[Gabri]

It was a while ago, but for what it's worth...

Our son was 10.5 months when we picked him up. He was very serious and stuck to my husband like glue. His eyes would follow him, and if he left his sight, he would cry and cry... it took longer for him to warm up to me. Before we left Guatemala though someone at the hotel asked to hold him. I handed him over and he immediately twisted around and put his arms out for me. She said (in Spanish), "I guess he knows who is mama is!" I was SO happy. :-)

10.5 months is still very much a baby and what we didn't now at the time is that babies sometimes show stress by sleeping a lot. So, for the first several weeks we *thought* we had a fantastic little sleeper. Once he was used to us (and our house, the new sounds and smells, etc) the 'good sleeping' went away.

His seriousness melted too, and revealed a very, very silly little guy... who is still pretty silly to this day.

Travel went well--we had a baby carrier, which I recommend for the airport. He felt very secure in that, and it helped a ton. I also recommend learning a simple song in Spanish--that was our saving grace the first few days... and I still sing the song to him every night. When nothing else will calm him down, hearing Spanish would almost always do the trick.

You probably already know this, but ask the foster mom how he likes to be held, what comforts him, what his schedule is, what things are in his crib (blankets, toys, etc.), what songs he likes, what TV shows she has on, how she holds him when he drinks his bottle, what foods he has had, etc... and then keep as many things the same for as long as you can. We learned that our son slept with a pillow (I know... scary considering SIDS), but we quickly found that he wouldn't sleep without one. (I put a small one under the sheet so he couldn't get tangled in it.) Because of the SIDS warnings, that something I never would have thought to try.

We also learned that his foster mom listened to Classical music all day long. Another thing I wouldn't have thought to try that also works wonders to this day.

Good luck and congratulations!