waiting for a phone call as I type

I am waiting for a phone call from Andrei as I type. He spoke with our judge yesterday and was told that there will not be another hearing for the appeals court. The appeals judge will just make a decision. Our judge said that 100% it will go our way, but I think I'll wait until I actually have the paperwork in my hands before I really believe it. The appeals judge has looked over all of our documents, but we don't know when she is going to give her decision. I also have not gotten a straight answer about whether or not there will be another waiting period once the judgment is made.

Shelby and I went to visit Vacya at the orphanage yesterday and he looked good. Shelby asked him if he was worried that we left or anything since we hadn't seen him in over a week and he said no. A few of the other boys in Vacya's class have some pretty bad injuries from the last few days of camp. It was just heartbreaking to hear about. One of the boys was grabbed by some older boys when he left his room to go to the bathroom at night. They beat him and held him down by his throat and burned his face all over with lit matches. He also has his foot wrapped up, but I'm not sure what happened there. Another boy's leg or knee was hurt so badly that he is in a hospital.

Same old story

We still don't know anything.  Andrei talked to our judge today and was told that the appeals court judge has our case, but she needs a day to look at it, so we won't hear anything until Thursday.

Change in plans

There were no flights available this weekend, and the flight out on Monday required an overnight stay  in Amsterdam, so now  Joe is flying home on Tuesday.  

Fun times

While I was home, I got to spend time with my cousin (who also happens to be one of my very bestest friends), Shelby and her family.  Many of you know that she moved to Siberia so I don't get to see her very often.  One of the most frustrating things about being in Ukraine so long is that Shelby was back in the states all summer and was staying very close to our home for several months.  She is also the one who just adopted two boys from Vacya's class at the orphanage.  We were so excited to be able to spend time together with all the kids and she could help us communicate with Vacya since she speaks Russian.  However, they are leaving the US on Monday so they won't be there once we get back with Vacya.  They are going to be in Simferopol for a while though before they head to Russia, so Vacya and I will hopefully be able to spend a little time with them there.

Shelby and kids

Three of Shelby's five kids had birthdays while they've been in Michigan, but we were in Ukraine and were bummed that we missed their parties.  The other two kids have birthdays in the fall, so we decided to have an un-birthday party for them while I was home.

The cousins

We also took the kids out to ride one of my horses one afternoon. 

 

Alec

Zhenya

Micah

Keegan

Korah

Latest news

We went to our court with Andrei today to talk with our judge.  Lena came with us to help translate because Andrei is not usually very good at communicating what's going on.  Our judge, who's been on vacation for the last month or so, was back to work and willing to try to get things moving for us.  He called one of the judges from the appeals court and arranged for her to pick up our case and get it resolved soon.  However, she is in Yalta today and Monday is a holiday, so she won't be looking at it until Tuesday.  At that time, she may just throw it out, or we will find out when the hearing will be.  They are still saying that there are no grounds for the appeal, so even if there is a hearing, it should still go our way.  Andrei is hopeful that we will have a decision by next week, but we know how that goes.  We also found out that our prosecutor is pretty high up for her position, right under the head prosecutor, so that is why nobody has been able to go around her.  Joe is probably going to be flying back on Sunday, recovering from jet-lag on Monday, and returning to work on Tuesday.  Shelby and her family get back to Simferopol on Wednesday, so I'll have them around for moral support while we finish up everything.  If we find out that the hearing isn't scheduled for a few more weeks, I will come home to work and fly back in time for the hearing. 

Nothing yet

Andrei called the appeals court today and there is still no new information.  The appeal for our case has been registered, but the hearing for it has not been scheduled.  Before when Andrei talked about the appeal being thrown out, it sounded like there may not even be another hearing, but now it seems that there has to be a hearing for it to be thrown out.  Andrei is coming down on Friday so that we can meet with the head of the appeals court to try to get the hearing scheduled soon.  Joe does not have to be at the appeals hearing, so I think he's going to be coming home this weekend or early next week.  If the hearing is not going to happen soon, I will come home too and just come back in time for the hearing.  Hopefully they will be able to give us a date on Friday so that we can decide what we need to do as far as coming home.  We've just been sitting here waiting for something to happen since our court hearing on July 11th.  It's really frustrating because we could have been home all that time and Joe would not have had to miss so much work, but they always just say a few more days so we didn't want to go home and then have something happen right away.  Now that the school year is starting, we really can't afford to have both of us just sitting around and waiting here if nothing is going to happen soon. 

