We have made it to Frankfurt Germany…again.

Today we got to spend a little bit of time with each boy before heading to the airport. Ready to know their names? Yeah, it’s a little hard to write about them with using their names so I’ll spill the beans… They are Sasha (short for Alexander) and Igor (pronounced E-grey…roll the R good.) Yes, we do plan to call them by their Russian names, just like Dima, as well as the new names we give them. Their birth mothers named them so we feel it is important to incorporate it into their new life.

We saw Sasha first. Yesterday he cried the whole time we were with him and had a hard time settling down. It was very stressful for him. Today, instead of being in the medical room we got to take him outside. That helped a lot. The orphanage had a little gazebo with toys to play. His favorite thing was the pinecones. They had some stacking buckets so we were able to get a better idea of his gross motor skills. He liked putting the pinecones in the buckets and taking them out again. We gave him a truck to play with, but he kept banging it down on the floor. He liked the sound it made. He did pretty well walking today. He is a little unsteady, but for the most part he does well. Sasha warmed up to Kelly better today. Kelly got to hold him and Sasha did not cry.

Kelly teaching Sasha to give Fives! A must in our home!

I had started reading the book The Connected Child. The books states that when a PI (post institutionalized) child gets stressed they start breathing heavy. I was able to catch it every time Sasha did it and give him a firm open-hand back rub to settle him down. It was cool to see it work. I highlyrecommend the book to all adoptive parents and biological parents for that matter. I think everyone could learn from it. This book was written by Dr. Purvis and another doctor.
Dr. Purvis worked with Dr. Federici with Saving Dane for those of you who remember him talking about that at his seminar. If you use The Connected Child by Dr Purvis and Help for the Hopeless Child by Dr. Federici I think the transition of a PI child will be so much better. We plan to incorporate principles and practices from both books in the lives of our sons.

After spending time with Sasha we got to go see Igor (E-grey). We also got to take Igor outside. His reaction was a little different. He is a snuggler so he clung to us for a very long time. He had never been outside and the wind was blowing the trees. He was in “shutdown” mode for a while.
We did get him to walk and he walks pretty well too! There were no toys available for us to play with and he did not like the nerf ball or rattle we had brought with us so we did not get to test his gross motor skills like I would have liked. They did have a swing that I put him in and he enjoyed it. I was surprised simply because when we first brought Dima home he hated the swing. Of course, now you can’t get him off of them.

Enjoying the swing.

(It was hard giving him back.)

Both boys are very sweet and I can’t wait to get them home and get them where they need to be developmentally. It breaks my heart to leave them in the orphanage for the next several weeks.
We are hoping to have a court date in the next 3-4 weeks, then we will have 10-15 days to get paperwork done in Rostov, then we pick them up and have 3 days in Moscow doing more paperwork and then home. When it is said and done we hope to have them home by the end of July. I do not know which summer month Rostov’s vacation is so that could play a part in extending our time between trips.

Since we are now in Frankfurt we are going to do a little sight seeing tomorrow before we head to the airport at about 2pm. I can’t wait to get home and sleep in my own bed!