We went to the embassy first thing this morning to get the visa process started. Then we (me and Yulia)took John Paul to get his medical exam completed. He did great with the doctor! I was surprised at how well he did for the simple fact that he has had so many new things happen in the last several weeks, especially the last few days. I thought he might get scared with the exam. He didn't though. He even giggled when the doctor touched his back with the stethoscope. It was so cute! The doctor was great with him though! The doctor said that he could not hear his heart murmur. I am really hoping that it has corrected itself like Chloe's did. But if not, I am thinking since he couldn't hear the murmur that maybe it's nothing major. I don't think it is anyway because he looks really good and healthy for the most part. He is underweight, but if he keeps eating like he has been that won't be an issue for too much longer! And I was afraid that he wouldn't eat! I'm ready to get an echocardiogram done so I will know exactly what's going on for sure with his heart.

He has been eating and drinking so well! They told us at the orphanage that John Paul does not like to drink much liquid so they put the liquid in his food. So basically he has been eating food that is watery like soup. That's why he only knows how to suck from a spoon. I have been thickening up his food a little each day. He's no longer able to suck the food off of the spoon. We are still working on getting him to close his mouth to take the food off of the spoon, but he is doing great with eating a thicker texture! A little at a time, but he'll get there. We'll find him a good O.T. once we get home and settled. And ever since I have started thickening his food up he has started drinking more. He likes juice and milk, but he seems to prefer the juice. I have him drinking from a cup. One day when we were visiting Dasha one of the caretakers gave him something to drink from a regular glass cup. It got all over him and soaked the towel, but he didn't protest it either! So I have been working with him with an open cup. We are using one of the disposable sippy cups without the lid. So basically it's a little plastic cup. He is doing so great drinking from it. He was saturating cloth towels/diapers and now he is just soaking through a few napkins. He drank an entire juice box this afternoon. That is the most I have ever seen him drink at once. I showed him how to hold a glass cup yesterday while he was drinking. It was really heavy though. So today when he was drinking from the plastic cup he put his hands on it to hold it himself. But when I took my hands away he tilted it back too far and juice ran out of the sides of the cup. I think he thought it was going to be heavy after holding the heavy glass yesterday. I'm just so impressed and ecstatic that he wants to hold the cup himself and that he is drinking from it! It looks like we'll be skipping the sippy cup phase all together. But I do want him to learn to drink from a straw at some point. He's not very interested in holding the spoon himself though. That makes him mad. I'll have to get the fun spoons out when I get home and see what he thinks about those. The look like dinosaurs. Chloe liked them and they are easy for little hands to hold.

I crumbled up some soft cookies last night and poured a little milk over them to make them soggy and easier for him to eat. He just watched me and looked very interested in what I was doing. When he took the first bite his eyes got real big. Then after he gobbled it up he wanted in my lap and then he cuddled up with me. I think the cookies and milk were a hit! :) He has turned into quite the little cuddler and it is doing my heart so much good. I love it! He's mostly cuddly in the evening. During the day he is pretty busy.

Oh, I forgot to say that we went back to the embassy after the medical exam and got his visa. So we will be leaving for sure tomorrow at 11:45 a.m. I won't be at Washington Dulles until around 10:30 p.m. on Tuesday. So that will put us home around 11:30 p.m. It's going to be a really long day! Please pray for us! Thanks!