Introducing...

Katherine Victoria Shervheim  :):):)

 

Emelia Anastasia Shervheim  :):):)

 

      Soon to be known as "Katie" and "Emmie or Emily" (haven't quite decided on Nastya's shortened name yet) For now, we will still call them Vika and Nastya and gradually work on their name changes after we are home.

 

   And now, more than you ever wanted to know about the court room happenings of adopting a child in Ukraine...

Its been an incredible day!  Amazing things happened for us today!  We left for court at 8 am this morning.  Our facilitator had told us that court is different in every region.  Sometimes it is very informal and lasts as little as 15 min. or sometimes it is very formal and very official.  Apparently in our region, court is about as formal as it gets!  She spent quite a bit of time prepping us the night before so we knew exactly what to say.  The entire session lasted an hour and a half!  They repeated all the official information in great detail numerous times.

       Both Lee and I were asked several questions.  Most we were prepared for.  Aside from all the official legal questions (which of course they asked Lee), they asked 3 main personal questions;  (Lee fielded the 1st question.  I got to field the last 2.)

1)Why would we want to adopt 2 children with Down Syndrome? (maybe they think we are crazy?) Answer  - because we desire to have sisters for Annie to grow up with, which are similar to her.  (although our ultimate reason is because the Lord set this in our hearts and we want to be obedient to Him, the answer we gave above is the one they can understand)

2) How on earth will I be able to mother 7 children, 3 with special needs? (of course I added the "on earth" part, but I am sure they were thinking that) Answer - very supportive husband, older children who help with the younger children, very supportive and helpful grandparents, aunts and uncles (this in particular is a huge point to make with Ukrainians, they are very pro extended family), very supportive friends in our community, excellent source of healthcare professionals, therapists and educators, a huge network of fellow adopting parents of children with special needs(Yeah, Reeces Rainbow!) and of course the Lord!

3)How will we communicate with them, not knowing any Russian? (of course I could've pulled out my trusty Russian Phrase book, but I don't think that would have impressed them.) Answer - sign language of course!   - the universal language.

  The Judge and officials were all very courteous and gracious. and now Lee wants to put his 2 cents in...Just a little bit about the courtroom.  I (Lee) have been on 2 juries in the last 5 years - so I have spent two weeks of my life in courtrooms.    This one was a little unique.  It was on the 2nd floor of a very old building; in the country outside of Kharkov.   It is probably 3-4 miles from the orphanage and right on the way.  We pass by it every day on the way to visit the girls.   Also, we have visited the courthouse three or four times waiting for our facilitator to take care of business.  The most identifiable feature is a "swimmin' hole" located across the road.   We have also watched a boy try and carry (and subsequently drop a goat) on the trail to the swimmin' hole.   

      Back to the courtroom  it was about 20' x 30'.   The most interesting feature was a 'jail' in the room.   A metal cage was in the corner - it was probably 6' x 10'.   I can only guess the characters that had been in there for their day in court.   There were chairs and a bench - maybe holding 5 or 6 people.  I couldn't help but wonder how/where did they separate people if they didn't get along.     Curiosity got the best of the twins and they had to look inside the jail and get their photo snapped behind bars.     Our facilitator told us to be careful because only the police have keys to the lock.   Sammy - we wish we would have snapped a photo of George behind bars too - but we didn't think of it.

 

       The rest of the courtroom consisted of a judges bench with three chairs.  The judge sat in the middle and the two jurors on either side.   There was a table in the middle and then a podium - which we stood at when we were asked to speak.  

      Karen mentioned it - but they get an award for repetition - first - every time a name was mentioned - the birthday needed to be stated too and the judge was very methodical about reading every detail.   I repeated the request of ours to the court twice and it was repeated back to us three times (I think).    It was one hour and thirty minutes.   But one thing that struck me that was good - the judge repeated several times - that the actions the court were taking were deemed to be in the best interests of the children.    Here Vika and Nastya were back at the orphanage - no clue that people were working very hard to make their situation better; I thought that was pretty cool.    -  Lee.  

      It got a bit long for the twins - if you are 11 years old and sitting in a Ukrainian courtroom, for a seemingly endless period of time, not understanding a lick of Russian, this is what you do...count the lights in the ceiling, followed by a count of the tiles in the ceiling, count the boards in the wood paneling on the walls, count the bars in the jail cell sitting next to you in the room, count the bars covering the windows, think about something really good to eat or drink, plan what story you will write next or picture you will draw, yawn once in a while but also try to smile periodically (per your mothers instructions) and try to look like you understand what is going on and also look like there is nowhere else you would rather be! 

      In the end though, it was obvious the Lord had gone before us into this very courtroom!  In spite of our earlier nervousness, both Lee and I felt relaxed and at peace about all we needed to say.  And when the final court decree was read to us while we stood(which by the way took at least 2o minutes, repeating everything that had already been repeated at least twice), they were very happy to grant us our request of adopting our 2 little sweet girls!!!!  And...they amazingly issued us an "urgent court decree"!  This is very, very rare and we consider it a miracle on behalf of our girls and us!  There is still a 10 day appeal period but we don't have to "wait" the usual 10 days before starting all the rest of the paperwork. 

      So, now we need you to pray for our facilitator!  There are many other details that yet need to be worked out.  Specifically, she  has been unable yet to track down the info she needs for Nastyia's passport. She will have a day or two before she needs this info but then it will be critical for her to have it before we can move forward.  We hope to know by the middle of this week if we need to change our return tickets.

So, after our morning at court we then went out to the orphanage for a short visit with the girls.  Here's a few pics from the day!

 

 

Thank you soooooo much for praying for us and helping us get this far!  It feels like we are finally on the home stretch now!