We Have A Court Date!!!

God is so good!  We are so excited to find out today that we have a court date of April 24th at 9am-- two days sooner than we thought we would!!  This judge seems to be pretty friendly and pretty kind towards our facilitator, so hopefully it won't take too much to reassure her that we will be good parents for Charlotte and Atticus.  We pray it all goes smoothly and ask that you do too.

On another note, we discovered today that our fingerprints with USCIS have expired.  This won't hold anything up, thank goodness, but they do need to get re-done before our embassy appointment which will be right before we leave.  Sooooo, that means another train ride back to Kiev to get our prints done.  Originally we were going to leave tomorrow night as the embassy said they could see us this Thursday morning.  But we couldn't buy train tickets tonight because they were supposedly booked for tomorrow, so we are waiting to go until the day after court.  Tim would have to go back to Kiev then anyway to catch a flight home, so we will just go with him then Schuyler and I will come back on the train ourselves.... something I must say I am not terribly keen on.  But, I don't have much choice in the matter.  I tell ya, adoption certainly stretches you and makes you do things you never thought you would be brave enough to do!  Like spend weeks in a foreign country without your husband, and not knowing the language.  Hey, well I did that before.... just last year as a matter of fact.  Twice.  ;)

On the bright side, we saw our little princess today!  Oh my what fun and craziness is about to enter the Rowe household when little Charlotte arrives!  :)  That girl is a little spitfire if I ever did see one-- and I mean that in a good way.  She is funny, loves to laugh and giggle, determined but doesn't throw a tantrum when she doesn't get her way.  Not yet anyhow!  She is loud, has a crazy strong throwing arm on her and knows how to use it, and loves to play.  Watch out world, here comes Charlotte!!  Let's just say she is quite a change from mellow little Atticus.  She's gonna give him a run for his money once they are home together!  I might have to lock up the china and put locks on the cabinet doors when we get home, but I am looking forward to every crazy minute of it.  Just hope I have the energy!!!!!

Well, here are some pictures from today.  She had a blast digging through my backpack to see what treasures she could find, and loved playing with the punch ball we brought that Papa blew up just for her. She is soooo smart too, I really wish I knew half of what she was saying.  The nannies do though, they talk with her as if she were an adult.  She speaks SO well!  That teeny tiny little voice of hers cracks me up.

And to hear her call me Mama.... oh it melts my heart.  It truly does.  Unbelievable that this tiny little person-- and I do mean tiny-- with all this personality can already call me Mama.  So trusting, so loving, already.  She knows what it means too, you can see it in her eyes.  She knows what it means for her that she has a mama and a papa now.  She knows it means love, you can tell.  She has someone of her own-- two someones, and a whole lot more at home.  It means the world to her.

It was truly a sweet visit.  Can't wait for Thursday!!

Such joy in a teeny tiny little package!

She remembered this toy from last time!

Getting tickled by Papa!

She loved this book with all the different textures to feel

This is my FAVORITE picture from today!  She loves to throw things, (notice the book being hurled through the air!)  so we need to work on that a little  ;)  But notice Papa's face behind her???  It is his "Oh Snap!" look of uh-oh, look out world ... Charlotte's coming!

Big Sister putting the punch ball string on her wrist

Smiley little lovey muffin!!!!!

Helping me stuff all the toys back in my backpack at the end of our visit.