Paka from Vlad

Greetings from Vlad! Today is the day we fly home. We're dreading the two long flights ahead of us. Sorry we haven't posted for a couple of days. We've had more wonderful visits with our little guy. It was hard to say goodbye yesterday, but we know that he is well cared for as he waits for our return for court and to bring him home. Sergei spent a couple of years in this baby home and was really loved by all his caregivers. It's the same for this little guy.

Yesterday's goodbye didn't seem as difficult as when we said goodbye to the boys at the end of our first trip in 2008. Since Slav was a bit older (4 1/2 at the time), we had the hardest time saying goodbye to him. We wondered what he must've been wondering after a week of visits and then we left. I don't think our new little guy is wondering that. He'll go about his daily routine for the next three or four months until we return. We left him a photo book with pictures of our family, our dogs and our house. Nadya was kind enough to put descriptions of the photos in Russian. We hope his caregivers will read it to him in the days, weeks and months ahead.

We had a wonderful dinner with the Bridges and Lana and Irina last night. One of the coolest things about coming here to adopt are the friendships you make along the way. Some are "in the flesh" at the Vlad Inn. Some are many of you fellow bloggers. It's so great that we can all keep in touch and share our experiences with each other!

We better sign off now. Irina is coming in about an hour and we still have a few things to pack. Paka from the Vlad Inn!

Love,

Joel & Clarion