First Impressions with Béni

Yesterday was an eventful day. We moved to the new hotel in the morning. In doing so, we gave up TV, and hot water . But it's good enough and it’s nice to have other families with kids for Béni to play with.


Our initial meeting with Béni was really sweet! I posted a video on Facebook if you are interested. We waited around most of the day to have Béni brought to us. Finally, around 4:00 we all met. It was really awesome!! He ran straight for me (Brady) and gave me a huge hug! It was priceless. I realize this is a completely inadequate summation of the moment.

We are now roughly 24 hours into life with Béni and I'm already really impressed. I would describe Béni as fairly serious, and very intelligent... I’d actually say he has a demeanor that reminds me of Christen as a child. He is extremely alert, attentive, and inquisitive. Béni is a good communicator with others (although we obviously don’t have a clue what he is saying) and he likes to do things on his own. He is very patient with us and hasn’t gotten frustrated at all with our lack of understanding. He also seems very accepting of us as parents. He obeys well, calls us Momma and Papa (trying to convert that into Mommy and Daddy), and already looks to us for basic instruction. It’s a real blessing how quickly he has taken to us!

He is smaller than I would have guessed. However, he has a really swollen stomach - but I'm sure that will all get worked out with some medicine. However, he doesn't seem sick. No sniffles, no upset tummy, nothing. He even turned down some food tonight after he got full at dinner. Béni even held his fork correctly and had pretty decent table etiquette.

Last night we began showing Béni pictures of the family and having him say everyone's name as we point to them. He catches on quick and he has the cutest little voice/ accent! He is getting good at identifying Manny in our pictures! Christen is already working with him on identifying shapes in a coloring book and counting in English. He gets it. If I were a betting man, I’d bet that she will have him speaking decent English in less than a month!

Oh, and he’s pretty good at soccer… dare I say, he has better ball technique than Manny did when we met him. I think we have a playa! That’s all for the first 24 hours! I’ll keep you posted!