The Phone Rings and Chaos Ensues

Well, we got our dates for court yesterday!!! We will be leaving on Nov 2nd and hopefully returning on the 25th with Aleks. We should get him on the 17th of November! Our world is crazy now with trying to get the paperwork done, get sub plans together, and get travel arrangements finished!! I think this is all worth it though :)

Follow our blog as we are over there. Pictures and video will be posted!

Church of the Spilled Blood

We saw much today. The Church of the Spilled Blood was one of the most spectacular we saw:

Funny Daddy

This is a video from our last visit with Aleks. He thought Daddy was soooo funny. Those cups are his favorite toy!

This video is of us at the end of the visit. The baby home gave us over 2 hours with him! We chased him around the Music Room. Let's just say that the room wasn't exactly cool. Nathan and I were sweating just sitting there. Poor little Aleks was damp by the time we were done!

Walking

We thought he might walk on his own...but he was scared.

He can walk by himself, but he doesn't like to! Here is leads Dad around the entire room...we all know who is in control now. Later on he wanted to take me to his room, but sadly I couldn't go. See all of you in a little over a week!

Laugh...

I promised you the laughing video and here it is! We spent several hours today with him. He warmed up to us this morning fairly quickly and was tired in the afternoon. He loves stacking cups...he will not let them go! Grandma and Grandpa Reinker spent some time with him this afternoon and Grandpa and Aleks spent some time throwing a ball back and forth. He already weighs 22 pounds!

Tomorrow we get to go outside and play on the playground. We don't get to see much of the orphanage, just the music room in which we visit, but it is very clean and the children seem very well taken care of. Aleks doesn't make a lot of noise, but he plays well with the stacking cup and annoying cube that makes sound. We think he will make the perfect addition to the family.

St. Petersburg by Storm

Here it is...the first video of our little guy. We are having a great time in St. Petersburg! This is our first full day and spent around 4 hours at the orphanage and more time with the Adoption Committee (one lady). I'm dead tired! We haven't slept much and it's currently 10:45 pm and light outside--it was light at 3:30 am when we got up (yes, it is because I thought the lady asked for our room number (330) after I told her we needed an 8 am wake-up call). He warmed up to us after only around an hour...we were impressed considering he must have been woken up from a nap, he looked so tired. We brought some toys and have currently found the most annoying toy ever, and he loves it!

Later I will post a video of one of the first times he laughed. When he was first brought to us he barely moved. Poor little guy had to be scared...tall people who speak different words. We have a great translator who talked to him for us, but we are interacting just fine now. He started laughing and playing! He hit Nathan in the face with a cup--ah, the stories are already starting. Enjoy the video, I am off to visit Aleks (Sardar)...this internet is so slow I can only get oe video every half hour or so to load.