Loyet Family Odyssey

The past few days have been a roller coaster of emotions, compounded by the nine hour time difference. We have been allowed to spend a substantial amount of time with Benjamin. It has been a blessing to be able to familiarize ourselves to him. Although we are complete strangers, he responds to us much better than we expected. He loves to be held and is perfectly content to sit on either of our laps for long stretches at a time. He also enjoys when Eric walks him around holding him to his chest.

We brought several toys for him to play with and he loves to put them in his mouth. He is teething and I’m sure it feels good on his gums. He also likes to throw things to hear the sound they make. We typically sit on an oriental rug on the floor in the music room and play. He loves to go to the edge of the rug and bang on the hardwood floor with his hands or whatever toy he may possess at the time. A future drummer perhaps? He crawls really well and raises up on his arms and rocks front to back, he’s definitely trying to get up on his own.

The psychologist spoke to us today through our translator and asked how our visit on Wednesday went. We told her all about what he was doing and that he was starting to coo and babble for us. We explained that he cried for less than a minute when another little boy was crying when he was brought into the room to visit with his parents. She asked how we were able to calm him, and we said that we walked him around the room and he quickly quieted down. When the translator told her this a look of surprise came over her face, along with a smile. She said that it was wonderful because he is a very difficult baby to calm down. We were very pleased of course; he is clearly becoming more and more comfortable with us. Eric was able to get him to smile this evening as well. What an amazing feeling to be with him and just soak in his sweetness.

Benjamin does the cutest thing when he is sitting on our laps. He will lean back against us and tilt his head back and just look into our face. It is a good sign that he will make eye contact with us and let us hold him. We have already fallen in love with him and will miss him desperately until we return for court and bring him home. Thankfully he is in good hands with his caregivers at the baby home.

We brought diapers and about forty pounds of fruit to the baby home today. The funds are just not available for them to have fruit very often, if at all. They were very pleased. We hope to be able to bring both to them on the second trip as well.

We will be traveling back to Moscow on Thursday after one last visit with Benjamin. Then back to the states on Friday. This has been a whirlwind trip and we pray that the wait between trips will go quickly. We can’t wait to bring Benjamin home and begin our lives together.