Introducing Liliana Victoria Brown

These are the people who made all the difference in our court appearance: (from left) Ludmilla, our translator (She was totally familar with the process and was an excellent coach. Her English was impeccable.); Julia, our agency representative (She was calm and steady through the whole process, a strong supporter); Lily (who cried and cried during our first break, about two hours into the proceedings - that should have only taken an hour); me (who had the dubious honor of being the "first speaker" for our family in in front of our judge); Mike (who was like a rock throughout the process); Ludmilla V., the social worker from the agency (She was extremely supportive our petition and even when things got dicey, she spoke and firmly confidently that Lily should come to our family); and finally Grigori, the new orphanage director (His testimony probably had the most impact as he confirmed the importance of children being in a family, no matter the age). God bless them all.

Yesterday, we did not walk into court until 2:30 or so (we were scheduled at 1 pm) and then, did not finish until almost 6 pm (I felt so badly for the family that was scheduled at 2 pm and had to wait for our hearing to end!).

The judge, Svetlana, was very serious and very concerned about every detail. For some reason, she got it into her head that there were too many oddities in our financial statement and began "digging" into it.... sure that we couldn't afford the child. Of course, we can't afford the child, but we have always trusted that God has the plan and He'll provide... which He has done so far. But we couldn't exactly say that to the judge nor could we explain that household expenses can vary from one month to the other. Then, because we had a designation for childcare for Kip, she assumed that he must have some serious issues to require so much money for childcare... we had to explain several times that Kip was in a private school and we had to pay tuition plus the costs of "after care" because I was at work. Eventually, we had to explain the structure of American education system: elementary school, middle school etc. Then she questioned at length whether we thought the boys were friends with Lily from the first time etc.

Towards the end, after a second break in which the judge was giving us "one more chance" to explain some things, she followed up on my comment that the boys were leaders. Then she asked if I thought Lily was a leader. When I said she had "leadership qualities" and named them, she proceeded to read from the school report that said she had no leadership qualities and therefore, it was clear that I didn't really know the girl. It was like that the whole time. It was very difficult not to just explode.

When Mike got up to do his bit, the judge questioned him at length as well, but did not like Mike's style of "storytelling" to make a point.

And all the while, I kept thinking, how would this judge every make an "immediate" decision which would then, effectively, waive the 10-day waiting period? When we got through the worst of it and Lily was brought in for her interview, Lily mentioned a grandparent and an aunt that no longer had contact with her. Oh God, I thought, the social worker had previously said there were no relatives at all. Sure enough, after Lily left, the judge trounced on the social worker. It went badly for another 15 minutes. In the end, because there was no proof on Lily's side that there were any family members, she let it go.

When we requested the immediate decision, the judge glared, but had to ask the others present what they thought. Again, the director, the social worker, even the rep from the medical establishment supported our petition. The judge acquiesced. done. It was a 2-vodka day for me... of course, being a non-drinker, I fell into blissful sleep not long after. :-0

Now, today, we go off to get the paperwork started to change Lily's records and get a passport.
Please keep holding us up. More later.