Day 18--November 12, 2008

Day 18—November 12, 2008

Today was a frustrating day, only to be complimented by two great visits with Aidar. As I’ve said, expect the unexpected.

Aidar picked up a crayon and said “red” today as best he could, which made us so happy. But the exciting event was that he blew bunches of bubbles!!!! We were all so proud!!! We have recorded a lot of video to show everyone. We watched some of it with Aidar this afternoon; he is always mesmerized. Most of the snow has melted, but there is still some on the pine trees. He likes to shake the branches and have it fall on him. John tasted the snow from a branch, and thought Aidar would do the same, but, instead, Aidar shook the branch to make the snow fall on John. The kid has a great sense of humor!

He worked on he puzzle much more attentively this a.m., and we blew up a lot of balloons for him. We threw them up in the air, and he kicked them around (our future soccer player). He still laughs when we blow one up and then let it go flying around the room.

Tonight, we went to dinner with some Belgian friends we met as well as with Marianne. We had a great time. One of our regrets of leaving tomorrow is that we will miss those we’ve come to know. The Belgian family was told that they would be able to adopt a healthy girl, only to be told once they got here that she was HIV positive, and that there was “probably a mistake” with the test. Belgium will not allow and HIV child to be adopted, and everyone (including their adoption agency) suggested they pass, so they will be adopting another son instead. Can you imagine the emotions that must evoke?

We walked Marianne to her apartment and were stopped by three policemen when we arrived at the alley to our apartment. It was good to see them, since a car with two guys had just pulled out of the alley, and then stopped, and the guys got out. The police asked for our passports, asked if we were Italian, and then let us go. They didn’t ask the guys for any ID, and the guys went into the first door of the apartment building (we live at the third door). I had read in the past about someone not having a good experience with the police, so I had a slight reservation, but they gave me a slight comfort feeling as well in that dark alley. Unfortunately, they didn’t stay to make sure the guys weren’t going to jump us, but we obviously got home safely.

Tomorrow, we have to sign a Power of Attorney form and have it notarized with our coordinator and then meet with the director at some point to have our pediatrician’s questions answered. Throw that in with two visits with Aidar and preparing to leave at 4:00 a.m., and we have a busy day ahead of us. With that, I’ll make this a short blog, and we’ll see everyone on Friday.