All the furry animals are home!

Bill made the drive to Nana and Papa's to pick up our 2 dogs this week (THANK YOU NANA AND PAPA FOR TAKING CARE OF THE DOGS!!!), they finally made it home last night. When Bill left, Jackson didn't seem to care, look in the direction of the door, whine or anything. Of course we have only had him for about 2 1/2 weeks, but he is such a Daddy's boy I was hoping for a response to show he was bonding. While Bill was gone for 2 days, Jack began to get very clingy. He didn't want me to put him down and I literally carried him around for 2 days. If I put him down, he cried. The reason I think that this is pertinent, is because I feel this was the response he was giving us for Bill's absence. Bill would call on occasion, and I would put him on speaker phone. Jackson was thrilled! He said 'da da' a lot and kept examining the phone trying to find Daddy in the phone. He loved it. When Bill got home last night, Jack couldn't not have been any more happy. High pitched squeals, lots of hugs, huge smiles and he was literally jumping up and down. The best homecoming ever (and an awesome response too)!!!

I frequent other blogs, FRUA, online chats, etc to see what other parents are saying about Russian adoptions (and adoptions in general). Since I am up at 3am today (guess who got me up at 3am), I thought it was a good time to do some reading. Below is a comment that an adoptive parent made about Orphanages in Russia. The topic was "spoiled children".

One thing I saw at the orphanage - there were six children in a playpen. One of them bumped his chin on the edge and started crying. The very kind caregiver was standing right there and did not comfort him, although she had time, and she saw it happen. After a minute or two she explained to me that she could not comfort him, because if the other children saw that he was comforted, they would all bang their chins on the edge and really hurt themselves. How sad is that¸ that this child in pain couldn't be comforted? And how sad that these kids have to learn survival techniques from an impossibly young age, just to receive a tiny bit of affection and comfort from an adult? This is the world our children lived in.

I thought that was worth sharing. It helps remind us what our children have been through.

Here is a couple pictures from trip 1 (my favorites). He has grown a lot since these pics were taken. Here is also the FIRST time that we met Jack and the Caregiver placed him in my arms. Bill loves this video because he quit crying when he put his head down, then when he looked back up at me, he started crying again. Bill thinks he thought that I went away because he didn't see me!! Ha!!