Big Problem

I think I'll start by listing a few blessings and tender mercies from the Lord:

*my babushkas were so happy to see me this evening when I finally forced myself to leave the apartment. Nothing like a bunch of old ladies to make you feel loved.

*the vegetable stand guy also called out to me and asked how I was doing.

* a little kid that was out for a walk with his parents toddled toward me with a huge smile on his face. There's nothing like a child's smile.

*the sun is setting earlier these days, but I made it outside just in time to see a most beautiful explosion of color across the sky

Today was not good. It actually was really, really bad. I already felt pretty stretched to my limit, so when the crap hit the fan today, it about put me over the edge. I'm not going to give you a play by play of the days events, I'm just going to list the facts in as clear an order as I can so that they make sense. But, the problem is that none of it makes sense.

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  our court order, the one saying that the adoption has been approved and completed, has been suspended. the good news is that the adoption was not contested. the bad news is that it is not legal.



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  on December 23, 2009, in order (it is suspected) to 'get out of jail early' the biological father of BoyTwo (whose family or last name happens to be RATchenko) had a new birth certificate created listing him as the father. Then he could say, look I have a child to care for, I need to be out of prison so that I can work. riiiiiiiiiiiiiight. somehow, he is still unemployed. must be hard to support a child you never even met until he was 3 and then severly beat prior to said child being placed in government custody whom you have never seen since.



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  bio dad was not listed on the original birth certificate



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  he walked in to the vital records office in the Zap region of the Zap oblast and some lady, voila, created a new birth certificate for a kid that wasn't even present, that he claimed was his son, BASED ON HIS FIRST NAME. Seriously, he said, look at his patronomic name (in Ukraine everyone has a patronomic name. Basically you add 'vich' to your dad's first name. So, if your father's name is Victor, your patronomic name would be Victorvich). So bio dad walks in with BoyTwo's birth cert and says look, his patronomic name is Victorvich, my name is Victor, see I'm his dad. And this lady gives him a new birth certificate. She simply sees his passport to see that his name is, in fact, Victor and issues a new document. She does not complete the required paperwork nor does she forward this information to Zap oblast or the national government.



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  this is a huge problem. HUGE!!! Because now BoyTwo is no longer an orphan and therefore cannot be adopted. Somehow, even though this document was illegally created, it is being upheld in the court of law.



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  the good news is that I remained fully conscious and coherent after receiving this news. sort of.



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  our judge in Volnyansk has no jurisdiction over this case as the new birth cert was created in the Zap region, not the Volnyansk region.



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  lady that issued said birth cert is kind of in hot water, as she should be, and is being required via the courts to put in writing a statement as to why she 1)issued a birth cert without proper documentation, 2)why she did not register the new document with the Zap oblast, 3)why she did not register the new document with the national government.



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  her story is that she didn't have the court decree that terminated the parental rights of the mom, which has absolutely nothing to do with having proper documentation for issuing a new birth certificate. I can tell you all about the process. I've gone through it!!!!!!!!!



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  dad's rights would have been terminated when mom's were, had he been listed on the birth cert, but he wasn't.



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  Zap region superviser had to prepare written statement that this birth cert never did get sent to the Zap oblast or to the national offices.



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  Zap oblast and national offices have to issue written statements saying they never received paperwork for new birth cert.



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  right now I know you are thinking, hello?! This so called birth certificate should be null and void. You're right. The problem is that we are in Ukraine and now dealing with a COMPLETELY new jurisdiction. As in there are no previous relationships with the judges or social service offices there. As in not everyone here likes Americans or is in favor of adoption. Just as in America, you want certain judges to hear certain cases so that you get certain results, only we (meaning my team here) haven't done any work with this other jurisdiction and are trying to figure out who is who and what is what. They are exhausted.



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  everyone is shocked about this. doesn't really make me feel better. In fact it makes me really nervous because instead of everyone saying, 'hey this is illegal, no problem' they are all freaking out too.



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  we have 3 options. here they are in order of best to least best:

1) Our facilitator will attempt to contact via telephone the Rat (as I am now, unaffectionately calling him). Evidently his reputation preceeds him and if Helen makes contact with him and can get him to agree to a meeting, the police (who are very familiar with him) will be accompanying her, along with the director of the social services office in the Zap region. They will 'offer' to him to relinquish his paternal rights to his son based on the fact that he already got his 'get out of jail card' out of it, and probably a few other things that I may not be made aware of 'wink wink'. This formal relinquishment of rights would then need to be processed back in the Zap region and, depending on who sees the case, could be taken care of within a couple days, or a couple years. After the paperwork is done to get rid of the birth certificate, we can move forward with our adoption as the judge would lift the suspension. This is the BEST CASE scenario.

2) We will have to hire an attorney here in Ukraine to file a motion in our behalf to have the birth certificate ruled as null and void. It seems obvious that this would be the case as there is no solid evidence on which the production of the birth cert was originally created. In the words of Oleg, "Anyone with the name of Victor could have walked in, shown his passport and been given this document. Do you know how many Victor's there are in Ukraine?!" The courts would then need to rule the birth certificate null and void. The time frame on this option is unknown also, due to not knowing what judge we would be able to agree to see our case and when the judge would be willing. Once the case was seen, and if the b.c. was ruled null and void, we could move forward with the adoption. (A big blessing in this is that the ten days is up and if the Rat was to try to create another, new certificate at this time, it would not be legal as we have dibs, so to speak, and he didn't come forth during the ten days, but this is only relevant IF they rule the old cert null and void.)

3)This option also requires us hiring an attorney here in Ukraine. We would have to file a motion to have the father's right removed, which shouldn't be too hard to do. The police have loads of files documenting abuse, neglect, and alcoholism, along with statements the orphanage will prepare stating lack of involvement and interest and care shown since the arrival of BoyTwo. By the way, the director was ticked about all this. She doesn't like this guy either. Seriously, so many people have heard of him. Kinda creepy. He's a loser though. Only small minded people hurt other smaller people to make themselves feel big. This is the WORST CASE scenario though, because according to Ukrainian law, a child must be removed from their parents for one year. At the end of that time, they are available for one year only to Ukrainian citizens for adoption. It would be two full years from the time the father's rights were removed before we could adopt him.

Our team here in Ukraine is calling everyone they know, and calling in favors from everyone they know. We are waiting to hear from a husband/wife attorney team who is based in Kyiv. The wife actually used to be an attorney for the old SDA, as in the one from three years ago. So far, we haven't been able to find anyone who has dealt with this situation before. Of course we haven't. OF COURSE!!!! Even the current SDA is like, 'what?!' If by chance you are reading this and have had this happen to you or know of someone it has happened to, please, please, please contact me. Any information on this situation would be helpful at this time.

So, I'm going to be honest here. I'm not feeling very positive. I mean, heck in America, one of the best democracies in the world with one of the best judiciary systems ever, just set Casey Anthony free. And I'm in Ukraine. I'm a little bit of a train wreck thinking about leaving these boys here for an indefinite period of time. It's not going well. Really really need anybody's prayers. Prayers that somehow the Rat will say it is ok for the birth certificate to go bye-bye, that we will find judges in this new jurisdiction to see our case, that we can even FIND the Rat, that all involved in the upcoming court decisions will be inspired to do what is in the best interest of the child.