Visit Number 2

It was an exciting day around the hotel yesterday. Becky and Eric were able to have the two youngest children come and join them for the remaining of their visit. So they went from a family with no children to a family with three children in a short period of time. They sure have their hands full, but you can tell they are going to make great parents. The kids look so healthy and excited to be back together. It was also a very exciting day for Carol and Carl. Their little boy Garret got to come stay with them as well. Garret is in the same baby home and the SAME group as our lil guy. They got amazing pictures for us that we will be forever grateful for. We have a great group shot of the kids and of their sleeping area etc… Not everyone gets to see these areas and take pictures so to have them is priceless in our opinion. They were also able to report back what they observed our lil guy doing in his group setting. Which fortunately is how he behaves with Justin and I. He is very smiley and loves the camera! It is also great to see size comparison. Garret is four years old and Carl and Carol bought him an adorable little preppy outfit to bring him home (the hotel) in. It is a size 2T and it is a little big on him!!! We all agree that if you give us a couple of months in the States we will fatten them up real quick :o)

Today we got to go to his group’s room to pick him up to go to the visiting room. His face lit up when he saw me (Justin was in the bathroom!) and took my hand so that he could lead me to the visiting room. He started by giving me a hug and then he went to Justin and threw his arms around him. Now that was a site. This lil guy is seriously little, and he was determined to give Justin a hug he could feel! He picked up right where he left off yesterday. Got all of the toys out and dug in the bag for the Fruit Loops. He then went to my purse. I said Nyet (No) and he gave me a look of persistence and of course his heart melting smile. So I went over to supervise the purse rummaging. Interestingly he was very careful and didn’t pull anything out at first. Then he found what he was looking for. He pulled out the photo album we had brought with our pictures. He immediately took it out and went through it page by page again. He loves to look at pictures of Brady and Madison!

We had some animal puzzles and such that we wanted to work with him on so that we could get a better feel for his cognitive ability. It is hard though when you cannot explain to him what you want him to do. Our interpreter Lana stepped right in and helped us play with him for a bit so we could do these activities. He was able to match the animals in the puzzle, put the pieces back together, match colors on a gear toy we brought, etc… We have no doubt that he will be able to pick up on things quickly. Lana then left to ask a few questions for us. At this point we were feeling good about things other than the fact that he could not tend to a task for more than a minute it seemed – other than the photo album. We wondered if it was the overstimulation of the room, us being new, etc… But the educator in me just had to know. Can this lil guy sit still long enough to really tend to a learning task? So out comes the book. I put him on my lap and we began to look at the pictures of the animals. I made animals sounds. I assume cows still say Moo in Russian and cats say Meow! I was expecting him to want to get down immediately. Well guess what – he sat through the entire book. Lifted every flap and was so attentive. Yeah!!!!

Ok – sorry these entries get to be so long. I just want to remember all of this stuff. One more cute story. On the wall there are posters of their holiday routine and their daily routine. And they have used pictures of the children in the baby home for the poster. I didn’t think he was in any of the photographs so we used the Russian word for friends and he pointed to children in the photos. We asked Lana to ask him where he was in the pictures. Where was his photo? He got a big smile on his face. Pranced over and grabbed our digital camera off the couch and said that that was where his picture was. Tooo cute.

So I think it is becoming apparent that he has stolen our hearts. I cried in the hotel room when we returned. I am so thankful that God has held our hands through this journey. Believe me, you second guess every decision you make. For us, every doubt that we have and begin to worry about – God allows for something/someone to intervene and remove that doubt. We are emotionally exhausted. We miss home a lot. We are desperate to hug Brady and Madison. We are so thankful that this lil guy is so open to us. I am heartbroken that we will have to say goodbye on Friday and not be able to bring him home. It really is a humbling, exhausting, emotional, and amazing experience.

Love to all!
Justin and Heather