Sweet Moments With Our Son

Barry here... We had our second visit with our son today and it went really well! Today we started out with one of his caregivers playing with him while we sat there trying not to make eye contact with him since that was frightening to him yesterday. After a few minutes we joined in on the playing and then his caregiver slipped out, and he did really well! He got upset a couple times but he really warmed up to Lisa and let her hold him almost the whole time, and even snuggled up to her a little, despite it being pretty hot in there. It was amazing the progress we made in just one day, going from him crying whenever we looked at him to today where he actually almost fell asleep in Lisa's arms, and he let me play with him a little and didn't cry when I looked at him. Sounds like little things, but it felt like a huge step for both him and us.

Lisa and I both had moments today where we teared up because of the change in his disposition toward us. At one point he had become upset again and started crying, but he quickly was soothed by Lisa rocking him and talking to him and almost instantly he put his head right under her chin and cuddled up to her. I could see the tears welling up in her eyes and she just closed them to relish the moment. A little while later while Lisa was still holding him, I had been just kind of trying to play with him a little and patting his back and rubbing his head, just trying to get him more comfortable with me. He was doing great with it compared to yesterday already, so I wasn't expecting too much, but all of a sudden he reached out and grabbed my finger and held on to it for a few seconds. Lisa looked at me and my eyes had already started to fill with tears, and when she saw that she almost lost it again; it was a really sweet moment for all of us, and I'm not even sure if our son realized it was happening! It was something we will never forget though.

When it was time for us to go after a couple of hours, we brought him back to the nice lady who had brought him in. When he saw her it was like he suddenly realized that she had been gone and he got upset and reached for her. This also may seem like a minor thing, but it was a great thing for us to see because that shows that he has built attachments with those that he knows cares for him which is often not the case for children in an orphanage setting where there may be a different person taking care of you every few hours and so no real attachment is formed and it becomes difficult for those children to form healthy attachments later.

It was also a comfort to us to see how much his caregiver really did care for him. We could tell by the way she talked to him and played with him that she genuinely loved him; which means a lot considering we will have to rely solely on their love and interaction with our son while we wait for our 2nd and 3rd trips to come.

My hope now is that as much progress will be made from today to tomorrow as there was from yesterday to today, and that he will allow me to hold him like he let Lisa today. Even if we still don't get a smile, it will be great just to see him again!

And another unrelated to this post picture because we still can't post any of the sweet boy that has us here...

The views from our hotel room...