More on Maxito!

Hi, again. He{s napping in the stroller I rented, so I thought I{d sneak in another update. (Can y{all tell that the keyboard is different...I have stopped trying to correct that apostrophe problem) Anyway, I thought that the foster mom and family were calling him Arturo, but I guess they have been calling him Maximiliano (or, more often, Maxi or Maximilian or Maxito, the last one being my favorite, it means little Max).

So, when I arrived yesterday, I got checked in and then I walked to a couple markets near my hotel. Then, the facilitator and foster family (foster mom, foster mom{s mother, and foster mom{s son, named Gustavo!) arrived with baby Max. He{s so, so gorgeous and pudgy and perfect! He{s nuts about the foster family. Anytime the foster mom or her son would talk to him, he just coo{d and smiled. I could tell how much they love him because of the kindness in their eyes as they watched me holding him and loving on him for the first time. I was in tears and in awe of him and they were tearing up just watching. It was really a wonderful moment.

I have to say that, after Rosita (Cati and Gus{s foster mom who was one of the dearest people I{ve ever met) I thought for sure we{d wind up with a less than wonderful foster mom this time. I just thought that the odds of two amazing foster families just weren{t in our favor, but it looks like I was wrong. This foster mama has her ducks in a row, let me tell you. She doesn{t fool around when it comes to caring for my baby. She brought his formula and cereal and jars of baby food and was very specific and serious when telling me what to feed him. And then she had some things that she told the facilitator, like, for me not to take him near the pool, that kind of stuff. It made me love her even more. We are truly, truly blessed and never in my life can I make you understand how thankful I am. It helps me to sleep at night knowing that a person like her is caring for our son.

So, as I told you earlier, Maxito was none-to-happy to leave his wonderful foster mom yesterday. I barely made it out the door with him before he started crying and, I kid you not, the child cried for an hour and 10 minutes straight. Then, he closed his eyes to sleep and continued crying in his sleep. I don{t know what it{s called...sounds like a hiccup, the sound someone makes when they are crying so hard that they can{t quite catch their breath. Natalie calles it snubbing and there{s not a more perfect word for it. Anyway, he continued snubbin{ for the next hour. I called my mom and Louie frantic because I just didn{t know what to do. Seriously, he hated my guts and didn{t even want me to pick him up. It made me feel terrible about taking him out of his routine and bringing him to this place that he doesn{t recognize with this person (me!) that he doesn{t know or like. I really thought about giving him back to the foster family on Saturday because I couldn{t stand for him to be that miserable for two more days. Steph, if you{re reading this, was it like that with Mimi during your first visit_ (can{t find the question mark!) It wasn{t like that with Cati and Gus because Gus had Cati to make him feel at home, even when he was with us.

Anyway, so I went downstairs and made a friend, Karen, who is here picking up her daughter, also seven months old. She made me feel better saying that it was exactly the same for her last time and that it might get worse before it got better but that he would get over it after a little while. And, sure enough, this morning we woke up and he was cooing at me and definitely liked me a little bit. Then, after breakfast and before his nap, he has been smiling and laughing at me, so I{m much happier now. I just didn{t want to make him miserable.

Okay, I know that I{ve been babbling on and on, probably misspelling a lot and making no sense whatsoever. But, I wanted to update y{all. I{ll continue to do so whenever I have the opportunity. No pictures until I get back, but just wait until you see them. He{s so unbelievably handsome and so much bigger than Gus was at that age. He{s really alert and aware of his surroundings, which doesn{t surprise me because both his brother and sister are smart as can be. Oh, and he seems very strong and healthy. He rolls all over the place, back to front and front to back, trying to grab at any toy that you put in front of him or even the remote control. He can{t sit up yet, but he doesn{t seem far away from it.

Love y{all and can{t wait for you to meet this beautiful child!