Day 4 of Bonding Period

HI everyone! We are still having problems with our internet connection. It appears that we can send text (sometimes) but getting pictures up on the blog is very difficult (video is out of the question)! Unfortunately, someone told us that Dennis no longer works at the Hotel’s Business Center. Jeannine, thank you for letting us know about the Internet Café! I asked our interpreter and she didn’t know of any in the area. We will definitely check it out in the next day or two to get some pictures up!

We just completed our 4th day of the required 14 day bonding period. Daniel has a cold. We talked to the doctor yesterday and were told to go to the pharmacy and pick up some medicine for him so we hope he is feeling better soon. It’s terrible to have to watch him cough so hard for such a little guy.

The baby house is about 2 miles away from our hotel. Our driver and translator pick us up at 10AM and we spend 2 hours with Daniel in a visiting room. After 4 hours at the hotel, we go back and spend two more hours with him from 4 – 6PM. The visiting room is a large room with some toys and a piano. There are 2 other families that share this room with us. Both of the families are from Spain are very nice. They are both adopting little girls and they are both “almost” as adorable as Daniel! One of the fathers speaks English fairly well and he likes to practice on anyone who will listen!

As I said, Daniel has not been feeling very well since we first met him. He has a hard time lying down because he coughs so much. He is also teething so he has been cranky for some of the time. He doesn’t really cry loud but he just whines a lot (Patti said he takes after me – I have no idea what she is talking about)! As soon as you pick him up and start walking around the room, he quiets right down. Patti and I switch up after a few laps. Our backs are not use to the extra 15 pounds. When Patti walks him, he will look at me until he gets closer to the other children; then he starts watching them. We brought a little baby photo album that he likes to look at. We have pictures of Mom, Dad, Kathie, Kailin and Molly; he likes to look at that.

I think Daniel is just starting to recognize us when we walk into his room to pick him up. As soon as we open the door, we are greeted by 5 or 6 children who run us over with their walkers. They all seem to be a couple of month older than him. Daniel will give us a smile once in a while but not very often. He is in a strange (visiting) room and a new baby room that he just moved into (room #2 for those of you who have been there). He also spends 4 hours a day with people who speak a language that he has never heard before. When he hears anyone speak Russian, his head spins around to see whose talking. He is going through a lot of changes right now.

Patti and I visited the City Mall and also went to the Russian Circus this afternoon. We went with the 3 other families that stay in our hotel and also one of the Spanish families. It was a good time. It was the first time that Patti and I ventured out of the hotel since we got here. We haven’t been sleeping very well and have been very tired (I’m also woke up this morning with a sore throat). We are hoping to get out and about more this week.

Our hotel also has a bowling alley in it. We haven’t bowled yet but we have been to the snack bar. No one there speaks English nor do they have English menus. The first time we went there, I starting drawing a picture of a cheeseburger. I got about 80% done when he yelled out “Cheeseburger” (he had a huge smile on his face and was so proud)!! I nodded my head yes!! It tasted really bad and it’s the first cheeseburger that I’ve ever had that didn’t have any cheese on it! The next day I wanted to try the chicken wings so I drew a stick figure chicken and an arrow to the wings. I was going to do the “Chicken Dance” for him but Patti did not allow it since she didn’t have the video camera with her.

Thank you so much for those of you who have comments. Patti and I really look forward to reading them and hearing from all of you. That’s about it for today. I’m going to bed early to try to fight off the cold that I feel coming.

Muriel – can you send me the name of the restaurant that you said was so good and was inexpensive. I think it was Brew something or other.