The Start of Another Day!

We slept for 10 hours last night and are feeling much better! Hopefully we're adjusted to Kyrg time now and can stay on schedule. We went to bed at 8pm after dinner in the hotel restaurant and got up around 6am. We've had breakfast at the hotel breakfast buffet and now we're ready to head off to see our little boy again.

I'm interested to see if he recognizes us today and acts as comfortable as he did yesterday, or if we will be back at square one and working on building a bond throughout the visit. Today we are taking a tape meausre and pictures of Caleb when he was being weighed at the orphanage. We don't have our normal driver/translator Kuba today so we are using a different driver who does not speak English. This leaves us unable to have good communication with the caregivers to let them know what we want, including the opportunity to measure & weigh other babies for their parents back in the US. Hopefully showing them the picture of Caleb today will help them know what we are wanting to do.

Here's a picture of our precious Caleb trying his hardest during tummy time! He got mad and fussed the first time Bryan set him down on his tummy but did much better the second time around. His upper body seems pretty strong but his legs feel more like jello. We're going to have to start working with him daily on building some muscle strength!

We'll post more updates after our visit today!

Oh He's Just So CUTE

We woke up this morning to find the beautiful mountains of Kyrgyzstan outside our window. It was incredible to wake up to such an awesome view and know that one of the most awesome experiences of our lives lay ahead.

We got ready for the day, had a quick breakfast and made the drive to Caleb's orphanage. I could hardly believe we were driving along the same roads we were on not too long ago to go meet him. We got to spend 3 hours today visiting Caleb! He has changed so much since we saw him last. His head control was much better and he liked to hold on to toys and our fingers with a white-knuckle grasp. I'm sure no one is surprised to see that he is wearing pink pants. I am so ready to put that baby in some boy clothes!

When it was time to eat, he got a little fussy. So did all the other babies. It's clear they have all of them on the same schedule! We were a little surprised that he is still being fed every 3 hours since he is 6 months old, so we may be in for some tiresome nights until we can get him to sleep for longer spurts.

Here's a funny picture of Caleb & Daddy being upset together:

The most incredible part of our visit today was how much Caleb changed and how much his interaction with us changed throughout the visit. When we first arrived, he was so alert but didn't engage in a lot of eye contact with us. He was more concerned with all the other babies and activity around him.

We got to hold him the entire time, let him have some tummy time (he did great!) and also feed him a bottle. We took our time feeding him and burped him a lot (something they don't really do in the orphanage) and he did great. We had come here prepared to care for a baby with reflux but so far he seems to be handling his feedings just fine.

He was so happy after his bottle! We held him more and then it was finally time to say goodbye. We placed him back in his crib and kept saying bye to him over and over. It was so hard to leave him! Our sweet baby boy just kept staring and staring at us as we hovered over his crib, flashing his TOOTHY grin. That's right - he has two little teeth on the bottom that are just coming in. He kept smiling over and over again as we doted on him. I'm not sure he has consistently known what it feels like to be the center of attention and to have 2 people love him that much. We were thrilled and impressed with how quickly he responded to having 2 parents who love him deeply.

Here we are saying a brief goodbye to our Precious Boy! We'll go back to visit again tomorrow and "Gotcha Day" will be Thursday!

Thank you for all your support and prayers. We can feel them here even though we are 7,313 miles away and can tell that God continues to go before us to make every step of the journey smooth.

Love,

Betsy & Bryan