GOTCHA!

We arrived at the orphanage right around 4 pm yesterday afternoon. As we were walking out of the hotel, Benjamin said, "Timmy is excited to meet me." :) He has been great and has been a blessing to have on this trip. I am so glad we decided to bring him!

The day was bright and beautiful temps, probably in the 70s. Warmer than we had expected, actually. We walked up the stairs to the music room waiting for Timmy to arrive and, of course, God decided it was time for Benjamin to have a nosebleed! (it happened on the plane too, by the way...) So we were trying to get his nose to stop bleeding when Timmy arrived. That was a bit frustrating. If you're in facebook, you'll see pictures with cotton hanging out of Benjamin's nose. lol Anyway, he came in and things were so distracting he was a little apprehensive about coming to any of us. I handed off Benjamin to our translator and coordinator and they got him taken care of. I eventually picked up Timmy and he hugged me. He was carrying his photo book that I gave to him on his first trip. We asked about the bear we left and they said they did not know where it was. It's ok, no biggie. So they asked if he wanted to take a bear from a few laying there and he chose one that plays Russian words. He has enjoyed having it.

They were quickly wanting me to change his clothes. I began to take off his shoes and he was unsure he wanted to do that. Our coordinator came over and helped and talked him through it. When he realized he was getting new clothes he was no longer upset by it.

I gave the orphanage donation to the orphanage doctor and she was thrilled. My Aunt Linda had knitted a bunch of vests (I wish I had taken a better picture of some of them!) and a lot of stocking hats for our donation. They couldn't believe how nice they were. Thank you Aunt Linda for helping keep kids in the orphanage warm this winter! And for many years to come!

We snapped a few pictures, were given instructions about his medication and we were out the door. Many orphanage workers popped in to say goodbye. You could tell that they loved him. He even walked over to his group outside and said "paka" goodbye.  Was so sweet!

Then it was time to get in the car. He was not so sure about it. The whole time he was very timid, scared. Once we got in the car, things began to change rapidly. We had been told we were going to stay the night in Abakan to help him adjust before the 5 1/2 hour drive to Kras. We asked if we could just go back to Krasnoyarsk where things are more familiar to us. And today is Benjamin's birthday so we did not want to miss celebrating it with Iris (our missionary friend here...Tim is not in town :( ).

Anyway, once we were in the car, Benjamin fell asleep pretty much immediately. It gave us a chance to play with just Timmy. Before long he was laughing up a storm. Was so cute! I need to post that video on FB. You'll LOVE it!  It was a great ride. He took two naps. We still have not seen him cry. He was at most agitated, but not even very much.

We arrived at the Kras hotel at 11:30 and waited until midnight to check in so we only had to pay half price. We figured the boys were sleeping and now awake. It would be a while before they went to sleep anyway. They enjoyed looking at the fish tank and it was a great icebreaker between them. At one point, Timmy wanted my attention and said, "Mama!" and pointed. Melted my heart! :) We also had a chance to skype with home. They don't have a camera on their end which stinks because the boys couldn't see them, but they could see the boys which was neat. Aunt Linda, Uncle Ed, Tara and Jaime enjoyed seeing them together.

We came up to the room shortly after midnight. By about 1 am both boys were back asleep and are still sleeping at 7:30 am. No wake ups in the night. No crying. But before they went to sleep, Benjamin (who slept most of the day yesterday by the way!) whispered to Timmy, "Hi. Nice to meet you, Timmy! My name is Benjamin!"  SO ADORABLE! I just laughed.

So far so good. Timmy is snoring away in the bed right next to Benjamin. They slept together and it seemed to work out great. Neither seemed to mind. :) When I woke up, Benjamin had his leg over Timmy. Of course I took pictures :)

I'll update more after today, but just wanted to give you a little insight into our Gotcha Day! It's been a wonderful blessing from God. So neat to think about God's adoption of us and how we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into but only walked toward Him and how Timmy was in a very similar position yesterday. He walked out of all that he knew, all he knew was good, and comes to our family where he has no idea what is in store for him. We love him already. God is so good!

Thank you for continuing to pray on the plane ticket situation (see last post) as it is still not taken care of!