Our Second Visit With Colby

Thursday June 26th. This was a day of mixed feelings. I was so happy to be visiting with Colby again but yet I knew it would be the last visit for a long time. We had been told that there would be about 6 months inbetween this first trip and the court date. I woke up excited yet sad. We went to the baby home in the morning and arrived right when Colby was waking up from a nap. I was a little nervous about seeing him again. I wasn't sure how he would react to both Mike and myself. However, the minute they brought him outside, I went up to him and held out my arms to hold him. He practically jumped into my arms. He remembered me! He even gave me a little smile showing off his top two teeth.

Once again Mike and I played with Colby outside. Someone brought out a blanket so we could sit on the floor and I took out a couple of his little toys. I guess that wasn't enough for him because he crawled right over to the backpack we had the toys in to find more. I'm not sure how he knew we had more toys in there, but he did. So we dumped the whole bag out and played for a little while. This time we made sure to take more pictures and a video. Around 12:00 a caretaker brought out his lunch. I am not sure exactly what he ate, but he loved it. Boy can he eat. Colby immediately grabbed hold of a small piece of bread and smashed it into his mouth and was soon choking. I was devastated. Our first time feeding our baby and we let him choke himself right away. Once we got him relaxed, Mike and I took turns feeding Colby and taking pictures and video.

At one point, Tatiana brought out one of the other caretakers. She had been Colby's caretaker when he first arrived at the baby home. However, he became so attached to her that he would cry and get upset if she tried to hold another child. So Tatiana had taken Colby out of that wing of the baby home and put him in a different section. This caretaker wanted to see Colby and us as well. She fed Colby for a little while too. After she left, he didn't want to eat much more so we played a little bit. Then his current caretaker came out. I guess she decided that he hadn't eaten enough so she fed him a little more. We took a few pictures of her with Colby. It was evident that she cared for Colby a great deal. I am glad that I saw that interaction. I know he will be well cared for while we wait to return to Russia. Then she left with the lunch tray and brought him a bottle of juice. He certainly loves his juice. Mike and I held him while he drank his juice. Colby can hold his bottle but he would lose his balance if he tried to drink it sitting on the floor, so we just held him. It felt great to hold my son and feed him. I couldn't believe I was actually doing it.

Soon Svetlana returned and asked how we were doing. I knew our time was almost up. I hated for it to end. Colby needed to be changed and it was time for his nap so we had to go inside. We talked with his caretaker for a little while and gave her a gift. We also left Colby's toys with her so he could share with the other boys, and we left a photo album for him to look at of us, our parents, the dog Misha, our house, and a couple pictures of us with him so he could remember who we are. We then said goodbye to Tatiana and gave her a gift as well as gifts for the other caretakers. As we walked away from the baby home and got in the car, I felt terrible. I hated to leave him. I knew I had to but I almost couldn't understand why. I knew that I would be leaving a pice of me behind. That night I was very quite as I tried to get ahold of my thoughts and feelings. I knew Mike was upset also. We felt just awful. At that moment, I wished that I could stay in Russia until it was time to take Colby home. But alas, the paperwork must be done and I still had a job to find so I knew I had to go home. We had an early dinner and went to bed around 8:30PM since we had to be up about 2:30AM to get ready for the airport. Our plane was leaving around 5AM. So we had a nice visit with Colby and hopefully the memories we made both on Tuesday and Thursday would keep us until we would return.