Ahhh! Beautiful Wi-Fi connection! Several of you have tried to contact me regarding our court hearing on Friday since I haven't posted - thank you for that, but I haven't posted because I haven't had connection.
We are actually in Dallas right now, and will hopefully be back in Tulsa in just a few hours. Trips like this are always wonderful, but it is also so nice to be back on US soil.
As for our court hearing - I can't imagine that it could have gone any better. Our judge was so kind and jovial. As soon as we entered the court, he said, "Before I even begin, I want you to know that I have thoroughly reviewed all of your paperwork and home studies, and I see no concerns."... so that was of course very reassuring. He made similar statements throughout our time together.
We were told that the judges rarely speak to the children that attend court, and, if they did speak to the children, it was usually just one simple question - "What did you think about your brother/sister when you met them?". Well, the judge took an interest in Reese, and asked him a lot of questions regarding our time with Hyun, his hobbies, etc. Our home study mentioned that we had been learning Hangul, so the judge asked Reese to speak to him in Hangul. Reese introduced himself and told the judge how old he was in Korean.
The judge spoke to Ron a lot about his hobbies - which in speaking with the other adoptive families who also had court hearings on the same day as us, he asked almost every husband the same questions regarding hobbies. Ron thinks maybe he was trying to determine if the husbands leave their families behind to pursue their own hobbies.
The judge also enquired about Ron's mom's health since she had been diagnosed with cancer. The judge also laughed when highlighting Ron's minor arrest record from when he was 19 years old (it was for a trespassing violation - which, by the way, he wasn't even really trespassing).
He only asked me one question - "What is 60 Days Around the World?" "60 Days Around the World" was a curriculum I was doing with Reese at the time of the first home study where we had a map and a booklet that taught us different things about many cultures and countries. It would also share the hardships of the different countries, and then we would pray for each country and it's people. After I shared this with the judge, he said, "this is one reason I love western culture.". I think he appreciated that we appreciate and care about a variety of cultures. I'm so glad the judge did not ask Reese the question about this curriculum because he was 5 when our original home study was completed and doesn't remember it at all! We would have looked like such liars!
So the big question of the day... "When do we go back to Korea?". I don't know. There is a very good chance that the preliminary approval will be completed sometime next week. This particular judge is known for being slow and meticulous before the court hearing while being very fast after the hearing. If approved, we think there is a good chance we will be going back first week of June, BUT we don't know for sure until we receive final word from our agency. There is still the unknown factor regarding Hyun's birth mother; we have no information regarding how their contact with her has been. If she has officially signed all the necessary paperwork then early June is a real possibility.
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