Day 2

Yesterday he didn't crawl but today he did just for a short while then he would want to be held!

My two favorite butt's!! This may not be the best shot, but it was very cute watching Jason take the tiniest steps with him. I think the best part of my day (besides when he would lay on my shoulder), is watching him with Jason.

We were able to take him outside today and he walked around with our help for a while!

We had our first cries today but none lasted long and they all came when we put him down! He really likes to be held. There were a few times today if we sat down with him he didn't like that but as soon as we started walking around with him he was good. Can we say he already has us wrapped around his finger!!

As it got closer to his nap time today we had some awesome cuddling!! He would lay his head on us until someone would come by. We are not with him in a room, which stinks, we are in a little bitty hallway with a couch and everyone walks by.

This is a little train we brought and he sticks his finger in a little hole and spins the wheel.

I think he's going to be a Daddy's boy. Today a worker in the orphanage came up and was talking to him and stuck her arms out for him and he latched onto Jason and laid his head on his chest. But there are a few women who are always in his room and he gladly goes to them.

Meet our son!!

We started the day out going to the Ministry of Education. We met with 3 women and they asked us what we do for a living and what we have done with our home to accomodate a child. We signed a paper and left. It was much easier than I thought it would be, it probably only took about 10 minutes.

Then we went to Orphanage #22. We met with the physician first. She went over the paperwork that we already have. In Sep. he was seen by specialists and they all said he is healthy. His heart murmur has closed so that is awesome. Then they took us to this very small space with a couch in it and brought him up. I teared up at first and then I was so excited. He sat there and looked at us for about the first 10 min. and then I got a smile out of him. He really like the little toys we brought and before long we had him laughing, his is so happy. The things we were prepared for we didn't see. He made great eye contact and loved to be held up close, his motor skills seemed to be good and he is very observative. Jason called him nosy because anytime he heard anything he was looking that way. He loved to bounce and rock. We put him on a play horse and rocked it back and forth. When we would stop he would start rocking himself. You will see below he loved my lips. He would touch them and then I would pretend I was going to eat his fingers and he would pull his hand back and then stick his little finger back up to my lips. He is definitely cutting some teeth and drooling like crazy. He has 4 teeth on the top and 2 on the bottom with one cutting through the gums. He like Jason a lot which was great because a lot of the kids are scared of men because they have never seen them but we saw 2 men in the orphanage so that was good.

I have the cutest video of him laughing so hard, I'll have to post it when we get home. Our little man is so much fun. He's awesome, we couldn't ask for more. This is all I can think of right now, we are still running wide open with excitement! I'll post more in the morning of other things I can think of. So, last but not least, I loved singing to him (although he may not have enjoyed my voice:), "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands." And He sure does, doesn't He! I told Hudson, He's got Pleasant View, Tn in His hands, He's got Moscow Russia in His Hands, He's got the whole world in His Hands!! We want to give all the glory to God!!

Lots of Pics

Pictures are here!!

Touring Moscow

Alexander the Great

Standing on the bridge that goes over the Moscow River in front of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior

Us with Janice and Jon

This was awesome to see with our own eyes-St. Basil's Cathedral

So today we spent 7 hours touring Moscow, let's just say my shoes are definitley broken in now! We rode the Metro, which was CRAZY!! The Metro moves over 10million people per day, so today it was 10 million and 2 hicks from Pleasant View :) It was awesome to see some of these things in person that I had been looking at online for the past few months. Janice and Jon are awesome hosts, we've learned a lot about Moscow and Janice has given me some really good ideas for Hudson (like to buy a Russian cartoon dvd for him). We are going to try and get him at least 16 small gifts for his gotcha' days.

It is really starting to hit me that I will meet our son in less than 24 hours. This is the moment I have been waiting for, the moment I've dreamed about. But today I found myself thinking so often of his birthmother. I am sure we walked the same streets she has and did I stand where she had stood on the metro. Could I have passed by her. Does she know that the tears she cried the day she walked out of the hospital have brought me tears of joy. One of the hardest decisions for her has been the greatest blessing to us. I thank God for her and hope that one day I'll meet her in Glory and share the warmest embrace.

We're Here

Just wanted to post quickly that we made it. We were over 3 1/5 hours late because in Atlanta the plane we were suposed to take had a major electrical problem-Thank God we didn't get on it-so they had to find a different plane and then transfer everything into it. Our plane ride was long, I think we slept for about 4 hours if you call it sleep! So we are very tired because on Friday night we only had 4 hrs. of sleep too. Hopefully we will stay up a little more so that we can sleep all night here and it will make adjusting to the time a little easier.

