Our day started off early as we woke up around 7:30am for our big day at court. I was not really nervous because I really did not know what to expect and was just so excited that this day was finally here. We arrived at the court house a little before 10am and when we came down the hallway to the building we saw our soon to be son sitting on a bench. He was smiling nervously and I was so happy to see him. We sit in the hallway for a little bit and then it was time to go into the courtroom. It was a small room with several chairs, tables, their version of a jail cell and the judges stand with big wooden chairs. As the judge entered the courtroom we all stood and in walked this older gentleman dressed in everyday clothes. I had expected a regal robe for some reason :). Everyone was talking in Ukrainian and our friend Yana was whispering in my ear what all was being said. It was really just a bunch of legal nonsense but necessary for our adoption. After a little while he wanted Michael to come to the stand and answer some questions. He asked such things as "Why do you want to adopt?", "How do you plan to teach him?", "Where do you work and how much money do you make?" all normal questions that I would expect him to ask and then he started asking odd questions like "Have you heard of any Ukrainian sports stars?" and "What do you think about Ukraine?" Now he was just having fun with the Americans. Michael handled himself very well and I thought "whew" we are almost done and I am so glad he is not asking me questions and then he called me up. AHHHHHH!!! I was thinking this on the inside!! He said you sure are smiling a lot (I tend to laugh and smile a lot when I am nervous plus I was just trying to take it all in and it made me smile). He said "you seem to have a good sense of humor" and then looked at the cross around my neck and asked if I was a Christian and I proudly said "Da" which is Yes in Russian. Then he said "we are Christians too" and I relaxed just a bit. Thank you Lord that we were standing in front of a Christian Judge. What a blessing!! Then the questions began. Again asking "why do you want to adopt?" I find this question hard to answer every time I am asked this. It is hard to put into words why I want to adopt. It was a calling straight from God. He put it in our hearts and gave us the desire and passion to save this little boy. I don't know how to explain this when telling someone. It just happened and God made it happen, case closed!! Anyway I found myself not being able to express this in words to this Ukrainian judge and came up with some answer that I do not even remember now. I think God just took over my body at that moment because I do not remember much about my answers. It was quite odd really but I was at peace and even started to crack some jokes. The judge smiled and even laughed a couple of times and then I realized that this probably is not really the place or time to be funny so I tamed it down. After what seemed like forever I was able to sit back down and breathe a sigh of relief. What is it about a man sitting on his throne called a "judge" that makes people so nervous? We were here for something wonderful and we have not done anything wrong but when your standing in front of an official like this you immediatly think "oh no what have I done?" So crazy!!!
When I sit down he wanted to look at the photo album we had given to Erik and thankfully we remembered to bring it. They passed this album around and looked at photos of our family, dogs, house, church, friends, etc. They seemed to enjoy looking at the photos as I saw many smiles. This made me happy. They wanted to know more about our 3 girls so we told them. Michael said that our oldest Emily was here with us but she was sitting in the hallway as our team did not think she would be allowed in. The judge wanted to meet her so I went into the hallway to get her and she was gone. Hum, where did she go? For a split second I thought "oh no someone has kidnapped her" but then snapped back to reality and thought that can't happen she would beat them up!! hahaha!! I went downstairs and outside and found her standing with Oleg our driver and Nina our Facilitator and they were eating ice cream. What??? She had to leave the hallway because they were ushering in some criminals and no one could be in the hallway at this time so she went downstairs with Oleg and he bought ice cream. How sweet!! Oleg is such a nice guy and we have really enjoyed getting to know him. I will tell you more about that later. Finally I told Em that the judge wanted to meet her so she gave up her ice cream and headed up the stairs with me. The judge wanted her to come to the stand and the first thing he said was "why so serious". I just about cracked up right there. This is a funny line from a movie that Em and I know about so it was hard to keep our composure but Em did. He asked her "what she thought about adopting this little boy", "what did she like about Ukraine" and some other questions that did not pertain to anything really. I think this judge was just interested in knowing about this American family in his courtroom so he was just asking question at random. Emily answered everything very well and I was so proud of her standing up there. I realized that she is all grown up, she will be 18 in September and this journey to Ukraine has been wonderful for her and for this mama to watch her firstborn handle things with such maturity and grace. I love her so much and cannot believe she is so grown up already.
