A little secret......

Well, I have a little secret.....We're in Russia! To get Charlie! I know, I can't believe it either.....Let me explain. For no rhyme or reason, the Judge decided to hear our case. Well, we all know the rhyme and the reason, your prayers, thoughts, petitions and requests on our behalf. The time has finally come!
Our agency advised (more like demanded) that we keep this information off ALL public sites and our blog. We feared the Judge's motives (were we going to be the "example" closing the region to Amercia officially?) or would she change her mind if we became a burden?  So we decided that silence was the best answer. Trust us, we wanted to shout it from the roof tops!
After 25 loooong grueling days in Russia we are heading home tomorrow.....We couldn't be happier. At the orphanage, Charlie was very leery of us. After all, almost a whole year had past since he saw us last. He had gotten so big! We visited as many times as we could, but still not a lot of progress.
Court was on January 27th. Court session was brief, to our surprise. We throughly covered the Torry Hansen case and other abuse cases in our speech and it didn't come up again in the lines of questioning. After Chad gave a long speech and I, a shorter version, the questioning began. How would we raise our son? When would we return to work? How would we preserve his heritage? She went into chambers and 5 minutes later, returned with the verdict- "DA!"
Then the 10 day wait began. It actually wasn't as bad as we thought. Our host family planned almost daily outings for us- shopping, trips to the mall, site seeing, and of course trips to Idritsa....She even cooked and cleaned for us, so really it was like a long vacation.
On February 7th, we finally made it to the day we had been waiting for for so long! A-day! Charlie cried in the car for about 5 minutes, then took to looking around, followed promptly by a 2 hour nap back to Pskov. When he crossed the threshold to the house, he almost instantly transformed into a new kid. Laughing, playing, running. And he hasn't stopped. He is such a joy....
We took care of some details in Pskov, like getting his passport! And on the 10th took the overnight train to Moscow. It was o.k. Our mantra has been "survive". We were greeted in Moscow by record breaking cold and wind. It is crazy cold here! Our site-seeing has been almost null, and we have been enjoying being pampered- lovely fluffy beds, great (but CRAZY EXPENSIVE) food, and daily swims in the indoor pool. It's been like our first family vacation.
On Valentines Day we had our last big hurrah- our appointment with the US Embassy, where we got Charlie's visa to enter back into the states. Today, we sit and wait. One More Day. Then we start our lives together as a complete family!
Sorry for the double life we've been living....we hope you understand our situation and know that this was in Charlie's best interest. I hope you'll forever me if I give you a picture of our angel.....