Court Tomorrow!

It's the night before court and we're feeling good :-) We touched
base with Sveta tonight and everything is still set for a court
hearing at 11:00 am tomorrow morning. The judge kindly moved this
date up for us so that, if we need to do the hearing in two parts, we
can do them both this week. Don't panic or be discouraged if we need
to do the hearing in two meetings. This judge has expressed that he
will be very thorough with our case to insure that we have NO problems
down the line! We get to see Ava tomorrow morning before court
...yay! On Sundays we miss her so much! PLEASE pray for us. We have
been waiting nearly one year for this date to arrive and we are sooooo
happy it's finally here!

Our Week in Review

Musical Court Dates, Twister Party, and Dancing Princesses...it's been a wild week for us in Kaz...

Tuesday:
Tuesday was a strange day all around. In the morning at our visit we were informed that our visits would be changed from the morning to the afternoon. When your life revolves around visitation times, this is pretty earth shattering news! The reason for this is, a new bathing schedule is being up put in place for the kids. You wouldn't think this would cause such a commotion but I guess when you have to rotate 65 plus kids in and out of one shower room, it's a pretty big deal.  We also found out on Tuesday night that court would not be on Thursday but we didn't know when the new date would be...stress!!

Wednesday:
Wednesday was our first day at our new visitation time.  Miss Ava didn't like the schedule change at first but she adapted quickly as she always does.  We also found out that our court date would be held on Tuesday!  HIP HIP HOORAY for a quick solution.  We brought Ava a new DVD called "Twelve Dancing Princesses"  To say it was hit is an understatement.  Dancing like the ballerinas on the video is her new favorite pass time.  I mean seriously...it's replaced coloring!!!  Who would have ever thunk!  Later that night we had tacos with the Issacs and played a few fun rounds of Twister.
 

Thursday:
All geared up for our new court date and visitation time, we set out for the long drive to Cashiri.  I feel the need to take a picture every time we end our journey b/c  it still feels like such an accomplishment.  Ava continued her ballet dancing...this time a boa and wand were added to the mix. 

Is it the pregnant man and pregnant four year old?  Nope, just Ava and James having fun with balloons!!!

Friday:
On Friday James and I were feeling a little sick of dancing princesses and tried to introduce a new movie.  Ava is too smart for us...she found her princess DVD and her boa and picked up were she left off the day before.  Today she added they fun sticks to her dance routine.  On Friday we also found out that court has been moved to MONDAY!!!!!!  Is it possible that someone out there is actually thinking of what's best and easiest for us??  It seems so.  In the village it is very common to have two court dates.  The judge is going to try to do ours in one session but in case he needs to do it in two, he wants to see us on Monday so that we can get our second hearing in before the end of the week.  Yay for an awesome Judge!  So, court will be MONDAY at 11:00 am for us.  If you are awake , say a little prayer for us at that time.   

Saturday:
Today Ava was not into changing her outfit and we didn't feel like forcing it so the lovely outfit you see below was not our doing.  Almost every day we are stopped by a parade of horses and I can never get my camera out in time.  Today we got lucky!  Ava was great today.  We wont see her tomorrow and we'll hopefully be able to see her after court on Monday. 

 

The classic Ava and Dada pose

Cutest game of hide of hide and seek I've ever seen.

We'll post with some good news on Monday.  Have a great weekend!

A minor gliche...

We found out today that our court hearing has been pushed back from
this Thursday (tomorrow) to next Tuesday. Apparently a couple of the
representatives that need to be present are not available until
Tuesday. This is not a huge delay and we're happy to have a new court
date in sight. We have been told that everyone will be available on
Tuesday.

Please join us in praying that everyone can make it on Tuesday and
that we have a smooth court hearing. Thank you all for your support!

I wont have much to write for this blog since I uploaded a zillion pictures and it's almost my bed time. Court is Thursday. We aren't feeling too nervous about it.  Life is good :-)

Daddy and his Sweet Pea - Saturday and Monday:

They are so cute!

