Update: February 16, 2007: A Little More Than 60 Seconds...
After a whirlwind day yesterday and a restful night's sleep, we woke up this morning ready for our first official visit to the baby house. Yesterday's sixty seconds only created a craving for more time, but there was still a little nervousness about how today would unfold. How would he respond this time? He cried most of the sixty seconds yesterday...would he cry most of the sixty minutes today?

10:00 a.m.: A lady walks in with our son.

10:01 a.m.: Our son starts crying. Oh no. I've learned my lesson...this time I let Heather do all the holding. It hit us last night that he may have never even seen or interacted with a man before in his entire life. So Heather holds him as he cries... I keep my distance.

10:05 a.m.: He's calmed down now. But he's pretty confused. "Who are these strange people? What language are they speaking? Why do they have such goofy smiles on their faces? And who in the world is [Name withheld for security reasons]?" I inch closer.

10:10 a.m.: Everything is alright. To our surprise, he actually seems to be enjoying our company. Only ten minutes have gone by, and here we are--the three of us--sitting on the floor in this room, almost like we're a family. We're laughing with him, playing with him, singing to him, and doing everything we can to entertain him. And he seems to be having a good time.

10:30 a.m.: He smiles. For the first time, we see our son smiling back at us. He proudly displays his one tooth as he playfully grins. For the next 30 minutes, we swap turns taking pictures and shooting video of our first real encounter with our son.

11:00 a.m.: She comes in to get him. He immediately starts bawling because he doesn't want to leave us. For the first time, he cries out, "Dad!," and reaches for my arms. OK... not really--he didn't cry and he didn't shout my name, but he did give us a second glance as he left the room. And thus ended the first sixty minutes with our son.

Our morning visit was followed by an afternoon visit that went much the same, but this time with no crying whatsoever. Words can't describe how wonderful these two hours have been today, just playing with our son, getting to know his personality, and introducing ourselves to him.

The moment of the day was when Heather was leaning over him while he was lying on his back. She was singing and playing with him, and then in a pause his eyes suddenly locked with hers. For a concentrated moment, they just stared at each other. My eyes swelled with tears as I saw this picture of an abandoned child staring into a mother's caring eyes, a mother who has longed to show that kind of affection to a child she could call her own. Thank You, Lord...

This schedule will be the routine for the next couple of weeks. We hopefully move into an apartment tomorrow that we will live in during the rest of our time in this city. There's a threat of a potential snowstorm here over the next day or two. For the most part, they have had a pretty mild winter, but it is expected to get at least -20 C over the next few days, so we're bundling up! Man, we love Birmingham...

We love you and miss you!
--David and Heather

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