Today's visit

Can I first just say that I LOVE having internet in our apartment! :) The first picture is looking out from our apartment front door... and the second one is me... in front of our apartment front door. :) And yes, everyone here knows I'm pregnant, there's NO hiding it anymore. But everyone has said its totally fine and not a big deal at all. Praise the Lord!

Today went really well! It was a VERY tiring day, but a great one. We first went to the notary's office to sign some paperwork. We officially naming him Pavel Micah Spencer. :) We were waiting until we got here to decide for sure what we might call him... we had heard that the nickname for Pavel is Pasha, and that is a 'nickname' for him at the orphanage but he more often is called (and responds to) Berusa or Berusic (like bear-U-sah or bear-U-sick). Which is basically his last name shortened.

He was wearing yet another cute hat today (this is the third one we've seen) and he really loves them. This one was more like a baseball hat. If you take it off or twist it, he uses those bear paws to adjust it tight. This kid is definitely meant to be one of Jake's kids. :) My camera battery died as soon as I got there, but since I got over 100 pictures yesterday, I figured it was fine. :)

Our visiting hours are between 10-12am and then again from 4-6pm. (So that he can eat lunch, nap, and have "second lunch" during the in between times. So we decided that since we are paying the driver PER trip, that we'd have her drop us off at the orphanage at 10am and not pick us up until 6... then we would walk around that part of town during those middle four hours. Well, that proved to be one of the most exhausting 4 hour periods of our lives. :) We walked and walked and walked and walked. Mostly because there weren't a ton of places to just sit, and also because we knew of this big grocery store which felt not far (by car) and walked all the way to it and back. And during our walking, we found a wonderful thing- never have the golden arches of McDonalds looked SO wonderful! We haven't really had many opportunities to try out some good Ukrainian cuisine (I think mostly because we don't really know the "good" places to go and what to order there... everything we've seen in the tiny places we've passed doesn't look too appetizing. So we've basically been living on trail mix and granola bars (that we brought with us) and buying fruit, chips, crackers, juice and coke from the store. So we haven't actually had a MEAL since we ate at TGI Fridays in Kiev. We're pathetic, I know. :)

Anyway once we got back, the afternoon visit was SO nice. He wasn't quite all the way awake from his nap and sat with us for quite a while looking through the photo album of our family that we brought for him. We pointed to "Papi" (what the caregivers call him) and to mommy, and to each of the girls. He seems to go point to the pictures of Ashley a lot, which I think is fun. The rest of the time we just walked around the grounds outside and occasionally we'd have to stop so he could snuggle with Jake. He wraps those little hands around Jakes neck and holds on so tight. Its absolutely the sweetest thing. And Jake will kind of "mmmm" hum when they hug and he LOVES it. Then he touches Jakes face and thinks for a bit and squeezes him some more. (He definitely is in need of a father figure.) Then he gets down and holds Jake's hand to lead him around. He's not as affectionate with me at all yet, we mostly play tickle games and say "ugg" back and forth to each other, but when he holds Jake's hand he almost always turns around to be sure I'm following them. :) I know my one on one time with him will come when we get home, and its so important to me that he fill this need he has with Jake right now. Also I think it will help so much having that bond for when Jake comes back to get him.

We are pretty exhausted tonight... sore and our feet are KILLING us, but it was a good day. Tomorrow we won't see him until 4 because in the morning he's making his twice weekly trip to the beach. :) They told us he loves it and is the first one to the water! Again... this is meant to be our child. :) I think we'll check out the area around our apartment tomorrow and try to rest a little. We'll update more soon.