It was a rough start, but the Judge made it official!

WE ARE MATTHEW MILYAT SANDERS' PARENTS!!!!!

The whole day was pretty much our version of child birth without any happy drugs! Let me correct that, it started out fine. A good luck call from home, some blogging and some brunch. Then it was time to go for a quick visit with Matthew before getting ready for court. That is when everything started to unravel. Yesterday poor Aliya and Bayan had had very short notice that another adoptive couple had just flown back to pick up their children. They had to drive the couple four hours away to do so. Because of this, Aliya had forgotten to phone for our driver, so he was 3/4 of an hour late picking us up. That meant we had less than an hour visit. I said, if that is the worst that happens, not that big a deal. Then, as we were all fancied up in our court clothes, ready to go down to get in the car, the elevator that had just taken us up to the nineth floor 1/2 hour before, was stuck on the first floor. So we walked down. Again I said, if this is the worst that happens, not a big deal, at least it isn't court. Then, Oshut our driver, did what he and every other Kazakh driver does. Pulled a U turn in the middle of the road. He has done this at least 10 times since we have been here. This time, of course, on the way to court, we get pulled over. Again, if this is the worst, no big deal, not court. We arrived at court (by the way, while we were changing, Oshut had picked up a woman. We assumed she was something to do with our court date, but she didn't speak English either so we didn't know who exactly she was! Neither Bayan or Aliya was with us either.) and blindly followed the woman up three or four flights of stairs where she indicated we should wait on a bench. We were starting to get a little worried since there was still no sign of Bayan or Aliya. (Had visions of flood water keeping them away again!) We waited for 1/2 hour - me sitting, Michael pacing! Finally Aliya and the social worker came and ushered us into a courtroom. (Poor Aliya had only got back to Astana at 5:00pm and we were supposed to be in court at 5:30! Talk about cutting it close!) Note- we were supposed to go over our speeches with her before court in case she wasn't sure of anything, but that didn't happen. Okay- not good, we can deal, this IS court! We started to get nervous because Aliya looked nervous. When the judge came in he looked like a thunder cloud. My hands got sweaty. Then he looked at Aliya and the social worker and started to yell at them in Russian. My knees started to shake. Oh no, this is almost the worst thing, hopefully we can deal, we are in court! Aliya and the social worker kept talking and then the judge would yell at them some more and gesture at the papers. Aliya looked like a deer caught in headlights! (What happened to the nice lady judge that Peter and Marin told us they had this morning? They assured us court was not a big deal. HA) Finally he started addressing us. He barely looked at us at first but started drilling Michael first. Is this his passport, where does he live, what is his address, what is his income, what does he do, is he registered in Astana (we hope so 'cause he said yes!), does he have biological children, why not, why Kazakhstan and not Canada, did he chose the child, did we see medical records, do we agree with the petition, on and on and on. Then it was my turn, gulp. Did I agree with the petition, where did I work, what did I do at work, where did I work, why won't you tell me where you work, where is your work located, what do you do for work? (Apparently "I work in a daycare" doesn't translate very well and I was having trouble thinking of another way to say it. Aliya was having trouble with that too since the closest thing here is called kindergarten. She said it was like kindergarten and he barked "Well is it kindergarten or not.") He also asked me many, many other questions also. Then it was the social worker's and person from the orphanage's turn. They were grilled as well. At one point the judge took a fit because one of the medical reports was written and not printed. A long, loud fit. Then Michael and I both had to stand up and ask him to grant the adoption. Finally, he got up and said that he was going to go and make his decision, then stormed out of the room. You could hear the collective sigh from Aliya, Michael, the social worker, the lady from the orphanage and me. (I even think the prosecutor sighed!) We all started laughing and talking at once. We finally got the explanations for the judges behaviour. Apparently he was yelling at them because they were late. The social worker was trying to explain she had been detained in court and Aliya tried to explain she was late because she was picking her up. Apparently the judge told them they were bad people, bad at their job and he should throw them in jail!! Then he asked the social worker "wasn't a month enough time to get ready?" then "maybe I should postpone it for another month?" Thank God, we didn't understand that at the time! Aliya said that she has never been in a session like that before. Big surprise, this is us we are talking about! She said that Jila had the same judge, but at that time he had made it more like a ceremony then "a process". The prosecutor was a very nice young man, and didn't want to take the gift, but Aliya took it out of the gift bag and told him to just put it in his briefcase. The judge finally came back after about 15 minutes. He stormed back into the room, read the decree and stormed out again. Aliya was translating the whole time but we weren't sure if we heard correctly. Apparently, he did grudgingly grant the adoption though!!! So as long as no one in Matthew's family comes in the next 15 days, we are his parents and he is our son!!!! Michael and Aliya chased the judge down to his office. Aliya didn't want to go in, but Michael walked right in and tried to put the gift on his desk. He jumped up, said nyet, handed it back to Michael and indicated the door! Michael said speceeba, shook his hand and left. Michael is very disappointed that he didn't get to give the speech he wrote and has been practicing.
Now that it is all over, we are laughing about it and boy, it makes a pretty good story to tell Matthew!
All we can say is thank you for all your prayers and good thoughts, because imagine how it would have gone without them!!!!