Officially a family of FOUR! Day 1 - Waiting Period (double click for pics)

Thursday, July 20---Court Day (Day 1 waiting period)

Please join us in welcoming the newest member of the Woodard family, Robert Landen Woodard. At 10:04am this morning, Landen was officially registered as our son. Although this is the official date and time, we have felt it for some time now.

To recap the morning; we woke up around 6:50am and started getting ready and had a quick breakfast. Kim and I prepared for court by going over some notes and details that we thought might be discussed. We were picked up by Sergey around 8:56am (he was a little late which was making us wonder) with a van load of ladies. Our attorney, translator and the lady from the baby house were in the van with us. Still no sign of the lady from the city.… We were at the court house around 9:05am and took a seat. Around 9:30am, Kim and I started worrying. Still no sign of the lady from the city and the other ladies started getting that look on their faces. Lena and Svetlana started working the cell phone for what appeared to be contact attempts with the lady from the city. At 9:36am, she (lady from the city) arrived with a big smile on her face. She immediately stopped in front of us and said something in Russian that appeared to be an apology for being late, but what ever it was we were just glad to have he with us. Soon after this, we were called back to the court room. A very small room with tight seating for the entourage we had. The judge was a very judge like middle aged man that was all business. When we were speaking with him or the judge came in or out of the room we were to stand, which we were glad to do. Kim and I were discussing that there was no prosecutor in the room, when Lena advised that the prosecutor had reviewed all of our documents and signed a letter that confirmed her approval of the adoption. This was a big relief as she was the main representative of the state for any objections to the adoption. We all agreed that the judge’s decision would be final then we started. I was asked about why we were adopting, so I delivered my little speech that we had prepared. It covered our jobs, home, friends, and family, Rylee, why we are adopting and asked the court to make the ruling in favor of us. Kim was then asked to stand and address the judge with any comments she had. Kim addressed the judge with our decision to adopt Landen and how we knew he was our child at first sight, but even more so as we spent time with him. This was pretty much our spotlight, and then it was turned over to the representative from the baby house who strongly agreed with the adoption. The lady from the city was next and she also agreed strongly with the adoption and commented on her interaction with us and Landen, saying they are perfect for each other. Our attorney was last to go and she covered the paperwork from America and Kazakhstan saying that everything was in order and by the letter of the law.
Drum roll………The judge made his decision to grant the adoption effective today and we can pick up our child in 15 days from today. We should have him on 8/4 (also called “gotcha“day)!
We quickly departed the chambers and regrouped outside the court house where we thanked everyone immensely for their part. I offered to buy lunch for everyone (beats their custom of straight vodka) and we agreed on 1pm at a fitting spot…our favorite Russian restaurant.

Lunch was great as usual. Rylee had a great surprise, because Lena brought Leeza to lunch with her so that Rylee would have someone to play with. Kim and I tried not to veer too far away from our normal orders. The traditional red wine was served with our meal. Interesting fact, the red wine was from Georgia, another former Soviet state. We had several toast during the meal, Svetlana, Nina from the City Department of Education and the lady from the baby house. These were very special and heart felt toast and everyone assured us not to worry about the 15 day waiting period. Easy for them to say….. After our meal, we had the traditional coffee/tea and discussed shopping, foods, customs and several other small topics. It was very enjoyable and the theme of the lunch was… our family will always be connected to Kazakhstan and Kazakhstan will be connected to us. The lady from the baby house summed up the past few weeks events when she said she could see in our eyes that our family was now complete. Wow, how true was that. After the 2 ½ hour lunch, we walked through the park with Lena and Leeza as we headed back to our apartment.

What a perfect day, except we will not be doing a visit today (appears he is not feeling well per the baby house), but we will start our new schedule of visiting 1 time per day from 12:00pm to 2:00pm. I’m a little worried about giving Rylee and Kim more time to shop….

Tomorrow is day 2 for our “waiting period” and we are set to pick up Landen on 8/4. From that point we will be waiting on passports and visa to leave the country. We are asking for ways to expedite the process after the waiting period to get us home as soon as possible. We were advised that we can talk about possible options tomorrow with Svetlana Right now they are saying we will be able to fly home on 8/17, but I can assure you we will do everything we can to get home before that!

Sorry for not having a lot of photos today, but you can look at yesterdays post as I was able to upload them this morning. See you via blogging tomorrow….Poka, Poka…