July 9, 2009

We woke up at 2:30am (which was the norm for us on this trip) and talked more about the little guy. At this point, we still had not made our final decision regarding the adoption. By 3:00am, we decided that after just 2 visits, we were in love with him and decided to take the leap of faith and formally petition for his adoption. We had decided to really take our time, gather as much information as possible and make the decision together that would affect the rest of our lives. That morning, we were both at ease. He is an amazing little boy and we both already loved him. Although the progress he had made to that point was slow, it certainly was positive. We believe that giving him a loving home, proper nutrition, and good medical care he will prosper, and we both agreed to this with whole hearts. We were the family for the little guy, he was our son.

At 10:45am, we were picked up by Elana and Vladimir. Off to the baby home to see OUR little guy! Today was the 1st time he didn't cry when he saw us. He whimpered just for a second or two, but allowed us to console him. We took him outside again and walked around and looked at the stray cats, and crazy bugs that soon after decided to attack us (and leave welts all over me). We decided to go in the gym and play with him for the rest of the visit. He liked his toys better today, seemed more alert and attentive to his surroundings. He was blossoming before our very eyes, with just a few short visits! During our last 10 minutes of our visit, Bill was doing some type of helicopter maneuver with him, and it finally happened...a smile! 1st smile ever for Mom and Dad! It was slight and sheepish - but perfect. Bill says he "mildly approved" of us with that smile. When we took back down to his room, he was still smiling (mildly still). It was great....

After we had to leave we went downtown and signed the necessary documents in front of a notary to accept him as our son. The meeting was short and sweet. We went back to the VMI and looked forward to the next visit tomorrow. We were going to ask if we could see him on Saturday, but they typically do not allow this. Tomorrow could potentially be our last visit with our son.