Update: February 19, 2007: For the First Time
Good news... we are writing you now from the luxurious, small, beautiful, musty apartment in Kazakhstan. The Internet is slow but cheap, so we start downloading a page, go away for dinner and then come back to see if it's finished!

All in all, the day has gone well. Moving into an apartment meant grocery shopping in Kazakhstan. This was an adventure, to say the least. Unfortunately, they don't have any good frozen pizzas, so I won't be doing any cooking for the next couple of weeks (sorry, Heather...). But it looks like we got everything we needed. We will be in this particular apartment for a few more days before moving into a slightly larger one across the street.

Day 5 in the baby house was smooth. I think he's is getting a little more used to the routine of coming in to visit with us. We've realized that he normally has limited space to move around, so when he comes into the activity room where we visit, he's all over the place. He loves to crawl, that is, until he gets tired. He's not used to this much exercise, so he gets worn out pretty fast. If he's going to play professional basketball, he's going to have to learn some stamina, but we're working on that. So anyway, when he's in the middle of a crawl and runs out of steam, he just plops down all of the sudden, lays his head on the ground, and waits for us to come and tickle him. Part of the struggle is that he hasn't had a lot of time working out his upper body and neck muscles. Like a lot of babies, he's got a pretty good size noggin, so holding everything up through all this crawling is just not that easy! He's a trooper, though, and we're already proud parents as we see him growing so fast every day.

One of the things we enjoy most is watching our son experience new things each day for the first time. He is really inquisitive, soaking in all of his surroundings with curious, interested eyes. He will be sitting in Heather's lap looking at me, and I will start juggling some of his toys. This quickly captivates his attention, and when I'm finished with my juggling act, he'll give a sly smile as if to say, "Ahhh... that wasn't too bad. Is that all you've got?" And so I'll blow bubbles at him and he'll give that sly smile again, thinking, "OK... that was pretty cool, too. You got anything else?" It's been an incredible joy watching him experience things for the first time.

Come to think of it...I guess there have been a lot of "first time" events these days. For the first time, he's getting personal, one-on-one, undivided attention. For the first time, he's free to roam around a large room. For the first time, he's hearing another language. For the first time, he's seeing a man in his life. For the first time, he's getting smothered with hugs and kisses and "I love yous". For the first time, he's got two people waking up every morning looking forward to nothing else but seeing him. And for the first time, we're pouring our lives and love into our child! Thank you, Lord, for all the first times You are giving...

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

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