Court

"The country of Ukraine... response to the petition of Hartzler Stanley Jason and Hartzler Julie Ann: to satisfy!" "The father's name: Hartzler Stanley Jason... The mother's name: Hartzler Julie Ann."

Those words spoken to the court recorder, the orphanage rep, the facilitator, and us about half an hour ago by the judge are probably all that's really important about the court case but I'll add some more details. We got to the orphanage around 8:30, back on the road at 9 with all five of us walking on the street together for the first time, to the court at 9:30, waited outside the secretary's office for about an hour before entering the courtroom. It was probably close to freezing in there, it's kind of a glass and concrete addition to the rest of the government building. The judge asked all 5 of us a lot of questions and went page by page through our dossier and the other stack of paperwork. The girls were amazingly good. We were a little nervous, but the judge lightened up the tension with the occasional joke (e.g., when reading our Ukrainian facilitator's personal data, he said "Residence: California. You live in California?!"). The cutest moment was towards the end when he asked Maria if she loved us and Yulia enthusiastically interrupted "Yes!" at the same time and a little louder than her sister. We caught a minibus back to the orphanage and managed to get the girls let into the locked cafeteria for an overdue lunch a little after 12; the court session lasted a little over an hour.

We walked back to town from the orphanage and met Val to warm up over lunch before returning to court at 1:45. Around 2:30 we were escorted into the courtroom again, where the judge read out the decree. It will go into effect eleven days from now as long as none of the participating parties (social services, the orphanage, the SDA, the district attorney, and ourselves) appeal it before then. Since this is quite unlikely, all those parties having recommended this outcome, we have gone ahead and posted an introduction to our girls with their pictures and decreed names.