Introducing Allie and Sam!

After waiting 1 1/2 hours for the judge to arrive, we were rewarded for our patience and nervous stomachs with a short, sweet, no-questions-asked court appearance! Along with the Coles and the Hustons, we were all in and out of court in less than an hour! It was so awesome to share in the experience and celebration with the Coles and the Hustons, as they all became first time parents!! Special thanks out to Rob Huston, who held Max on his lap in the hallway and read to him while we were in the court room. Max really bonded with Mitch, Rob, Michele, and Sandy -- it was so hard to leave them as we started our journey home a few days earlier than they did. We hope to travel back to Kaz at the same time for our children! (Early February....we hope.....)

So, we'd like to introduce you to the two new additions to our family!

Allison Ruthina Leggett
Allie's given name is Rufina, and we used this middle name variation to also honor my mother, Ruth
Born July 19, 2006 (five months before Max)

Samuel Sultan Leggett
Born April 3, 2009

Adopted in Ust Kamenogorsk, December 21, 2010

And of course, they are joining Zakary Makseem Leggett, who is featured in the last few photos. My friend Mindy had these amazing tshirts made for Max and Sam (before she knew there would also be a big sister!!) Shout out to Salina, too, who also gave us adorable Big Brother/Little Brother tshirts!! Those photos to follow soon.

We spent alot of time with Play-Doh and modeling clay that was all sort of blended together into a nice grayish-purple color.

I imagine that right before this picture, I said something like, "Max, I will give you a piece of candy if you lean in towards Rufina."

This is taken in the van, the day we were permitted to take Allie to have her passport photo taken.

And our Sammy.....

Any time I crouched down to try to take a picture of Sam, he crouched down, too!

Rob took this picture with his kick-ass camera on the one day that we all visited our children together (the day of Max's birthday party). I treasure this picture! The Huston's son and Sam are in the same room -- friends for life!!

As the veterans know, there is no discerning "girl clothes" from "boy clothes" in the baby house. We love our pictures of Max in pink girls' clothing, just as we do our pictures of Sam.

On one sleeve is the Kazakshtan flag, on the other sleeve is the US flag. Uber awesome tshirts from Aunt Mindy!!!

Did you blink? We have a court date!

Wow, had it really been almost a week since I last blogged? One day is truly blending into the next – time is seemingly at a standstill, yet I look up and five days has passed. We’re living in some type of suspended reality/twilight zone!

So, the big news of the week – bonding is complete and we have a court date!

We officially finished bonding on Monday. Fifteen days of twice daily visits with each of our kids is officially over. On that 15^th day, our coordinator applied for a court date, and it was fitting that our translator received a call the next day during Max’s birthday party, confirming that our court date is December 21st. So, from the time we started bonding until the time we are going court is 3 weeks plus 1 day. I’ve had my challenges with our coordinator, particularly on this trip, but there is no denying that she is a bulldog when it comes to getting us through this process. There are other people in our hotel with other agencies who are in total limbo, unsure when they will move to the “next” step. For us, those steps are clear and concise.

After careful consideration, lengthy Skype calls with Delta and Air Astana, and calculating the pros and cons (including the intangibles of leaving our children earlier than planned, and the tangible calculations of change fees along with the offsetting savings if we leave Ust), we have decided to come home immediately after court. As in, truly immediately thereafter. We will go to court on the morning of the 21^st, and we will fly to Almaty that afternoon. We will spend the night in Almaty, and then we should be on our final stretch home Wednesday morning. This will be so bittersweet, as we will not see our kids on the day that we (prayers great here, but we have every reason to believe all will be fine) should be granted the adoption of these two beautiful children. Some of our my favorite pictures of our journey to Max are those that we took the afternoon of our court appearance, when we were finally his parents. No such parents for Allie and Sam. Sigh.

