Unto us a son is given!

December 25th, 2007

How marvelous a day to be the one where Vanya comes to live with us for the rest of our lives! Such a wonderful gift of life! Such an amazing gift from God! Slava Gospadam!

Vanya did very well with all of the new things that were going on that day: putting on an entire new set of clothes, getting in a car ride for FOUR HOURS!, and then coming to sleep in a hotel with Dave and Karin without any of his group mates there beside him as he falls asleep. He did so well with so many new things, but sleeping was something that he didn't really want to do that night! But as we've already alluded to the Christ story in our own journey here, let us do so again for a moment...

Two thousand years ago when the little Christ was born, there were two groups of people called to see him, the shepherds and the wise men. Two very different groups of people, at least from a social standing perspective. Shepherds were not exactly viewed as the best that there was when it came to what they had to offer others. Not a lot of glamour to their profession, yet they were the first ones there to see the Christ on the night he was born! And on the night when Vanya comes to us, and he doesn't want to sleep, who should come to us but a midnight housekeeping staff!

It is 1:30 in the morning and Vanya is crying and won't sleep. A knock comes to our door and a kind housekeeping staff asks if she can come in and help us. She picks Vanya up and immediately starts comforting him in Russian, telling him that he is with Mom and Dad now (and many other things that we don't know). Like a light switch being flicked off he starts to calm down, and within minutes he is sleeping in his bed! Not a glamorous profession this woman has, changing sheets and towels all day, and having to do who-knows-what during the overnight. But she is the one who came to us, and she knew exactly what it would take to calm Vanya down on his first night with two strangers! That is really what happened, and I hope that you maybe enjoy the simularities as much as I do when put beside the holiday we observe at this time!

We are spending our second night in Moscow now (had a very early flight yesterday to get us here!) and Vanya is doing great! We still have a bit of trouble getting him down at night, but it is nothing that we can't handle, and that is all the trouble he is giving us! He is starting to talk more, he is pointing to things that he wants so that we can give it to him (rather than him crawling all over something to get it himself!) and he is loving the chance to explore this grand hotel we are now staying in! He stands in the window sill and stares out at all the cars going by for minutes and minutes. He's figured out the elevator buttons, and knows now that he can go out to the hallway, press one of the buttons and the elevator will show up! Fortunately he hasn't run away yet! He has had a lot of fun with the half-dozen other American couples that are here in the final stages of their adoption journeys, and playing with the children that they are bringing home! Vanya is happy, and energetic, and is engaging mom and dad more and more all of the time! We are so happy with how he is doing, and didn't think that he would do this well!

Today we took him for a walk to Red Square, and then went out to eat at TGIFriday's (yes, they have one in Moscow!). He kept wanting to hold our hand everywhere we went, and was just content and happy when we would hold him every so often! We were so happy to see how he acted in the restaurant, and realized that he probably had no idea what a restaurant was, let alone how to act in one! He is just doing amazingly well if you ask us!

We got Vanya's doctor visit done yesterday, and tomorrow we go the American embassy to finish up the final part of this process! Once that is done we have nothing to do but get ready for our 5:30am flight Sunday morning (I know, but it still can't come soon enough if you ask me!). Until then we are enjoying are new son, we are enjoying being this much closer to home, and we are enjoying many new friends who are also in an exciting part of their lives too! We're grateful for all of the great moments that we get to share with Vanya in these last few days here before we come home! We hope that everyone has had a great Christmas celebration, and that the one who came to this earth so many years ago that night means more to you all with each passing year! Merry Christmas!!

P.S. "Slava Gospadam" means "Praise the Lord!