Today was court. We had to dress up. The judge asked me a few questions. He said, “Do you know who those two children are on the other side of the room?” I said, “Yes. They are going to be my brother and sister.” The judge seemed happy with that answer.
The court room didn’t turn out to be the way I expected it to be, and neither did the judge. I thought he would be on a big, high stand in a big brown room. It just turned out to be a plain room, with a cage in it. The cage is for criminals to sit in when they have to see the judge. I thought the judge would have a wig and a robe or something. Instead, he was an old man with glasses, and he didn’t wear a robe at all. He wore plain clothes and snake skin shoes. He even had a funny sense of humor.
He asked my mom what time it was back in the United States. She said, “Almost four in the morning.” He said, “That’s probably why Anna is yawning so much.”
It was very hot in the court room. It felt like they didn’t have any air conditioning on, which they didn’t. The window was open in the corner of the room, but there wasn’t any breeze coming in. I felt like I was sick or something.
I was too busy fanning myself to hear what the judge asked my dad, but my dad did a good job answering the questions.
In the front of the room, there was the judge and two other people, each one sitting on his side. (A lady was sitting on his right, and a man was sitting on his left.) I found out later they were the jury. They had to go away for a minute to think about it. When they came back, their answer was “Yes!”
To celebrate, we went to a nice restaurant on the Dnieper River. We invited Ms Larissa (the orphanage director) to come with us. It was so pretty there. They had cloth draped from the ceiling. You should see the pancakes I got! They were rolled up with cherries inside and melted chocolate and whipped cream on top. I found out later they are called crepes. I thought they would be called flakes! (Get it, flat cakes!)
I am making a book about Ukraine for my brothers and sisters, and my new ones, so they will always remember it. I’m definitely going to put this in my book!