Allie:

The day following our last day of bonding was the day we held Max’s birthday party – we planned it that way so that we had some flexibility with our visits. Max and Glenn went to see Sam together in the morning, and I went to see Allie by myself. Not only was this intended to give us afternoon time for Max’s party, but it also gave me much craved time alone with Allie. And, it was heavenly. I finally got a glimpse into what it will be like when we are home, one-on-one together, presumably while Max is back in school, and Sam is taking a nap (a girl can dream right?!). I enjoyed my time alone with her so much that over the next few days, I encouraged Glenn and Max to stay home a couple of mornings, and I headed to the orphanage by myself again. (In reality, while Glenn missed Allie, I think they were both happy to have a break in the morning routine).

When finally alone with Allie, I could finally start to really talk to her (through Ayana) about coming to America, living in a new house “with Papa, Mama, Max and Sully”, etc. I’ve made her a little calendar page and have tried to explain to her that we will be leaving soon, and that we will come back for her in a few weeks. Just like any 4-year-old, my well-crafted and originally illustrated story becomes uninteresting to her about 5 seconds into it when she spots the Legos across the room (“oh look, something shiny!” HA).

I also started to encourage her to say a few English words, and she is very, very stubborn. It’s likely to be challenging, but I know, without a shadow of a doubt, that she will eventually learn to speak English. It might be a bit frustrating for the weeks and months before she decides life will be easier if she speaks English, but I know she will get there.

Interestingly, the caretakers cut her hair – again. This is the second time in the 3 weeks that we’ve been visiting that they cut her hair! So, we can’t put as many hair doo-dads in her hair right now. Trying not to worry about it – she’ll be home soon enough, and then only I get to choose when to cut her hair -- that is, until she grabs a pair of scissors when I’m not looking, which my friends with girls assures me will happen. :-)

I don't have any recent pictures of her that hide her identity, so I'm including a few pictures from a couple of days leading up to our final official bonding days.

Sam:

Here I go again, trying to come up with new and exciting and witty things to say about our little guy, but I swear, we just hang out and have the same fun day in and day out. I’m not spending a lot of time trying to “teach” him anything, as our personal experience with Max illustrated that our true bonding and teaching will happen once we are home. Sam has been fighting a bit of a cold, so we have had to visit him in the “sick room” for the last couple of days. That’s a bit challenging, as there are no additional toys, we have to wear masks, and we aren’t permitted to let him touch the floor. Trying to cuddle a squirmy 20-month-old in your lap who really isn’t all that sick is not exactly easy! Max and Glenn finally resorted to playing out in the hall, as Max refuses to consistently wear his mask. Fortunately, Sam likes to dance and spin around with me, so we've resorted to using the IPod and our portable speakers to keep things lively (and off the floor).

Here are a few pictures taken before Sam headed to the sick bay.

Max:

As mentioned earlier, we had a fun birthday celebration for Max at the bowling alley. He decided after a couple of tries that bowling was too “flusterating”, and then he was completely content to spend the next two hours standing by the ball return and arranging each ball for whomever was up next. We really had a good time, bowling two games and eating some great food (and perhaps guzzling a few adult beverages, too). The bowling alley was actually very accommodating, helping us to put tables together, and even seemingly looking the other way when we lit the candles on the cake in the non-smoking bowling alley. We might otherwise have really stood out as the loud, obnoxious, partying Americans – EXCEPT there was some type of women’s banquet going on at the same time, complete with a sit-down luncheon and a PowerPoint presentation. When the luncheon broke up, all of the women filled the rest of the alleys in the place, and we’re still a bit surprised that we someone ended up there on a day that only two other lanes were available, and we had them! Anyway, apparently most of these women had never bowled before, and I lost count at 10 women falling flat on their backs. For the one and only time in the existence of Americans visiting Ust, we were the stare-ers rather than the stare-ees.

The bakery did a great job with our Buzz Lightyear cake. It's such a shame that these beautiful Kaz cakes aren't really cakes, but are instead layers of what seems to be pie crust and whipped cream. I've decided that baking soda is unavailable in Ust.

I love our Ust peeps -- notice that everyone is wearing a party hat, except for the birthday boy.

The food was really great at the bowling alley! No English menu, so thank goodness Olga was willing to work a bit during the party!

Max gave bowling the old college try, a couple of times....

