what we're paying for the apartment, but we get free internet, free breakfast, a real shower, English TV stations, free laundry, and half off of all meals (including the one last night). So it's a great deal for adopting families - in fact, the other 3 couples who just arrived are moving there. So we decided that we'll move over for the rest of our time in Uralsk (which is until the 16th). With 2 kids, it'll be nice to have more comfort, plus having the restaurant and room service will be very helpful. We're going over there today (Saturday), and we fly to Almaty on Friday.

While we were hoping to go home early because of the early court (we initially thought we had court on the 14th), it doesn't look like it'll happen. Why? We have no idea. We've asked many times, but can't get a good answer. The best we can figure is that Kazakhstan independence day is December 16 & 17, and offices are closed on the 16th and 19th (4 day weekend!), so stuff won't get done. If not for that, we *think* we'd go home early. Oh well. We're still on track for the 23rd, as anticipated.

We have to have the baby house director OK taking the kids home, so we couldn't do it today or Sunday, so we'll take them home on Monday. We can still do our visits twice a day though, which is good. We'll have our "party" with the caregivers on Monday, and give them our gifts, then bundle up the kids and take them back home. While we wanted to be able to take the kids, it's probably OK as it gives us time to get set up and get some baby food and other items for them. So come Monday, we'll have to figure out this whole parenting thing!