he is ours

And now, for the first time ever, allow me to introduce

VLADISLAV SORIN BURICK



Today in a courtroom in Eastern Europe, we were named Vlad Burick's parents. It was an emotional moment to be sure.

Imagine a long rectangular room. At one end, is a woman in a suit -- the judge. In front of her sits her assistant. At the other end of the room, are eight other people. On one side sits me, Josh, and Marina, our wonderful translator and facilitator. On the other side sits the prosecutor. Along the wall are two women who are the jury as well as a representative for the social worker's office and a representative for the orphanage. And though they weren't technically there, Syrus and Baby #3 would play significant roles in that courtroom, too.

At the beginning the judge was given our magical photo album and as she was looking it over, she made a speech to the room about how in other countries, families believe that children with Down syndrome are people like everyone else who deserve to be educated and raised by a family who loves them. She then passed around our album to everyone else so everyone could see that our family includes such a child, named Syrus. Syrus to the rescue. Quite a moment.

Josh and I each had to speak to the judge and tell her about ourselves, our family, our home, and why we want to adopt Vlad. Then the prosecutor was allowed to ask any questions. Josh spoke first and I immediately began to weep. It just got to be too much for me. She had our dossier on her desk which represented the last seven months of paperwork and she wanted us to then express what cannot be said in a bunch of formal documents -- that we want this child to be named legally ours though in our hearts he already is. It was all so official. Josh spoke so well about our finances, insurance, our home, everything you can think of -- and he was emotional a few times as he spoke about our lives and our desire to be Vlad's parents. Very powerful to watch your husband do this for a little boy you hope will be your son.

When I spoke, my voice was choked away a few times by tears. The prosecutor asked me the same question the social worker had asked us two weeks ago, "if you already have a child with special needs, and one on the way, why would you want another child and one who will require so much care?" I told the courtroom that my tears were because we love Vlad so much and want him to have the kind of life that our other two boys will have. That when we started the process to adopt Vlad, I was not pregnant, but that Vlad was already our son in our hearts and this third child was just another one of God's blessings to us -- the same as Syrus and Vlad. The judge had a tiny smile on her face and was nodding as I spoke.

Then the other people in the courtroom were allowed to speak. The social worker's representative said that they believed it was in Vlad's best interest for us to adopt him as we understood his diagnosis and not one member of his family or anyone else in his country had expressed an interest in adopting him. They wanted us to be his parents. The orphanage representative said that Vlad had never once been visited at the orphanage and had been there his whole life. She said when she saw us playing with him, it was like he was our own son. They wanted us to be his parents, too. I was struck by how many times it was said in court that "the child has nothing. He has no home. No family. No one in this country who will want to be his parents." It was said over and over again. And here we sat, wanting to give Vlad everything -- a home, a family, parents. Again, quite powerful.

Two things were then brought to our attention. First, evidently how we were given this date for court and this judge, was not the way things are normally done. Marina had to jump through many hoops and the judge had to do a number of things to make that happen. She said that because I was pregnant, that an exception was made for us. We were so thankful because evidently we should have had to wait a month to have a court date. Thus, baby #3 came to the rescue.

Second, we were given the option of having the 10 day wait waived -- an incredible gift as this has not happened in this region in 15 years. However, it was explained to us that there were great risks involved in doing so which could potentially and ironically keep us here in the country for 2-3 more months because it is so rare and would therefore raise some eyebrows. We therefore decided to decline. We would rather wait 10 more days than 2-3 more months and have Vlad come home with us AFTER baby #3 is born.

The judge then looked at us and said, "Congratulations. You are now the parents of Vladislav Sorin Burick." The room was suddenly excited and everyone was on their feet and people were hugging us and saying congratulations. Josh and I both wept and held each other in the middle of all the excitement.

After all this time, he is ours.

And we are coming home! We are very excited and at peace. We will be home this weekend and Josh will return next week to bring Vlad Burick home. Forever. Starting today, no one can say that this child has nothing. We are his, and he is ours.