We met Anton for the first time...

It was one year ago today that we met Anton for the first time. That day was like a dream and even the memories don't seem real because it was such an amazing day. We didn't blog while in country and I don't think I really blogged about our first trip at all but I did email updates to our family and friends and so I am now going to share those with all of you!

So here you go DAY 1 OF MEETING ANTON:

We had our meeting with the Ministry of Education today and it went so good. She told us all about his medical condition and his parents. She even copied the paper she was reading for us so we know have his full name and his parents names (we found out in court his surrogate signed the paperwork so we don't have his bio-parents info). She questioned us about how we are going to be able to care for him and was happy with our answers. She told us "thank you so much for wanting to adopt our Anton and for knowing how to care for him." Then she gave us the invitation to meet him and we were off!  

Our first visit with Anton went REALLY well. We were thinking he wouldn't want anything to do with us and that he would cry the whole time but he did great. When we first walked into his part of the hospital I saw him through an open door and I got SOOOOO excited. We didn't get to go to him right away though because his doctors wanted to ask us a few questions first. They drilled us and I think maybe got us a little more prepared for court with all the questions they were asking. After about 45 minutes of questions the doctors seemed satisfied with our answers and took us to see him. 

His nanny was helping him walk out of his room as we were walking up and I couldn't believe we were really getting to see him. We watched him for a few minutes before we really tried to interact with him too much. I couldn't wait to get my hands on him but didn't think we would be able to hold him the first visit. Well not too long after we first saw him they took us in his room and started showing him our family picture that has been in his room for several months now and they would say Papa and he would look at Jason then they would say Mama and he would look at me or his nanny (he called her Mama but they had also been teaching him that I was Mama) :) He recognized us from the picture which was amazing!  Then is nanny handed him to Jason and he did really good. He didn't cry at all or try to get out of his lap. I LOVED getting to see Jason holding our son and interact with him. Then his nanny gave him to me and he cried a little but overall did really well.

We played with him for a few minutes and talked to him but then he was ready to go back to his nanny. We were able to spend about 45 minutes with him before he got tired and wanted to take a nap. At that point we said good bye and went back into the doctors office for more questioning. They wanted to know how we liked him and if the meeting went as we expected to which we replied we LOVE him and it went way better than we could have thought. They also asked what the Grandparents thought so we told them how excited they were and how they can't wait to meet him. 

His doctors really liked us and are very glad we want to adopt him and are able to care for him. 

We will go visit him again tomorrow and watch them feed him and watch them do his dressing change. We are really excited they invited us to watch his dressing change because at first it seemed like they weren't going to let us be there for that. 

We love you all and thank you so much for praying! God is so so faithful and we are so blessed by everything that has happened so far on this trip! 

and now for some pictures! 

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I am so excited we emailed our family and friends, it is so neat to go back and read what was going on each day!