Back again

After about 23 hours of traveling, I got back to Simferopol around 4:30 Sunday afternoon.  We have still not heard anything new from the appeals court.  They told Andrei to call again tomorrow to see if anyone has looked at our case yet.  We went out to visit Vacya this morning.  He seems to be doing well.  I think he was kind of surprised to see us because we hadn't been out there in a little over 2 weeks.  It's hard to know what he's thinking about all of this.  The kids go back to the orphanage next Monday.  We're hoping we can get Vacya before then so he doesn't have to go back there at all.

Oops

Somebody made a mistake... the prosecutor did appeal the latest court hearing, not the one from May. So, now we have to keep waiting for the appeals court to decide whether or not to throw it out. We were told that it might happen next week on Tuesday or Wednesday. I fly out Saturday morning go back. I was really hoping that we would have some good news before I had to go back, but no such luck. It was great to be home though, even if it was only for a week.

No news

We're still waiting to hear something about the appeal. Andrei keeps calling people to see where it's at, but nothing has been done yet.

Unbelievable

When I talked to Joe yesterday, he said that Andrei did make it down to Simferopol. When Andrei went to the appeals court, he found out that the prosecutor had actually appealed our first court hearing, which was on May 19th, not the latest one. So... she was way past her 20 days to turn it in, not to mention that the judge's decision on that case was no in the first place. That was why we changed our application to be just in my name. There should be no question now that the appeal will just be thrown out and Vacya will officially be ours. Andrei was hopeful that the appeal would be thrown out today, but I haven't heard from Joe yet to know for sure.

Home

On Friday Joe and I decided that I needed to come home to take care of some things at work since I won't be back before the new school year starts, so I bought my ticket and flew out Saturday morning. It's great to be back in the US, even if it's only for a week. Joe stayed in Ukraine so that if the appeal is thrown out this week (we've been told that it could be by Wednesday), he can go out to the camp and get Vacya. Then I'll be back in time to go get the birth certificate the following Monday if all goes well and the appeal is actually thrown out.

Frustration

We are a little frustrated with Andrei right now, to say the least. He was supposed to come down to Simferopol yesterday, but couldn't get a flight until this morning. However, he missed his flight because he didn't get up early enough this morning. Now he says he's coming on Monday, but we'll have to wait and see if he actually makes it. Tammy and I went to our court this morning so that I could sign a paper saying that I was notified that our case was appealed and was sent to the appeals court. The secretary at our court said that our case had already been sent over, but when we went to the appeals court to check on it, they said that they didn't have it yet and it can take 2 to 3 weeks for it to be processed and registered before any judge even looks at it. I called Andrei to let him know what's going on and he said that it should not take that long for it to be registered, only 3 to 5 days. He said that he will come Monday to go to the appeals court and to meet with our judge to see if he can do anything to speed up the process. Joe is going to call Sasha to see if he can do anything to move this along, or at least get Andrei down here to do his job.

Appeal

Tammy and I went back to the court today to ask about our case. The prosecutor had turned in her application for appeal and her reason was the age difference between Joe and Vacya again. That shouldn't even be an issue anymore since the adoption was only in my name this time, but she still has a right to appeal for whatever reason and we have to wait for them to go through that process. The secretary at the court (a new one) said that she won't get the appeal processed and sent over to the appeals court until Friday at the earliest. Tammy tried to explain that we are Americans and have been here for three months, but she was not too sympathetic. She said what did it matter to her if we were Americans. She will process our paperwork the same as she would any other. Andrei is going to try to call the deputy judge to see if they can move anything up sooner, but we're not all that optimistic at this point.

15 weeks

We're at 15 weeks in Ukraine now and we've been here during 6 different months... March, April, May, June, July & August.  We heard from the secretary at our court yesterday that the prosecutor has turned in her application for an appeal.  She turned it into the head court, so the secretary couldn't give us any specific information about what the complaint was yet.  She told Andrei to call back on Monday and she will let us know more.  Hopefully by Tuesday the appeals court judge will look at it and just throw it out.  

We went to visit Vacya today.  He seemed like he was doing ok.  He was telling us about these boys that come to the camp from nearby villages and beat up the kids at the camp.  They offer the younger kids candy to get them to come up to them, then beat them up.  Vacya said that he hides if he sees anybody that he doesn't recognize as another camper and doesn't walk around the camp unless there are a lot of other kids around.  We just can't wait to get him out of there.  He had some small cuts on his face this time, but I think they were just from mosquito bites that he scratched too much.  There were some other kids hanging around us and I think they were asking us to adopt them too.  Vacya said that he would not let anybody take us away from him :)  He's so cute... but it is sad to see all of those other kids who just want a family.

Thanks for all of the prayers for my health; my stomach has been feeling much better lately.  Please continue to pray that the appeals court will just throw out the appeal so that we can get Vacya and come home.