Trip One... day two with the boys

I think I forgot to mention before... the boys are in one of the closer homes and takes anywhere from 60-90 minutes to get there, it can take several hours to get back with bad traffic.  And have you heard enough lately about how bad Moscow traffic is?  The director is out on holiday, so we met with the Deputy director instead.  She was lovely and gave us the boys social and family history.  She let us take and photograph the referral photos that we saw yesterday... they are so cute!  We will actually get the copies when we pick the boys up.

Today was absolutely wonderful!  Our oldest boy, who we've named Cooper, was very scared and standoffish yesterday, but as soon as he saw us today he started smiling.  He took us to the playroom and immediately sat in my lap.  He didn't want to play with anything, he just wanted to sit and rock.  Of course, I obliged him!  They brought in his baby brother, who we've named Carter, about 10 minutes later and he ran straight for Lance to play peek a boo.

Cooper is very quiet, he doesn't verbalize much at all.  Toward the end of the session today he was starting to talk more.  Even his caregivers say he doesn't really talk, he just jabbers and points with some single words thrown in.  Thankfully we have a wonderful speech therapist at home he can work with.  She's been seeing Jackson for the last two years and we love her.  He loves to throw balls, and he's a heck of a good catcher!  He likes books and trucks, just like big brother Jackson at home.  He made sure we were watching everything he did.  When we applauded and gave him a big "Mala-dyets!" he just beamed!

Carter is a little imp.  He has a look in his eyes that just warns of impending mayhem.  He's quite the snuggler as well, he hung out in my lap, sort of laid across it like a lounge chair for about 20 minutes.  He was just sucking his thumb, playing a little peek a boo and enjoying the festivities.  He eventually got up and wandered around some more, but stayed pretty close to us overall.  He enjoys running across the room into Lance's legs and giving them a hug, he must have done that at least 10 times!  He's already using some single words like "dai" which means "give it" and holding out his hand.  He can also blow a big wet raspberry like no one's business.

The boys are in different grupas, so they really don't understand that they are related.  I think Cooper might remember Carter as they were home together for six months before they came to the baby house.  I don't really know how much little kids get the whole sibling relationship anyway?  I think at first they just know that they live in the same house with the same people... right?  Cooper was about a year old when Carter was born, kind of young to understand what was going on.

The only unfortunate thing about the situation is that we will not be able to come back for court until April at least.  Carter was placed on the database immediately, so he is free now.  Cooper wasn't placed on the database until two months later because of a question of some family involvement, so he still has some time to serve.  We'll find out today when in April he comes off.  Svetlana says she will file for court the day after it happens and we should have court two weeks later.  Please pray that it's early April, not late!