The first few days of bonding with Mason were a blur. The MOE representative met with me and said that I could go to court with the other families to keep us all on schedule. I was in Ust with 2 couples from Ireland--Des and Marion, and Ivan and Breda, and another single mom from the Dallas area--Sherry. We were all adopting children under 14 months. We were able to take the kids outside for the first time on May 11th. Ignore the date on the picture as I had to back date alot of pictures for court. Here is Mason outside of the baby house.

Meeting Mason

I walked up the stairs of the baby house with great anticipation. I entered the room and could hear babies fussing, the caregivers talking, and music playing. I walked through the visitors room into the big day room and saw Mason for the first time. They were changing him and he was just looking all around the room. He was the most beautiful baby with big brown eyes and big cheeks. The caregivers were talking to each other and looking at me and then they picked him up and handed him to me. That was the best feeling ever. I was finally holding my son.

May 9, 2007

Even though I arrived in Kazakhstan on April 30, 2006 I didn't begin to bond with my son until May 9, 2006. The first 10 days I was in Kazakhstan were the worst days of my life but everything changed on day 10. I called this time "After Mason" and this will be the focus of my blog.