Our Silly Little Boy

What a wonderful day it was today. The weather was a bit cooler than it's been and it was quite windy, which helped cool things off today. It was a nice change from the last week being hot and humid with no A/C. For those of you that are planning on coming over to adopt any time soon, make sure you bring insect repellent. They don't have screens on their windows here and to keep cool you must keep the windows open when you sleep. We've been coating ourselves with bug spray before we lay down to go to sleep or else we won't be able to sleep.

We were tired of crouching on our blanket to visit with Andrew so we stopped at the store on the way in to visit with him to purchase a plastic bench and a couple of chairs to sit on to make it more comfortable. We were thankful to be able to spend time with Andrew on Sunday (which is usually not allowed). As you can see from the picture that he was quite a silly little boy today. As each day goes by his personality is blossoming. The caretakers told us in the orphanage that before we came he was such a serious and quite little boy which rarely smiled. Now they can see a definite change in him. Much more happier and more energetic. They say he has happy eyes now. Today the doctor of the orphanage came over to sit down and talk to us regarding Andrew. She said that she has been caring for him since he was 6 months old. She gave us some parenting advice and told us the change she has seen in him this past week as well. Alla then picked him up out of my arms and stood between the doctor and myself and spoke to Andrew in Russian saying who do you want to go to the doctor or Mama? Andrew looked at the doctor and then looked at me and immediately threw his arms out towards me to hold him. The doctor was very impressed and glad to see that Andrew is attaching well to us. That is exactly what she wanted to see. The doctor then asked if we could purchase some allergy medicine for another child who got stung by a bee today and is all swelled up. They didn't have enough allergy medication for the child so we went out and purchased it and brought it back to the orphanage during our afternoon visit. When we were through playing with Andrew later in the day, I saw the doctor in the hallway of the orphanage and she gave me a big hug and kiss for bringing the medicine for the other child. I told her that we were happy to help. I then asked her how the child was doing and she brought me down to see the child. I told Alla that I just wanted to make sure that the child was doing fine and she wanted me to see the change in the child from getting the medication. The child is doing much better and most of the swelling has gone down. The doctor is such a sweet lady. I thanked her from the bottom of my heart for taking such good care of Andrew. She threw her arms around all of us and hugged both Andrew and I. She told Alla for us to come back to the same orphanage next year for a little girl. I told her we just might.



Andrew today was being his silly self. He was sitting on Daddy's lap straddling his leg while I was taking a few pictures of him. He got into it and started posing for Mama. He laid down on Daddy's leg and looked at me in a silly way, as you can see. The he would get up and lay back down and give me this silly smerk. What a ham he is. Everyone says how happy of a child he is and his playfulness is really starting to show.



Today we were reading a baby book to him and showing him pictures of the babies in the book. Each page had a baby and baby supplies. Each page I would point to the baby and say "Baby" over and over again. Then I would ask Andrew, "Where's the baby", and he would immediately point to the baby and he said, "Bab Bab! What a smart little cookie he is. He is like a sponge just absorbing everything. Hallelujah!! God is soooo Good!!





Robert wanted to add that our spiritual training has given us strength to use each and every day. Today, coming home from the orphanage we had the green light and were proceeding through the intersection while in the other direction to our left another car was speeding in and around other cars to speed through the intersection before the light turned red. The light turned red for him, however, the car didn't even slow down. We saw him and if we proceeded any further through the intersection we would be in the hospital right now. We thank God for the angels that surround us each and everyday giving us protection from all evil. The car slammed on his brakes because he finally woke up and slid right by us by a hair and through the intersection he went and kept going. We noticed that there were 8 adults piled in the car the size of an escort. "We don't need to crash test any 30 year old Russian cars while we are here". As Alla says, Life is Life!!



Tomorrow, the paperwork trail starts again. We will be meeting with the judge to see when we can have a court date. We will keep you all updated on our progress and as soon as we find out when court is we'll let you all know. Until then Dasfidanya!! (Goodbye)