That looks like it might hurt Dada (which Ava said today by the way..."Dada")

She also really loved the feel of his none shaven face. 

Mama and her Angel - Saturday and Monday:

Ava really liked her flashcard on Saturday.  She is very into pretending that she can read :-)

Rolling :-)

The three of us:

She is smiling...but you'd never know...silly girl

Just Miss Ava D.:

Relaxin

 Cute story behind this one:  Often at the orphanage they ask us to take pictures and develop them for them.  Today they asked us to take a head shot of one little girl for her passport.  Ava saw this and as soon as the little girl left she quickly took the same spot against the wall, looked right at the camera, and gave this pretty smile.  What a stinker...she would never do that for Mama!

 

 

 Our beauty in black in white wishes you all a great week!  We miss all our loved ones and special friends who are following our journey.  You mean the world to us.  xoxoxo

Ava Darina Ballerina

Visiting on Wednesday:

Visiting on Thursday:

Ava racing Mama

Ava's new love is the cell phone! By the way, look how great she is standing flat footed!!! Can you believe a year ago she couldn't even walk?

At Classic Pizza!

Visiting on Friday:

This picture is for my best friend Brandi. Bea, in this photo we are watching the Lion King together. An important moment in every child's life right!

Ava and the cell phone have been inseparable

And she learned how to take pictures with it :-)

Most parents probably don't see this as a Kodak moment but I thought it was cute b/c she was imitating James who really does have a cold!

Some info, stories, and fun facts that we wanted to share:
- The director at the orphange gave me permission to teach an art lesson with Ava's group. I am so excited!!!! I might teach to some other groups depending on how well I do with the four year olds :-)
- When we return to the states I will be continuing to fill orders on my website. It will no longer be considered fundraising for the adoption but I will be continuing it b/c I LOVE IT! If you want to get any orders in now, you will be first to receive it once I get home and get crafting!
- James and I are on the fourth season of "The Pretender". Anyone remember that little gem from 1996?
- The Olympic coverage here is not great which is very upsetting but today I was so excited to see the Men's free skate on TV! I had already seen online that the American won gold and I was so excited! I began watching and saw a man from Spain, and Italy compete. Knowing that the "good people" wouldn't be on until later, I left the room. I came back in the middle of a performance and I could just hear a difference in the voices of the announcers. Although I had no clue what they were saying, I knew that something was different in about what they were saying than it had been when I watched the previous men skate. I thought to myself, this guy must be from Kazakhstan. I could just tell there was pride, excitement, and anxiety in the way they were speaking. Sure enough, I was right. It was a really beautiful moment to be in Kaz and to hear local announcers commentate about one of their athletes. He skated very well and I too, was bursting with pride! Kaz did win their first medal of the games yesterday!

A picture of us from Erica's camera!

Court Date!!!

Yup...we got a court date today.  We will be in a court a week from tomorrow...next Thursday...February 25th at 10:00am!  We are so excited.  We expected a quick court date but deep down I feared it would be for two or three weeks out!  Thank you Lord.  We are excited about heading into phase II off mission, Bring Ava Home! 

My sister left two days ago and is actually in the air on her final stretch right now.  We had so much fun with her and are so grateful that she was able to visit Ava in her home country.
The weather is warming up and we are sooooo excited!!  It has been in the positive degrees for the last two days.  It no longer hurts to breathe, I can look straight, instead of down when I walk...awww, lovely.  

Our last visit with Erica:

"Mom, I only have one more day to color with Auntie.  Please stop bugging me with these photos!"

XOXOXO...We'll miss you Erica!

Ava really loved this book we borrowed called, God Made you from your Nose to your Toes.

Finally a picture of her looking up!  She sure does have beautiful eyes!

Ava was cute on this day and was dancing up a storm.  I have no pictures of the dancing b/c I was taking video.  We'll post that video next post along with some others from our trip.

 

Cuddle Bug

 

The blue wall in this visitation room is just so awful in pictures.  At least the walls can't ruin the black and white photos. 

Much love and thanks for your prayers as we mentally, physically, spiritually prepare for court again!