Our Little Man...

Our little man...we met him yesterday for the first time - it is still so surreal for us. So...a brief overview of our very exciting day: We were brought to the orphanage around 11am. Walking up was a little eye-opening. The orphanage is set amongst many very run-down apartments with a couple old, run down slides and graffitti on the walls. Walking into the orphanage is this immidiate feeling that everyone there is working so hard for these kids, every doctor and caregiver took as much time with us as we wanted. When we arrived we spent about one hour talking with the doctor, reviewing his social and medical history. A few concerns were discussed and then we were brought to a play room. I don't think I will ever forget the moment that occurred next. I was talking to one of our social workers when I saw her jaw drop. I turned around and in came walking this very cute, very small little boy...our little man. He is just adorable!! Ryan and I both gasped. It was a great moment. He is much smaller than we expected - he looks similar to many of the 9 month old children we know - both in weight and height. This was initially a concern however he appears to be doing well in so many other ways. We played for about 2 hours in a few different rooms. We also spent 30 minutes watching him have a session with a speech pathologist! He was able to complete all the tasks she asked of him, picking up blocks and stacking them, etc. During our play time there were a few times when he would put his arms out and run at me, giving me a hug!! Talk about pulling at your heart strings. He sat on both my lap and Ryan's (although he had never been around a man before). We gave him a blue teddy bear and a soft picture book with pictures of our family - he held onto those for dear life. We got to bring him into his crib for naptime and we then left for a couple hours and returned in the evening. He was just as cute and cuddly when we returned. As it neared bedtime he snuggled in my lap with his teddy bear for about 15 minutes. It was such a great day!!

So this morning (9am here) we are getting ready to go to the Ministry of Education to register some paperwork and name him!!!! We will be going back to the orphanage and then will be leaving for Moscow around 6pm tonight for another long 14 hour train ride. I think this ride will be so much more difficult because we are leaving him behind although we are also looking forward to seeing our daughter - and other familiar faces! Once we get to Moscow we have to do our 8 Doctor Medical (yep - that's right - we each have to meet with 8 doctors who speak Russian...looking forward to that!) We then will spend tomorrow night in Moscow (where I will post again) before heading home.