Day 7 - Happy July the 4th from the other side of the world (double click for pics)

Tuesday, July 4th

Where do I start? We had a rough night with Rylee....she started running a fever and was not feeling very well at all! We were really worried about her. The day before she had been complaining of her back. We are pretty sure she was getting a kidney infection! She had all the signs. We started her on some medication and she is a different child today! She hopped out of bed and hasn't stopped smiling and playing since. Thanks for all of the prayers!!!

We had our usual morning ritual of having breakfast, exercising, and getting prepared to go see Landen. At 11:40am, we were picked up by Sergi and Lena and off again to the baby house. When we arrived Lena advised me that I could go get Landen. So, I practically sprinted upstairs to see him!!! When I got to the door I saw that one of the caretakers was feeding him. It was an unforgettable sight! She had him cradled slightly in her arms with a hankerchief under his chin. She began by feeding him some type of soup with onions and herbs out of glass bowl with a very large spoon....(so, that is where the smell comes from!) Then, she began feeding him an enormous plate of some type of porridge. He was given just enough time to swallow when another huge spoonful was given to him. He was then given a type of juice that they make in the baby house especially for babies. I was told they boil apricots, raisins, water and sugar to make this juice/drink. This drink is given out of a small teacup. It took about 2-3 minutes for him to be fed his meal. No wonder he spits up so much. We have learned that we have to keep him on his back for about 30 minutes after we get him in order for some of this food to digest. At the end of his meal I started talking to the other little boy they had shown us, David. When Landen heard my voice he kept turning around looking at me...I was really excited, because he was taking attention away from his food to look at me!!! Now this is progress with the bonding!!!! Then.......after he was finished eating and they had gotten him dressed (yes, pink again!), as they were bringing him to me he started smiling!!! He was glad to see me!!! Both of the caretakers started smiling and saying "Mama!" I could not get him in my arms fast enough!

We had a great 1st visit. Landen was all smiles and seemed to keep all of his attention on us! We stayed inside the entire visit, because it was just too hot outside. He wanted to held most of the visit. If we tried to put him down he would start whining. This is the first we have seen of that, and we see it as a positive since it appears he wants to be with us. We tried to give him a sippy cup of water, but we are going to have to work on drinking out of a sippy cup. The children in the baby house are used to drinking directly out of a cup. Rylee spent a good part of the visit preparing for a puppet show. Landen have her his full attention and watched as Rylee entertained him with her show. The visit flew by once again, and even though we were allowed a 2 1/2 hour visit this time----it seemed no longer than an hour. I then took Landen back up to his group, and as we were leaving the babyhouse the Director stopped us to ask how things were going. We were happy to tell her it was going GREAT!!! When we got to the car Lena handed Rylee a huge box of chocolates and said they were from Svetlana. Svetlana had sent them, because she had heard Rylee had not been feeling well. She said that if she ate the chocolate and drank tea with it she would feel better in no time! How thoughtful! Rylee is going to make her a thank you card this evening!

After we left we stopped off at a new Turkish Cafe that has just opened. It has a great playground for children. Rylee had "a blast" on the playground and several of the other girls playing found out she spoke English and tried to speak to her in English. They were very interested in her---it was neat to see them interact! The food was great too! Rylee and I had grilled chicken kabobs with french fries and Bobby had a hamburger (supposedly beef---but everything around here that looks like beef is described as "meat")--won't see me eating a burger!!! :-) We will be going back to that restaurant!

We then came back and rested for about an hour....it was then off again for our 2nd visit! We spent this visit outside. The other American family was there again. There were also several groups of children in other play areas. The children kept peeking through the fence at us and smiling. I wish we could take them all home! Landen had another 1st---we gave him a pacifer to see what he would do.....HE LOVED IT!!! He sucked and chewed on it the entire visit! We may regret starting this, but my thinking on this is he deserves anything that may soothe him in this time of transition in his life. We only had an hour this visit and we just held him and read to him, and let him look at our photo book. He seems to love books! I took his socks off just to look at his cute piggies. We were shocked to discover one of his toes was blue. It appears that he has a little cut on his toe and they put some type of antibiotic ointment on it that is blue! When it was time to go I had to take the pacifier away---I got a look like I had taken his new best friend! :-( We all kissed him and I took him back upstairs where his caretaker was waiting in the hall for him! I guess she was missing him! ----Join the crowd! I cannot tell you how hard it is to hand him back everytime. At least we are halfway through the bonding period today-----YEAH!!!

We have decided not to go ice skating this evening, so that we can let Rylee get some rest. We have had a long day, and after our scare last night we don't want to push it. We promised her that we would go later this week! Happy 4th to you all! Wish we were there cooking out, swimming and watching fireworks! Miss you all!!!