Our Second Visit with Him

On our second visit, our little fellow came right to me once again. As soon as we sat down on the couch, he saw the toys and began to examine them. He quickly grabbed two stacking cups in one hand and three in his other hand and held on tight. On this day, he was wearing a shirt with a mouse on it. The mouse ears stuck out from the shirt, and the shirt was a little big. Frequently during the visit, one of the mouse ears made it into his little mouth! It was so cute! He also discovered his shoes again! This time he wore little work boots (like the old Teddy Rumpskin bear.) These boots had long shoestrings, so guess where the shoestrings ended up? You guessed it--they went into his mouth many times! He really liked these shoestrings! He was even able to make the boot touch his forehead a few times--he is very flexible! We kept giggling when he pulled his shoes up to his face, and Michael and I kept trying to put a book or cup in his hand to distract him from the boots! It was very cute though, and we've enjoyed watching the replay on our video! :)

He was once again very content to sit in our laps as he played with his cups, books, or shoestrings. We held him up to look out the window a few times, and he seemed to enjoy looking outside. He also enjoyed playing with the beach ball again. When I acted silly, and said "ball, ball, ball" to him, he laughed really hard, which was so much fun to hear! A few minutes earlier, Michael put him down on the couch, and we were able to see him crawl just a little. It looks like he can do it pretty well, when there is not someone standing beside him who he knows is willing to hold him! After a few grunting noises and reaching for Michael (it all lasted about 20 seconds), Michael picked him back up. Near the end of our visit, he was sitting in Michael's lap, and he got fussy for the first time. It lasted a few seconds before he threw up a little on Michael. I cleaned him up and then held him, and he began swatting at his eyes (kind of like rubbing, but he was swatting at them!) Then, in an instant, he was asleep! It was precious! The doctor said it was time for lunch, so we tried to say his name and wake him up. But he was out like a light! This was the end of our time together, and he looked so sweet and peaceful as he rested in my lap. Michael snapped a few pictures, and then the doctor wrapped him in a blanket and took him to eat lunch.

After this, we signed the paper saying we wanted to adopt him right in front of the baby home director. She gathered his papers together, including all of his background information that she sent back with our translator. Then, we drove the 2 hours back to the city of Tver and went to the notary. At the notary's office, they notarized the official letter that we had just signed, as well as several other documents that we took to the judge the following day. We were very happy to make everything official!

We felt like both visits went very well, and we have really enjoyed going back and watching the videos from our time together. The more I watch the videos and look at his pictures and think about our visits, the more and more excited I get about bringing him home. We still have no idea how long it will take to get a court date, but I will post as soon as we get any kind of update on when we might return to Tver. We can't wait until he joins us forever, and we pray that it will not be long until then!