We thought we should give the latest from our neck of the woods! We had another great visit with our little Parks today. He smiled today when his caregivers brought him out to play with us. At one point, he also just easily crawled up into my lap! I was so excited. He is laughing more and even babblling a bit while he plays with us. His brain is working so hard each visit, though. I cannot imagine all the new things he is processing for each 3 hour visit. Today, 30 minutes before our time with him was up, he just crawled into my lap, sucked his thumb for about 30 seconds, and then fell asleep. Jon and I looked at each other and thought “Oh, no. They will not be happy if he sleeps now!” My heart, however, just wanted to watch him sleeping so peacefully right there in my lap. The end result, however, was that one of the one of the ladies came out and saw him sleeping and took him to lay him down, which ended our visit about 30 minutes early. Even though I know for now that was best, I almost cried that we lost the 30 minutes with him today. I am looking forward to letting him catch a nap on me sometime in the near future when he “officially” becomes our son.
As for other news and notes, I have somewhat successfully done laundry in our bathroom sink, eaten twice now at the local Ukrainian cafeteria, and can very successfully purchase water -no gas- at the supermarket on the first try! Believe me, after a few unsuccessful purchases of seltzer water, this is quite amazing.
One other unexpected thing is all of the stray dogs here. They are dogs just wandering around everywhere. We hear them barking all night and see them wandering around along the streets. For the first time in my life, I can actually better understand the Lady and the Tramp movie. I realize that was not set in the Ukraine, but the dog issue must be very similar.
Finally, thanks to all who loaned us some dvd’s. We have watched one each night so far. It feels alittle like the movie Groundhog day for us after a few days with the same schedule, scenery, etc… but we are enjoying our nightly date night with a movie each night!
Once we have our court date completed, we will be free to share our exact region, our little guy’s official new name, and even some photos and videos. Until the court declares him a part of our family, however, we are not able to share those things. I will at least share that he has bright blue eyes like his big sister. The two of them will be quite a pair in our family with those crystal clear blue eyes!