Laura at "Confessions of a Russian Adoption" got some very good news this past week: a court date! That's something that a lot of people are waiting for these days, so we'll give a collective cheer in her family's honor.

My first court hearing, in 1999, was vastly different than the hearing that cemented my second adoption in 2005. The first hearing lasted 30 minutes, and if memory serves, it was just me, my agency rep, someone from the baby home, the judge and the court secretary. The adoption of my second child stretched out over two days, with about five hours in court. At times, there were a dozen people present in the courtroom, testifying to different aspects of my son's file. An interpreter stayed at my side throughout, relaying rapidly in English what was unfolding before me in Russian.

My agency rep had briefed me on me on the questions I was likely to be asked, and, having spent 18 months working on and waiting for the adoption to happen, I knew all the answers by heart. The faces of the judge and prosecutor were stony and cold, but I'd spent years interviewing corporate executives and government officials so I wasn't rattled by them.

I speak six languages, including a smattering of Russian. I've worked as a translator, and a court interpreter. But even with that background, I found it hard to focus on the judge and prosecutor while listening to whispered English. I joked to my agency rep, after the hearing, that I knew what I would tell other people to help them through the courtroom language daze. And here it is:

Turn your TV to a foreign language show--sports, sitcom, news, whatever. Put the sound up fairly loud. Then ask your spouse, a family member or a friend to whisper a description of what is happening on the screen in your ear in English. Don't take your eyes off the TV screen. When your head begins to spin, remember: You could be doing this for five hours in a Russian courtroom.