Tuesday 19 February 2008

Appeal - 14 days to go

Wow, 800 page views yesterday, that's a little above average!!!!

We have now entered the annoying but necessary stage known as the 'Appeal period'. After the court decision Kaz law states that there must be a period of 14 days when anyone can come forward and appeal the courts decision to grant the adoption. We are not concerned about this and in the past the period was normally waived but for the last year or so they have been stricter in enforcing it. Once the 14 days has elapsed Leah can finally leave the baby house and come back to our hotel for a week or so while all her passport, visa docs, etc are sorted.

The court process itself was very straightforward, we entered the room and sat down till we were called forward by the judge. Once we were called he spoke for a few minutes explaining our rights and why we were all there. We then gave our petition to the court, basically asking permission to adopt Leah and explaining our reasons for coming to Kazakhstan. Then the lady from the MOE and the High Doctor from the baby house spoke about how wonderful we were and how that it would be in the best interests of he child to be adopted by us. After all this the judge asked the court appointed prosecutor (who is there to speak for the child) if she had any protests to make, thankfully she had none. We then all stood up and left the room to allow the judge to reach a decision. 10 years (4mins) later the door opened again and we all filed in for the verdict. The judge, resplendent in his purple robes stood and very formally announced that the court of the Republic of Kazakhstan, sitting in the region of Ust-Kamenogorsk had decided to grant our petition to adopt Leah. All in all it was a quite fantastic experience!!

Jeremy and Elaine from South Africa had court right after us and thankfully it went well for them also. We all went out for a slap-up meal in a fancy Ust restaurant afterwards with our wonderful translator Ragul and the one and only Victor. They both made very touching toasts at dinner wishing us good lives, health and happiness with our new children. We were slightly concerned that while the rest of us were drinking fruit juice Victor was toasting us with Vodka however we think it actually helped his driving as its difficult to imagine anything that would make our bus rides with victor more terrifying!!!

Phew, that was long winded, well done if you made it this far. If you just skipped straight down to look at the photos, shame on you!! I'm looking at you john!

Philip, Amanda & Leah



After court.



Happiest child in Kazakhstan.



"I love the dolly!"



Kiss from mummy.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

hey, glad everything went so well, victor sounds like a crazy guy but fun! really enjoying the photos are there any videos of the caterpillar shuffle? would loveto see that!! travis cant wait to meet cute little leah!

p.s keep the pics coming, and also im with john want to see a pic with all three of yous in red coats.hehe.

lynsey,paul&travis

Susanne & Markus said...

Hi,
my name is Susan from germany. we adopted our son Alexander in august 2007 in ust. while reading your blog I remind our days in ust.
I think "your" Victor had been our driver too. Can you please give him our best regards?!
Susan, Markus and Alexander (called Sasha) from Germany
p.s. all the best for the next weeks and good travel home!

Anonymous said...

Yadaa yadaa court yadaa yadaa MOE yadaa yadaa victor, do you really think the hungry caterpillar was my favourite book because of the words Amanda!

More pics less yadaa yadaa
JDog

P.S. You know me too well

Anonymous said...

Hi, delighted that everything went so well in court. Leah looks very happy with her new dad & mum. Those big blue eyes are certainly catching!

Keep the pictures coming, they're excellent!
Love Alex & Christine xo

Lesanne said...

Dear Amanda and Philip,
Hi. My name is Leslie Anne, and I adopted my daughter from Ust a year ago. I'm so happy for the three of you! Leah is a beautiful little angel!!!
Take care and thank you for sharing your journey to your sweetheart,
Leslie Anne and Julianna from Boston

philip stanfield said...

Hi there Philip, Amanda and Leah.

It's just wonderful to see you all on the photos. You do look 'a little bit' pleased to say the least. And to be coming home as a family together soon .. incredible how good our God is.

"all things work together for good to them that love God" Rom 8:28

Philip & Joanne

Julie said...

Congratulations. I love the photos she is just precious. She looks shuch a happy little one with you both. Our adoption agency have indicated we might travel to Thailand end of March! Hope so- not long for us now.
julie

Anonymous said...

Really delighted to see you both with Leah. She is a beautiful wee girl - the star of the county down! I like Philip's dad socks - are they from Ballywalter's factory shop? Praying that you all continue to experience our Heavenly Father's care, grace and strength as He continues to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine!
Peter Campbell

Chris Sapp said...

I saw your post on the Ust board and just wanted to congratulate your family!!! Leah is beautiful!!!

Caroline said...

More pix please! She is beautiful. I just got the boost I needed to book a flight for the summer.

CJ

Matthew Ruley said...

She is gorgous! Gorgeous!

naska said...

Hello guys,
my name is Nazym, I am from Almaty, I used to work for an adoption agency as a translator, one friend of mine gave me your blog address, so I decided to check it.
Congratulations,
very happy for you!!!

Catalina said...

such a beautiful smile :) Congratulations! I am sure all the long waiting was so much worthed...

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