Little Moments

Thank you for all the kind comments about D Day, I really wish I had time to respond to each one.  It is great to feel support and love from family and friends while going through this crazy transition of adoption.  

The posts will certainly be less dramatic from here on out…not sure anything can quite top the emotion of that day.

Unless you're Fans, in which case the emotion of your first geocache found with your son eclipses any and all previous emotions known to man.

 Yep, that's right, we've gone from D Day to G Day.  If you don't know what geocaching is, google it.  If you know Fans and his adoration of geocaching, you are rolling your eyes right now.

We were at this sweet tea house, a circular glass two story structure where you sit on pillows facing out.  And they make you take your shoes off.  You know it's fancy when they do that.

Fans knew there was a cache hidden there, and his geo senses were on high alert, so he went for it.  He had to go to the counter and order a "mandarin tea".  Upon hearing that, the girl gave him a nod and pulled out a box from behind the counter, handed it to Fans, and said to bring it back in a few minutes.  The funny thing is, we are completely unable to explain to D what geocaching is, so for awhile I think he thought Fans was a Russian spy or something.  Pretty funny.

Before the tea house, we checked out a Latvian church which was really cool.  They sang all the same songs we do at home but in Latvian.  It was beautiful.  This is Fans and D right outside our apartment on the way to church.

After the tea house, we headed to Old Riga in search of a boat for D to play with in the tub.  That's the fun thing about these bonding days, your entire goal for the day can be as simple as finding a boat, and 7 hours later you've had a day of adventure.

Old Riga is beautiful.  Narrow, cobblestone streets and colorful old buildings.

 When we got home that night, as soon as D was inside he ran to the living room to get something and then went around turning off every light.  I was like, "What the heck is he doing?"

Then I heard the classic snap of a glow stick.  I forgot that I had told him that morning when he tried to open them that they can't be opened until it was dark out.

I will never forget the next 6 minutes.

We each had a glow stick in both hands, Fans cranked up some music, and the three of us had an impromptu dance party all around the apartment.  We were laughing and singing and making a glow stick dance train…it was so spontaneous.  I wanted to stop and get a picture but I didn't want to wreck the moment.  In the words of Rose in Titanic, that dance party, "it exists…only in my memory".

Little moments.

Later that night, we had a Facetime marathon.

D met a bunch of his new family.  He can be really shy on camera, it usually takes him awhile to come out from hiding under his hood.  His instinct when he is uncomfortable seems to be to hide.

But there was no hiding when he met Wrigley.

This morning we met with Dace for the last time, as she is actually headed to the US for work and will be gone the rest of our time here.  We are so sad that she is leaving, but so thankful we got to share the first couple of days with her.

I'm not sure D totally knows how to process leaving people he loves like Dace.  It's so hard since we can't communicate that with him, and even if we could, I'm not sure he even knows how to process those emotions.  I think a part of him is programmed to know that people come and people go, and to not get too close because they will be gone soon enough.  But he loves Dace and I think it was hard for him to say goodbye.  He was very quiet on the tram ride after we left her.

The good thing is that all three of us will see her in about 6 months on our last trip back to Latvia which will for be our final court date.

After Dace, we headed to the Riga Zoo.

 Pretty cool to actually be able to pet a zebra.  

It was a great zoo.

Then it was back on the tram for (as far as I could tell) D's first fro yo.

D is very much your typical 11 year old boy.

He loves games of all kinds.

He loves climbing on top of things.

He loves stealing my phone and taking selfies.

He loves being silly.

And he loves his dad.

And if I thought that there would be any sort of honeymoon period where he wouldn't be obsessed with the same things American kids are…I was wrong.  When I asked Dace to ask him if he had any questions for us that he hadn't been able to communicate the last few days that we had spent without a translator, he hesitated for a bit and then said, "Ask them...when do I get a phone?"

Oh boy.  

These days following our big meeting have been filled not with amazing groundbreaking events, but a compilation of many little moments.

Little moments on the tram.

Little moments snuggling on the couch.

Little moments dancing in the dark at our first family rave.

These little moments are all piling up…each moment seeming to bond our family a little tighter.

Praising God tonight for the gift of little moments.