This morning we made progress…and that is fantastic news! I’m not saying that the little guy came in and jumped in our arms, but he was happy for the most part, IN part because the speech pathologist was with us. It was nice to have her there…she told us a little bit about his language development and some of the ‘developmental classes’ that all the children participate in. She also explained that he is very slow-to-warm-up and suggested that we more-or-less ignore him and let him approach us. She says he gets overwhelmed with strange people…and we agreed, so we decided to give that a try. He didn’t do a lot in the way of approaching us – more, he gave us a pretty wide berth and every once in a while, he would come at us with a little bit of curiosity. He was fine as long as the SP was in the room, and smiled and laughed. Another specialist (not sure which one) came in at one point and she even got him to start dancing. He even played peek-a-boo (pronounced “cuckoo” in Russian) with us, and at some point, the SP slipped out of the room.

When he looked around and noticed that he was alone with these strange people…yep, you guessed it. That little face completely fell and the tears began flowing.

At that point, we weren’t really sure what to do. We didn’t want him to cry…but then, we didn’t want to overstimulate again, like yesterday…so we didn’t really know how to approach the situation. Our translator & facilitator saved the day, when they both got on the floor with N & me. One (facilitator) picked up the book and the other picked up a toy. The facilitator began pointing to the pictures in the book and talking loud enough for Little One to hear – but acting like she was reading to herself. The translator, Nathan, and I began playing with our toys, and Little One stopped crying and looked at us with curiosity (still with the cry face on, though). He came over, looked at us all, and the minute we looked at him, he started crying again.

At that point, the translator got up and picked him up, talking to him. She took him to the window that looked out into the hallway and he stopped crying. The facilitator took me over to him and started rubbing my hair and hugging me…all the while, talking to him. I got the impression she was helping him to see that I am good. I caught the word ‘mama’ several times, and when he heard it, he seemed to get upset. So we decided to not use the word ‘mama’ right now, because right now, his caregivers are “mama” and he seemed confused to call me by that name. He seemed to think I was okay, and I’m pretty sure that the facilitator was doing a good job helping him to think so. I will be ever grateful to those two women for walking us through this whole process.

Little One got very heavy for the translator, and so I took him and his face immediately fell. I carried him straight over to the window, looking out. I pulled out all the Russian words I could think of (which is not very many) and started talking to him. He calmed down rather quickly and we talked to all the things outside in a mix of Russian & English. We said “privyet man!” to a man sweeping the sidewalk and I lost count of the number of machinas (cars) we said privyet & paka (hello & good bye) to. Nathan was standing behind us, holding the curtain back for us, and if he would speak, Little One turned to see who had that weird voice behind us. Eventually, N was able to move up beside us and at that point, Little One was feeling fairly comfortable with me.

He began hitting the window, and N started doing the same thing. It became a little game. We played a little bit of ‘cuckoo’ and Nathan started running his hands along the window (spider-like) and getting the baby on top of the head. He thought that was great fun and we actually teased some laughs out of him.

About a half hour at the window, and he began falling asleep – he must’ve remembered he was in the company of strangers, so he started getting fussy again. So we turned to the facilitator & translator and we all decided it was time to go ahead & leave before he became inconsolable. Another couple minutes of “cuckoo” (cheering him up for a hopeful picture – the camera was off and he started crying before we could get a picture of the 3 of us, though) and it was time to go. I took him to the window again, calming him while N and the other 2 cleaned up the toys we had brought.

As we carried him back to his wing, I got the experience of carrying him up 2 flights of stairs… I’m quite certain that when he finally comes home, I will probably lose some good weight. He is a heavy boy!! Toting him around will be some hard work! I’m going to have sore arms tomorrow…but it will be the best-sore ever!

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Our facilitator told the doctor all about the positive things that happened during our visit today. She said we made great progress – and both Nathan & I completely agree!

As we were leaving, we saw a small group of children with 4 caregivers, taking a walk. Seeing this caused me to reflect on the life Little One seems to have had. It has not been priviledged by any means, but he receives so much love and care from the doctors and caregivers. You can’t fake the kind of reactions he has to the ladies we have seen him with – and while it makes me sad that he will eventually have to leave, it warms my heart so to know that he was so loved in his earliest years.

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On the agenda for this afternoon is a visit with the doctor. Today was the day for all the specialists to come, so the morning was very busy in the doctor’s office. We couldn’t talk to her without someone bursting in every minute or two, so we decided to wait. So this afternoon we will have time to play with Little One again and also meet with the doctor & social worker.

Thank you all for your kind words and prayers…you have no idea how much we appreciate you all! It is so encouraging to know that you all think enough of us to read about our experiences and to send us comments & emails letting us know that you are thinking about us. I’m sorry we can’t respond to everyone right now. The computer we brought is not equipped for dialup, so I am having to write a post in MS Word and then use the facilitator’s computer to upload it to the internet. So we are operating very slowly right now, internet wise, so that’s why we can’t do much more than post our experiences and read your comments. Just know that we appreciate all of you!

It is now time to leave the hotel… More later!
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Update: We visited again – this time, the caregiver did not stay very long, and Little One cried only for a minute. It was not all-out crying, though, and we were able to get him to laugh and actually play with us. He threw the ball to Nathan and actually tried to pop bubbles when I blew them. We played with stacking cups for quite a while and looked at books. He thinks Nathan is pretty funny – we never got him to all-out laugh again, but you could tell he found us somewhat amusing at least.

We talked to the doctor, and everything seems on track with the little guy. We feel very very positive…we will get his social worker information either tonight or tomorrow morning, and then we’ll make our final decision.

But from reading today’s post, you can probably tell what our decision will be…

The one Russian thing I have started doing? Drinking herbal tea. That is one thing I never thought would happen, but as they say, ‘never say never!’

For now, I am going to close. I’ve given you a LOT to read, so I hope your eyes aren’t too tired by now!! Love to all of you, and thanks again for all your positive thoughts and prayers!!!