A Special Time With My Son

On Monday, my visit to the orphanage was more special than usual. Court had been a few hours earlier, so this was my first time visiting my boy when he was officially my son and I was officially his mother.

The translator came with us because she was in Tokmok anyway for court, so she helped me with some things I've been wanting done. First of all, I was able to take a picture of my son's intake photo that's part of his files in the orphanage director's office and get some other background information to give to him in the future.

I've also never visited Shamrock in the late afternoon. When I arrived, it was near the end of nap time, so he was in his bed. When I came in the room, he was so well trained to not leave his bed until he had permission that he just smiled like crazy when he saw me and kind of jumped around in it. I finally had to go over and pick him up out of bed, and he gave me the usual barrage of big hugs.

We headed outside, where we walked around a bit and balanced on the concrete. He was being super quiet and shy, burying his face into me when the translator talked. I was hoping that she would be able to tell me some of the words he was saying that I couldn't understand, but he was silent. Eventually she left, wanting to give us some alone time. 

Shamrock immediately started jabbering away after she left! He was in a cuddly, gentle mood, and I held him as we just sat together outside chatting for awhile. I have no idea what he was saying (and vice versa), but it didn't matter. At one point, he did repeat the words "black" and "yellow," which were colors on his boots that I pointed out. I also told him that I was now his mommy officially and how much his daddy and I loved him. It was a really sweet moment with my little boy.

After our chat, we played in the little wooden platform area of the playground. He found some bowling pins to knock over, a stuffed bear to drag around, etc. My translator came back at one point and stood outside the structure where she could hear him, but he couldn't see her. So he kept talking, and she told me that he said "give it to me," "take it back," "dolly," "it fell," and other words I can't remember. I've realized that his favorite word by far is "day" (pronounced "dye"), which basically means "gimme." Oh boy!