Stuck in the rut!

October 3, 2011
Blogs Do Get Old…Tomorrow will be our change of pace!

 It’s hard to write a blog when the same things happen every day. But I still feel the need to share this grin with all of you!

The only thing that happened differently today was that we got REAMED OUT by some lady in our apartment hallway. In Russian. We have no idea what we did (or failed to do?) but she blocked the stairwell and wouldn’t let us down to Alexei. Brian finally called Tatyana who talked to the lady – to no avail. When Brian asked Tatyana what the lady was so upset about – Tatyana said not to worry about it and that she would call the landlady. So, we are assuming it has nothing to do with us. Still being yelled at in Russian by a lady in her bathrobe while the yelling reverberates in the stairwell is certainly a way to wake up. And it isn’t a pleasant one either.

We finally made it down to Alexei (15 minutes later) and were on our way.  Tatyana told Alexei why we were late so he wouldn’t think we were tardy for no reason.

Because we started late, we arrived at the institution late. They must have rushed in bringing Sterling to us because about 10 minutes into our visit he wet himself. L He is most certainly NOT potty trained. I walked him to the director’s office and showed her his wet behind and she walked him to the nurses’ station. One of nurses took him upstairs, cleaned him off and put him in a diaper. Much better choice. We are fine with him NOT being potty trained – we weren’t expecting him to be. We were also not expecting to be given misinformation  – during our first meeting we were told he was potty trained – but this is not the first time he has wet himself with us. It’s just the first time I’m mentioning it. I’d rather they just put him in a diaper (no pull ups in this country) so that we can enjoy our visit without having to return him to them for a 15 minute clean up. :/

So between being late and the clean up – we only got to spend about 45 minutes with our little man. He is still CUTE AS EVER! His attention span is increasing (slowly but it is increasing). He sat with me twice today and read/looked at books. That is a huge improvement. He still wants to chew on them – so I have to hold him with one hand and page turn with the other. We still played with the slinky and the bumble ball but I can tell he is losing interest. Time to bring new toys!

We also supermanned today. I laid down on the floor and put him on my shins and lifted him up and down. That got big smiles but we didn’t get pictures or video. BOO! He wasn’t super snuggly today either. That is probably our fault – we didn’t go to see him at all this weekend. The institution runs on a skeleton crew on the weekends and it wasn’t easy for them to accommodate us when we went last Saturday.  He did let us hold him and when I put my arms down he will put his up to be picked up (which makes me happy!) So, he let us hold him and he sit with us – he just wasn’t as snuggly as usual.

Tomorrow is the big day! We have court at 1600 local time which is 9 am EST.  PLEASE PRAY for us. Neither of us really loves speaking publicly in front of adults and we will have to speak and answer questions. We know NO DETAILS of what to expect other than people’s stories from their court hearings. PLEASE PRAY for peace of mind, for the judge to understand our call to adopt our little man and for a smooth and easy process. Hopefully by tomorrow afternoon I will be telling you that Sterling is ours!

After court we have a mandatory 10 day wait – it will not be waived (unless a miracle happens). During that time, Sterling’s family can decide that they want him back and they don’t want him to be adopted. It’s a long 10 days. During these 10 days I will be doing a special blog (yes I will continue to post pictures of Sterling!). I will be doing a “10 people in 10 days” blog. I will be recognizing 10 people that have been critical (in different ways!) to our adoption process. It’s our way of saying thanks!

We have been in the country 17 days today – that should be our halfway point! Thanks for all of your prayers so far! Hopefully tomorrow goes off without a hitch! <3

You can really see how tiny he is in this picture. I didn't even notice until now. For those of you who may have forgotten because he is so little he is 5! (And yes we have seen the birth certificate!)

Hold with one hand - page turn with one hand!