For the most part, Max continues to behave beyond our expectations, going with the flow, entertaining himself really well, and growing up right before our eyes (as long as we're not in an orphanage). We’ve had some fun watching Wonder Pets and other Nickelodean shows on our TV, dubbed in Russian, and then Max pretends to speak Russian. As far as his sleeping patterns, we’ve given up expecting him to get into his “normal” sleep routine. Instead, we are simply counting down the days until he is sleeping in his own bed. We are also now looking forward to having Christmas at home with him – as much as I had romanticized the idea of Christmas in Ust, we’re now excited to have Christmas at home.

Other Ust goings-on:

We enjoyed another hockey night, this time watching the “A” Ust team play a team from Russia. The arena was about 80% full, and there were plenty of people cheering and shouting, to the point that Mitch and I didn’t even stand out in the crowd. Well, that is until I attempted to take a picture, as which point a police office tapped me on the shoulder and told me to put the camera away. We saw a great game – Ust fell behind 3-1, then tied it up, then fell behind 4-3, but then tied it up again at 4. After a 4-on-4 overtime period, they went to a shoot-out, and the Ust boys prevailed. A great night all around! The only group picture was captured outside afterwards, where apparently it's not illegal to take pictures.

Kazakhstan celebrated its Independence Day on Thursday, December 16. The formal celebration was scheduled from 10 AM - Noon on the Main Square, so we arranged to skip our trip to see Allie so that we could join in on the festitivities. There was a very organized series of events on a big stage, with a great sound-system and projection screens on both sides of the stage. There were school children performing dances that were really well choreographed, and a flag corp of older children performing at the street level. Various dignitaries made speeches and eventually, an adult choir sang the national anthem while the screens displayed a Kazak flag billowing in the breeze. It was all really moving to me, and I even had chills. But, a quick scan of the crowd revealed that I might have been the most moved by the events of the day. First of all, there really weren’t very many people at the celebration, and secondly, although everyone showed respect, I can’t really say that anyone seemed moved to emotion, applause, etc. I was expecting more robust signs of national pride.

We let Max ride a donkey. That is, we let him sit on the donkey, which refused to move.

Once the people in charge started to beat the donkey, trying to get the poor thing to take a step, I grabbed Max and we bolted.

I’ve also picked up my work pace, which has been a much needed distraction and stress-release (as weird as that sounds). I’ve either been heading downstairs to the business center, or I head to the elevator lobby area on our floor. One night, I was in that area from 10:30 PM – 1:30 AM, and I had a chance to observe first-hand how many people come and go from this hotel at that hour. The stories I could tell …. but what goes on at They Shiny River, stays at The Shiny River.

We have perfected creating a meal on our one-burner hot-plate. We had pasta the other night that might be the best Italian food you can find in Ust. We buy fresh garlic from the lady at the produce stand right behind our hotel, and I am stunned that there wasn't a line outside of our door as our cuisine scents drifted through our hotel hallway!

We finally visited the local "fast food" restaurant, Donor, which has a small children's play area. It's a great lunch-time spot, but because we never go out for lunch, we hadn't made time for this restaurant. On our way home from the Independence Day celebration, we stopped in for lunch, and Max was so happy. He very quickly found a couple of friends -- trains and cars are the universal language of 4-year-olds.

You can’t get a straight answer out of anyone regarding the future of adoption in Kaz. We know that our translator is looking for another job, and our driver suddenly disappeared one day, having sold his van to someone else, who is now driving us to and from the orphanage. I asked our Coordinator what she was going to do after the first of the year, and I got her perfected answer: “I don’t know.” Our agency is managing to bring in two more families before the end of the year. Yet another fun-fact, given all of the pressure we received upon our arrivial, because “you are the last family into Ust, and we have no idea when any other families will be back in Ust for adoption, if any.” Things are of course working out for us now, but when I discover yet another untruth (dare I say “lie”?), it irritates the crap out of me. (Deep breaths, Karen -- get over it!)

Onward to court!

Closing in on two weeks!

