Chapter Sixteen
Oleg and Elena Towell Fade Away
As October turned into November, Irina O’Rear received word from Amur the much
coveted and expected court case on Nov. 8 was postponed.
There was a glitch and she would now have to get Oleg and Elena’s
former adoption case tossed out of court completely.
Mrs. O’Rear carefully read the Russian documents sent from the Amur Regional Court and compared them to the English translation which accompanied them. She discovered from reading these documents that Tatyana Vladimirovna Dmitriyeva had not accurately translated Brian’s words to the judge on April 20.
The English original and the Russian translation did not correspond.
Evidently Ms. Dmitriyeva’s Russian translation of Brian’s words was
inaccurate, sometimes so much so that it could only have been deliberate.
Mrs. O’Rear also determined that somebody from Amrex had muddled the original application for the children’s adoption.
We all have our own theories on what exactly went down, but it’s likely that Amrex,
rather than rectifying the situation and earning the thousands and thousands of
dollars the Towells had given them, tried to cover its errors by purposely
tanking the hearing, throwing the Towells to the wolves and allowing them to
wander through the wilderness.
One last tangle was waiting in the wings to sink Oleg and Elena’s adoption by
the Towells. This tangle would be Time
itself.
Mrs. O’Rear was informed by a collegue that there was a new judge in Amur, named Boico, overseeing adoptions. Judge Boico had been a judge once in Amur and was returning.
The colleague told Mrs. O’Rear that it was almost certain Judge Boico would
grant a court date, even though he hadn’t time to review the eight-pound pile
of documents that comprised the Towells’ adoption and appeal.
Mrs. O’Rear had an opportunity to speak with Judge Boico herself.
She reported back to Alysha that she was cooperative and amiable.
She felt she could work with her when their as-yet unscheduled hearing
took place.
They could come, but still they would have to compile a whole new dossier.
This placed Alysha on another mad dash around her state for notarization, certification and apostilling. Her requests for documents from her doctor, her husband’s job and the home study agency had become routine.
The professionals whom she obtained the documents from didn’t bat an
eyelash when she requested them again and again. They just gave them to her
notarized, no questions asked.
This third dossier was compiled in three days and on its way to Irina.
Alysha would like me to say that Irina spent all of Thanksgiving Day translating
these documents for her so they could be compiled as fast as possible.
Another incident occurred. Judge Burov, who had denied the Towell’s adoption of Oleg and Elena, pulled rank.
He did not like his turf being trod in such a manner regarding his
“final” decision made in April. He
declared that the new judge must “review” the Towell’s old court case
alongside their new petition and dossier. He
wanted to make certain the Towell’s circumstances had genuinely changed since
April, just to cover any missteps he had made during the court date.
Time was running out on their appeal as the holidays rolled around. On Monday, Dec. 17, Irina requested that the Towell’s case be sent back to Blagoveshchensk from Moscow for Judge Boico’s “requirement.”
She was optimistic and assured the Towells the judge would grant them a
court date very soon, but not for another 10 days.
So the Towells waited.