Meeting Our Son

Greetings from Vladivostok!

Well, we met our boy today! It was quite a day. We spent a good portion of it in traffic. Before going to the baby home in Zavodskoy outside of Artem City, we had to go to downtown Vladivostok to the notary office and sign a document. From there we proceeded to the Ministry of Education to get official permission to visit the little guy. By the time we finished all of that and made it back to the hotel it was about 1:15. We would have a short rest then head out at 2:30pm for the baby home.

The weather was crummy yesterday, cool and rainy all day long. The drive to the baby home was just as we remember it from all those visits in 2008 when we adopted Slav and Sergei. Although there is a lot more road construction along the way. Combine that with the rainy weather and it makes for a pretty "sloppy" drive. Anyway, with Lana behind the wheel we're in good hands.

They took us up to the familiar, infamous room with the brown couch. There we were in the same room where we met Sergei in February 2008. We visited with the director of the orphanage for a bit. She went over our little guy's medical information with us. There were no major surprises. Poor guy had three colds in 2009 after he arrived at the baby home, ten colds in 2010 and three more so far in 2011.

A few minutes later his care giver brought him in. It was definitely different than when we met bubbly boisterous Sergei in that room. His little brother was much more sober and subdued. He almost started to cry when his caregiver left the room, but he didn't. He held it together as he checked out the three strangers (us and Lana, our interpreter) who were now hanging out with him. Bless his heart, he never cracked a smile during the 45 minutes or so that we spent with him. He wasn't even very interested in playing with toys or with snacks. That's ok. He's definitely a cuddly guy. He preferred to be held and loved. FIne with us!

We're heading back at 8am this morning for probably a longer visit. We'll be visiting this morning during his play time, so that might put him in a more playful mood. We ope to see him smile and laugh a bit. Who knows, maybe today or by the end of the week.

Here are some pictures from yesterday's meeting...

We'll post again after tomorrow's visit! Paka paka!

Joel & Clarion