AND THE VERDICT IS.....

WE'RE PARENTS, WOOHOO (well sorta)! Our status as parents at the moment is "official, but not finalized." The judge declared us as such in court around 5:30 this evening. A few documents have yet to be signed by us, and the ever-popular "10-Day Waiting Period" has to transpire for everything to be finalized, but as far as court is concerned we are the proud new parents of Alexander Maksim, Natalia Irina, and Valentina Grace Livingston. Thanks for all your prayers and well wishes, it was very evident during the proceedings that we were in Good Hands and were exactly where we were supposed to be at exactly the appointed time.

Prior to us arriving at the courthouse, especially around 4:30, I wasn't so sure. For those of you in the know, our long-awaited court appointment today was at 4pm...someone should've informed the Ukrainian President of that, because his surprise procession through Donetsk this afternoon shut down many key streets near our hotel, causing mass gridlock for miles around. Marina, our translator, was supposed to pick us up around 3:15, but instead called around then to tell us that we should catch a cab instead and meet us at the courthouse because she was stuck in the gridlock. So we caught a cab around 3:20, and proceeded to make our way to our ever-important court appointment. The poor cab driver did his best to make good time, but the police seemed to have streets closed at every turn. In the 20 minutes it should've taken us to get to the courthouse, we moved 3 blocks...it wasn't helping our cabbie that I was having a mild (JoEllen would say severe) cardiac infarction, even with Jo trying to calm me down. It was the closest I think I've ever come to having an actual panic attack (in public). I called Marina and told her we'd be hopelessly late, and she discussed the gravity of the situation with the cabby, who confirmed what I'd just told her that there was no way around it, we'd definitely be late unless we suddenly sprouted wings. 4pm came and went with us nowhere near the courthouse, and I was pretty much an emotional puddle at that point, already figuring we'd need to make another trip home and back and other such ugly scenarios. To make a long story shorter, we did finally make it to the courthouse around 4:45 (it was dark then, due to daylight savings time here already). Marina had pleaded our case to the judge, and he mercifully granted us a little extra time for our lame excuse (the dog ate my homestudy, the President was causing gridlock, yadda-yadda.)

Anyway, at 4:45 we met Marina at the curb at the courthouse and literally RAN to the little courtroom, where all kinds of folks were gathered there waiting for us. It was a small light-wood panelled room, with a desk at one end, folks seated on benches on both sides, and a few rows of chairs at the back with a podium in front...Marina instructed us to sit beside her in the front row behind the podium and say to the judge "yadda yadda yah Livingston, blah blah Request yadda Adoption yadda." I filled in "yaddas" where I really don't recall what she said to say, we were in that much of a rush. As soon as we were seated, a tiny court reporter with the look of an empath (Trekkers know what I mean) walked in, followed by a 6'5" black-bearded linebacker (okay, the judge) wearing a black robe...they both sat down at the desk at the front of the class. He asked us each one at a time to stand up and tell us why we were adopting, does our family support us, what are our plans for home care, and various such questions. All these we did while still trying to catch our breath and still appearing not nervous. The others in the room included our attorney, a social worker, 2 caregivers from the orphanage, and another gal who announced herself as "The Prosecutor" (oh great, she's going to prosecute us, which was entirely plausible with the mini-jail cell which occupied the room just to my left). There was an endless stream of standing up and sitting down, which sort of reminded us of a church service. Anyway, we apparently answered the interrogation successfully, "Dahs", nods and smiles were exchanged, and Marina told us we were proud new parents as The Judge left the room, and then many of us exchanged hugs of joy.

So that was it in a nutshell, an unbelievably stressfull yet happy day in our journey. Marina was off to who knows where, her cab took her one way and ours took us back to the Atlas where we had a celebratory dinner of steak, veal, dessert, and espresso strong enough to take the enamel off our teeth. Tomorrow we go to see the kids for our first visit since we returned, we can't wait to see them as their new official (but not finalized) parents! We'll be working out the logistics of the next phase with Marina and Serge, but for now we are just enjoying this moment and looking forward to getting through the end of this very long tunnel. Tune in tomorrow for pictures. I think I need a drink!

Da Svidania!

Papa (for real) John

P.S. All right, it's 3am and I still can't sleep...something the judge said in his closing statements stuck with me and I really need to share it because it was profound to me. Paraphrased, he said "it is the judgement of this court and to all present that it is in the best interests of these children to place them in the care of this home." Now, that may sound like a trite legalese closing statement that is used in every adoption case that comes to this conclusion, but it really means something to me now. To me, it seems very easy in this process to get a "we vs they" mentality, whether it's vs your social worker, agency, the SDA office, or "the court", and it's your job to win at every round to succeed in the end. But what really hit me so profoundly as I heard his words and looked on the concerned faces of everyone in that room, is that we were all on the same team, pulling for the same goal. The "opponent" wasn't anyone there (not even "The Prosecutor"), the opponent was the difficult situation that the kids found themselves in, and it was ALL our jobs to see that a negative was turned into a positive...for the kids' sake. Maybe this was obvious all along to everyone else but me and I'm too dense to just now catch on, but I've caught on now baby and this team's gonna win!