"Good job, mama."

Today we woke up and met with the other family to go to the market , and shopped with the local vendors. We got some super cool gifts, and hopefully we will get to go back next time ! After that we went to lunch with our translator. We still had a few hours before it was time for our second visit with the Little guy. So we took that time to continue exploring his city. Confession, before we left I was sure I would just want to stay in our appartment the whole time. I wasnt sure how I would feel being alone in another Country, with limited communication to our family at home. I wasnt sure how safe it would be for us to wander around. But it was a really safe environment, and I am pretty sure his city has nothing on New York, they literally never sleep. There are always people walking around, at all hours of the day and night. I ended up loving the atmosphere and not being scared one bit.

That afternoon we got ready to visit Owen again, and brought him some more stickers and a drawing pad. We knew he liked stickers before we came, because another family had given him some a few months back and some of the updates we received from the agency had him playing with them.  So this mama made sure to pack a couple different kinds to give to that sweet boy !

While we were there we started looking through the phone again and he was wondering when Ethan and Ashlyn would come to visit him. We had to explain that they had stayed home with Grandma Jersey, so they wouldn't be coming this trip. As we were sitting on the floor playing and just enjoying each other one of the caregivers walked in and he yelled " my mama & papa !" It was so sweet, talk about heart melting. He was snuggled up to Tony just looking through the phone, then he climbed into his lap. We were trying to be respectful of him, and not overwhelm him with too much affection right away. Because while we have known him for over a year, and spent about a year working really hard to get there, he had only just seen us a few days prior. We were strangers to him. I didnt want to scare him by being all over him so we decided to take baby steps. He was leading this process, and we were letting him warm up on his own time.

He started asking so many questions, questions we didnt expect from a 4 year old who has lived in an orphanage his entire life. But as a few other people who had met him before us said, he is an old soul in a little body. Do I get to go to school? Can I walk to school? Where will I sleep? Are there doctors in America? Will they fix my legs? Are they going to break them? Can I come home now? Does Zoey (our dog) bite? Does the cat scratch? It was extremely hard having to explain to him that this time he couldnt come home. That it would be just a few more months until we would come back. I was afraid that he would feel like we were lying to him. That he would fear we were abandoning him. But we tried really hard to make sure that he understood that we were most deffinitely coming back for him. The easiest way to do that was to tell him that after Christmas we would come back. His country celebrates Christmas in January so we figured it might be easier for him to understand.

He is the smartest little kid ! At one point he was trying to eat the stickers and Tony was telling him they weren't food, he was talking to talking about how he was going to eat them and Tony kept saying they wouldn't taste good. "I dont think you understand me papa!" With the most serious face LOL.
Soon after we left so that the children could eat their lunch and have nap time. We used this time to eat a snack and do some more walking around the city. We would be heading back that afternoon.

Our second visit of the day went really really well ! We walked in and he asked if we brought him anymore gifts (we hadn't.) but told him we could play with the ones we brought this morning. Around supper time I asked him if he wanted me to carry him into the dining room and he said yes with his hand held up. So I as I picked him up he hugged me super tight ! I almost cried, because it was the first time he had done that.He asked if we would stay with him while he ate supper, so of course we did ! As we were leaving I asked the translator how to say I love You in his language and when I tried to repeat it he looked at me like well at least you tried and said "Good Job, mama" <3 <3 <3

More to come :)