Update: Caleb & The Nanny

I realized after receiving a few questions from friends that I never posted about how our nanny situation is working out! We have been beyond thrilled with our nanny, K. Caleb was comfortable with her from day one and I think a big reason for that was that he was in a safe, familiar environment. K pays a lot of attention to detail and quickly picked up on how we interact with Caleb, what things make him laugh, his favorite activities and his habits. From the first day she has done a great job of maintaining our schedule of feedings & naptime.

During our first week with the nanny Bryan was on a very easy elective rotation so he didn't have to be at the hospital very much. It was great to have that first week (which was only 4 days long because of MLK Day) to let Caleb get used to the nanny. He was able to see that we were both still at the house, yet K was taking care of him. I think that seeing us periodically throughout the day and seeing us interact with K helped him to realize that everything was ok.

We've seen that in both transition weeks (my first week back in Houston and now our first week back at home) that Caleb has not been as consistent about sleeping through the night. He'll wake up once, want to be cuddled and rocked - sometimes fed - and will go back to sleep. Our social worker had cautioned that we might see some regression in his sleep patterns so this is no surprise. As we've started our second week of being at home with the nanny things seem to be going better in the sleep department.

I feel so blessed that I can sit in my home office and hear my sweet baby giggling and 'talking' to the nanny. I know that he is safe, having fun and being treated like a little prince. I can see that our nanny cares about him as many days when she returns her first question is, "How long did he nap after I left?" or "How did he sleep last night?". She is observant about when he may not feel well or may be cutting a tooth and is great about communicating all those things to us - even about changes in his diapers too!! This has been a great trait of hers because to me there can never be too much detail about all the things Caleb is doing. Just today K told us that she noticed a little red spot on Caleb's head and was racking her brain trying to think of how & when he could have bumped his head. She soon realized the red spot was just her lipstick where she had kissed his little bald head :). We are so grateful that she gives him such loving & gentle care.

I also feel thankful that I am able to be just as productive in my work as I was before we had Caleb. This has truly turned out to be an ideal situation and I have to give God the credit for putting all the pieces together and for calming my heart & Caleb's. I am reminded during transitions like this what a brave & resilient little boy Caleb is and just how much change he has experienced in his life thus far. We are so, so proud of him and love him more each day.

Our laptop, Lil' Toshiba, is still a mess, and on top of that I left my camera in Houston this past weekend so this post will be picture-free. Hopefully I'll be able to post some pictures next week when I am back in Houston for work. It will be hard to be away from Bryan but I am sure the days will fly by.

We'd like to ask for prayers for our many friends who are enduring the long waits & changes in the Kyrgyzstan adoption program. Many of them have been waiting as much as 11 months to return to Kyrgyzstan to bring their children home. The President of Kyrgyzstan recently removed several top government officials, including 2 adoption officials. We are praying and hoping that these changes will spark lots of movement in the Kyrgyzstan adoption program and that we will see many Kyrgyz children coming home to forever families soon.