another day with our little boy...

We had a very busy fourth visit today with Joseph...we had to meet with the director as well as take Joseph for his first taxi ride to get photos done that are necessary for the next step of our adoption process.  We were really worried he would get carsick but he did wonderfully...he sat on Daddy's lap the whole way and enjoyed looking out the window at everything and having the sun shining in on his face.  He even fell asleep on Dan on the taxi ride back to the orphanage :)

  We had been requesting all week to go see Joseph's living quarters...where he sleeps, eats, plays etc.  When you come to the orphanage, they always take you somewhere to play with your child.  They do not like you coming into the areas that the children live.  Today they finally decided to let us take a look at where Joseph really lives.  I wish I could say I was happier after having seen it, but I wasn't.  It broke my heart, actually.  I'm not sure what to say about it at this point. I am thankful that the workers allowed us in to see where he spends all his time but I am now longing for the day that he can come home and be free to roam and explore and play and develop in the ways we know he can if he's encouraged to do so.

We've had so much more going on and so much more we want to be able to blog about but its been hard to fit it all in. We really wanted this week to be focused on our experiences with Joseph.  We have so much more to share, but tomorrow is our last visit with Joseph and then there will be plenty of time to share everything else that we hoped to share here in this space.  This has been a wonderful trip in that we have fallen in love with our future son...but it has also been an incredibly challenging trip as well.  In fact, up until this afternoon, we had had our return flights canceled and had no way of getting home to the US.  It seems to finally be resolved, but it has been a constant strain while we have been here.  Not to mention the heat and power going out in the hotel and the inability to adequately communicate with our children at home.  Wow, its been quite a roller coaster.  But we refuse to let this get in the way of us spending time with Joseph.  We hope to blog more about these challenges and share how seriously we feel that God loves adoption and how very much the evil one hates it.  More on all of that later...

One thing we wanted to make sure we did today was to say a huge thank you to everyone that has been donating to our Reece's Rainbow account...it is so wonderful to see that fund growing!!  We sincerely thank you for your help in bringing this amazing little boy home to our family.  We couldn't do it without your support.

And finally....the part you were probably waiting for...pictures and videos of the little man :)

Joseph and his Baba