Day 15 October 19, 2009

Our last visit before Gotcha Day! We had yet another good visit with the little guy. He was very active today and his favorite thing to play with was the bucket full of bouncy balls. There are about 15 balls in the bucket, and he enjoyed taking almost all of them out and bouncing them. He had to bend or squat down to get the balls and since he hasn’t mastered the whole balance thing, sometimes he would end up on his butt but he would just get right up and keep playing. This marked the first time we witnessed him going from a sitting to a standing position. He really seemed to enjoy himself today and we saw lots of open mouthed toothy grins. We told him all about how tomorrow is Gotcha Day and how he would be coming home with us for good. It’s hard to believe that this is our little guys last night in the home where he has spent pretty much every night of his life so far.

After our visit we went to the grocery store to pick up groceries for the rest of our stay here. We picked up plenty of baby food and diapers and we should be good for the remainder of our stay in Vladivostok.

Unfortunately Michelle is still feeling the effects of her ear infection, and now things are being complicated for her by a big nasty head cold. If we were back in the States we could take her to an Ear Nose and Throat doctor for the ear infection, and a Walgreens for some Nyquil for the head cold. It doesn’t work that way here in Russia. We have heard some pretty ugly first hand stories about the medical care here, so we don’t want to take her anywhere that she will have her spleen, a kidney, a lung, and her two big toes removed just to fend off a cold. So, she is going to try to ride it out with some cough syrup (which smells like it’s about 100 proof) and some cough drops from the local pharmacy.

That’s all for tonight. We are super excited for Gotcha Day tomorrow! I will be heading downtown in the morning with Gloria Duda so we can complete some paperwork for our respective families. We were informed tonight that due to the timing of our little guys naps and feedings, Michelle will need to go to the baby home by herself to pick up the little guy since I will still be downtown until late afternoon. We wanted to bring him home together, but things didn’t work out that way. We will be able to spend our first evening as a family together tomorrow though, so that’s all that matters in the end.