Can You Believe Your Eyes

August 10, 2007

Greetings to all!

We had another great visit with Caleb today. Ethan was the first one into his room, he looked down at him and Caleb smiled and reached his arms up to Ethan, immediately he was of course picked up. The morning hugs and kisses started. We first changed him into his outfit for the day and then were able to give him his first bottle with rice cereal. Initially he was a little hesitant to drink it. I think the texture change surprised him. After about 5 minutes of coaxing him, he finally realized it was good and drank the rest of the bottle down with no problems. They are going to start adding rice cereal to his bottle twice a day. He also got his first dose of vitamins that his mama nurse brought him ļ. The rest of the time was spent listening to music (Baby Mozart) and playtime. He was able to crawl the length of the mattress on the floor twice; he was thrown up in the air by Ethan about 30 times, which he loved. Caleb realized that if he laughed for Ethan, he would get thrown up in the air again. He was given his first pacifier, which he took to immediately. The last 20 minutes of the time together we could tell he starting to get sleepy. We tried to get him to fall asleep so leaving would be easier, but he would not shut his eyes. Ethan was rocking him and his eyes were glued to me. So, when it came time to leave the nurse had to come in and hold him, he still cried and reached his little arms out to us. Needless to say it was difficult to say the least to leave him. It is amazing how fast the bond occurs. But he is being loved there as well by the caretakers, they have done a great job with him. I just wish it was Ethan and I taking care of him full time, I asked the translator if we could visit twice a day and she said we could not because the facility is actually a hospital, so they have set visiting hours. Oh well, worth a try.

Otherwise we are holding our own, we had cheese and crackers for dinner last night, watched King of Queens and fell asleep. Each night our sleep pattern is adjusting more and more. My parents called this morning which was a treat! I think I talked their ears off. We had breakfast at the hotel and met a very nice Italian man from Minnesota. He comes here a couple of times a year for business. He teaches people how to repair John Deere farm equipment. Very kind gentleman, I think we are going to have dinner with him tonight. A kind person who speaks English is a huge treat at this point. The daily work outs continue. Life is good. By the way, we have attached a video; in there I am calling Caleb ¡§Sasha¡¨. This is the name that his care givers have called him since he was born, so he responds to it. Anyway, for now we call him both Caleb and Sasha.

***Disclaimer: I (Cathy Collier) am still working on getting that video Mary is speaking of uploaded and displayed as apart of the blog. I also wanted to let you know that the photographs that Mary and Ethan are taking, are small because they are uploading with DSL. As many of you know that is a very slow process and the bigger the photos the longer it would take for them to send us their visual experience. I appreciate and am honored to be the catalyst for this blog and thank God for all of your sharing the grand adventure with us. Your prayers, thoughts of love, and encouragement are from God. They bear His Name and I am forever grateful and humbled. Thank you.