December was jam packed with
stuff from end to end! I tend to be quite a prolific writer, if you haven’t
figured that out, so I will try to just hit the highlights so as not to put you
all to sleep.
- I
am going to cheat and start at the end of November, actually. We celebrated the
one year anniversary of Sophie’s release from the TB hospital on November 21.
The following Saturday, I took Sophie, Winnie and Ying to the Yee Pang lantern
festival in Mae Jo, about a 30 minute drive from Chiang Mai. Last year, this
festival happened earlier, so Sophie was in the hospital and couldn’t come.
When I found out she had never been, I thought it was the perfect way to
celebrate her one year TB free anniversary. Well, we met up with some of my
other friends and all caravanned up to the Mae Jo University campus for the
lighting. I was hoping to go early and have time to get a seat and lanterns,
etc, but Ying had dance practice til 5pm, so we got there just in time for the
lantern send off. By the time we got there, all of us were starving, so I sent
the girls off to get some food for themselves and hoped that we would reconnect
in time to see all the lanterns sent off. For those of you who have seen the movie
Tangled, this festival is EXACTLY like that lantern festival, only insert a lot
of monotone Buddhist chanting in Sanskrit. We didn’t buy any lanterns, but my
friend Rae and I made our way into the mass of people setting them off, so we
got some cool pictures. Sophie and her friends had come back from getting food
in time to see the big sendoff, but it was not as exciting as last year. Last
year, they did a great job of reminding people not to send their lanterns off
til they told you to, so we saw about 3000 lanterns float away at once. This
year, it was more like a few at a time for a longer period of time. It was
still pretty though. After I found Sophie and her friends, we were pushing our
way out through the crowd, and Sophie was like “P’Heather, this was cool, but
can we NOT come next year? There are too many people and I can’t breathe.”
Parenting fail. L
On our way home, this crazy strong wind came up, and torrential rains started,
which is highly unusual for this time of year, so we almost got knocked off our
bikes and just as we entered the city, all the lights went out everywhere. It
was really eerie driving home through knee deep water with all the lights out
and very few cars. Thankfully, we all got home safely, but it was not how I
planned for things to go.
- December 8, I got all dressed up and went with
Ahna and Sacha to see Handel’s Messiah performed by the Payap University choirs
and orchestra. We took Faith and her older sister with us and they had a good
time, but were super tired, so I think they may have napped a bit. It was a
good opportunity to dress fancy and get some culture in. :)
-
Dec 12 was our court date.
We had been waiting for this for over a year, and it finally arrived. We picked
up Ning from her house and then went to the court to meet Sophie’s teacher. Our
hearing was scheduled for 9am, but our lawyer didn’t show up until almost
10:30. If you took a drink for every time you read about our lawyer being late,
everyone would have gone through a bottle of liquor by now. I am so over this
guy. Thank goodness this is the last thing we need to do with him. He tried to “prep”
me, but since he had written this history that had all kinds of
inconsistencies, that I had tried several times to get him to correct, I was
getting really frustrated. He was just telling me to say yes to everything, but
I wasn’t understanding his questions because he was using high language, which
I don’t know, and was refusing to translate into English, even though he speaks
English perfectly. I had not been stressed out, but at this point, I was
practically crying because he was like “Just say yes to everything or else you
will lose the case.” Finally, the clerk was like “OK, the judges are literally
going to leave if you do not go in there,” so we went in. Interesting fact,
they have different oaths depending on your religion, so I read the one for
Christians. As I was copying the clerk, I was thinking “will I be held legally
responsible if I lie on the stand, since I don’t actually understand a word I
am saying right now?” Anyway, I think I did ok, but I did correct the
inconsistencies in the story as they arose, because there was documentation
that things were wrong. I.E., “did you meet Sophie’s dad?” This is after they
just read that he died in May 2010, and they had asked me when I arrived in
Thailand, and I said November 2010. Had I just said “yes” they would have known
I was lying and why do I need to lie about that? So, I corrected the record.
Finally, after a nerve-wracking half hour, they were done and the judges all
signed the final record, and then so did I. Then they brought in Sophie and
asked her a bunch of questions, including whether I met her dad, and, good
girl, she backed up my story, instead of listening to the lawyer. Then they
talked to her teacher, but never actually called Ning to testify, don’t know
why. Finally, they said, OK we are granting your a court order to be able to
adopt her, but you are not eligible for guardianship, so we are not giving you
that. (Yeah, makes no sense to me either). So, according to the judge, this
court order will list me as her mother and allow me to get her a passport, a
visa to the US, and citizenship. We shall see how true that turns out to be.
