Visit with Blake!

At 8:30 this morning our driver picked us up to head to the Artem baby home. After picking up our translator, Lana, we started to take a different route than we had taken in the past. We learned that on the way we were going into Artem City to pick up the social worker who will actually testify on our behalf tomorrow in court. So about an hour or so later we arrived at the baby home. We went to the visiting room and waited for Blake to come in. When he came in, he had a big grin on his face. We think he remembered us, but he especially remembered our black backpack. He immediately started taking out all of his things. It was so great to see him again. For some reason he seems even smaller to me now than he did in December. He was wearing green tights, snoopy denim shorts, and a yellow shirt with girlie flowers. His hair has been cut since the pictures that Amy sent in March. We were able to play for a bit and then I had to speak with the doctor about his current medical condition. The judge will ask us about this tomorrow as will the U.S. Embassy in Moscow. We really didn’t learn anything new. He did have bronchitis in both January and February, poor thing. I then got to join Justin and Blake to play for a couple more minutes. We even got some hugs and kisses. And then the social worker came in to ask us a few questions and then to go through Blake’s family history. Again we will be asked about this tomorrow. We actually got more information (nothing real pertinent) and it was very interesting to hear more about his birth family. Soon after that it was time to go. I was disappointed because I didn’t feel that I got to spend too much time just playing with him and reconnecting. I think that he and Justin were able to reconnect though. There were lots of high piats and giggling going on. When it was time to go, Blake grabbed Justin’s hand and was leading him back to his room almost as if he was going to show his groupa buddies his new pal. It was all wayyy too cute!

We don’t have court until 4:00 pm tomorrow so we will have all day to get ourselves worked up over what to expect. We have been told by everyone here that it really isn’t that bad. Hopefully we will feel the same way when it is over. We did meet a few families today at the Vlad Inn. The True family is here with their son as well as Nancy from Texas. There are other families as well and more coming in. It seems to be busy around here. We like it like that as it makes the days go just a bit faster.

So after our next post our ten day waiting period will be officially underway. After that time, we are the official guardians for Blake!

Dasvidanya!

Here is a picture of what we saw when we pulled up to the baby home. We have no idea why the stuffed animal was in the tree, but it kinda looked cute there!