Friday, March 07, 2008

Day 1 was great :)

I hate to keep up the tiny blogs, but a quick update on our first day is all I have the energy for. I will do some catch-up posts later on to fill in about this past week!!

After getting in at 12:30am to Orlando airport we collected our luggage, found my sweet husband (man I've missed him!) and headed out to the car. We had to re-size the carseats for the kids although Emma and Brianna are very similar in shoulder height so that made it a little easier. I have Alpha-Omega carseats and they adjust without having to rethread everything and it's a lifesaver!! Micah slept on the way home and Emma watched the world go by. She doesn't like having socks on and promptly removed those but otherwise just sat and looked out the window.

We got home about 2:30am this morning to a welcoming party of both grandma's here with the kids (sleeping of course). We sat around and let the grandmas admire their new little grands then went about getting clean diapers, bottles, and off to bed. I went to bed but Mike ended up staying up with the kids most of the night. Micah was fussy and awake and K kept getting up too. At 7 (I went to bed around 4) I was up and little Bria was sitting on the bed looking at me from Mike's arms. She looked like she was about to ask who I was and what I was doing in her Daddy's bed, but eventually she came to me and snuggled. By evening she was glad to have me around again and less unsure of why I was there.

After I got up Mike got to go to bed for about 2 hours and I stayed up with K and B. Micah started fussing soon after we got up and I set Brianna down to go get Micah. I was prepared for a jealous little girl that finally got Mom back and now has a baby around, but instead she was EXCITED and started signing 'baby'. She came right over and started rubbing his hair and wanted to pat his back. I know she wasn't super excited to see me initially but she was clinging to me when I put her down to get her so I was surprised (happily!) to see her so happy about him! Kristopher was glad too and all day has been talking about how cute Micah is. It's funny to hear him saying 'cute' because it sounds like such a grown-up thing for him to say yet he's been repeating it all day.

A little bit later I checked on Emma and found her doing the "orphan dance" as I like to call it AKA thrashing her head around 'rocking' herself back to sleep. I picked her up and brought her out to join the other three and they were just as happy to see her as they were Micah. Kristopher has been referring to the family as having "two sisters, one that scoots, one that lays" and has been saying that Emma is pretty when he goes on about icah being cute. He's not so sure Emma's cute, but I suppose since she's older than him even that pretty will do.

I took some quick video and in my spare time (laughing, yes) would love to compress it and upload it but we'll have to see what happens. I do have more photos that I'll share shortly of our homecoming with the grands and our visit with grandpa today since he missed the homecoming.

Around noon after we'd accomplished 2 meals, getting all 4 dressed, and installing all the carseats in the car (yes, my Venture will hold 3 backward facing carseats and one forward-facing, but it's not exactly an easy fit or very easy to get the kids in!) we went out for a quick trip to the church to visit the few staff members that are in on Friday. I needed to get out and about or I was going to fall asleep and I figured this low-key meeting would be better than waiting until early next week with a ton of people there. Sorry if you missed us, but we'll be back, don't worry! :)

After our visit at the church which the kids were surprisingly happy and calm for, I headed home with all 4 in tow and put them all down to nap. Today my mom came and watched the kids during rest time so I could lay down too. Kristopher slept and Brianna eventually fell asleep, and Emma and Micah slept until they had to be woken up about an hour later. I slept for about an hour and a half and boy did that feel good!

Chris Harm brought us over a delicious dinner and saved me having to cook on our first day home which was MUCH appreciated. She even stayed and cuddled fussy Micah while we ate.

After dinner Mike's parents came over and his dad met the kids for the first time. They went for a quick drive in the Taurus to try to diagnose it's issues and think that it's a transmission issue. Uh oh. Not exactly what we needed today.

Now the kids are all in bed although K has been up several times already and Micah once too. Emma needs another dose of meds before we can retire and I just hope she doesn't wake up (or wake Bria up) in the process.

I'm ready for bed myself- past ready, really. My body is saying it's almost 5am and I should have been asleep for a while now. I hope this jet lag doesn't last long!

A few people have asked what we need prayer for right now:
1. Emma's health- Cardiologist appt (for both kids) is Monday morning
2. Micah's stomach issues to work out and the constant fussiness to subside
3. My health- the chest cold I had while away never went all the way away and has been pretty bad again today. I can't afford to be sick!
4. All of our adjustment to the new family dynamic, especially K since he understands the changes the most.
5. Our car issues to be easily dealt-with
6. SLEEP for everyone!

6 comments:

  1. Thanks for the update and for sharing your prayer concerns. I'm praying for you.
    SO glad you're home.
    ~Lisa

    ReplyDelete
  2. WELCOME HOME! WELCOME HOME! WELCOME HOME!!! I am just elated that you are home. More amazed at all the things that you accomplished today. I would be wanting to just curl up at home and make people come to me. But, I guess being out and about in familiar surroundings would be great too. All our love and prayers for you tonight. K, S & E

    ReplyDelete
  3. So glad you're home. I've kept up with your progress the whole time and can't believe how long it all took - think this is even beyond the worst case scenario you could've imagined. BUT, I know home sweet home was all the sweeter for it!

    Rest well!

    Markay

    ReplyDelete
  4. Congratulations!! I have been following your blog as I'm also working on adopting internationally.

    I am also a certified child passenger safety technician... I wanted to thank you for keeping your smallest 3 rear facing. That is wonderful and so much safer!! If you haven't seen it here is a video about it: http://youtube.com/watch?v=psmUWg7QrC8

    Hopefully you are able to keep them in 5 point harnesses for a long time as well. Here is a car seat board if you need any help with getting all those seats in, or with seats in the future.

    http://car-seat.org/forumdisplay.php?s=3e53bf62760d0d4684dfaf41254c48df&f=2

    They are really helpful there and very supportive of extended rear facing.

    Again, congratulations and great job at keeping your kids safe!

    Danielle

    ReplyDelete
  5. Sounds like things are going really good for you guys. I am adding those prayer requests to my list. I do pray that Micah's fussiness goes away and am praying for the cardio appointment on Monday. You have to take a family picture now of course! I hope you were able to sleep more last night. God Bless.

    ReplyDelete
  6. you sound great, so glad to hear.

    Get both kids tested for Giardia and H ploryia specifically, as those are very common water bacteria most Ukraine kiddos have, you will see big weight gain if you get rid of those. You have to demand their poop gets tested!
    Amy

    ReplyDelete