[k8c]

Hi, all. I don't want to bring up painful memories for anyone. I'm just wondering about court procedings. Even though it seems a long and winding road to get to a court date, it seems that once you've made it that far, you can breathe a sigh of relief. Even when judges take a long time and ask many questions, adoptions do seem to be granted. It seems that the agencies and faciliators do an excellent job of being sure that by the time you get to court everything has been taken care of. I haven't heard of anyone being denied their adoption once they were in court. Is this right or have I just not heard those stories?

Thanks,
Kate

[Jim_in_PA]

There is one individual that has posted here that was denied in court in-region, but was successful after appealing to the Supreme Court.

[papedge]

when we were in St. Petes adopting Emery the Judge was real nice she was vary kind,she hugged and kisses chris and I after it was over but from my understanding there are 2 in st. petes and she is the nice one.

[SingleMama2B]

Hi Kate.... I've only heard of one family, though NOT denied in court, but had decided, while having the "sister's" that they adopted during the 10 day wait period, they 'gave' them back!! They said that they did NOT WANT THEM! This I was told while I was in Russia during my adoption of DD. This came up, only after I was asked by the Judge, if I promise NOT to GIVE BACK my DD! I was shocked, and asked the translator (during court) to repeat what the jusge asked!! She said it was true, and I said of course, I would not give back my DD!!! After court, they gave me the details about the couple (no names of course), but this is why the judge now asks during every adoption proceeding. Who knows what the circumstances where, but I could NOT imagine ever doing it!

I did ask, while there before my day in court, if the judges do deny adoptions, and the Agency facilitor said that it has happened in the past, but VERY RARE. He said that he never experienced it! I know that my agency (my only experience) went to great pains to make sure EVERYTHING was in order, and prepared. I would only imagine that it could happen if the paperwork had lies on it, or the interview in court was REALLY BAD, and wrong things being said!

I was very nervous, as I was alone, and truly felt it not understanding the language, and having to rely solely on the translator. Luckily, I had met her prior to going into court and felt comfortable with her. Kate, you have the advantage understanding the language better! Emotions are high, and I simply went into Business mode..... I imagined myself (like I did my first meeting in D.C. with Mr. Norm Minata (Federal Transportation (DOT) Admin. Director), and it worked fine. hahaha Though I wasn't prepared for the all of the additional questions about being single, etc.

I would not worry, I am sure your agency will have everything well prepared and in order!!!

[votemom]

our petition to adopt independently was denied by the judge (we had not yet travelled, thankfully). two other families from our same town in the same region from the same orphanage, were granted their indy adoptions.

they got the lady judge. we got the man.

so we did it all again. we got the man again. same ending.

[gaek]

This is an area that I really felt the agency brought the most value. Their team in Russia knew everyone from the doctors, administrators, judges, etc and the process was very smooth. We were coached on appropriate gifts for each person (not the judge) and quickly found out that we were fine as long as "we did as we were told". Relationships are everything in Russia.

[Ktates]

Kim - did you adopt from the city of St. Petersburg or the region of Leningrad? I thought it was the city of St. Petersburg. When we adopted (through the city) - there were 5 judges (Jan of 2005).

We did have our proceedings delayed - meaning we went to court and started but the release letter had not been received so we had to stop things and pick it up the following week.

Gaek is right - a good agency will know what is needed etc and make sure everything goes smoothly (unless it's someone new).
No worries...

[Lo-la-la]

I had the very painful experience of having to return home from my 2nd trip without Olya. I had 5 hearings, and much to the shock of everyone, including the judge, the prosecutor continued to object to the adoption. In the 5th and final hearing, the regional court judge approved the adoption , but during the 10-day waiting period, the prosecutor appealed the judge's decision to the Supreme Court. It was so very painful as well as frightening, to say the least. My 3rd trip to Russia, when I had my hearing in the Supreme Court, would bring me much happiness!

As my signature shows, I did have a successful Supreme Court hearing - all 3 judges in the Supreme Court upheld the decision of the regional judge who had ruled IN MY FAVOR, and I was FINALLY able to bring my daughter home. I was told that I was the first person to have such a case appealed to the Supreme Court by a prosecutor and that I set a precedent in the Supreme Court - hopefully, this will help other families who unfortunately may experience the same hurdles I did.

In fact, as I sit here and type this, I am reminded that it was 2 years ago during the month of June that we - the agency, several attorneys and myself - were preparing the objections to the prosecutor's ridiculous appeal. I am still so very mindful of what a blessing Olya is, and I thank God for her.

[k8c]

Thank you all for sharing.

I'm not worried...just curious.

My heart goes out to votemom and Lo-la-la. What a heartwrenching situation to be in! I'm glad Lo's outcome was positive and pray that votemom's will be, too.

Kate

[skiboo]

We were with an excellent agency that had done over 1000 adoptions, most of them in only two regions of Russia. We went to court shortly after the elections in spring 2004 and there was a new city prosecutor looking to tighten things up and make a statement... of course we did not know this before our hearing started.

