Oh Sweet Child of Ours

Privyet.

For those of you who get a little teary eyed easily, you know who you are, you may want to grab your box of tissue. Don't worry they'll be good tears.

We got him.

You'll have to forgive me if I get a bit sappy in this post, but hey, it's a pretty big day for our family.

He's upstairs asleep in his crib right now. He fought it like I suppose any normal toddler would, but he couldn't resist Linda's motherly charms and fell asleep in her arms as she rocked him. I was sitting closely by watching his eyelids fall shut. Once his thumb detatched from his mouth, we risked moving him to his crib. No problem. I waited for awhile longer, and then feeling pretty confident that he was soundly asleep, I asked Linda to turn on the light so I could take his picture.

We picked him up today around 4:00. His caretaker quickly stripped him and put on his new clothes. Boy does he know the drill. The precision with which they worked together was really quite astonishing. At least to us it was.

Healthwise, Linda and I are both fighting some pretty serious congestion right now. At the end of the day we both look like we are ready to lead Santa's sleigh. I'm hoping it just an allergic reaction to something for me. If so, I'll be fine tomorrow. Linda has been fighting it all week, so hopefully this is just the grand finale.

Of course Benjamin's health is the most important at this point. The Dr. at the baby home tells us that the children have very weak immune systems due to their lack of exposure to the outside world. They tend to catch this junk quicker than normal and the consequences tend to be more severe. If he's congested when he boards the plane on Monday, well, well we're praying that he won't be.

He was coughing just a wee bit today and his nose was just a little runny. The Dr. said that was normal and she wasn't worried about him catching anything from us, based on Linda's exam yesterday. She still said not to kiss him too much, wished us well and then said we hope to see you back again real soon to adopt a girl.

Benjamin looked a bit terrified on the car ride back to the hotel. Welcome to our world kid. Our driver is crazy. Every driver here is. We are very glad to have Ben with us now so we won't have to make that trip again.

When we got back we explored the hotel with him a little and then went to our little room. He got bored with that pretty quick, so we paced the hall for awhile. He would always start to pout when we back to the room, but we distracted him as best we could until dinner time.

We fed him at the Dr. recommended time. Then stripped him for a bath. Of course he promptly peed on the floor. He enjoyed his bath- even wanted to get back in after Mom decided his time was up. We got his pjs on him though and then let Brown Bear work his magic.

We got his schedule from the Dr. earlier in the week and have managed to stick to it in the few short hours that we've had him. He's scheduled to wake up at 7:00 tomorrow morning. Ouch. We haven't been up that early since we left MN.

Place your bets on how long he sleeps tonight. He looks like a little angel as he sleeps right now, but I imagine he'll be pretty scared to wake up in a strange place tomorrow. We'll be right there to comfort him.

Tomorrow is a pretty big day for us too. There is a lot of paperwork that needs to get completed so we can fly out of here on Monday. Nina and Gendrich are pretty confident that they'll be able to get it all done in a day. They typically plan on three days. We'll be able to catch the later flight on Monday if necessary.

Well if any of you experienced parents out there have some good advice for us. Now's the time to share it.


Well I wanted to keep this brief so I could hurry up and get back to my family. I'm quite used to talking to many of you on a regular basis though and we have so much to share with you all, that I knew I was going to get a little long winded here.

Goodnight.