Janice and Jon are awesome. We were greeted with big hugs and she took pics of us coming out of the airport. We just finshed eating with them and we are going to go on a short walk and then probably retire for the night. We couldn't have asked for any better of people to stay with!

Tomorrow they aren't working and so they are going to take us our sightseeing so I will post lots of pictures tomorrow.

Last Post from TN for a week :)

Just thought I would post one more time before we leave. We are going to leave early in the morning and I think I'm going to go ahead and retire the computer until we arrive in Moscow!

Today has been pretty normal, I picked up our new Treasure 2 Farm shirts and seperated them out so that took me a few hours and I've been trying to clean the house that way I come home to a clean house because I know we are going to be exhausted.

Casey's boyfriend, Will, is house sitting for us and he and dad are going to keep a close eye on all of the animals. Between the two of them someone will be here all the time and that makes me feel good because of all of the horses and our dogs. I'm going to miss my little Foxxy and Andy!

Okay, I'll quit rambling, but next time you hear from me I'll be in Moscow-WOOHOO!! Pray for us that everything goes smoothly and pray especially for our son that he will bond with us and accept us. WE LOVE YOU ALL!!

Ready to go!

So, all I have left to do is pick out what outfit we are wearing on the plane, and I have an idea of what I'm wearing. What am I going to do when I have to get a baby ready, myself, plus my husband!! I received the last of the paperwork in the mail today of what we have to hand carry, our visas came yesterday so it looks like we're good to go.

So I want to try and answer a big question we keep being asked...Does he get to come home with us on this trip? No, he doesn't. This trip we will officially accept him and get the ball rolling on some paperwork. We will come back home and wait on a court date, please pray that we will hear something soon after we come back home about the court date. If the court date comes quickly he should be home by Christmas.

Here is our itinerary. We fly out Saturday at 10:55 to Atlanta. From Atlanta to Moscow. The total for the trip will be 14 hours. When we arrive in Moscow it will be mid-morning there on Sunday. Monday is down time. We will register our visas and do some site seeing. What is really cool is that Janice and Jon, the awesome couple we are staying with, have Monday off so they are going to take us to tour Moscow! On Tuesday we will go and get permission to enter the orphanage at the Ministry of Education from there we go to the orphanage and meet with the director and ask questions we have. Then we get to see Hudson WOOHOO!! I will take lots of pics. We will get to spend Wed.-Fri. with him as well and then fly back home on Saturday.

We are going to take a video camera, too, so hopefully I can figure out how to put videos online. I cannot wait to see him, I keep wondering how much he's changed since we've seen his pics and video, they were over 3 months ago.

THANKS TO EVERYONE FOR YOUR PRAYERS!

Busy Days

WHEW, I'm still trying to catch my breath, what a ride!! This morning when Jason got out of bed he whispered, "Goodmorning, Mom"! Haven't heard that one before!! Maybe he'll just call me that from now on because my name changes as the season changes. In the fall I am "punkin" in the winter I am "snowflake" and in the spring/summer I am "sunshine" or just "my love"! He's so goofy, I think I have these names just because they annoy me!! But I love him anyways:)

So today we have to go have another passport pic. made for the visas, I have to overnight the visas to New York. I also have to go to the bank, buy plane tickets, post office, etc. I'm busy, but for me, this is good. Otherwise I would be sitting here staring at my son's picture! Yesterday was the first time in a while I looked at it and smiled really big. Here lately I had been looking at it and feeling sad because I didn't know when I was going to get to see him and wanted to so bad, but in 9 days I'll be boarding a plane!

Tomorrow will be even busier than today. I have to get a lot of documents ready. I will have to go to Clarksville, Ashland City, Downtown Nashville, and then finally to our agency in Nashville to turn the paperwork in. I'm hoping on Saturday I will have time to catch up on laundry and cleaning!

MOSCOW HERE WE COME!

Hey everyone, we have our travel dates. We are going to hopefully leave on Oct. 11th, if there's not a flight out for that afternoon then we will leave the morning of the 12th. This is so exciting and we don't have much time to plan. Which is totally okay with me:) I have cried all morning. These past few months I have cried more than I have in my entire life combined!! If you felt the earth move, I was jumping up and down this morning about 9:30 when they called and told us our dates!! I will post more later when I learn more exact times on our travel, there are a million things going through my head right now, but the best part of my day was when I hung up the phone with our agency and called Jason and said in less than 2 weeks you will be holding your son!! THANK YOU GOD!