The bonding midpoint

Steve here. For the past two days we have completed paperwork that moves our adoption along. Yesterday we signed a commitment paper stating that we wanted to adopt these boys. Today we wrote a letter petitioning the court. Today also marks the halfway point of the bonding, although we will actually have an additional week of bonding while waiting for our court date.

The boys were amusing today. This morning Aidan started to cry out of a little jealousy when his brother was getting some attention. Terri thinks he is actually regressing a bit now—from toddler behavior to being more like a baby—as he knows he has someone who wants to take care of him. I think he really does want someone to take care of him. He played with the toys a bit and then sat with Terri until he fell asleep on her. So see, I am not the only one who puts him in a catatonic state! Liam crawled around and played to his heart’s content. When doing baby sky lifts I blew on his tummy and he just giggled. He is really starting to make more noise than when we first met him. Granted, it is grunting and mumbles but he is coming out of his shell.

Lunch was at our usual Russian café followed by a trip to the store for more internet cards and a longer phone cord so we can sit on the couch and surf. The shortest length of phone cord we could find was 20 meters! Great, now we can surf the web from the other side of the river, possibly even stretching to the China border. I also bought a Russian made, military style watch. I have a weakness for watches, and since time is something I have a lot of right now I might as well have options. Russian watches have a good reputation and they are a bit old school—winding instead of battery powered. For $20USD I couldn’t pass it up. Now I need to convince Terri that I need some of the other ones I saw as well.

The afternoon visit was good. Aidan had the brief crying gig down again but not as bad. One of his caregivers had given him a cookie so he sat in my arms leisurely eating his snack. We worked with him on saying ‘mama’ and ‘dada’ again—he did a very good job. The caregivers are impressed with Aidan’s high five abilities. Okay, so maybe the high five doesn’t have too many real world applications but it is fun nonetheless. Liam was very active too, crawling around, trying to stand up and wanting to be held. Baby sky lifts with tummy blows did not seem to impress him as much in the afternoon but we did get some smiles at peek-a-boo. Terri and I are anxious to get Liam home. There is only so much attachment he is going to have with us as long as there are others feeding, changing and taking care of him on a daily basis. When it was time to go, Terri somehow convinced Aidan to help put back all the toys on the bag. This was truly impressive because he goes through the toy bag like a tornado so it is nice to see he can help clear his disaster.

On our ride back to the apartment Anya told us that now when she goes to get Aidan to bring him to the playroom he is waiting for her by the door. So maybe he likes hanging out with us a little bit. Of course, when she comes back he is ready to go. I think he has a thing for the translator—already a ladies man.

Tomorrow we are going to try to have lunch with the other American couple adopting from the same baby house. They are about 11 days into their bonding period and we have passed them several times at the baby house. So in between passing each other in the halls we were able to set up lunch.

One last note. This experience has only been possibly because of everyone at home who is keeping things running there. My mother-in-law is house and dog sitting (no small task) and our folks at the office have done everything to make us feel comfortable about leaving the country for an extended period. Aidan, Liam, Terri and I thank them for making this journey possible.