No Word Yet

Very disappointing...no word yet that our paperwork has been signed, so I guess we will not have our adoption ceremony tomorrow.

And tonight, we said good-bye to our new friends, Jon and Sarah Maples, and their new daughter, Grace. It has been wonderful having another couple her adopting at the same time we are, someone to share experiences, lunches, dinners, kid stories, joys and woes with. They leave tomorrow for home. Good Luck and God Speed.

We did go get Milos/Benjamin's passport/visa/medical exam photos taken this afternoon. He was a very good car rider.

And the snow started when we left the apartment this afternoon for the orphanage. We've gotten about 1-2 inches so far, most of that sticking on the tops of cars. The ground is just a slushy mess. It is cold walking, but overall, it is not bad...yet.

So, I have no official news, and I don't even think we took any photos today.

Oh, one thing we noticed is that Milos/Benjamin's clicking noises had all but disappeared, other than the loud "pop" he does for one caregiver in particular. The first day we met him, his entire noise repetoir was popping, clicking and grinding noises, and a few verbalizations in the form of yelling, screaming type sounds....very short lived as he tends to get a little cyanotic when he cries.  Over the past week and a half, we noticed that those popping and clicking noises had all but disappeared, and in their place every day we are blessed to hear increasing verbalization, new sounds all of the time. Today, for the first time, I heard a hard "g' sound quite a few times.

Then, this afternoon, we went to get photos taken. While he was very good, he clicked, popped and ground his teeth the entire time. This is a stress reaction, his way of saying "I don't know what is going on here, I need some help coping with this. Someone just explain to me what we are doing".  When we got back to the orphanage, we stayed in the lobby area with him, and he participated for a few minutes in the same play that we have been doing for the past couple of days (walking the steps, then flying either in mom or dad's arms). As we did these things with him, the odd noises ceased, and his verbalizations returned.

We also added a "please" to his sign vocabulary, and now he must sign "More, please" to get the flight. He figured it out pretty quickly, and even did it a few times without verbal prompts. When he was done with that game, he decided he wanted to see the paper umbrellas that are hung from the ceiling, move. He bent over, and acted like he was throwing something up in the air at them. We got Jim's hat, and they had a swell time throwing it to bump those paper umbrellas and make them move. So, not only did he recover quickly from the stressors today, participating in a known activity, he came up with a new game, and communicated to us what he wanted to do, then followed through to play the game with us!

He likes his routine, but is not so upset by it that he cannot function. He is just such a great kid, and we are sure enjoying getting to know our Little Milos/(Benjamin!)

Mary