Last day with Lil Man....

Prescious little hand
Coming in to the baby home through the gate
The entrance we come in at the baby home

Today was our last day seeing our "lil man". We went to the baby home around 9am and spent about 1 hour with him before his morning nap. Since he is teething, he must have been in some pain because he wasn't as smily as he was yesterday - but he LOVED to cuddle, so we weren't complaining :) We made a small photo album to leave with him that has pictures of us and Maggie (our dog). It looked like he was actually studying it and making the connection between us and the pictures. Then we left the baby home and went to the Ministry of Education to meet the inspector (she is the one who matches the families with the referrals). She was very apologetic of the previous situation with our first referral and told us we were a special family to them because this doesn't normally happen and a lot of families don't continue after losing a first referral. It was a nice visit and we enjoyed meeting her very much - we will see her again when we come back for court. After that, we checked out of our hotel, then off to lunch and back to the baby home. We spent about 1 1/2 hours again with lil man - tried on some clothes - he is size 9 mos now, but I'm sure he will be close to 12 mos soon (he's a bit of a chunk), cuddled and played some more and then watched him as he fell asleep in my (Nicole's) arms. It was so surreal....a wonderful feeling. We kissed him goodbye and watched as the caregivers took him back to his room to sleep. Our visit was quick but full of memories of meeting this sweet, precious angel. Then back in the car for our LONG, traffic filled, race car driving experience to Moscow. Also, we heard back from Dr Johnson (international pediatrician) and he had nothing but positive feedback - he says lil man is on the charts for growth, on track for developmental milestones and is comfortable with us going through in adopting him. So, that is what we are going to do. Most of our paperwork is ready to be submitted when we return - we just have to get a few papers apostilled and then off to Gladney to submit to Russia. We have no idea of a time frame for when we will return, but hope it will be soon and quicker than last time since everything is ready to go. We are looking forward to returning home. Thanks again for all of your love, support and prayers....see you all soon :)