Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Court Day

Well we have been waiting on this day for a long time.

The past few days we have had trouble sleeping, at least I have. Amy is sleeping but tossing and turning at night. We have just been waiting on a day that sometimes we thought would never get here. We both woke early this morning. Amy decided to exercise to waste some time and to help with all the sweets we have been eating. We had a quick breakfast of oatmeal and a banana. We were dressed in our suits and ready to roll at 9:30 this morning. Sergei and Svetlana picked us up and we met Lena at Svetlana’s office go over the particulars of the court date.

We got to the court house right before 11:00 and waited on the judge to finish a previous case and we started at 11:20. We walked into a small court room with the judge’s bench up front, a podium in the middle and benches on either side of the podium. The judge was already seated when we walked into the courtroom. The plan was that I would speak first about our reasons to adopt, why we came to Kaz, why we chose Azamat, and our bonding process. Instead of the judge addressing me first, she addressed Amy. This totally blew everything that we had prepared and startled both of us. But Ams stepped in like a trooper and took the lead. The judge asked us about our decision to adopt from Kazakhstan, about the bonding period, and the first time that we saw Azamat. After the judge was finished asking questions the prosecutor asked us about our income. Everything went great. Then, Nina (lady from the Guardianship of Care) and Dr. Hope (Azamat’s doctor from the baby house) both testified about Azamat, his history and how they both thought that we were a good match and suggested the judge grant our full petition for adoption. The prosecutor had just a couple of questions and he also approved of the petition based upon our home study and the testimony provided today. The judge took a 25 minute recess and came back with the ruling. The ruling was that she approved our petition for adoption. She also approved our petition to move his birth city to Pavlodar and to change his name to William Rama Azamat Hall. Also, she said that her decision would be in full authority on June the 6th. This is the typical 15 day waiting period for appeals. No need to appeal this decision.

We had a few pictures taken in front of the orphanage with our lawyer Svetlana, translator Lena, Dr. Hope and Nina. It was a great morning. After court we went to Svetlana’s office to discuss the second half of the period and our plans to return home. The entire process took about 2 hours. Not too bad. I slipped next door and bought a bottle of champagne and some candy to celebrate the wonderful occassion. Svetlana set out some really good candy from France. They toasted us and we thanked them for all their hard work. We would not have made it through this without them. They were both wonderful.

It was truly a great beginning to the end of our adoption process.

To continue the celebrations we are going with Tanya and her boyfriend to see Shrek 3, in Russian, and to enjoy some caramel popcorn and the laughs.

Thanks to everyone who has kept us in your prayers or thought about us over this long journey. We are finally seeing a large light, that looks like Memphis, at the end of our tunnel. We also could not have made it through this without our faith in God. He has truly blessed us in so many ways.

We will visit with Az everyday until we come home and it looks like we will be coming home around Fathers Day Weekend. What a great present.

With much Love, David, Amy and William Rama Azamat Hall