Continuing On with the Court Story

Before Court started that morning, Wayne and I had already discussed it and had decided that I should be the one to answer and field most of the questions, as I felt the best prepared for our Court appointment. However, apparently the Judge did not want to hear from me……she directed all the questions to Wayne!! So much for our plan!! After our initial introductions, the Judge asked Wayne what was his impression of the boys. After she heard his answer, she directed a question to me that was “How did you find the children?”. To this question…..I was a bit confused. Surely the Judge knows that families that are adopting can only be referred a child from the MOE…..and surely she knows that our agency, Alaska International Adoptions, is the only agency that has been working in Magadan since the whole reaccreditation deal!!! ???? !!! I mean……I just stood there (you must stand whenever the Judge addresses you). So there I am, standing there…..all of this running through my mind, and I know she cannot be asking me any of these questions……because the answers are so obvious ( and Zoya is right there translating for me!!)!! Finally, I clarify, and say…”Do you mean how did we find the children when we met them?” “Yes”, the Judge replied. Well, that is not what I thought she meant!! I briefly told her about our encounter with the children, and how initially Kylen was afraid and cried, but that he really “warmed up” to us by the second day. Our visit with Sasha went very well, too. I told the Judge that he seemed happy and appeared to be comfortable with us. I told her both the children were very well cared for. The Judge brought up the fact that we both had biological children of our own, and she wanted to know why we wanted to adopt. We explained that we love our children and enjoy them so much. We told her we had a happy family and we wanted to continue to expand our family and share that love with more children. With that explanation, she turned to the page in our homestudy that explained why we wanted to adopt…..and read it word for word ( I guess to see if it matched????) !! Luckily for us, it said the same thing we had just recited in Court!!