My first time meeting Sergey in person

I had been writing to Sergey for a while before I actually met him in person. The photo I had of him was really outdated so I hardly recognized him at first--he grew probably six inches and thinned out quite a bit since the photograph was taken. But the personality profile I received from Hopechest describing Sergey was spot on: he's a shy boy and he likes to look after the animals, especially his cats. The conversation did not flow freely, as it did between Sarah and her Russian friend, Katya. To say the conversation was stilted and a bit strained might be an overstatement, but just barely. I asked him several questions: how old are you now? what year are you in school? how'd you get that huge bandage on your toe (a bicycle mishap)? He gave me one or two word answers and barely made eye contact. Being a shy manchild myself I could see that he was having a hard time and it was taking every bit of chutzpah he had to sit there and talk to me. But he knew I had come there to see him--the caregivers had told him so. I could sense that his reticence wasn't because he thought I was a dorky old guy but because he was and is painfully shy and quite accustomed to disappointment. He was planning to spend the summer with his mom, but she fell off the proverbial bandwagon shortly before he was to visit her. So it's understandable that he wasn't too sure about me. But I think he was starting to get the point that I was trying to communicate to him in my letters--I want to be your friend.