A Special Anniversary!

Well today is our 28th day in Astana and our last… at least for this trip… and it is also our sixteenth wedding anniversary. Although we didn’t celebrate our anniversary in the usually way, it has been an anniversary that we will never forget and we have received many blessings…

We received an early anniversary surprise last night when our travel agent e-mailed us that he was able to get us on an earlier flight than Monday. Jen was ecstatic about this news…

…but also sad as it meant that we only had one visit left with our new son.

We started off the day with our usual call to talk with our children back home which has been a blessing to hear their voices! The time away from them can never be replaced, but we know once they meat Asher that they will realize it was worth it.

We had a very special visit with Asher and an emotional one. Like usual we were greeted by a very excited little boy that pushes through all the other children to make to us with a big smile and gave us hugs.

We spent most of the time inside today, as the weather is very cold, playing with blocks, reading books, giving high fives, kisses, tickles, and a few new sounds…

Our last visit was also with some of the other adoptive parents, so Asher spent some time with his new friend Sabina…

The little time we spent outside was spent looking for birds that Asher just loves to chase around...

...and when they fly away he lifts his little arms and gives us a look like… where did they go?

Asher’s amazing transformation from his first day with us till now is truly the most precious blessing we have received...

After playing a little more inside it was that time that Jen and I was dreading… time to take him back to his room and say good bye.

Fortunately he did not really understand what was going on, but Jen and I had tears in our eyes as we hugged him and kissed him goodbye. We have left him a taggy blanket, a photo book, and his Pooh bear to remember us. We also taped pictures inside his cubby and the care takes will tell him each day that we will return.

Thank you so much for following along with us on the first phase of our journey! We will update the blog when we get home and periodically as we get updates on Asher.

Jay & Jen