Getting to know Joshua Roman

4/14/2007 – Visit with Joshua (blog post)

Our first full visit with Joshua was really a treat, and the best birthday gift Dave has ever had. This morning’s visit was crazy. We brought in the clothes (Aunt Sal’s Easter outfit) and diapers for him to wear. He came out looking quite handsome, but we were told the dipes were too small! But no worries, they used it anyway. He was so cute. But within a few minutes, his first meeting with Dave proved a little scary. Men are new, voices deep, etc. So his little face got tense, and he started crying pretty well (Joshua not Dave J ). I took him then and was quite stressed that if I didn’t calm him down I would be deemed a bad mother and the BH (Baby House) staff would have major worries. Meanwhile BH director, caretaker and Olga were outside the door waiting to see what was going to happen. I was stressed. No pressure, right? But the little guy just likes women and luckily I was able to settle him down. Just after we got him situated, we were told that the passport photographer was there and we needed to get Joshua’s head shots (we had been told when leaving the apartment that it was probably going to happen – it was just awkward timing!). Anyway, I wasn’t able to hold him high enough up on the white wall as a background for the photo in the visiting room so Dave had to take him again. Joshua wasn’t quite sure about this, but the little man was quite a trooper. The photographer was a little too careful if you ask me, and wasn’t quick enough getting the shots so poor Joshua looked like he was about to crack again. Between Olga (our translator) and me, we were able to distract him enough to get the shots. Talk about an unexpected morning. After that, we all calmed down and had a really nice visit. Brought out some nice toys, he loves the photo book from Jodi Mechem (thank you!!). He’s teething, so sucks on it more than anything. He also LOVES the Fortman rattle and that will be one of our trip regulars. He really seems to be doing well, reaches for toys, lies on his belly and pushes himself up, and does the backward crawl thing if we give him support on his feet. He’s a neat kid. This morning we were really trying to get him to smile and we eeked a few little snickers. Olga was helpful, we asked for Russian terms and he seemed good with that. He really does respond to the cadence of the Russian/Kazakh women’s voices – but hope we can find ways with him to get him to respond to us. We also gave him Oma’s blanket and hat and took a sweet shot with him and Dave. BTW – I thought he was a little warm, but didn’t think too much about it b/c BH is warm, but did think twice about it.

On to the afternoon visit. We got there 15 minutes early, and Olga led us in to the little (I mean little) visiting room, which has a crib, two chairs, and a table with a digital baby scale. Much to Olga’s surprise, she walked in on the end of Roman’s nap. He was just waking up, and poked his head up! He stayed there quietly though, sucking his fingers (just like my god-daughter, Kate Sakell), until his caretaker came in, just about 5 minutes later. He was dressed in this huge funny looking outfit. His caretaker essentially told Olga that we could change his diaper (we picked up larger ones) and clothes! What??? We were shocked. Most families don’t get to do this until near the end of their visitation period! We found out that she was really busy, they had just aired out the other room, and she was fine if we took care of him! Again, talk about new mommy pressure. But I picked him up for a while just to give him a few minutes to adjust to us again, and wake up. He was so cool, and more than patient as I tried to get this funky outfit off of him. It tied at the top. I had no clue how it worked, as I wasn’t sure if it was one piece, or two, had snaps or what! I had no wipes (or a changing pad). Olga said that’s okay, just go head and change his dipe and off we (it) went. We did this in the crib, which was weird also. He was so sweet. And then on to putting his Easter outfit back on. Yikes! I knew I couldn’t do it alone and having him so low in the crib, so we grabbed his onesie and Dave helped me do it while the baby was sitting on my lap. It all worked out and again the baby was a trooper. He was SO hot though. Turns out, the reason he was in the separate room was b/c he had a sore throat… and a fever, but they gave him a shot in his butt earlier in the day. So they didn’t want him around the other kids. I had felt pressured to put the rest of his clothes on but Olga said, not to worry since he was so hot. I was expecting a check in by the caretaker, but that’s not the way it is at this BH. So Joshua got to hang out in his onesie, and had a great time playing with us and his toys. We were able to get a few more giggles and a couple of coos. Olga says he’s a quiet boy like Dave. He really is quite sweet, with brownish green eyes. He likes to reach for his toys and is very interested in things around him. For having a fever and getting a shot, he did great overall.

When it was time to go, the caretaker took him again (at some point she lovingly said “he’s her baby”) and put him in a stroller in the nearby room with about 3 or so other kids, and he kept looking out the door at us. We say “paka Roman, paka” (bye,bye Roman, bye, bye) – he was turning his head to watch us. So the caretaker turned his stroller and we got a full goodbye. It was sweet.

I think that’s all of the important baby scoop for now! Oops one last thought – at some point today the caretaker called us mama and papa to Roman when she brought him to us. Boy that was sweet.

LOVE YOU GUYS. And Roman met his family via the photo book. He drooled all over everyone. We know everyone’s looking for photos of him, which we will post soon, but want to finish out a few more days of visits and following the protocols. Thanks for your patience!