We Got Him!!

I don't even know where to begin except to say, "We got him!!" It is so awesome to be a family of four! On the drive home Artem asked, "Do we get to keep him mama?" and when I told him that we do get to keep him, he hugged me and said, "Oh thank you mama, thank you, thank you for my baby brother."

The director (flowered jacket) and the doctor are such nice women and made this day so special for us. We really felt loved at Andrik's baby home, which I hope to explain more about another day, and they had tears in their eyes as they saw us leave the home with Andrik and asked for us to send updates on how he's doing. They gave us his baptismal gown and certificate and we gave them some seeds for Texas Bluebonnets and told them to sprinkle the seeds on the grounds of the baby home and when they see the flowers bloom each Spring to think of our family and the sweet boy they loved for over a year. The ladies already have a spot picked on the grounds for the flowers.

And in keeping with his older brother's trend, Andrik gave us one heck of a car-sickness-projectile-vomiting show on the ride home. We are 0 and 2 on the barf meter for Gotcha Days. I didn't get a lot of pictures of the boys together in their cute little outfits and thought I could get a few when we arrived home, but Andrik had other plans for his clothes.

Notice the bruise on Andrik's forehead? That would be compliments of his brother Artem from our visits before court. The boys were running and Artem accidently knocked him in the asphalt face first. We don't even have him out of the baby home and he's bruised up from his brother.

The caregivers have been working with Andrik using his picture book to show him our pictures and Andrik was already calling Randy "papa", along with all of the other kids in Andrik's groupa. As soon as we walked into Andrik's room the kids ran up to Randy saying, "Papa, papa!" Andrik can also find Bella's picture in the book and says, "woof woof" when he sees the picture. It's really cute.

After we arrived home, we put Andrik into the shower with Randy and de-barfed him and then got dressed for dinner. We ate at TGIFriday's where Andrik dined on a grilled cheese sandwich and Cheerios. He didn't like french fries, steak, cheese potatoes, or green beans. Looks like we have a picky eater since Artem gobbled up anything we put in front of him.

Andrik is dressed for dinner with one fine looking comb over. Andrik has VERY thin hair with a bald spot on the top of his head, but what hair he has is really long and just kind of hangs everywhere and is in the beginning stages of a mullet. I already have a hair appointment made for him two days after we get home from Russia.

We are checking out of this apartment tomorrow at 2:00. It is the world's scuzziest apartment and there is no way I can do a week in this place. We stayed in three different apartments when we did Artem's adoption and they were fine but this place is an absolute dump and I can't get back to the Marriott fast enough.

The boys have done really well together and bedtime was pretty painless. We have two little cuties asleep in the room in their pirate jammies and after I hit "publish" I'm going to retreat as well, except I won't be wearing pirate jammies.

I'll leave you with some pictures from previous visits. Thank you for all the prayers and good thoughts, I told Randy tonight that it's only been a few hours that Andrik's been with us and I've already forgotten about all the waiting we did for him; it's all a distant memory now.

Past Pictures:

The first time the boys met and all Artem had to say was, "He's so little", and immediately headed for the playground.

The boys quickly found some common ground; collecting pinecones.

We were so excited to see Andrik dressed in boy clothes compared to the pink tights Artem was wearing when we met him.

Andrik was very resistant to me holding him in the beginning and only wanted to be with Randy. This picture is sure to be a timeless momento from our trip.

But by the 3rd day he came around and didn't mind me holding him. Now that we have him with us, I've been using the sling and carrying him everywhere we go.

Our first picture as a family of four a few days before court.

Ah, there we go, finally some girl clothes on our son. The Russian's didn't let us down. It's a shame you can't see his pink flower socks in this picture.

Fun on a scooter.

Look at that smile. We look forward to a lifetime of these in the years to come.