The hearing that wasn't...

Okay, so we get to court (after staying up half the night trying to recify issues the judge had brought up since receiving our new medicals at 5 p.m yesterday), and began the hearing - or not hearing. The first 10 minutes we went through the ridiculous routine of having everyone state their names and purposes for being in the court room. The next 5 minutes was our lawyer reading our new medicals and updated police reports. That was immediately followed by 30 minutes of arguing back and forth between the attorney & the judge as to whether the US medicals met the requirements of Russian Law. Our attorney argured every point, and the judge kept coming up with stupid "qualms" about the reports. We then took 5 minutes to meet in private with our attorney, who advised us to go back in and agree to re-doing the medicals here. She said otherwise, the judge would surely not approve the adoption. And so we did. We were given a court date of 22 January - next thursday - at which time we will reappear with the "right" medicals (a.k.a. Russian medicals) and then - and only then - will our adoption hearing REALLY reconvene! Seems this was a hearing to consider whether we had submitted everything needed to proceed, and in the judge's eyes, we didn't.

We're not going crazy here - almost sorta expected it. We get the medicals redone, and then appear next Thursday for the "Real" hearing...

So, on the way home we decided we'd run around the next 4 days getting them done, and then ntoarized, etc. and resubmitted, and then we are going to head out to one of the "campsites" on the outskirts of town for the weekend, along with Irina and her family, and do anything BUT think about medicals, court hearings, or Countess Dracula - err, the Judge... We'll enjoy sledding, zip-lining, authentic Russian Bath house, local fare, and hopefully skiing! We stayed at one of these places two years ago - called "Angarsk Hill". Insanely cheap accomodations (cabins really) cheap meals in the little restaurant/dining room yet REALLY good authentic Russian food, and cheap fun - mostly free except for the Russian Bath and Skiing, but both are still VERY inexpensive.

You know us, we make the best of every situation and this one is no different. We're not sure if Harry will be allowed to come with us, but, we're trying to get permission. The reality is, we need the time off from all this stress, and we owe Irina & Vova so much more than 2 nites at the campsite, and this is the best we can come up with right now... like our boat, "It'll do"...