The First Day of the Rest of our Lives

Please start 2 posts down, as I posted all three of these in a row on the same day. This keeps it in chronological order….if you are interested.

Today is day one of life with Misha as our official son. At this point, it still hasn’t fully sunk in that court is done. There aren’t any more major hurdles. At least he is our son. All other hurdles will regard getting him home, but they are minor and we should have no problems with those. The staff here in Russia has it down pretty well. The liason in Moscow has assisted in thousands of adoptions, so he knows what he is doing.

The day started with a small breakfast down in the restaurant (all our breakfasts are small because are choices are limited by American standards….we’re so picky). We then had the bright idea to hike across the river to the Hotel Krasnoyarsk to post e-mail and blog. We did it yesterday, but let’s just say the weather was a little different yesterday. When we reached the middle of the Yenesi River, the wind was so stiff we could hardly walk in a straight line. And it was cooooold. We were relieved to reach the hotel and thaw. Needless to say we experienced our first Russia cab ride, which our driver later told us we overpaid for, but we didn’t care. We were just happy to be dry and warm.

We arrived at the orphanage about 3 pm, eager to see what the reaction would be this time around. Half optimistic that we would make more progress, half dreading a negative setback. I am happy to say that the first held true. Only about a minute of crying, and he started to relax. The smiles came much quicker this time. The interaction much more easy and relaxed. More communication. More personality. He loved the raisins. He started with feeding Sara and I, and then decided if we weren’t falling over dead, he’d give it a go. Then he slammed them.

Playtime was much more interactive. He moved much quicker around the room, pulling down stuffed animals and going down the slide into the pit of balls. The best way I can describe it…he’s starting to act like a 2-year-old. And that is a wonderful thing. We are realizing that he is used to having things his way. We were told by his caretaker on the visit before court that he is the head of his group. We are definitely starting to see that more and more. He is definitely in for a transition, but we are well aware of some of the issues that we are going to face, and we feel confident that we can rise to the challenge.

JP