Sweet Fancy Moses!

It’s (somewhat) official. We were approved by the court today to adopt William Roscoe Sandlin and Miriam Helena Sandlin, hereafter known as Lena ‘n’ Dub. We got to court just before our scheduled appointment of 10am. It was a small room with a desk for the judge, and a table on either side- one for the prosecutor and one for the Guardian Council Representative and for the Director of Umit Baby Home. We sat on benches between the two. There is no air conditioning at all, they never open windows here, and we were all dressed up – Kev in a dress shirt and coat and me in a dress and short jacket. We were both just dripping sweat – Kevin’s face was purple from the heat and he had to keep mopping his brow. We killed some time chatting with the Morin family. Then they were told to go outside and wait in the hallway. Then we waited some more. And then after we were done waiting, we waited some more. Around 11:15am the judge finally comes in and we start the proceedings. He asked the usual questions of both of us – name, DOB, birthplace, workplace. Then he questioned us individually. He asked Kevin the big questions like “Why are you adopting?” “Why 2 kids?” “Why Kazakhstan?”

Then the BIG question: “Have you ever been arrested?” *Gulp* “Yes.” “Please explain.” So we spent 10 minutes on why Kevin was arrested at age 18 (their records said he was 16) for possession of alcohol by a minor. They wanted to know why it didn’t show up on our background checks – because the records were expunged after 6 years. “Why isn’t there a record the record being expunged?” In our dossier we included a notarized letter from Conyers Police Dept. stating that the record was expunged. I guess something got lost in the translation.

Then he grilled me on why I can’t have a baby (medically unknown reasons). “Are you sure you can raise 2 kids?” (heck, no I’m not sure- but of course I didn’t tell HIM that!) “Perhaps it would be better if you adopted only one child.” My heart stopped. If he were to tell me I could only have one and I had to choose, I would have lost it. My future life passed in front of my eyes- would I throw myself on the floor kicking and screaming? Would I lunge at him to attack and get arrested never to see Lena ‘n Dub or USA ever again? Can I strangle with my bare hands? Could I do a proper Jack Bauer imitation?!? What would I be willing to do to get him to give me both kids? Blessedly, that question was sufficed with “Yes, we are sure we want to adopt these 2 children!”

Then the director gave her schpeel and then the guardian council representative gave hers. The judge spent about 20 minutes reading something out loud, and then we were told to wait outside. Everyone cleared the room so he could consider the case (or was he really doing shots of vodka and having a smoke?). Either way, he called us back in and read for another 20 min then it was declared that we were approved.

We were never given the chance to even ask for the 15 days to be waived. Just congrats and goodbye. So tomorrow starts the 15 day wait.

Had a fun afternoon with Lena & Dub. They are really learning very quickly. Now when I ask, "What do you say?" as I hold out a goldfish cracker to them, they say "what do you say?" instead of "PEEEEZHE!!" So I have to say "Please!" and of course, when I say "Thank you!" to prompt them to say it, I get the usual "DONGO!!"

Lena decided to be very disobedient and climb up a chair to try and reach a balloon on the wall. Well, the chair flipped over backwards between "LENA!" and "NO!" and she wacked her head on the iron heat radiator. Angel wishes to interject here that she was not present during this debacle. Anyway, Daddy was quickly there to comfort the little girl, and put a nice cold cloth on her forehead. Once she saw the bottle of fresh cold water, we figured out that she was much more scared than hurt, but she does have a nice radiator-shaped pattern on her forehead.

Then we had a celebratory dinner with Very, Mit, and the Morin family. In the Russian tradition, we were held accountable to celebrate with very cold Vodka. OY!



So, more good news for today: It's CLEAN SHEET DAY at Hotel Gazovic! Woo hoo! Yes, we have Ward and June Cleaver (Or Frank & Estelle, depending on your view of things) room arrangements. :-)



But then, shortly thereafter, we got more disappointing news: it won't be 1 week (or less) in Almaty, it will be 2 weeks. Doesn't look like we're going to be back in Atlanta for July 4th, but there is an outside chance. Please pray that we can get flights out as soon as all the paperwork is done. Also, please pray for our patience and perserverance. It seems like every time we think we're getting close to a milestone, the next milestone is moved further away, and it is very, very hot here. We were told "no shorts" because it's not the norm in this part of the world. BUBKAS!!! We're melting over here! Thank you God for a great hotel, and the occasional cloudy day here.

We'll survive. We're just spoiled Americans! This week we are very safe because there is a contingency of Americans from the American Embassy in Uzbekistan staying at Gazovic. There are armed guards at the doors!

Blessings,
Kevin & Angel