Court - The Final Chapter ...Part One

The “Cast of the Court” , as they are called, now give their input. The Judge first began with Svetlana, the representative from the Guardianship Department. The Judge asked her how our first visit went with the children, and what she observed. Svetlana stated that at first Sasha was calm, and sat quietly next to us. She stated that he had a “calm nature” like Wayne had a calm nature ( I don’t know……that is just what she said!!). Then she stated that Sasha then got up from the couch with one of the caregivers and ran and played actively in the living room of the groupa. The representative told the judge that she observed us to be very attentive to Sasha, and that we brought things for him to play with, and little snacks for him to eat. She testified that the child seemed to be comfortable with us and warmed up very nicely to us. She said she observed our meeting together to be very positive and felt that we would be good parents to Sasha. She said she would recommend us to be Sasha’s new parents. She also stated that after all the time that Sasha and his brother had been on the Federal Data Bank, that no Russian families had stepped forward to adopt them, and even though the Guardianship Department had tried very hard to find the children parents, they were unable to find a family to adopt these two boys. She told the Judge that she was in favor of us adopting these boys. The next person to address the Court was the Chief Social Worker for the Baby Home. She stated to the judge how Sasha came to be taken away from his parents, and how he and his brother were placed in a Rehabilitation Home to give the parents an opportunity to be rehabilitated, in order to keep the custody of their children. She told the Judge that when Sasha was only 6 months old, and still in the Rehabilitation Home, that a Russian family saw him, and wanted to adopt him. However, he was not eligible for adoption at that point in time, as the parental rights were not terminated as of yet. The family decided they did not want to wait until he was eligible for adoption. She again stated the point that now that the children are eligible for adoption, and were registered with the data bank, no other families have come forward to express interest in either or both of these two children. The Chief Social worker told the Judge that she felt this was possibly the only chance for Sasha and his brother to be adopted together.