Another Exciting Day

August 16

Another day. Our visit with Caleb was a little more exciting than usual. I walked into the hospital and heard a baby crying, I knew it was him (isn’t it amazing that a mother can know their child’s cry in only 9 days!). We walked into his room and his caretaker was redressing him after changing his diaper, he was MAD, his little legs were straight and his feet were arched. He saw us and stopped screaming, Ethan picked him up and he was a happy boy again. We then settled in our routine, Ethan was feeding him his bottle and I decided I have finally gotten up the nerve to clip his fingernails with the baby clippers I bought prior to leaving.

I was being so careful and I have to admit I was just a little nervous. All of a sudden Caleb started screaming, I looked down and I had clipped the little skin off the end of his thumb. Blood. I was devastated, Ethan comforted Caleb and the crocodile tears subsided, I on the other hand have still not recovered from the event. The LAST thing in the whole world I want to do is cause this precious boy any harm, and here I have made him bleed. So for thirty minutes I held him and walked back and forth in the cubicle to keep him from moving around and to try to stop the bleeding. Keep in mind, he is fine at this point. Finally, we were able to change him and let him play. Today he discovered my shoe, exciting for a six month old. He talked and cooed at the shoe. Dr Natalia then came in, she is the one who delivered him and took care of him the first three months of his life. We spent some time with her which was good. She of course noticed his little bloody thumb. I told her the truth; she laughed and said “scars make a man handsome”. We left the hospital, covered in drool, spit up and little dots of blood. But I would not trade this for the world.

As to the rest of our time, yesterday afternoon was a little long. We did not have much going on and we were both too sore to work out. The day finally passed and we stayed in and I had oatmeal, Ethan ate “Big Bon” noodles (thanks Maureen), which are basically ramen noodles. We then had a lovely evening watching six episodes of King of Queens. We awoke this morning at about 7am and shortly after got a phone call from my parents. As usual I talked for about thirty minutes straight, then off to breakfast. At breakfast we met our new travel partner who is here adopting as well. She was very kind and we look forward to getting to know her better. Tonight we are going out with her, as well as the two other families here adopting. We are to meet at a place called Rainbow Café that supposedly has great kabobs.
Also, I just wanted to kind of let everyone know the process and how it works for the adoption. We are currently on day 9 of the mandatory 14 day bonding period with Caleb. On 8/22 we petition the court for adoption. They will then set the court date which should be around 8/31. After court we are suppose to get immediate custody of Caleb. But there is a 15 day “wait” period for the judge’s decision to be final. Ethan then is to leave Kokshetau and travel to Almaty for the final 8 days of the trip where he does paperwork etc. that is necessary for Caleb to become a US citizen. That is it in a nutshell.