Well rested again

Whew! What a day yesterday. (And what a great feeling it is to have slept all night last night). Katie and I were commenting how these adoption trips (now that we've taken 2 of these) result in a indescribable feeling of "tired and hungry". Our bodies do very strange things when we don't sleep, don't eat much and our days and night flip-flop on us. Not to mention a high amount of cortisol (stress hormone) that our bodies are producing.

My point is that I really understand why blog writers go AWOL during the most important parts of their adoption. But NOT ME. This blogger will persevere!

So, here's my take on court day:

We left at 6:45am (after not sleeping all night - as I've mentioned a few times). We drove for 3 hours across wide open Siberia. The roads were actually pretty good. Four lanes in parts, and two lanes in other parts. Except for the potholes, it didn't feel too much different than driving across I-80 to North Platte. (Katie is reading over my shoulder and telling me that she disagrees. She wants to add that the SMELL wasn't the same, nor was the structural scenery. i.e. their houses and buildings look a little rough).

It is worth commenting (and I mean no disrespect) that Russia SMELLS different. The bottom line is that the air has a permanent "flavor" of smoke and exhaust. The smokers are everywhere. In the buildings, on the street, in the stores.... come to think of it, Zac's baby home is the ONLY place that that we've been that has not smelled like smoke. The exhaust... well, that obviously comes from the cars and factories.

Anyway, we got to Kemerovo (which seems much more developed then Novokuznetsk even though they are the same sized city - 600,000) and drove for about 1 hour before we finally pulled up to the court building.

The tension began to mount and we found ourselves walking down to a basement courtroom. We sat down on some chairs and waited for the judge to come. We saw the judge along with the prosecutor, social worker, scribe and one other random girl that who we never figured out walk down the hall and enter our courtroom. D&A quickly shot up and said they wanted to go first - which was fine with us. We passed the time by telling awkward jokes and pacing around. In truth, we were feeling quite peaceful. (Thank you all for your prayers!)

To our surprise, D&A emerged from the courtroom after a mere 20 minutes. They were parents! So now it was our turn. We walked in and I was surprised to see an actual courtroom. I was under the impression that it would be nothing more than a simple room with a cardtable and 3 chairs. I was quite wrong. We entered a large courtroom with approximately 8 rows of benches. Of course there was the large elevated judges platform and a long desk going down the front of the room for the other participants. The biggest surprise was the caged cell quarters large enough to hold approximately 8 to 10 criminals. Apparently, they hear all types of trials in their courts. We were later laughing about how it might be difficult to be objective in a hearing with the defendants behind bars. Anyone looks guilty in that condition.

Anyway, we quickly got going with the trial. The questions were pretty much as expected. Most of the questions were just double checking facts. (Name, address, etc.) I found that about 75% of the questions were directed at me (the man) and the other 25% were to Katie. All the questions were quite easy to answer. After about 20 minutes, they told us to wait outside for a verdict. We walked out of the room and took a deep breath. Within about 10 seconds (I'm not exaggerating) they told us to come back in. They told us that the adoption was granted immediately and that the 10 days had been waived. Yea! Katie and I both let out a tear or two. It was finally complete.

People began quickly filing out. We thought perhaps it would be nice to get a picture with the judge, but unfortunately, she did not share the same thoughts. So we simply walked out and went back upstairs.

This begins part 2 of the day. This was something that we were not prepared for. I don't recall any bloggers talking much about this "2nd half" of court day. After yesterday, I know why too. The "secret 2nd half of court day" is not fun. It involves waiting, waiting.... more waiting.... followed by some ....waiting. And then we waited. Do you get the picture? I'm not even sure what we were doing most of the time, but I know that I spent a lot of time waiting in various government offices. The funny part is that only myself and D (the male half of D&A) had to do this amazingly fun task. The women, on the other hand, had the "easier" task of sitting in a cafe for 3 1/2 hours all the while listening to Russian Disco music in the background. Katie described it as "worse than Gitmo torture" The intent was that they wouldn't have to "wait" like the men. The irony was that that's all they were doing. Waiting. So basically, by the end of the day (5:30ish) the whole crew was really tired of waiting.

We were all exhausted. But the day wasn't quite over. We had to begin the 3 hour trip home. (Which unfortunately turned into a 4 hour drive as a result of a grocery trip and 2 smoke breaks from our driver).

A long day, but what a great day it was! The journey has been awesome and I wouldn't trade a thing.

Today, of course, is the REALLY BIG DAY. Gotcha Day. I'm realizing that we're going to go get him in 2 hours! Holy Cow! I'm so excited.

Last note: I've changed the blog back to public. Tell your friends!