Greetings from Warsaw

I decided that since we didn't post any pictures until our court date...I would post some from the past. I posted them in the three previous posts (limited size on blogger).

Obviously everything at court went very well or we would not be in Warsaw. The judge approved our request for a 2 week appeal period (instead of 3) which means we will be home earlier than planned! Since we already had one court date this one focused mostly on the bonding period. The foster father gave a very long testimony and very positive on our behalf. He told the judge how he saw an immediate relationship form between us and the girls when we first met. He told how we Skyped every week and how much the girls looked forward to it. He told them about the pictures we had sent of their room, the playset and the clothes and toys we had bought for them. He told the judge how the girls just wanted parents and would tell the foster mother she needed to leave the house and look for some parents for them. Once again we are thankful for the loving home the girls had. After court we said good-bye to him one last time. We promised we would meet again in the U.S. someday. One way we thought to say thank you was to name the girls after their daughters. Thus the girls middle names are Ania after their oldest daughter and Kasia after their younger daughter. We will wait to share this with Patrycja and Karolina.

Tom (our driver) watched the girls while we went to court -same babysitter Julie had when she went to court. Tom then drove us to Warsaw to our new apartment. It is very nice, just different than our last place-much more urban. We are very close to a mall and the train station. The other day we were walking to a park and happened to walk by the U.S. Embassy (so we know where that is now). While at the park Madga called us and told us she was dropping off another family in Warsaw who is adopting with their 4 new children. We had sent a lot of emails back and fourth in the U.S. so it was really great to meet them. The kids are beautiful. We hope to get together again this week. We are also staying in the same complex as Julie and Jim so the girls and Dominik had a play date the other night! It was fun to see the kids play together.

The girls doing great. They seem to feel more safe and comfortable each day. They are always talking about Scooter and when they get to see him. They never mention going to the U.S. anymore but rather when they are going to see Scooter. It will be an interesting reunion as yesterday Karolina hid behind tata when we came upon a chihuahua . We explained that Scooter is duzy (big) but very dobry (nice).

Each day everything becomes more natural and we all feel more and more like a family. Last night at dinner Patrycja made a toast to the Macioce rodzina (family) it was very cute and she even included Scooter.

They love to watch Hannah Montana and Scooby Doo (comes on in Polish). They can both count to ten and love to show off to the other kids at the park their new English. They are such loving sweet girls and we are so thankful everyday for them.