Jen, Steve, and Joe Szydlik joyfully announce the addition of Benjamin Aidos Szydlik to our family!

Jen here. This morning we had a celebration and farewell at the baby house. Igor's neighbor made us a huge three-layer white cake; it is a tradition among the WPA families. We presented the cake to the baby house mamas and they immediately sat all the children down with the cake, and they all waited while the grown-ups made speeches of thanks and gave well wishes.  

Aidos is Sweta's favorite, so she came in especially to say good-bye, and to present us with a necklace to remember her by. Then we fed the kids cake.  Aidos was by far the slowest cake-eater.  Everyone else finished and he was still eating. All the other children were cleaned up, and he was still eating. They removed all but one table, and he was still eating. I gave him points for endurance.

At the end, Sweta said her farewell to Aidos. She cried. I cried. Aidos sobbed. I am grateful that someone loved him.  

Aidos was probably confused (and relieved) when we left him at the baby house this morning. We don't get to pick him up until after court (provided we are allowed to adopt and granted immediate execution). I just finished packing and have a few minutes before I will need to dress for court. 

Later...

It's over. The whole thing took about 20 minutes and was mostly a reprise of precourt - except a prosecutor was present and asked a couple of questions. Everyone (including the prosecutor) supported out application for adoption and our petition for immediate execution of the adoption.  

 At the end, Steve (I got was asked to say very little - apparently the men are the ones who speak in this culture) gave a short speech to convince the judge that he should grant our requests.   

Our Speech for Court:

Your honor, we request that you grant our applications for adoption and immediate execution.  We  know that you would be entrusting us with a great opportunity and responsibility. In exchange for that trust, we make the following promises to you and to the people of Kazakhstan.  We promise that we will love Aidos, we will protect him, and we will provide him with a safe, healthy and moral home.  We promise to provide him with excellent medical care. We promise to give him the opportunity to express himself, to become educated, to travel, and to grow into a creative adult.  Finally, we promise to tell him of his heritage, and to make some Kazakh traditions a part of our own home life. We assure you that Aidos is already our son in our hearts and that we can no longer imagine our family without him.  Each day it becomes more difficult for us to part with him and for him to part with us.  Please let us be his parents from this day forward.

Then the judge (who looked quite stern during the whole thing) said okay and that was it! We went back to the apartment to change and then went to the records office to sign documents. (This process of obtaining the appropriate records often takes days, so Olga must be commended for getting it all done in minutes! Actually the whole WPA staff is amazing - smart, connected, kind, and perfect for their jobs. For example, our driver is an ex taxi-driver, and Jon and Mary Lou's driver is a retired police officer. They know everyone.) At around 5:00 we arrived at the baby house and picked up Aidos - who was sad until we got in the car - then it was so interesting to watch the traffic! Our flight was delayed and so we ended up in Almaty at around 1:00 am on Saturday. Everyone is exhausted.