One step closer to home!

Well, we had to do a little research on the sleep situation. Paul now doesn't seem to want to go to sleep. He plays and plays until he nearly falls over. Actually, night before last he did. He played in the dark until he literally just laid down on the floor and went to sleep. He has started this thing of crawling in my arms and getting down, crawling in my arms and getting down...he does this for almost an hour straight before bedtime! We read that this is likely a result of over stimulation. Too many new sights, sounds, smells, tastes...more attention than he is used to. More touching than he is used to. All that. So, we'll manage. He keeps us laughing all day so it's easy to love the little dude (as Carl calls him). :) We're glad to report that he LOVES the stroller. The hotel loaned us one and we get him in that thing now about 4 times a day and stroll him all over the hotel. The front desk is getting pretty used to seeing us. Probably tired of seeing us.

Yesterday afternoon, we had our interview with the immigration office at the U.S. Embassy to get Paul Daniel his immigrant visa. He was approved without incident, so he can now enter the United States. Once his visa is stamped when we enter the U.S. at Houston, he will be a U.S. citizen. We can then get him a US Passport. He will also remain a Russian citizen until his 18th birthday, at which point it will be up to him to decide whether to retain dual citizenship. He has a while before he needs to think about that.

This morning we were scheduled to go to a toy store and to a couple other stores but Val was stuck in traffic and needed to take some of our paperwork to the Russian Consulate...so he said the shopping trip would have to wait till tomorrow. The weather is cold and damp now so we are trying to occupy ourselves in the hotel. We learned yesterday that there is a playroom in this hotel, so Carl played with Paul this morning while I did all our laundry in the sink. Would love to let the hotel to do our laundry...but just to launder one pair of socks costs $4.50. So you can see why we prefer the sink.

Carl is out strolling Paul Daniel around the halls on our floor. We hope we can keep him asleep long enough to eat our lunch. He doesn't understand right now that he can't eat big people food so he gets very offended when I have to tell him no to certain things on my plate. He would try to eat a T-bone steak if we sat one in front of him...

Two more days until the plane ride home...we can do this. God has blessed us at every turn and we trust that He will help us through this. We are so, so thankful for our new son. We know there is much work ahead...we'll do the best we can. He just seems so, so happy. In fact, Carl just brought him in the room still asleep in his stroller and he giggled in his sleep. This is so great. Thank you, God.