Travel Moved

Jeny called today. Our travel dated have been moved up two days. Now I am freaking out that we will be able to get everything ready before we need to leave. There is only one document left out and I will call to get is done ASAP. We overnighted our visa application today and we are still exploring airfare. So far we haven't found anything that works our perfectly.

Wonder Boy Can See

At his physical a few weeks ago, Wonder Boy did not pass his vision screening. When we told him he needed glasses he nearly cried. He was so worried that people would tease him. We took him to LensCrafters and with in two hours he could see again. He had no idea how poorly he was seeing until he put on the glasses. Now we can barely get him to take them off.

TRAVEL DATES

WE HAVE TRAVEL DATES!!!!!! YEE HAW!!!!!



Jeny called us this afternoon and said that we have travel dates from the region. In two weeks we are going to meet Little Bit! We don't even have all the paperwork together. (It should be all done by end of next week.) She said to just hand carry it to Russia.



Even more amazing was the fact that she said that they may try to get everything finalized before the end of the year. I personally think that is kind of a longshot, but I'll take it!



The timing isn't great because my lovely sister is due with twins any day. We planned for my parents to watch to kids, but understandably they want to be with her and the babies. We'll work out the kinks.

I had to go out for a little while and the boys were supposed to do their before dinner chores, when I got home I noticed Wonder Boy had a funny look on his face. We call it his "Wiley Look."
"Mom, the boys had a hard time concentrating on cleaning up. Boys, do you want to tell her why?"
"WE'RE GOING TO RUSSIA!"

This is the first time in my life that I remember crying tears of joy. We are going to meet our little boy!

A Brother

Yesterday I was changing Pookie's diaper. She was chattering as usual, and I was only half listening. Then I heard her say "I want 'Brad' " -- the adoption agency gave Little Bit the ID name Brad and that is what the kids have been calling him. We have told them that is not his name, and that we will give him a new name when we adopt him because his Russian name would not be popular in the US. We also told them we don't want to use him new name until we've at least have travel dates and are more certain he will be ours. Anyway--

"You want Brad?" I said.

"I do!"

"Do you even know who Brad is?" I asked

With total certainty she replied,"A brother."

God's Consolations

Want to hear something really weird? I'm in two e-mail support groups-- one for those adopting children with limb differences another for children with amputations. They are both very active, and I may get up to 25 messages a day. During the couple of weeks after we heard about Sweet Pea I stopped getting messages from those groups. As soon as we made a decision about Little Bit the message started coming again.

I think it was god not giving me more than I could handle.

Little Bit

So- at least for now- we have been calling our new little guy Little Bit. (We don't want to call him by the name we have choosen until we have travel dates.) I can't even tell you how adorable he is. His smile just melts you. The agency sent three photos with his medicals, and later they sent a baby picture as well. In the baby picture he looks about three months old. I'm so thrilled to get that baby picture. So many people who adopt have no idea what their child looked like in infancy. This is a huge gift. Using a Russian photolisting we have also found a picture that we think is him. It is more recent than the ones from the agency. I'm looking forward to seeing if we got it right.

The boys are very excited to be getting a new brother. Even more so than about Sweet Pea. Little Bit has the same birthday as Wonder Boy and Wonder Boy loves it. "We'll be like twins, huh, Mom?" (Except for that five year age difference, sure, Son.)

Ironically, I've gotten rid of most of our toddler boy clothes. We saved most of our stuff for so long, since we thought we'd need it for future children but have run out of space and I've had to start selling and donating things. We thought we were going to have another girl, so . . . well the best laid plans and all.