After asking us questions they called Erik up and asked him some things. He was quiet and nervous but did very well under the circumstances. The judge and his officials finally left the room to make their decision so we set in the courtroom for about 15 minutes waiting for his decision. We took some quick pictures of the room as we did not know if we were supposed to do this but wanted to get a few for the scrapbook. Then the judge came back in and officially stated that "Michael and Denise Redman are Erik Michael's parents" Oh what a moment!!! We now have a son!! They made us stand and say some official stuff and then called Erik back up. The judge asked Erik who is Papa was and he turned around and pointed at Michael with a smile and then he wanted to know who his Mama was and he said my name and turned around and pointed at me then asked who his sister was and he turned around and pointed at Emily. It was so cool!!! We were so overjoyed at that moment and it took all my strength to not run up there and give him a big hug. For now I had to control myself but later the hugs would come. After talking to Erik the court time was over. We looked down at our watches and realized that we had been sitting there for almost 2 hours. Oh my goodness how time flies!! After going into the hallway Yana and I went into the judges chambers and presented him with some flowers and candy. This is customary here and a way to say "Thank You". The judge was much more relaxed sitting behind his desk and was thankful for the gifts. He wished us luck and said we seemed like a very nice family. That was nice to hear. Then we went downstairs as our team gave us expressions of their congratulations. We hugged on Erik and Michael even said some phrases to him in Russian. Erik seemed to like this and smiled. Then we took some pictures of our team and our family here in Ukraine. I look forward to the day when we can take a full family picture of the 6 of us. Oh how we miss Katie and Julianna so much and wish they were here. This moment will happen soon enough as we should be home in just 2 more weeks.
This time of making Erik our son is kind of bittersweet. He was officially made our son on this day but now we have to wait the required 10 days to actually take him into our custody. He had to go back with the orphanage director to camp and we went the other direction. Kind of sad but we know we will see him everyday that we can for the next 10 days or so. We should be able to take him with us on July 14th. This is the day we will apply for his passport and travel back to Kiev on the train. I am excited and nervous about this day. It will be so good to get him out of this system and begin our life with him as our son. At the same time I am nervous about the communication. I know God will be there to help us through each moment and there will be times of quiet and being uncomfortable but it will all be worth it. We have a son and he has a forever family!!! Wow!! This just blows my mind. We saw this little guy on a Christmas ornament just a little over 7 months ago and now he is our son. How does this happen?? God is so good!!!
When we got back into the car to head back to our apartment we asked Oleg to take us to his favorite restaurant to celebrate. He happily took us to a place called "Politburo". It is this really cool place with USSR memorabilia all over the walls and even in the floor. The food was excellent and we had the best time getting to know Oleg and Yana better. We were able to ask him what it was like to live in the communist days and he told us all about it. Some of the fears they had back then were more than I can imagine since I have always lived in America but there were also some good things during this time that we did not realize. It was a nice time to just chat with our driver that has now become our friend and Yana who has become like a sister in a way. She is so sweet and kind and I will miss her and Oleg so much when it is time for us to go. I never imagined that we would build such strong relationships with our team of people from Ukraine. It is just another one of God's blessings that we have received on this journey and we will be forever changed because of this experience. For now this is all I have. We go back to the camp today to spend some more time with our son and with these kids. We only have a short time left with them and we will make the best of each moment. We will be sad to say "goodbye" but we are so thankful that we have had this chance to love on these kids and bring them some joy and in return they have brought us so much joy too. We will never forget this time we have had in Ukraine. It started out really hard but now has been a blessing day after day. Only God has the power to make this happen and we are so humbled and honored that we have had this once in a lifetime experience. Continue to pray for these children. It is our prayer that many of these kids will find a forever family just as Erik has. Have a Blessed and Safe 4th of July weekend. Enjoy some fireworks and hot dogs for us as we do not get to celebrate this holiday here in Ukraine. But our thoughts will be with all of you as you have this time with your family and friends. When you are looking at the fireworks think to yourself how blessed you are to live in America and how blessed you are to have family and friends who love you. Denise
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