Dima's Russia

I love Kasen's age.  I feel like adopting a preschooler was a great idea for us.  While we desperately miss the fact that we didn't get to see him as an infant there have definitely been some advantages to adopting at this age.  Kasen from the start has been able to communicate his needs to us and we have been able to communicate our expectations to him.  I think it is helping him to attach to us easier as there is less confusion.

Regardless of his ability to communicate there have been some things that are lost in translation.  We have shown pictures of Kasen's orphanage to him from the start.  He associates it and everyone he knew before us as "Russia". We have tried to ask him if he misses Russia and he has always seemed to say to us he wants to go back which admittedly bothers us somewhat.  He has happy memories from there and he had friends there.  We are happy that he had good feelings but we've always been confused as to where we stand in that picture in his mind.
We are planning a trip to Montana and told the kids we will be going on an airplane.  Since then Kasen has been obsessed with Russia.  He sees pictures of Russia and he says "Dima's Russia" "I'm from Russia" "I love Russia"  It's been a daily thing for about two weeks now.
Tonight I was laying with him in his bed and he said something about going to Russia again.  I explained to him we are going on a plane to Montana not Russia.  He said no we're going to Russia.  I said "Buddy, mom and dad aren't going to Russia.  This is our home."  He got real quite and started whining and said "Momma I not want to go to Russia.  I want to stay."  Obviously I melted and explained he didn't have to go back and that he will be staying here forever with us.  He said "yes, mama and papa and Dima" which is something he has quoted since the day we picked him up.  
I'm amazed at all this stuff he has to process and how well he has handled it.  I hate that he had a moment of doubt and concern but it was so nice to see him work through it and show us he truly loves us....that he chooses us too, even over "Dima's Russia".
Here are a couple more pics of our silly little man...