Andrew takes his first steps!

Yesterday, before we went to court, Andrew took his first few steps on his own walking to Mama. WE were so tickled at the progress Andrew is making in such a short time (less than 2 weeks). Today, Andrew ran about 6-7 steps to Mama on his own. I was so tickled and happy that I picked him up and tossed him in the air to praise his accomplishment. He loved it so much he kept doing it over and over again. He is amazing us more each day. A few days ago, everytime Andrew would see some other kid being pushed around in a stroller and that he wasn't allowed in it, he would wail and cry such big crockodile tears. His caretaker was pushing some of his playmates in a stroller owned by the orphanage, while we were walking him around the building. Andrew saw the stroller and got so excited and pulled Robert and I as he ran over to go near it. His caretaker saw how excited he was and let him go for a short ride. He was a happy kid until we took him out of it. That day and the next day everytime he would see a stroller he would get upset when we told him no. We want him to strengthen his legs and work on his walking before he gets wheeled around in a stroller. Plus the strollers don't belong to us so we are redirecting his attention whenever one comes near us. Today, he has been much better toward the strollers, not paying them any attention at all.



Today, Alla took the 5:00 pm train back to Kiev where she lives with her family. So we are on our own from here. We are well supplied with food, water and baby food for a while and have 2 taxi drivers scheduled to pick us up everyday at the hotel and at the orphanage. We will miss Alla. She is so wonderful and very protective of us. She will be checking in from time to time to make sure we have everything we need and that we are okay.



We are so happy that we are staying the extra 30 days to be with Andrew. There were 3 other adoptive families at our orphanage that had court yesterday and left for home for the 30 days last night. Their children today at the orphanage were looking for them and trying to break free from the caretaker's hold and they ran over to the area on the grounds where they saw all of the other adoptive families spend time with their little ones. When their caretakers collected the children to bring them back to their groupa they kept looking for their parents. I couldn't imagine what they are going through right now. I know that some families just can't swing it staying the extra time here, however, it breaks my heart to see the yearning in the children for their parents love and attention. It broke my heart to think of being away from Andrew after all the progress he has made and we didn't want to put him through the emotional stress of wondering where his parents were.



Some people have been asking if Andrew is in the orphanage still or in our hotel with us. Andrew is still in the orphanage until the 30 days is up (Sept 14). After Sept 14 we can collect his adoption decree from the courts, his new birth certificate, passport, visa, have a medical exam done in the US Embassy and then fly home. All of that paperwork should take about another week to finish before we can come home. Please pray that all of our final paperwork will be completed quickly and that our airline (British Airways) is back up and running by the time we are completed with our paperwork (probably by Sept 20th, hopefully). Love to you all!