Faithful blog readers, please accept our apologies for the massive time caverns between posts. Between exhaustion, technological challenges (both lack of Internet, and the work-arounds required because Blogger is often blocked), crazy schedules, and a 4-year-old to entertain, it’s been tough to find the energy to blog. Add to that the fact that every day melts into the next, and I find it’s been more challenging for me to keep up the blog than it was when we traveled for Max. But, enough about my whining (although I revert back to it at the end of this post - ha!), let’s jump into the update that you surely tuned in for in the first place.

Allie (and Max):

We continue to see our daughter blossom right before our eyes. She is talking more and more, and becoming much more relaxed around us. She now loves to give and receive hugs, and she has the deepest most sincere belly-laugh when we play silly games or tickle her. As she continues to come out of her shell, Max becomes more committed to his alter-ego, and he becomes shockingly whiny and needy. Today (Saturday), I thought I would lose my mind. We all had a restless night Friday night, following a great birthday celebration that evening with the other families, and for whatever reason (too much chocolate cake?), Max was up for much of the night Friday night. I was tired, slightly hung-over, and I forgot to bring the two police cars that Max likes to play with during our visits – and Max spent the first 20 minutes whining about those cars. It’s really interesting to watch Allie during Max’s craziness – she truly just ignores him. I have a sad feeling that any extreme emotions one way or the other may go largely ignored (and certainly discouraged) in the orphanage. But, Max finally bounced out of it long enough for us to sit on the floor and all play in the same vicinity of one another.

I repeat again that Glenn is just amazing during our visits with Allie – he is on the floor with her putting pony tail holders into her horse’s mane, playing dress-up with some awesome Colorform dolls that Michele let us borrow, and partaking in endless tea parties. On the other hand, I am participating in police chases with Max. Whatever it takes, whatever it takes.

On Friday, we had a short but fun adventure with Allie, as we got to take her to get her passport photo taken. We pulled up at the orphanage, and she was already standing outside, all bundled up, holding our translator’s hand. She climbed in the van, which gave the Coles and the Hustons a chance to meet her. She sat stoically in Glenn’s lap (because Max claimed my lap as soon as he figured out that Allie was getting into the van with us!), and it was hard to tell what was going through her mind. We got to the photographer’s office, and stripped off her winter gear from the waist up so a couple of quick pictures could be snapped. I was of course yelling “smile” as the coordinator and the photographer were admonishing me that she had to have a serious face. I then pulled out my camera to capture the moment, at which point I was reprimanded again. Sheesh, where’s the joy, people?! We had a chance to quickly show Sam’s passport picture to Allie, as we were picking those up from the photographer who the day before had visited the baby house in person to take the little ones’ pictures. Allie seemingly showed no recognition of Sam at all – so sad! We were in and out of the place in five minutes, and then went back to the orphanage to play.

As Allie talks and interacts more, we are really coming to realize how strange it is going to be for her when we are on our own, without an interpreter. We have a feeling that she will retreat back into her shell for awhile, and we’ll work hard as a family to help us all communicate while she is learning English. She has been “diagnosed” as being severely developmentally delayed, and we are so anxious to bring her home to get her the assistance that she (might) need. (As those of us who have adopted internationally know, the diagnoses we receive in country aren't always accurate). The environment and experience now isn’t real by any stretch of the imagination, so it’s not really possible for us to really be able to tell what her special needs are, if any. In so many ways, she has already blown past Max as far as her coloring and drawing and creativity with modeling clay, the Colorform dolls, her pony-tail dexterity, etc. We know that she will flourish in a family!

No fair critiquing my attempt to draw our "family." But do feel free to comment on how perfectly my little girl is holding her pencil!

Sam:

We had an extraordinary experience with a caretaker on Saturday. As I mentioned before, we “bond” in a room that was formerly a baby room. A caretaker who used to work in this now-closed-down room saw the light on, and came in to find out why the room was in use. It turns out that she worked in the baby room when Sam was in that very room, AND, she took care of Max who was in that very same room 4 years ago! We weren’t sure if Max had been in that baby room or not, since he was already in the 1-year-old room when we first met him. We talked to this lovely woman for a really long time (with Olga’s interpreting help), and she told us a lot about Max as a baby and Sam as a baby. She had tears in her eyes, and so did I!! We took pictures of her holding Sam, and she promised to come back again to hopefully catch Max awake, as he was asleep through Sam’s entire visit on Saturday. I hugged her so tight and through my tears thanked her for taking such good care of my boys when they were babies. What a moment -- I will always and forever cherish it.

