Trip 1 - Day 2!

I cannot remember nor can I imagine celebrating my birthday in a finer fashion than I did today. We are in love with the most precious, adorable little baby and could not be happier!

We actually slept decently last night. Our translator warned us that we would probably wake up at 4am, not be able to go back to sleep until 7am and then miss our alarm to get up & meet her. Ha! We proved her wrong! We slept until 7am, got up at 7:30 and started getting ready for our big day. We were actually waiting on the sidewalk before she showed up.

We left the apartment just before 10:15am and thanks to its location (no traffic), we were at the CSS office in no time. “K” joked that it was probably the first time in her experience that a family showed up to the office early and not late. There we met another couple from Nashville who are here for their first trip as well. We got the low-down on the day from “S” and headed over to the MOE office. We arrived there at 11:20am, checked our coats and got in the world’s absolute smallest elevator. Seriously, this thing was tiny!! Norm & I barely fit together & there was no way “K” was riding up to the 4th floor with us so she took the stairs and met us once we pried ourselves out of the elevator! “K” made a comment about how empty MOE was so silly me got excited and thought we’d be in & out of there in no time. And we were…3 hours later! Ugh! To be honest though the wait wasn’t all that bad. Any other time I would have been beside myself with impatience but today…today I knew that a little wait at MOE was not going to deter me from seeing my child. Nothing was!! I knew eventually we’d get to the orphanage.

At 1:20pm we were finally called into the room where you receive information on the child, and in our case, a very old photo (of a very cute little baby!). There were 2 things in the medical history that we knew we wanted more information about, but I also knew that neither of those two issues were enough cause for concern to not accept the referral. With that said, though, I am VERY happy we arranged for Dr. M to meet us at the orphanage to do a physical. I didn’t need Dr. M to either recommend or not recommend the referral. What I needed from him was to tell me what (if anything) I needed to do in the future to help Baby C over come these 2 small issues. As it turns out there is nothing for us to worry about. Baby C received a ton of follow up from specialists on these 2 issues and now there is nothing to be concerned about at all. Yay!

Oops, I’m getting out of sequence here. Baby C’s physical came later in the day. I haven’t told you about “the meeting” yet! So we’re sitting in the orphanage director’s office, receiving all the information we can, when Norm taps me on my arm and points towards the door. Standing there was caregiver Tatiana…and my son! He is precious, absolutely precious! His Russian name is Iliya (pronounced eel-ya). He weighs close to 17lbs now, and has sandy blonde hair with eyes that are a really neat color. I can’t explain what they are but I’ve never seen that color before. Very pretty. Tatiana said that he is a very friendly, peaceful, calm little boy who loves to laugh, cuddle and maintain peace! A boy after my own heart! He has chubby little cheeks and smiles like there’s no tomorrow. When they first put him on my lap he looked around like he was trying to figure out what exactly was going on. He studied my face quite intensely for a few minutes and then burst into laughter. He grabbed a hold of my fingers with all his might and did not let go!! He has a great grip for being so little.

Then it was Norm’s turn. We weren’t sure what to expect since baby’s rarely see men in orphanages. It’s not uncommon for them to have trouble adjusting to the dad. Not the case here! Iliyah LOVES Norm! He studied Norm’s face for a bit as well and then must have decided he’s an okay guy because he started laughing, cooing, snuggling, playing…it was awesome!

He loved the toys we brought and was very curious about everything. He did GREAT with the doctor, and he even commented on how engaging Iliyah is and how wonderful he did with the whole exam thing. No crying, no freaking, nothing. He smiled, laughed, cooed and tried to suck on the stethoscope the entire time. He is quite the little character and WE LOVE HIM!

Towards the end of our visit he started getting very sleepy but again, no fussing. He conked out on Norm’s lap and we have a precious picture of the two of them snuggling. I can’t wait to post it, but here’s a sneak preview:

Oh, and get this. There is another reason we're here this week, other than meeting our child for the first time on my birthday. As it turns out, Iliyah's first birthday will be Friday, March 21. We'll be able to go back to the orphanage and celebrate his birthday with him! The 21st is also my Great Grandmother's birthday!

We’re quite lucky that the orphanage he is in is the closest one in Moscow. It doesn’t take long at all to get there. “K” and “A” will pick us up at 10:15 tomorrow and we’ll head out to see Iliyah right away. Can’t wait to hold my little guy again.

As far as his name goes…we did pick out a name last night but we both like Iliyah and are considering keeping it. We have to make a decision by tomorrow so stay tuned!