The Judge Said Yes!

Oh, what a day! We woke up around 9 am! It was nice to finally being able to sleep and recover from only sleeping 3 or 4 hours in the last 2 days - talk about insomnia! We repacked few things and got ready the bags that we are leaving here in Kaluga and at noon we finally headed out for some shopping! I wanted to buy few more little Father Frosts that we bought in January, but the souvenir store didn't have any! O well, we found other cool things instead!

At 1:30 we were picked up and taken to the court. We were told that our appearance was at 2:30 but at 2 pm we were requested to enter the courtroom and the judge came in a few minutes later. People introduced themselves, including us, and the judge read some formalities. What kind of surprised us was that apparently "we" (our agency team in Kaluga) requested the 10 days to be waived and a witness (one of the doctors of the baby home) was going to testify in that regard. Our translator looked at us and just said "let's keep your fingers crossed" with a smile, but we were a bit petrified with the possibility of having the 10 days waived!

For an hour or so we were asked several questions; Mark took the first 3 or 4 and then I got the rest. Then it was the turn of the social worker who supported the petition to have the 10 days waived, then it was the representative of the government office (like the MOE in Moscow,but here is a different office) and then it was the turn of the witness.

Oh my, the doctor (deputy pediatrician at the baby home) got grilled with questions to clarify if there was an urgent medical need that granted waiving 10 days. Our daughter has a heart condition that needs to be monitored and if the issued does not resolved by itself by the time she is 5 years old, she will need a surgery. That's what we were told at the baby home and by Dr Togoyev. Well, a cardiology surgeon from Moscow was requested to examine our daughter (it was requested by the baby home doctor) and supposedly only he (or someone with his credentials) could say if an "urgent" surgery is necessary or not, but his visit would probably happen after she has left the baby home. So, the witness at the end just washed her hands and didn't really make a strong case to support the waiver of the 10 days.

At last it was the district attorney's turn, who supported our petition to adopt Nina, but not to waive the 10 days. While she was talking we decided to pass to the judge the album with pics of Nina and few other of us as a family, where Diego looks super cute (as usual!). I was surprised that we had not been asked for the album and I am glad we took the chance and passed it - we got few smiles from the judge!

This is getting long, hum? Well, the judge only took 20 minutes to deliberate and then she came back to tell us that the adoption petition was granted and the 10 days were NOT! That's OK, we tried, but the whole ordeal took 2 hours!!!

After all these, we got to the hotel, changed clothes, got a bite to eat and then went back to the baby home! We were so tired and the visit went well, but we were just exhausted, but HAPPY!

And now, few more sneak peeks!