Sunday December 24

What a happy day for us!! We will be getting the best Christmas gift ever! We plan on starting the adoption proceedings for Alex tomorrow- on Christmas Day!!
We went to the orphanage at 10am and met with the doctor. She basically told us his only problems were from being in the orphanage and not in a family, which are normal delays. Our visit with her was very encouraging, and then she brought Alex in to see us. When she brought us to the play room, she asked him if she could leave him with his mama and papa, and he said yes. Those were sweet words to hear. We had a great visit. He is going to be a handful! He is very talkative and inquisitive. He went around the room and showed us everything in the room, and then he found my bag with a few toys. Of course the things he was most interested in were the adult stuff. He really liked carrying around a pen and made some pictures in my journal. He kept putting things on top of his head, and he also really liked a hair clip in my bag. He kept wanting me to put it on his head and then he would ask to put in on mine and Chris'. It was so funny. We got to play with him for an hour and then were told we could return at 4pm to play with him again, and so we did.
Chris would like me to add that yes, David, he did throw Alex the ball, and he caught it on his first try and threw it back. Chris was very impressed with his hand-eye coordination. After that, he liked throwing the ball away from Chris and making him go get it.
The sweetest thing about the next visit was his smile and happiness when he saw us this evening. We took him back to the play room and the first thing he asked for was the pen, and the next was the hair clip. It was so funny. He spent most of the time making sure he found every little item in my bag. He also found the hand sanitizer and enjoyed giving that to everyone on their hands. He carried that around with him the whole time, until we had to say goodbye. It was already so hard to leave him, and he even motioned for us to take back off our jackets when we had put them on to leave. And after his teacher had taken him away and we were walking to the door to leave, he came back out to say goodbye again. It was so sweet.
We are so excited about him and can't wait to see him again tomorrow. We will get to visit him probably twice a day- in the morning and then the afternoon.
Major Prayer Request -- It would be great if we could have the court date by Thursday, as the 10 day wait starts at that time. If we don't have it then, Friday is a holiday, and then they are off the whole next week for the holidays. It would delay our trip home by about 10 more days. They are not sure if it will be possible or not since it normally takes more than 5 days to have court once you decide to adopt, and we only have 4, but as we believe- nothing is impossible with God!!