Last night we called Aliya, one of our interpreters from last time… we talked with her for at least and hour… catching up and laughing about old times… It was such a good chat! We miss her… we were hoping to see her this time, but it just so happens that she works in Aksai which is another city… where the big oil company is. She works for one month and then is off one month… well this is her month to work! She comes back to Uralsk on August 8! Go figure!!!! But we are going to try to see her sister Assiya, and we can leave her a picture of us and stuff. We were pretty bummed that we won’t be able to see her!
This morning, we got up early and had pre-court at 10… more like 10:45… we waited in the lobby at the courthouse for 45 minutes! Typical, I hear. But it took only about 45 minutes in with the Judge. He is Kazakh looking, middle age, serious, but friendly enough. His desk was at one end of the table that we sat at… Jerry sat next to his on one side and the Baby House Director on the other side… then Olga and me next to Jerry and August, the Department of Education Inspector next to the BH director. Olga, our coordinator took Alex and they went to her house and played while we were in out meeting… Poor Misha was called by the police station to come there… so we had a different driver today! I hope they get Misha’s license to him! What a pain in the bahoney!!!!
Anyways…we sat there and he asked Jerry what city he was born in and if this was his first marriage, he asked if Gobles was the town we live in, what is the name of our company, and he looked over our passports and then our photo album. He asked about our shop… what is it? We brought him the photos we printed yesterday as well as a picture of our house and the baby’s room… but he asked if he could take other pictures from the book! Of course… he took the family picture we had done from Christmas, the living room, kitchen, dining room and then the picture of Jerry and Alex on the carousel at Disney in February . He also took the picture of Jerry’s parents as they are the current designated guardians for Anthony should something happen to us. Everyone was surprised he wanted so many pictures for the file! Usually they want maybe 6… he now has about 14! He asked how many rooms are in our house… 14… they are surprised by the number of rooms most adopting parents have. Our number includes 3 bathrooms and the furnace room… I don’t know if that is what they wanted, but that is what they got! :) Then he asked Jerry “why do you want to adopt?” Jerry was surprised he asked that today… jerry started listing reasons…We have been here before and we want to have a large family, Jerry was adopted so… blah blah blah… but forgot the main reason the judge wanted to hear. So the Judge asked for the main reason… then jerry remembered what he was supposed to say… “that for medical reasons, we have been able to have biological children…” Whether it is the truth or not, that is the main reason they want to hear… we don’t care… they can not believe that someone would want to adopt if they could have “their own children” here… so we comply… no problem. It is definitely believable… since we have been married 10+ years already! Then he went over the proceedings for court… Jerry will need to be able to tell the reasons for adoption, especially the main reason… :) and what we are asking for… to adopt Nurbek, change his name to Anthony Graham, keep his place of birth and birth date the same, but list us as his parents. And that we ask the court if they approve the adoption they also grant immediate execution… He basically told us everything we need to do in order to please the court tomorrow… that basically it was all a formality, and the prosecutor would be there. It sounded very much like he is on our side and that he is just there to make sure there is not reason why we should NOT adopt our baby… that was very reassuring. Maybe that will help us not be nervous… Then they discussed when we could have court and decided TOMORROW at 3pm!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Whoa!!! My heart started pounding!!!! That was about it and we left for home… we missed our morning visit with Anthony, I bet he was crying… poor caregivers!
My experience… I bought a new top to go with my skirt… well, I never sat down in it at the store… well when I sit… it gapes open at my chest… not that anyone else cares, because almost every other woman has the same thing, but it made me feel more nervous… maybe I will use a little safety pin tomorrow… just so I feel better! So for those coming after us… make sure nothing is gaping that you don’t want gaping… *sigh* I wish I could just wear my favorite turquoise shirt with my skirt! I feel so much better in that color!!
We came home and Alex was crying and crying, because he wanted to go back to Olga’s house and play with the kids there! We decided that he was tired and needed to go to bed. Poor kid. So he is sleeping as I type this!
So this means we will have court tomorrow afternoon… from 3-5 and then we will have to wait until Wednesday morning to go to the records office and get his birth certificate before we can go pick him up!!!! Woohoo!!!!!! That is going to be an awesome day!!! Hopefully he doesn’t decide to scream too much! Our poor neighbors!
Well if he does scream tomorrow night, it serves the neighbors right! It is 8:30 and some neighbors are pounding like mad with hammers near us… well right above Alex’s room… I hope they quit soon so he can go to sleep! Somebody was putting new bars on their windows today… maybe that is what they are working on.
When we got in the car, Olga our translator had brought us a bunch of vegetables from her garden. They looked really good.
So we went to visit Anthony this afternoon… while I was waiting for Olga to bring him to me… I stand outside his door so that as soon as she opens it and she turns… he can see me! As I was standing there, I could hear some baby in there screaming and screaming, I thought… could that be Anthony? No… I am sure not… well as Olga and I were walking down stairs.. I said that wasn’t Anthony in there screaming that whole time?” she shook her head and just said, “uh-huh.” Oh dear! I wonder what the problem was… he either had to leave his play and was mad, because there were no tears and his eyes weren’t even red when he came out, or he does not like changing his clothes… I am thinking the first! He was almost a different baby today… He was happy to see me and much less tense! He smiled so much easier today… he was content to just play nicely and he was talking a lot… flinging his arms around excitedly! It was funny… The judge’s son was supposed to come by, but he did not… so we just played. I read the God Loves You book many times… and he chewed like crazy on the crinkly stuff in the cloth book thing… he chewed on the vibrating teether. It was just a relaxing visit… we played a bunch with the cloth book… Then Jerry helped him stand up to the little bench that was sitting there… He seemed to really like that… I think he will like the JitterBuggy when we get home… It bounces and vibrates when you turn the key or put it “into gear”. Plus he will be able to stand up in it… I can hardly wait to get him home and show him all the fun things, and that he doesn’t need to throw a fit about a stupid toy again!! Although I know he will.
After our visit we headed to pick up a package at the post office that was sent to us from home. That was quite the process! It took like 20 minutes to get it! Then we stopped at the baby food store and picked up a couple things in preparation of Anthony coming home. Next we went to the seed store! That was funny! We couldn’t read anything in there so we needed to get ones with pictures so we would know what they are! Jerry picked them out and I took care of Alex, who was getting into trouble constantly! Before long it took him out to the car. He was grabbing at everything… Jerry picked up a ton of seed packets and only spent about $16!!! Each packet was only about 25 cents! It will be fun trying them over the next few years!
Then we came home and made dinner from the veggies that Olga brought us from her summer house. Oh my were they good… we had carrots, eggplant, cucumbers, peppers, and parsley, dill and garlic. We sautéed them with some butter… It was unbelievably good!!!! Even the eggplant and we have not always been huge fans of eggplant, only usually at Asian restaurants. Then we had some ramen noodle stuff. The carrots are the best carrots we have ever had and even taste good cooked… we only like out carrots raw around here too! :) We will ask Olga what kind of carrots they are tomorrow! The peppers she brought are a chartreuse green! They are very pretty and tasted like a regular green pepper… we think… we haven’t had one in a while now… I saved some seeds… :)
This evening we spent practicing our court stuff… we have to have a lot of stuff memorized this time… Jerry can’t even have notes for his speech. I think we are doing pretty good. We will practice some more tomorrow… it helps to stand up in front of each other and say our stuff. Ok we are going to bed so we are rested enough!
Our last night as a legal family of 3!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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