In the meantime, Sam’s visits truly do just blend all together. We play and giggle and dance (have introduced the IPod and Christmas tunes via a portable speaker) and hug and kiss and the time flies by. I know I keep saying it, but these visits are so vastly different than our visits with Allie – in large part because Max often sleeps through them, but also because we already know how to bond and play with a toddler, and we’re still figuring out how to do so with Allie. Glenn was tossing Sam up in the air and he started giggling and laughing – and I heard his sister’s laugh in him! I cannot wait to reunite these kids!!!

The woman in these pictures is the representative of the Guardianship Council. She swings by most days to check on us. She was also our representative for Max, and we really like her. We wish it was easier to communicate with her! She will be with us in court, hopefully saying really nice things about us. :-)

Max:

Max is growing up right before our eyes. Not only is he about to turn 4 (what?!?!), but he seems to have figured out that he has to be a big boy and do grown-up stuff on this trip. Okay, admittedly, he regresses to the mind and body of a 2-year-old when we are visiting Allie, but the rest of the time (or at least, most of the time), he is acting mature beyond his little 4-year-old body, entertaining himself day in and day out, enduring hours-long dinners, drinking weird tasting milk and eating weird tasting bread (to him anyway), bundling-up and un-bundling multiple times a day, etc., etc., etc, all while out of his typical routine and absent any contact whatsoever with other kids other than his new (mostly ignored) brother and sister. He is really taking this experience in, and I wish his verbal skills could keep up with his little mind, as I’d love to be able to capture in his own words what this trip has meant to him. (Alas, I think he would probably mostly talk about the van, the taxis, and Mr. Itch – the name he has now given Mitch). But, if I can catch him in just the right mood, I think I’ll try to get him to tell the story, and we’ll see what we get. We are just so proud of him, and we’re counting on that resiliency to turbo-charge once he realizes that he’s sharing his house with Allie and Sam – forever.

What's so great about this picture: a) Mr. Itch fashioned these chopsticks for Max, and he loves using them (while his mom and dad use a fork); b) this was my multiple hour birthday dinner, and Max hung in there like a champ; and c) (most shocking), he is putting a vegetable into his mouth. Admittedly, it is deep fried cauliflower, but it's a vegetable none-the-less! Veggies do not otherwise pass the lips of this child.

Us:

We’re hanging in there. We have good days and bad, and the experience is just so very different in the winter and with a 4-year-old along. We can’t just “go for a long walk”, or “sightsee” or “shop” the way we did when we were here 2 ½ years ago. I also can’t work in the evenings as freely as I did, and that is stressing me out, both because of my disappearing vacation balance and the work piling up. There are still many things we’d like to see and do, but when it comes time to bundle up Max (and carry him off) to see and do those things, our energy level often doesn’t match our plans. We also have our moments of fear/anxiety/what-the-hell-are-we-doing-adopting-two-kids?, but we of course power through them. I continue to say that my mood is primarily impacted by three things: whether the Internet is working, whether the sun is shining, and whether or not I make time to exercise. (I would now add to that list, “how much wine I drank the night before” – ha! -- but I don't plan to EVER drink Georgian red wine again). We want to be enthusiastic about staying through Christmas, and I have thought often about waking up at The Shiny River on Christmas morning, but honestly, if we can get home sooner, we will. And, we feel guilty for feeling that way – for jumping at the chance to go home, which means leaving Allie and Sam that much sooner. In case it’s not clear from reading between the lines – I might be a bit of a mess from time to time. :-) Fortunately, I am surrounded -- literally and virtually -- by people who totally understand the ups and downs in this process, and I never stop feeling so fortunate to have so much support from our friends and family.

Well, I'm off to think about Max's birthday party! I can't wait to go to the bakery to pantomime "Toy Story cake please".

Moving Right Along...

