Appeals Period - Day 14

First of all, the good news. We were told that we would not get to see Max at all on Saturday and Sunday due to the orphanage being closed and the team getting the weekend off. Obviously, the orphanage itself cannot completely close, so we had Natasha ask the head doctor if it would be all right if we were to visit on Saturday and she agreed. So the team will still get the weekend off and Jenny and I will just walk to the babyhouse. It's a bit of a walk, but not too far. We will still miss him on Sunday, but this is way better than going two days without seeing him.

Today's visit was remarkably similar to yesterday. Max was very happy and laughing and playing for the first hour, and just wanted to be held and walked around for the second half of our visit. He didn't seem tired at all today, so that doesn't seem to be the reason. The Spanish lady's baby seemed to be in a similar mood because she ended up walking around with her while we took turns with Max. Again, we're not complaining, just reporting. We ended up starting Cheerio-time a little bit earlier than usual which was a good thing because his caregiver showed up a little early to get him.

Anyway, all the pictures and videos are from the first half of our visit.

We didn't get a photo of Alikhan and Max together, but he is in the background of this first video. As we mentioned in yesterday's post, he is almost Max's size, but a whole year younger. Alikhan seems to be an average sized 10-month old, so that gives you an idea of how small Max is. Max has been wearing size 18-month pants the last few days and they keep falling down and we roll the pant legs up so that he doesn't step on them. He is clearly older than Alikhan when you look at their behavior, just not in their size.

After our visit, we stopped at the market with Natasha so that she could translate some of the packaging on some food items. We found out which bottles would be good milk for Max, which hotdogs are made of beef, etc. We plan on going to the market on Sunday to stock up on items for Max before we get him for good on Monday.

Overall, today was a pretty good day. Finding out that we do not have to go two days without seeing Max was great. We also got hot water back in the apartment for the first time in 3 or 4 days. It had been quite a while since my last shower, so I was getting a little ripe. Of course, it was scalding hot at times, but much better than the ice cold water of our last few days. We are looking forward to tomorrow being our final day in the bonding room!! We are hoping to get together with the Joneses this weekend to help pass the time.

3 days until we get custody of Max!!