Stolen Heart

  Today we met our son, Bryant Alexander. It is hard to describe in words the feeling I have. The two words that come to mind are joy and thankfulness. Joy finally seeing his precious face and thankfulness that God has chosen us to love this child.

  We got to the orphanage around noon. As we pulled up I was shocked at how old and antiquated it was. As we entered the building they made us cover our shoes with booties (they are very strict about this). No one spoke to us. Inside, the rooms were very well cared for and clean, much improved from the outside appearance. We were taken to the special occasion room where the children have music. We waited for a while for Bryant to finish lunch. Jeff & I were so nervous. Then to our surprise, a caretaker brought him in the room and almost threw him at us. Thank goodness I caught him. I took one glance at him and he smiled. A big toothy grin from ear to ear. That was all it took to steal my heart. I put him up in the air and he giggled. Oh how thankful I am for this child. He is one happy happy baby. I can see in his eyes he has so much to give if only given the chance.

  He saw the toys on the floor and wanted to get down to play. I put him down and he crawled toward the toys. I was surprised. He is very active. He then crawled across the floor and pulled up on a little chair. I was smiling even bigger now. I didn't expect him to be able to do that at 11 months old being in an orphanage. Then just to show off he started cruising along the furniture. It was then I laughed. It was like he was saying "look at me, look what I can do. All that worry for nothing." With a little more muscle strength he will be walking. He loves to play with toys and puts everything in his mouth. He is so ticklish. He just giggles and giggles. He can roll a ball back and forth to us which he thinks is hilarious. All in all we were extremely pleased with his development. Couldn't be happier.

  Bryant is very small for his age. He weighs around 15.5 pounds. We are hoping to get him home and fatten him up. He needs some meat on those tiny bones. He is small but packs a big punch. He is symmetrically small which Dr. Boris, the doctor we hired to examine him was pleased with. Dr. Boris was awesome. He went over his medical file with us, examined him and spent a lot of time explaining things. He thinks he is doing very well and has good gross motor skills. He is verbalizing and reacting to stimuli etc. He feels confident that he will thrive when he gets home. So all in all very positive.

  Later in the day I wanted to see if he would stay still and let me hold and love on him for a while. He is so active I didn't know if he would slow down long enough. I held him tight and walked around the room singing to him. He finally relaxed his little body and snuggled up against me. I held him so tight and didn't want to let go. He just looked up at me with those big brown eyes that make me melt. This made Momma so happy.

  Before we left we visited his groupa (where the other children and caretakers reside). It was overwhelming to see the other children but we tried to smile and talk to them and give them some attention. We spoke to his caretakers and thanked them. We also took a picture of them with us for Bryant to see when he is older. We put Bryant in the crib and waved "paka paka" he smiled and reached his arms up at me. It was all I could do not to grab him and take him home.

An amazing day it has been. This verse keeps coming to mind today.

Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever ... 1 Chron 16:34