We’re still moving right along. Tuesday was a big milestone in that we had to decide on names for our children, and then we went to the notary to sign power of attorney paperwork that in part starts the process of issuing the children new birth certificates listing us as parents. While we were relatively certain that we had settled in on a girl name, we were still perusing all of the lists people sent to me (THANK YOU) and paging through People Magazine that morning!! We’ll wait to announce their full names until after court, since we are using variations of their current names as their middle names. But, we will share that our children will be known as Allie and Sam. So, we’ll have Allie, Max, and Sam. We think it has a nice ring to it!

Because of the notary visit, we switched up the order of our visits with Allie and Sam, and we visited the baby house in the morning, with the Hustons and the Coles. We were all in one big visitation room together, and while it was a bit chaotic, it was great to see all of our kids together. Well, except for Allie of course, who is at a different orphanage, and the Cole’s son, who was sick and could only be visited by his parents for a short time separately from the rest of us. We are now being required to wear surgical masks when we visit the baby house, as is often the case in the winter months. It’s understandable, but really frustrating, because the kids can’t see our faces and it sure makes it tough to give impromptu skin-to-skin kisses. But then again, I guess that’s the point! As is the case with Max, we really look forward to staying in touch with these families so that Sam grows up knowing the little peeps with whom he shared his first year of life. We think we’ve already found at least one of Allie’s past roomies, too!

Sam:

Sam’s latest joy is a Xylophone. (Heather Mulvaney, there’s an inside joke here for you – HA HA!). There are a couple of them in the play room, and we happen to have a little stick thing with us that is part of a wooden instrument that we brought for Max. Sam loves music, and we play a little musical toy and he beats on the Xylophone as the music plays. He is such a laid-back little boy and he can stay focused on one activity like the Xylophone or the stacking rings for long periods of time. He’s almost always sitting in one of our laps, just folded back into us as he plays. Perhaps it’s because of the contrast we have every day between Sam and Allie, or perhaps it’s because we think back to Max during our visits with him, when Max was barely expressive at this point in the bonding period, but we continue to marvel at how amazing Sam is. Just a great little boy who is just a perfect fit for our family – he must have devilish things in mind for us down the road, but he sure is making it easy on us now!

Allie:

We’ll catch you up on the last two visits with Allie, as they are vastly different. On Monday, we watched as Allie started truly mimicking Max – how Max folds into my lap, how Max hugs and kisses me, and how he engages in play (when he is willing to get out of my lap). At one point, we had balloons (huge hits!) flying through the air, and Max went into a giggles fit which was mostly driven by his slap-happy mood (not a great night a sleep the night before). I’m sure if you have a toddler you know what I mean – a belly laugh that goes on a bit longer than is natural, but hilarious just the same. All of a sudden, Allie just started copying Max, laughing and giggling really loudly, throwing her head back as she laughed, and showing us the most incredible joy that we were sure was in there somewhere, but that was anyone’s guess when’d we’d see it. Here’s where God’s irony really kicks in – if you’re called to adopt a 4-year-old, it turns out that having another almost-4-year-old along for the ride is a really good idea! We are staring to figure out that we probably won’t be teaching Allie anything once she is home – Max will be doing all of the teaching.

I then played a game where I would lay on the floor and pretend to be asleep, and I could only wake up if I got a kiss from one of the kids. The kids proceeded to take turns kissing me, and I would then jump up and give out a big hug. Allie took her cues from Max, and I started receiving my first “natural” hugs and kisses from my little girl. She’s in there. She’s definitely in there.

When I can, I try to capture a picture of the two kids on the floor playing together. They never actually play "together", but sometimes they are in the same vicinity of one another.

