The first 24 hours home have been a frenzy. To say that the kids are excited is the understatement of the year. They run from room to room, looking at this, playing with that, ALWAYS touching everything on their way from here to there! They want to do everything, right NOW, and it's like they are trying to cram years worth of fun into one day. It is kind of exhausting to see, and we are trying to reassure them that they don't have to do everything in one day.
Our travel day yesterday was a challenging day. I don't think that it was as horrific as Jason and I had feared that it might be, but it was still tough. On our first flight from Bogota to Miami, Christian would not settle down, and cried off and on for 2 hours. He was extremely over-tired, but (you know this is coming!) would NOT go to sleep. Enter Benadryl (again, THANK YOU, Mary!!!). We gave him some children's Benadryl, and it was just enough to help him drift off during the other 2 flights of the day.
Our time at the Miami airport was a complete and total blur. Luckily for us, there was only one family ahead of us at immigration, so our wait there was quicker than it could have been. Unfortunately however, this was when Santiago started to really melt down. He had 2 episodes in a 30 minute period...arched-back, laying on the floor, wailing. Santi has been really struggling with the changes, and I worry a lot about him. He becomes more and more upset over less and less significant things. For example, if we ask him to please pray with the family before we eat, it may trigger a melt-down. During his melt-downs, he is becoming less verbal, and will just go limp (or arch his back...depends on the situation) and stare off into space. He will not tell us why he is upset. He will not communicate verbally at all during those times, except to cry.
We are trying to be extra sensitive towards Santiago, but are still being consistent about the rules that we established while we were in Medellin, which he is testing much more than usual. During one of his melt-downs today I asked him if he was afraid (yes), if he was sad to have left Colombia (yes), if he was sad that he couldn't understand English (yes). On the other hand, he says that he is happy to be with us, that he is happy in his new home, and he is excited to learn English. I try to continually reassure him that Jason and I will be here with him, that we love him, that we will take care of him and his brothers. There have been so many changes for the kids in the last month, and maybe he has just reached a point where he is really having trouble processing everything. We are hoping that after a good night's sleep tonight, he may feel a little bit better in the morning.
Our last flight of the day was a late one, and all of the kids fell asleep on the plane. We woke them up a little bit before we landed, but they were all so foggy and had a tough time coming around. It was so great to see my mom and dad, and Tom and Yvonne when we arrived. The kids were excited, but still in a sleepy stupor.
On the car ride home the kids did great in their car seats. Thank you Calvin for helping us film a little video of a car seat so that the kids would know what to expect. Juan Manuel was so excited, I don't think he stopped talking the entire way home. He kept asking us why there are so many mountains here (he was referring to the snowbanks!). He said he wanted to make a muneco de nieve (snowman) with a carrot for a nose and also write a letter to Santa Claus before going to bed. He proceeded to explain to me that it is my job to make the cookies for Santa Claus and Jason's job to put out the milk. I told him that Christmas is 9 months away, but that didn't matter to him. The last thing that Santi said to us when we FINALLY got the kids to bed (at 2 am) was "Mama, why didn't you help us write our letters to Santa Claus tonight?" What a day!
The kids absolutely LOVE Ruby! Christian was a little bit fearful of her last night, but Santiago and Juan Manuel ran right up to her and hugged her and got kisses from her. I think that Ruby and Santiago are going to be best pals. Christian became less and less afraid of Ruby as the day went on today, and from now on, I think we will actually have to keep an eye out to make sure that he doesn't pull her tail or ears.
Today the kids played with their things. I think that they played with each toy/book for about 2 minutes and then exchanged said toy/book for a different toy/book. Keep in mind that we actually limited the number of toys that we made accessable to the kids...and it still seems like maybe we gave them too many things up front. It is just like sensory overload for them, and they become whirling dervishes of activity, as if they literally cannot stop themselves. Everything is so new and so exciting to them. Depending on how it goes, we may take back some of their toys until they have gotten adjusted a little bit better.
The kids played in the snow this morning, and wanted to walk in the woods and look in the garage. We pulled them on sleds, and they indeed did get to make a snowman. When we looked out the window a little while later however, the head of the snowman had fallen off - oops!!
My dad had to go back home today, but my mom is going to stay here to help us hold down the fort, thank goodness! At least now we are 3 adults on 3 children, so the odds are a little bit more in our favor. There are a lot of transitions going on, and we are all just trying to hang in there. In the midst of all the craziness today, I managed to unpack (mostly), and sort laundry. My goodness, there is a lot of laundry!! Since we couldn't remember exactly which things we had washed in the sink, sent out for cleaning, or just left dirty, I decided to wash it all. Wow...a mountain of laundry!!! I will just keep plugging through it and hopefully stay ahead of the kids' capacity to dirty their clothes.
That's about it for today. We are exhausted, and off to bed. I will post pictures tomorrow, but can't find the camera right now...it's here somewhere, just too tired to look for it!
It's good to know about the toy overload- Is it safe to say 4 toys for first getting home is plenty? Then, as they get settled, you can always add more?
ReplyDeleteWe're praying for you guys & esp. for little Santi. Maybe he'll find Ruby to be a good listener to share his feelings. He sounds like the more sensitive of them.
Can't wait to see pictures of them HOME! What did they say when the first got in the snow?