We are in country!

After an uneventful flight, we are safely in our hotel in the capital city of K's country. Tomorrow morning at 11am our driver who picked us up from the airport will be back to pick us up and take us over the mountains (about a 2.5 hour drive, so not too bad) to K's city. And the day after *that*, we get to meet our little boy!

Upon arriving at our hotel, we were given a packet with updated information on K. Like everything we get on him, it is bittersweet. The photo is awful to look at - nothing like the photo of him smiling that we got back in January, and as tough as the last photo I posted of him is to see, this one is harder to look at.[note: we learned that this photo was not a new photo, but probably as old as or older than our first photo of him. This was good to find out.] He has an awful expression on his face, which we are reading as pain and terror - he's being held under his armpits with her hands pressing on his throat - I'm sure he feels unsupported and possibly like he can't breath well, and his whole tiny body is so tense. For a little guy who deals with muscle tension every day from his CP, it looks like his position is exacerbating what he is already dealing with. Ouch! I look at that photo, and as his mommy I long for the day (not long!) when I can gently and carefully lift him and hold him and begin to teach him that being held is a *good* thing and that being held by a mommy and daddy who love you is a *wonderful* thing.

His medical report also brought tears to my eyes. Partly because of some new information that we hadn't been given previously, but also tears filled with hope as the paragraph listing some of his daily life details is dramatically different from what was written last June. It is evident that the new director at his orphanage is making significant changes. He is eating from a spoon (held by a caregiver). He holds toys! He shows a preference for musical toys - oh how that made my heart leap! We did not bring any musical toys to share with him on this trip, but we did bring books to read with him, and as we were trying to figure out which books to bring, we decided mostly on ones that are made to be sung, figuring he won't understand the words, but you don't need to know a language to know the pleasure of hearing the rhythm of song.

One other detail - our driver picked us up as well as another couple who is here for their first visit to the little boy they are adopting from K's orphanage. They will be riding with us tomorrow, and staying at the same hotel in K's city, so we will likely see a lot of them. It's nice to be able to speak in English to someone while we're here! We'll be meeting back up with them for supper in about an hour here.

And then going to BED!