After all the excitement over the weekend, we decided to hang out and chill on Monday. I played with the kids on the swing set all morning and a good chunk of the afternoon. We met some friends for dinner at the River City Casino Buffet (the kids’ first buffet restaurant). The friends did not have any presents for the kids, and they let us get the kids their food – yes! Further, the kids kept the showing off to a minimum, ate just about everything we gave them, and didn’t play the “I want, no I don’t want, oh sure I want it, nope didn’t really want it” game.
We can’t get mad at anyone or complain about anything that happened over the weekend. Wonderful friends and family opened their homes up to us and shared in our excitement at the new and improved look of our family. The kids had a great time. We had a great time. The kids got some neat stuff. However their demeanor in spending most of the day when it’s just us, compared to the excitement of lots of new people, new houses, new stuff and new swimming pools, was night and day. We kind of felt like horrible parents over the weekend having to say “no” more than “yes,” but on Monday we hardly had to get on them about anything.
I know people are going to tell me it’s just kids in general, and maybe that’s it. Still, tomorrow, it will be 30 days since the kids have been in our arms, and on Wednesday it will be only 3 weeks since we’ve been home. Even though it seems like they have bonded with us, and they seem like the happiest kids in the world, they are still dealing with separation, loss, and the idea that we are their parents and this is their home (and they will for some time), and we still need to work with them on that. Right now it’s coming out in panic attacks when they wake up in the morning. I think they start waking up thinking they are in one place (their original home, the orphanage, the transition home, the suite at HOH with us, could be any of those places) and see they are in another and get confused. Bless their little hearts. A good friend last night was telling me that she, as an adult, was getting them when she was in the process of buying a home, and then less than a month after that, traveled to South Africa on a Rotary International exchange group, sleeping at different homes. If that can easily happen with an adult, I can only imagine what the kids are going through.
We enjoyed meeting your children more than you could ever imagine. They are so beautiful and sweet! The hugs they gave us were the best hugs in the world. They were very well behaved and a joy to be with. Hope to meet up with you guys again soon!