That took us to Tuesday, when we had the afternoon visit, and as we arrived, we found out that she is sick. (Now, this could be interesting, given all of the germs we’ve been sharing over the last week – I’m now double-dosing on Airborne, and I have the “just-in-case” antibiotics prescribed for Max lined up and ready if needed). She was lying down in her room when we arrived, according to the translator, who went to her room and asked her if she still wanted to see us. She said yes, and came into the room looking half-asleep, feeling hot, and pretty much out of it. She spent the entire visit in my lap, as I held her, and whispered terms of endearment to her, and sang to her. (In the meantime, Max fell asleep in the van on the way to the orphanage, and he slept through the entire visit on the couch in the room). Not your typical visit – Max sound asleep, Glenn and the translator chatting, and me on the floor, holding our little girl in my lap the entire time. I am NOT a singer, and when under pressure, I can’t remember a kids’ song to save my life, but I ran through every Christmas song I could think of, with a few Billy Joel tunes tossed in. At one point, I asked the translator to ask Allie if I should stop (as Glenn likely said a simultaneous prayer, willing Allie to screech, “STOP SINGING!”). But, Allie wanted me to continue, so I did. Max would have never let me sing to him for an hour+ straight! We are so happy that they let us visit her – that would not have been the case in the baby house – and it gave me a chance to explain to her (through the translator) that once she is at home, Mama and Papa will always take care of her if she is sick.

Allie's orphanage is really decorating for New Year's, These decorations are typical of what we are seeing inside and outside of the orphanage.

This was taken outside of Allie's orphanage. It's great to see that even in the cold weather, they bundle the kids up and get them outside to play. They had several sled-like things and they were taking turns pushing each other around. Max actually watched for a long time -- I could tell he was longing to go play with them, but he also wasn't leaving our sides.

Max:

Max is Max. What more can we say? We pick our battles very carefully with him, and as a result, there are very few battles. He is more or less sleeping through the night, although he’s still not sleeping in to the degree that he does at home when given the chance. So, he pretty much naps every day, either right when we come home from the morning visit, or during the afternoon visit, because he always falls asleep on the way to Sam’s baby house if he hasn’t napped beforehand. We are now feeding Max every meal in the room, and then if we choose to go out to dinner, he can play and keep himself relatively busy while we enjoy dinner. We do try to go out to dinner often so as to not be shut-in, and we love the Coles and the Hustons. While it would be great to be able to walk everywhere like we did 2 ½ years ago, it’s really not practical, between Max’s short legs and the cold weather. So, we have grown accustomed to taking a taxi out, particularly if it is really chilly, and it’s been easy to get a taxi back to the hotel. Fortunately, every taxi driver in town knows The Shiny River.

By now, I expected Max to flat out refuse to leave the hotel room, crying for his friends, his teachers, his pets, his home, his grandma, his toys, his shower, etc. The fact that we are approaching two weeks into this journey and that behavior hasn’t surfaced is quite frankly shocking to me. And I don’t for one minute take for granted how blessed we are in that regard. Even his whiny clingy behavior (most prevalent during Allie’s visits) is tolerable because that’s just about the only time that his alter ego appears. Most other times, he’s just a typical toddler who is more than going with the flow.

If I look directly down during our visits with Allie, this is what I typically see. :-)

The only way to control the heat in our room is to open a window to a blast of Arctic air.

Instead, we often just opt for clothing-optional.

Another typical scene at The Shiny River...

All bundled up to venture outside for a walk to dinner.

Other tidbits:

In case it isn’t obvious, it’s not exactly “roughing it” at the Shiny River. We have a nice big room and bathroom with hot and cold water every day, a big breakfast buffet, the ability to cook in the room, we send almost all of our laundry out to be cleaned (same day service), daily housekeeping, etc. It’s not inexpensive to stay here, but it has been the right move for our family.

Now that we’ve settled into a routine, I am starting to work at least a little bit each evening – usually between 8 PM and midnight or so. I can go downstairs to a little business center, where I can Skype with colleagues, do project work, etc. It’s a tough decision, as that is also our only real down time as a family, time to blog, etc. But with no paid time off other than vacation time, I am trying not to burn through vacation for this entire trip so that I have some vacation time left for when I am off work with the kids when they come home.

We have to buy a car – at least one. We’re hopeful that a car seat and two boosters might fit in my Avalon, but if not, we might need to buy two cars. Arrrrgghhhhhh!!!!! We’ll be looking at used cars – all recommendations are welcome!

My birthday is tomorrow. And, that is the day we sign all of our final adoption papers. Happy birthday to me!!