Day 25

Got my BGPs on and had a dose of Danya this morning, so I'm feeling much better than I was before.

We were greeted by our boy with giant hugs again today- love him SO much.  I cannot say enough about how well he's going to fit in with his brothers...he's SO like them, especially Chase and Guy...they are going to love each other.  I can't wait until he realizes that he has brothers- real brothers- and what that means.

Photos from today's visit:

I love his fish face lips when he sucks on a straw:

 Man on a mission.  Funny- he will only go with me to put trash in the garbage can.  That is not something that Daddy can help with.

 Back up to our pavilion:

 This kid is so cuddly!

 Don't tell the nannies that we were sitting on the floor!!  He's showing Bryan his see-food.  Loverly.

 He crawled up in my lap like this:

 I love this one:

 He's going to be an artist, I know it.  He kept trying to draw the same picture over and over again.  A little brown circle with lines coming out of it.  Hedgehog?  Spider?  Dog?  Moldy bread?  I'm not sure, but he was determined to make it.

 More drawing:

 LOL.  I'm going to have to make this a profile pic somewhere.  Sidenote:  Before we took Danila to the pavilion, we were on the plalyground with the other kids.  My friend Vanya wanted my glasses today, too.  When he put them on, I taught him how to give thumbs up and say, "Cool, dude!"  So funny.  I love that little guy, too.

We don't really have any updates on our appeal, other than Tatyana and Serge and Valentin are in Kiev now working on it.  I also have support from a geneticist in the states who has expertise in MDs, and from the International Mosaic Down Syndrome Association.  I keep passing things on to Tatyana...I figure that she will tell me to stop when I get too annoying.

Although I no longer trust anything about the system here, and have a hard time with having a blind faith that this appeal will go through without a hitch, we DO have complete faith in our Reece's Rainbow team, and know that they are doing everything in their power to make this work for us.

I understand that international adoption is a delicate process, and that there is a history of abuse and trafficking in the system...and that the judges need to be vigilant in protecting their children.  I know that this judge is probably overcautious and tentative, because his interpretation of the law in our case sets a precedent in his region for special needs adoptions.

I also know that maybe there is another reason for this.  Did we need to spend more time here to accomplish something else?  To meet someone?  I don't know.  Did we need to fight this much harder to appreciate Danila's eventual place in our family?  Did we need to open the door for another adoptive family down the road?

I don't know.  I really don't.

We're trying hard to have patience and a positive outlook.  Mostly it's about staying busy (of course, any other time in my life, staying busy would not be a problem!)  while we wait.

Anyhoo.  That's where we are.