More preparations for Alex

While Susan has been knee-high in paperwork, I have been trying to take care of some practical preparations for Alex's arrival in a few months (March or April, we're thinking). This past weekend, we met with a native Russian who moved to our town four years ago. She visited (introduced by a mutual friend) with a view to learning how she might be able to help Alex's transition. She is happy to provide translation services on occasion, especially around appointments and other events that might be a bit scary. She's also going to try teaching me Russian...we'll see how that goes. And then at the kids' school the other day, I ran into another acquaintance (from Early Childhood Family Education) who is also a Russian immigrant, and she offered to help with translation as well. We were late for teacher conferences, so I didn't have a chance to follow up, but I expect that to be on my to-do list. And then we have a friend who lives three blocks away who took five years of Russian in college who will also help out in a pinch.

Another thing I'm working on is establishing relationships with our support circle. Through our good friend (and doula to three of our kids!) who works in the local early family education department, we got a referral to a good family therapist. It is hard to imagine someone growing up in institutions for their first five years not having some adjustment issues -- and it's possible that that adjustment period could be pretty bumpy. We're going to see her on December 1 to establish a relationship, and then we'll probably schedule an appointment with her for shortly after we come home with Alex. Even if he has no immediate adjustment issues, having someone to help him think through what it means to be adopted may be helpful down the road.

Another interesting tidbit...we've been praying for Alex to have a playmate at the adult institution where he's living now, someone to help him pass the time. Today we received an e-mail from someone we know through Reece's Rainbow who is adopting another child from the same country as Alex. She wrote to say that she had a vivid dream in which she was playing with Alex...and apparently, she didn't know this was something on our heart that we were praying for. So maybe that is another "nudge" from God, a little reassurance that there are angels (some perhaps in human form) watching over him.