Our agency prepared us properly, we did what they said, they did what they normally do... but everything about our court hearing went wrong from the first moment it started. It was a nightmare beyond belief and one that I don't generally talk about. We were forced to leave Russia without Alex... and it took us over 3 months to get back for a second hearing... we fought and he came home, but it was gut-wrenching.

So, like like Lo-la it has been almost 2 years since our little miracle came home and we feel blessed every day to have him here with us.

Lo-la and I went to court the same week.... and got our second court dates also the same week. We were a support system for each other.

So, even when everything seems to be fine... you never know when things will turn on a dime.

[wifeoverne]

Since we were adopting independently we had to meet with the judge 10 days before court; infortuantly this was 2 weeks after Nina Hilt was murdered. She was adopted in our court and we were the first Americans to see the judge, she said if we went to court she would deny the adoption, so we withdrew our papers and are still waiting for a new court date. In this region it does not matter if you have an agency because the judge is doing everything she can to stop adoptions. She has only granted 6 adoptions since September and none are Americans. She has also had a couple of French families come to court and demanded more paper or more searches for families.
This is not to scare anyone, but the thing you have to remember about adopting from Russia is that everything can be going along just fine and then WHAM, it can change in a matter of minutes.

[Lo-la-la]

Janie (Skiboo), I still think of what we went through and that we went through it at the same time. I truly believe that God allowed our paths to cross so that we could encourage and support each other.

God used waitinginnj to tell Janie that there was someone posting on Adoption.com that was going through the same thing as she was, and that's how we found each other. Both Janie and myself followed God's urging and we stayed in touch during that highly emotional and terribly frightening time and we encouraged each other and held each other up. I will always have a special bond with Janie and someday I hope and pray that we can meet each other. Last year, around this this every same time, we were both experiencing some post traumatic stress disorder, but time does heal and this year is much better for me. I hope it is better for you, too, Janie.

Like Wifeoverne, I met Olya right after a child had been killed. It was the Irma Pavlis incident - she had killed her son in December 2003, and I met Olya on March 1, 2004. During my 2nd trip, when I started having problems in court with the prosecutor, the orphanage director told me that the Pavlis story was still fresh in everyone's mind. So here I was, all alone in Russia (I had traveled by myself on this trip) being put in the same category as Irma Pavlis. I felt like since the seed of doubt had been planted, that everyone was looking at me sideways thinking "Look, there's that crazy woman who will kill Olya someday in a crazy rage" - oh, it was just awful! THEN, one day when I was visiting Olya at the orphanage, we were playing with a handmade toy - the base was a bic red-ink pen (with no ink) and the head was some character, I don't remember what it was. All of a sudden, Olya had this red stuff all over her arms and face and clothes. I freaked - I thought it was blood! Apparently, there was just enought red ink in the base of that pen and it had leaked out. Well, the translator and I were frantically trying to sneak her to a bathroom where no one else could see the "blood" on her, and wash it off. I was so afraid that everyone would think I had tried to hurt her (or worse, kill her!!) that I was trying to clean her up before they saw it! Well, the translator and I started laughing at the whole scenario - and Olya started crying because she apparently had a fear of the "sink" and being washed off. It was kinda funny afterwards, but I remember thinking that everyone at the orphanage would think that I had hurt Olya and I was sooooooo scared. We couldn't wash it off completely, so we did have to tell them what happened, and it was not a problem! But you can imagine what I was thinking when I first saw what I THOUGHT was blood all over her.

Oh my gosh - I am SO glad that ordeal is over and I have my daughter home with me!

[Lo-la-la]

I feel that I should add that Skibbo's mental stability was NOT in question - we had totally different circumstances, but both of us had to leave Russia without our children after our in-region court hearings, and return to Russia for a 3rd time.

Just wanted to clear that up!

[cici32]

I don't know this couple personally. They were second on the dockett the day we went to court and we met them in the hallway. They also stayed in our hotel so we talked to them briefly. Anyway, they were denied in court, I don't know all the details but they did tell us that they were working with a good attorney and appealing the decision. I felt really bad for them, especially after we were able to bring Andrei to the hotel. We always seemed to bump into them at mealtime and I know it had to be very painful for them to see us with our son when they were fighting so hard for theirs.

[nhook]

Yes there are 5 adoption judges in St. Petersburg and we happened to get the most difficult one. She never ever waived the 10 days.

Our judge asked questions about our documents, how we would raise our child, why we want to adopt this child, how our interaction was with him and she asked our opinion of a mother giving up her child for adoption.

We just took a deep breath and answered each question one at a time. We had an EXCELLENT translator/coordinator who was hired by our agency and was very familiar with our judge and all of the people involved in the adoption. He made certain that all of the documents were there in Russia before we left for our 2nd trip.

Yes, we did have 4 months between trips and in those 4 months, the judge requested additional documents but once she set our court date, she had everything she needed. We also had people from the orphanage come and speak on our behalf.

It is a little intimidating but unless you say something completely and totally off the wall, you will come home with your child.