The day of court..

         Monique and I woke from a rough night sleep.  We haven't spoke much about it but she was uncomfortable with pain in her hip and concerns for the safety of her new children  and I woke up a lot with worries of court and financial pressures.  I don't know what it is about the night time but it seems to be the greatest point of attack on us lately.   Worries of the unknown and fear for the safety of your kids.  Funny thing, these two kids we didn't know anything about or worried about three weeks ago,except for a few occasions in which God prompted us into prayer, now occupy a significant amount of our prayer and worries.  Parental rights have kicked in.  
         Nadia has arrived by train this morning and is out shopping for an appropriate outfit for court.  There is a relative calm and quite as all of us are in our own worlds preparing for today's court.  Having no idea as to what will be the outcome,  there is the concern of the unknown. Will it go well, what will the questions be, will there be an unknown surprise or delay?  The last three weeks and a year of preparation hinges on this day or at least that's the way it feels.  We have been squeezed into this week and the last appearance before the court on Friday.  We hope this will be a blessing and the judge just wants to get us done and head off to her weekend.  It's actually quite a blessing we got in so soon.  Nadia told me she was concerned we might of ended up in court the following Friday.  I am very happy about that not happening.  As I  was saying it's mellow here as we are all dressed and watching the clock tick toward 1:30 when our driver will pick us up to go to our much anticipated 3:00 court appearance.  There is a great scene in Chariots of Fire where all these great athletes are in the locker room, having worked most of there life to this moment in time and they all know only one will take the gold.  I imagine that they are thinking of all they have sacrificed to get here,  letting down those who are rooting for them, and I am sure a little fear enters in at times of the what if I fail thoughts.  It's a very surreal and melancholic moment in the movie as there is a winner and many losers.  The real truth is they are all winners, having given it all to obtain greatness, they stand among the greats.  In a moment we will know if the prize will be within our eager and longing arms or still just out of reach.  As so many greats have done  before, we leave our apartment and head to court.  If God be for us, who can be against us.....
         We arrived with a half an hour to spare and like two other times the electricity is out.  We have been escorted out of the building to wait outside.  As I was sitting there in the shade of a tree and enjoying the cooling breeze I realized we were able to wait comfortably outside rather than like others who have had to wait in a cramped dark hallway because of the freezing winter conditions outside.  Finally, while waiting for what seems an eternity and with fear that court will be postponed, the lights come back on and we are escorted into court room.  Our group of four has now grown to eight:   A representative from the orphanage, social worker and two jury members all talking with each other.  This all seems a bit strange to me.  We briefly meet our judge and she stands out like a beautiful  gem set in a scrarched stainless steel setting.  She is in her 30's, upright,  dignified and posses a professional demeanor about herself.  She is a stark contrast to the lime green painted concrete wall, cheap linoleum flooring, old desks, pad less pews and iron bard jail cell on the side of the room.  The entire government building is painted  light royal blue and the concrete path entrance is the worst condition of concrete I have seen yet on an occupied building.  She is properly robbed and wearing her insignias of authority.  We all rise as she enters and sit as directed.  There is no air conditioning and the occasional fly buzzes past us.  Court starts with the usual questions.  What is our name, were do we live, why do we want to adopt, why Ukraine, what do our children think of adoption, how will we integrate our children into America and what do we like to do in our spare time.  She read us our rights and proceeded to read out loud every document in our dossier and all Ukrainian documents associated to our case.  We have seemed to have won her favor from the beginning as well as the two jury members and the occasional smile is directed our way.  Everyone is very pleasant to us.  The whole process seemed to take an hour and a half.  Then we are asked if we have any more questions and they leave for final disscussion on the matter.  When they arrive back we are read another lengthy document with the final results of our favorable acceptance as parents of Daniel and Lydia Green.  We were asked one more time if we still wanted to adopt and I stood and said "I was absolutely positive" with a big smile of thanks and appreciation.  Monique stood and and agreed with me and finished with a "We are anxious to bring them home".  The judge smiled and said something official and it was over.  I turned to Monique smiled, hugged her and we kissed our congratulations to each other.  We still have a ten day waiting period but the battle and rush to complete this adoption before the SDA closing is over!  
        Now we rush to get home and pack for early morning drive to the town Daniel is at camp in.  We need to find a cheap apartment for the next ten days....,