Judgment Day

I’ll cut to the chase… The judge said YES!!!

We are delighted to announce the latest addition to the Ruopoli / Garza family!

Milan Damir Ruopoli

Birthname: Damir Amirovich Sultanov
Birthdate: August 23, 2006
Birthplace: A little village just outside of Aqtobe
New Hometown: Charleston, South Carolina, USA

Here we are in the courtroom, just after the proceedings:

Front: Gulnara (adoption coordinator) / Back, L to R: orphanage director;
social worker from MOE; Frank; Regina; Aina (interpreter)

Now for the play-by-play:

We slept well last night, but were awakened by the most severe thunderstorm we’ve ever heard. The lightning came in quick, single flashes, much like a camera flash firing. It was followed by razor-sharp, earsplitting cracks of thunder that sounded as if they held all the rage of the universe, and were cutting the very sky into shreds. Neither of us had ever experience anything like it before. I’m not afraid of storms; I actually enjoy them very much. But my heart skipped a beat more than once last night. I was relieved to hear the cacophony finally reduced to a rumble in the distance.

We awoke to a much cooler day and a fresh, clean feeling in the air. We moseyed around the apartment and then began to ready ourselves for the big day. Frank put on his butterscotch shirt and lucky tie – a tie that has seen almost every important milestone event in his life. I wore a black and white polka dot dress and pearls given to me by my mother.

In the car, Aina told us she thought we would have the same judge as the French couple – a man who was new to adoption cases and asked a lot of questions. Instead, we were assigned a woman who was very experienced. We were assured that with her our hearing should be easier.

We waited in the hall for a few minutes and then were led into a courtroom. The courthouse was a modest building. The courtroom was clean, simple and modest as well. The judge’s chair in the front of the room was on the same level as our seats. The chair had a tall triangular shaped back and reminded me of something from the USS Enterprise! The only decorations in the room were a Kazakh flag, a plaque of the national emblem and painting of a Kazakh diplomat (Aina didn’t know who he was.)

The prosecutor was running late, so after about 10 minutes we started without him. If he didn’t show up, then the judgment would still happen today, but then if the prosecutor had any objections or questions, we would need to go back to the courtroom again today or tomorrow.

The judge walked in through the same door we did, and we all stood up as she took her starship seat. A beautiful young girl dressed casually walked in behind her and sat directly behind us. The judge began speaking in Russian while looking at our passports and through our papers. After only a few minutes Frank was asked to give his speech. Frank stood up sturdily and delivered it with poise, one sentence at a time, as Aina interpreted. Only in his last sentence did I hear his voice tremble with emotion. The judge asked him only a few easy questions, which he answered with equal poise. He did a fabulous job and I was proud of him. Then I was asked to give my supporting comments. Before I could even begin speaking I felt the tears welling up. I felt Frank’s hand touch me in support as I completely sniveled my way through my four sentences. I couldn’t stop it no matter how hard I tried to get into “showtime” mode. I didn’t want the judge to think I am a fragile, weak crybaby, but Aina later said she could tell the judge was about to cry too, and she has two children and understands the depth of emotion involved.

After we finished our part, the orphanage director presented her information about Milo. Then the social worker from the Ministry of Education presented his report about the birthfamily’s release as well as his observations about us and our interactions with Milo. The judge started asking him questions. Then more questions. Lots of questions. She took on a reprimanding tone of voice and the social worker seemed to become very unnerved. Gulnara helped him answer a few questions. We started to get anxious. The judge did not seem happy, and neither did anyone else in the room at that point. I could only understand bits and pieces, but at one point I did hear her say “G-deah mama?” (Where is the mom?) with a very insistent tone of voice. We braced ourselves for dire news. The judge finished scolding the social worker, then quickly turned to Gulnara and said something nonchalantly. Aina turned to us and said that the judge just approved our application to adopt. We were in shock….Really? But what was all that yelling about? Aina said the social worker forgot to include some very important information in his report about the birthfamily, and he also forgot to say some necessary things about us. The judge understood this was the social worker’s first case, but if he does it again she will be very angry with him. Whew! And double whew! We all hugged and Frank and I felt the blood return to our veins.

As the judge walked out, the pretty young woman sitting behind us followed her out without a word. We made eye contact, and the thought occurred to me that she had Damir’s lips. Probably my imagination working overtime. I asked Aina who she was. She said she didn’t know.

We started to leave, and in the lobby we ran into the prosecutor who had been running late. He took one quick look at our passports, said a few words to Gulnara with an impish smile on his face, and hurried inside the building. He did not have any questions or concerns and he went to sign the papers. He never even looked at us! She said he seemed to be in a very good mood, which was unusual for him. Maybe he really likes thunderstorms. I thought he looked like he had just gotten laid. ;-)

We came back to our nice and cool apartment feeling happy and relieved to be past this huge milestone. We tried to post on the blog, but the lines were busy for hours. (Remember the good ‘ole days of dial-up during peak hours?) So we rested and then went for our afternoon visit with our son and told him the good news! Our son!!! Our sweet, wonderful, hilarious, handsome, mischievous and utterly brilliant son!

As you can see, he was tickled pink to hear the news!



After our visit with our son we took Aina, Gulnara and Ceric to dinner to celebrate at the hip, nearby Turkish restaurant called Taksim. We had a great meal and toasted to each other’s hard work and also to Milan with vodka. Very smooth vodka I might add! We found out that Taksim has high speed wireless internet access, which is great because it's close to our apartment.

Here we are celebrating success at court. (I don't know what American classic movie stars have to do with Turkey, but hey, just go with it.)



To our fantastic friends, family and faithful blog readers, thank you so much for all your prayers and good energy. They worked. Now we must just wait 15 days for the "appeal period" to pass, and we will be granted custody of Milan forever on the 16th day. That should be July 30th. It's called "Gotcha Day" in the adoption world, and it is celebrated like a very special birthday.

So the fat lady hasn't sung yet, but ladies and gentlemen, she has taken the stage!