Four plus three from Poland

Court Day is here! We stayed in Jawor overnight and our court appearance is this afternoon.  Looking back, I would not have stayed here last night or spent the day in the town.  Since it is a small town, it was not wise to walk around the town with our new kids since residents may not understand why we are with them.  I also would not have gone back to the Orphanage.  It was nice for the kids to see their friends one last time but we had already said goodbye and it dug up the emotions of this life change again.

The court experience was pleasant.  Neither of us were worried or nervous just excited for this day to finally be here.  Our Adoption Representative, Sasha, and the Assistant Director from the orphanage went with us.  When we arrived, we met our translator.  Right at the appoint time, we were all called into the courtroom. It was a medium size room with about 5 rows of benches for the audience.  We were instructed to sit over on the side with our translator.  The attorney (prosecutor) for the state sat opposite us.  Three judges sat in the front of the room with the court reporter.

The lead judge started by asking us both several questions:

• Do you still want to adopt these children? Yes
• Do you understand Polish law concerning adoption? Yes
• Will you be required any additional procedures once you return to the U.S. before the adoption becomes legal? No

The lead judge then called Robyn up to the stand, which faced the three judges and asked her lots of questions:

• How old are you?
• How long have you been married?
• What is your occupation?
• Do you work outside the home?
• Do you plan to homeschool these children as well?
• How long have you homeschooled the children?
• Why do you want to adopt from Poland?
• Do you have any relatives from Poland?
• How has your two weeks bonding period gone?
• How have your children related with the new children?
• What are their thoughts about bring in more children into your home?
• Does your husbands job require him to be away from home a lot?
• Does your husbands job require him to work lots of hours?
• Do you have any health issues?
• Have you ever been convicted of a crime?

Then it was my turn:

• How old are you?
• What do you do for an occupation?
• What level of education have you completed?
• What is your financial condition?  Salary?
• How big is your house?
• Why do you want to adopt from Poland?
• How have your existing children related to the new children?  What activities have you done together?
• Do you have any health issues?
• Have you ever been convicted of a crime?

The judge then asked the prosecutor if she had any issues with the adoptions.  She had no objections.

The lead judge then asked the representative from the orphanage to address the court.

• How long have the children lived at the orphanage?
• Tell us about the children?
• What are your thoughts about the children being adopted?
• What are your thoughts about these parents adopting the children?
• Any concerns?
• What about the birth mother and her relationship with the children?

After she spoke, the lead judge asked us if we have anything further to add or request:

• I confirmed again that we wanted to adopt these children.
• I wanted to thank the orphanage for taking wonderful care of our children.
• I requested that the court minimize our appeal period and we did not need a written decree.  Note:  if you do not ask for this, the appeal period is three weeks. If you waive the written decree, the court may reduce the appeal period to two weeks.
• I also requested that if the court ruled in our favor, that once the appeal period ended that our appoint trustee be able to pick up the final approved documents here at the courthouse.  Note:  this saves you from having to wait for it to be mailed which could add another week.
• We gave the court a piece of paper with the new names of the children.  If you don't, you run the chance of the court reporter misspelling their new names so be sure to give them the new names already written down.

Then the lead judge dismissed us for them to discuss their decision.  So we went back into the hallway for about 15 minutes.  After about 10 minutes, the court reporter came out to confirm the spelling of their new names. Well, that was a good sign!!

We then returned to the courtroom. The lead judge told us that it was a hard decision to remove the birth mother from her parental rights. She then went into some painful details.  In the end, it was the decision of the court that the children needed to be in stable family environment and it was not fair for the children to wait any longer for their mother to change her ways. So then the judge, who had spoken in Polish the entire time, looked at us and said in very good English "you are now the parent of these children."  Then all three judges broke out in big smiles.  The translator was in shock because she had rarely seen Polish judges show any emotion. 

We then came forward and signed a document confirming their decision.  They even allowed us to get a picture made with them.  The lead judge, again in English, spoke some kinds words about us and asked if we would send her an update from time to time.  She also requested that we remind the children of their Polish heritage.