Husband of the Year!

The only thing I want to tell everyone is that I have the most wonderful, sweetest, cutest husband on earth. I go to bed everynight saying prayers of thanks.
Allison

Ok, she might not have said that exactly, but it was close. Since it's Mother's Day I am giving my wife the day off from blogging. This is Stuart here, wonderful father to the Chipmunk, Monkey and now HotDog.

To my boys at home, my mother, Nana, Nanny and the other approximately 12,000 family members, friends and fellow adopters, who are reading this, we miss you all very much and can't wait to get home. I hope everyone has/had a great Mother's Day. All of you guys are in our thoughts.

To all of Allison's blog friends, this will be the first time (and probably last after she reads it) you will hear from me so hello. I can't say that I've ever been on anyone's blog or traded emails with most of you, but I feel like I know you. Our nightly dinner conversation always contains the latest information of referrals, travel dates, agency compliments (and complaints) and a general update on all the wonderful kids.

So now to the details everyone is here for......We have visited HotDog the past three days (Friday to Sunday). She is doing great. It goes without saying that she is the most perfect, most beautiful, sweetest little girl on earth. It was really cool for Allison to get to spend time with her today on Mother's Day. I like to pretend that she will eventually be Daddy's little girl, but inside I know better. I can tell already by the way HotDog looks at her mother and how Allison looks at her daughter. They are a match made in Heaven.

We have been feeding her a bottle every day which takes about 45 seconds. She is like a vaccuum. It's amazing to watch. I even videotaped it today. She gets the hiccups after every feeding. At first, I thought it was something I was doing wrong, but after Allison fed her today she got them. So at least I know it's not something I'm doing. The weather this weekend has been great here. The last two days we have been allowed to take her outside out of the stuffy buildings. She really likes being walked around. I know that will come back to haunt us when she comes home, but we can't help it now.....

We bought a mobile at a kids store the other day and I installed it on her crib today (actually most of the physical work was done by our translator). She really loved watching it move and all the bright colors. She seemed to really try to hold her head up today. She seems to really be attracted to the color blue (UK FAN in the making!). We met again with the doctor yesterday and again she confirmed that she is a very healthy little girl. She seemed to have a bit of a runny nose, which will make her fit in very well with the boys and Allison.

We have seen several other children here that have already been referred and visited and others that are in the works. The caregivers are very excited to show off kids whose parents are in process of adopting them. All the kids are so cute. To you parents-in-waiting out there, please know and trust that your children are being taken care of very well. I can't tell you how much relief this gives us as we are getting closer to coming home.

Ok, enough of the sappy stuff. To close I'd like to give you the top five things to do while on a 12 hour layover in the Moscow airport......
5. Set a world record on hand-held Tetris of 357 lines.
4. Get lung cancer from second hand smoke from the 14,000 people smoking.
3. Talk with missionaries from Oklahoma for 3 hours.
2. Spend 45 mintues searching every little shop and snack cart for a "Coke Light".
1. Fall asleep in the middle of eating lunch from a combination of jetlag, overdosing on sleeping pills and general exhaustion from the entire process.

So that's it for my first and probably last blog post. I have to admit this is really harder than it looks. Again I hope everyone had a great Mother's Day and please keep saying prayers our trip continues to proceed so well. Also say an extra one for all the kids out there still waiting to meet their parents.....

Stu