Appeal

Andrei met with a lawyer today who is preparing the application for our appeal, which will be submitted tomorrow.  He as also been talking with the inspector in charge of all adoptions in this area (who had approved our adoption).  The inspector is meeting with the judge tomorrow to see if we can get anywhere that way.  From what I understand of the situation, it might be possible to change our paperwork without actually having another hearing, but the judge would have to agree to change the decision.  Our facilitators are not sure right now what the best option will be, so they are talking with everyone they can to see what should be done.  Joe and I have decided that if we do need to have another hearing, and it won't be scheduled for a few weeks, we are going to come home for a few weeks to work (and keep our sanity).  Hopefully we will find out tomorrow or Thursday whether or not there will be another hearing, and how long it will be before a hearing could take place.

When we went to see Vacya today, I could tell right away that someone had told him something.  His usual bright smile was not there.  Tammy came with us so that we could talk with him.  We asked him what he had heard already, and he said that they told him the judge said no, we can't adopt him.  Apparently the caregivers and kids in his class all know about it. We explained that this is not finished yet and we are working with a lot of people to still be able to adopt him.  He seemed to feel a little better after we talked to him, but I think that now he's finding it hard to believe that this will really happen for him.  He made several comments about the medal that the judge wore around his neck during the hearing, like he was thinking, "that guy is the one who has the power and he said no, so that's it."  We told him that a lot of people are praying about this and God knows what is going on and He can make this happen.