Court Day

Saule, doctor, judge, us, secretary
Saule, us, Zhana, Irina, Murat

We’re parents! Or at least will be after the 15 day waiting period. Since we are so close to officially being approved and this is a private blog, we have decided to share a picture!

I am going to include a lot of detail, because I know it helped us prepare to read the process others went through – so if you are not interested in the details the important part is above. Court was not fun, but it was not that bad either. The day leading up to it was not fun, as we prepared our speeches and rehearsed our answers to questions that may be asked. We were the first family with our agency to go through the new court system (juvenile court) with the new judge in Astana. It is possible that we were only the third international family in general to go through court. The last woman (from Spain) was initially denied and her court date postponed for three weeks, and then at the last minute, postponed another couple days. So our facilitator was very stressed.

The day of court we were picked up at 11:10 and taken to a generic building with a lot of people standing around. We went upstairs to a dark hallway lined with chairs. We stood there for a while, and then had to present our passports. Since Chris had to say the first paragraph of his speech in Russian he wanted Irina (our translator for court) to review the Russian. She told him to practice it out loud, and then continue with the English. This was great as it made us more relaxed and gave her a chance to practice translating. Eventually we went into the court room. We sat in the front row of several chairs, with Irina between us. The baby house doctor and social worker sat at a desk to the left of the room. It was nice to see people we recognized, and I think they are generally there to bolster the case of the adoptive parents. The secretary sat at the far end next to the judge’s desk, and the prosecutor (who we think represents the state) sat on the right side of the room. I was surprised that after we sat, Irina told me to practice my speech and she practiced translating. When we heard someone coming down the hall, everyone got quiet, we stood and the judge walked in.

Court Process

The judge began by listing everyone present, explaining our rights, and asking if we trusted everyone and understood our rights. We said yes. She then asked whoever was going first to begin. Chris stepped up to the podium with Irina beside him and gave his speech. Afterward the prosecutor and judge asked him many questions (details below). Eventually the judge told him to sit down, and then it was my turn. I gave my speech and was asked questions by the prosecutor and judge. The judge then asked Chris to stand up again and answer more questions. Finally when we were done with our part, we sat down. Next Saule was asked to stand and explain her role in our adoption. Then the baby house doctor gave a speech about Nikolai’s health and past diagnoses. The social worker went next, and basically outlined the process that was followed – that we had a dossier that presented us as good people with good references and family, that we had visited the baby every day for 14 days, etc. She read her speech and read it very quickly, so Irina had a hard time keeping up. She was funny – at one point as she was whispering the translation, without a break, she says “she is saying other things; she is talking too fast; my feet are cold.” It was very nice to break the tension for us.

Eventually after everyone was done with their speeches and being questioned, the doctor, social worker, and prosecutor all went around and gave their recommendation. All recommended in our favor! The judge announced that she would come back with her decision at 1 pm. At the time it was 12:50 so that seemed like really good news. The prosecutor rushed out the door so that we did not have time to give her her gift. She eventually walked back by once – so we were able to give her a gift. We started to walk up to the social worker and doctor to give them their gifts, but then an unknown woman came in and started talking to them, so Saule told us to wait. When the woman left, we started for the table again and then the woman came back in, so we stopped again. I am sure that the doctor and social worker were both amused at watching this as they are used to the giving of gifts after court. The social worker then left. Saule told us that she assumes the decision will be good, since everyone has already left.

The judge came back in at about 1:20 and read a very long decision very very quickly – too quick for it all to be translated. The gist was that she approved the adoption and after 15 days it would become final. She then outlined her reasons for granting the adoption.

Speeches

In Chris’s speech, he thanked the court for hearing our petition, introduced us – including our names, where we are from, where we work and what we do, and how long we have been with our companies. He then explained why we chose to adopt, and why we chose Kazakhstan. He talked about when we arrived in Astana, how we chose Adilet (Nikolai), and how we have watched him develop since we have visiting him. Chris discussed how much we have enjoyed Astana and how we plan to ensure that Adilet will have knowledge of the country and be proud of his country of birth, and that we plan to bring Adilet back to visit at some point. Next he stated that we understood the medical history and diagnoses of Adilet, and that we had good medical insurance and would immediately bring him to a doctor and undertake any treatment recommended. Chris discussed our ability to financially support a child. He described our neighborhood and the fact that we have Kazakh neighbors, really good local schools, and that we would ensure Adilet had a good education and was allowed to make his own choices in life. Chris explained that he hoped to share his interests in music, theater, and travel with Adilet. Finally, Chris asked in Russian for the court to decide in favor of the adoption, and that we love him very much and want him to be our son.

My speech was much shorter. I described the moment we first met Adilet, and that we have bonded with him and love him very much. I described the room we had prepared for him at home, and my interests I want to share with Adilet. I then promised we would send post-placement reports until Adilet is 18 so that they can see how he is developing and what he is learning. I then stated that we knew that bringing a baby into our lives would be a big adjustment, but that we wanted that more than anything and that we have a great support network of family and friends. I then explained our plan for taking time off when we get home and then our plan once I return to work. Finally I asked the court to grant the adoption.

Questions

Most of the hard questions came from the prosecutor; she would ask a question and then use our answer to trap us in the follow-on question (e.g., asking if we could afford to travel every year with the implication that it would be good for Adilet’s education and when we said yes, she followed up with Do you realize you will not be able to have a care-free life travelling whenever you want once you have a child). The judge asked questions, but was actually personable. At one point she asked Chris if I knew how to make beshbarmak, and then told us to be sure we learned how before we left Kazakhstan because Kazakh children like dough with meat. They all laughed when Chris explained that he is the one who cooks food from this region.

The first question that Chris got asked was actually the hardest. The question itself was not hard, but our facilitator had told us not to mention any interest in adopting from other countries, and to focus on how excited we are to adopt from Kazakhstan. So of course the prosecutor’s first line of questions was about China. We have one line in our home study explaining that we started with the intention of adopting from China and then switched to Kazakhstan (it was required to get through USCIS in VA). Luckily we did not have to get into a discussion of the ongoing China adoption. Even Irina and Saule did not believe us when we told them it takes 4 to 5 years to adopt from China and we did not want to get into that in court.
Other questions:
Why not adopt from the US
How did the process of choosing a child at the baby house work
Why did we choose Adilet
What medical treatment do we plan to undertake – will we have Adilet get surgery
How much money do we make
What assets do we own/ what is our value
How long did the process to adopt from Kazakhstan take
What was the process in the US to adopt form Kaz
Do we have enough money to take a yearly trip
Do we realize that once we have a baby we will not be able to live like before and travel
Are we worried about unknown medical conditions with Adilet
Have we had any problems communicating with Adilet (we assume they meant bonding)
Are we planning to have more children; when we answered that we wanted to adopt this child and then would decide later, the judge said we could come back to Kazakhstan to adopt again (always a good sign)

I was asked the following questions:
When I take time off, will I get paid. When I said no, they followed up asking whether or not I got maternity leave and when I said no again, they explained that their country was much more supportive of mothers. I agreed – really all other countries are more supportive of mothers.
What did the social worker in the US do
Is the social worker licensed
Is there a financial or tax benefit to adopting internationally
Who will watch the child after I go back to work and if that would be true until Adilet was school aged
Will we enroll him in preschool
There may have been other questions.

After court we went home for lunch. We were picked up at 3 to go to a notary to take care of a bunch of the paperwork. We then went out to dinner to Samibar to celebrate. Zhana, our normal translator, met us there. Chris and I walked home since the weather is beautiful right now. This allowed the translators to get a ride, which is good because otherwise they often have to ride a bus home.