Visit with Drew at the Baby House

Yesterday afternoon we went to the baby house in Dzerzhinsk to visit with Drew. We arrived at 5pm and waited in the playroom for his caretakers to bring him out to us. Within 5 minutes, we were looking at Drew. He looks great! He’s very cute and has more fuzzy blond hair…similar to his big brother, Liam. They are taking good care of him it appears. Drew had a cute little black Disneyland-like vest jacket on and some black cord pants. Mind you it was about 80+ yesterday and MSC and I were very warm, but they dress these kids like it’s winter all the time. Anyway, his caretaker put him down on the floor and let him go. He stood there for quite sometime just checking us out and then the caretaker started him walking…he’s walking really well on his own. Whew! We can cross that one off the list. J MSC is sad that he missed his first steps. I’m happy I missed his first 10 falls!

Anyway, we were able to spend 1 hour with him and he warmed up to us toward the very end of the visit. We asked the translator to communicate to Drew that we were giving him a birthday card and gift. She translated for him what we had written in the card. And she handed him the present and told him it was for him, that it was his birthday present. She said that he was being shy as he’d never been given a gift before. L Anyway, we proceeded to play with many toys. Probably overwhelming for Drew, but he had a few favorites! He loves to chew on some of the toys and he loves the mirrors. What baby doesn’t like to look at themselves!

MSC had some one-on-one time, e.g. flinging Drew in the air. It was funny because Drew could barely contain his smile, but it took awhile for him to let MSC see him smile. These kids aren’t used to seeing men, so sometimes they don’t relate well to them. Drew has done well with MSC on all visits, which is great.

My approach is to be close to him and help him move around and let him stand or sit in my lap. I feel like we both need to get to know each other. I definitely feel like he is my child now and am not so fearful of him being taken away from me prior to court. Let the bonding begin!

We head back to the orphanage this morning at 11am and will be able to stay for two hours. We may be able to take him outside if they have a playground area, which I think they do. We’re looking forward to the visit.

We had a few little heart stoppers yesterday as out agency Rep asked if we had some document we needed (social worker’s renewed license), which we didn’t, but our agency is working on getting it here by Wednesday. Our court date is Thursday and we pick up Drew on Friday, if all goes as planned (think positive thoughts!). The other problem, which may or may not present itself in the US is that the Russian Courts will only acknowledge me by my maiden name because that is what is on the first page of my passport (name change to Crowley on last page). Therefore, Drew will be adopted by Michael Crowley and Elizabeth Foster. We’ll see how that goes over in the US when we re-adopting. I just want to get him out of here, so whatever!

Anyway, we’re off to have a quick breakfast and post this to the blog. Enjoy and we’ll update more as we go.

Thanks to everyone for your support. We can’t wait to bring Drew home in the next few weeks!

xoxoxo