Our sweet little room mate and other stories from St. Pete

I just overheard our sweet little room mate's goodnight words to her mother. "Mommy, I love you. I want to go home tomorrow. I feel sorry for Emma though. I hope she gets to go home soon like me. She's been here longer already." The little girl is around 7? and had a T&A last Friday. She ended up in the ER vomiting blood yesterday (um... ew....) and was transferred here and admitted in the early hours of the morning today (Saturday). She's very sweet and even apologized to the food service people for ordering so many slushies (one of her few choices) because she didn't want them to have to keep coming to her when there's so many other kids.

There's been so many different reactions to my kids this trip. It's actually been quite amusing to see because my kids just aren't out in public "social" settings that often yet. Yes, we go to the mall, the park, conferences, etc. but those aren't places where people openly ask your story. The hospital and RMH surely are though.

Before we even got to the RMH on Wednesday we went to a park to kill time while our room was readied. While there these three little boys came walking along the lake. The oldest of the three was wearing blue jeans that were about 3 sizes too big. They were the type with elastic buttons in the waist and they were cinched up a LOT. He had them buttoned but not zipped and they were hanging below his hips, which made it obvious that that was all he was wearing. He was soaked from the knee down from walking in the water and wore black tennis shoes that had seen better years and were also sopping wet. It was about 90 degrees out so I think I'd have been in the water if I was out in long jeans too!

The other two boys were both barefoot and wearing jean shorts. Neither fit them particularly well either. They came up and asked us what we were doing, we told them just playing and they stopped for just a minute to see what it was (K had out little figures of Bible characters then) and they kept walking. A bit later they returned and K and I and Bria and I were throwing balls back and forth (we don't let K and Bria play this together yet, K has good aim and Bria's not so happy about being a target!). The boys came over and were very kind about Brianna wanting to play and we all tossed the ball around.

It started to thunder so we packed up and as I went to get the double stroller the oldest boy walked over to the babies and started LAUGHING. I mean grab-your-gut-point-and-guffaw LAUGH. Hmm... this could get interesting. Did I mention that he's probably only about 10 and the other boys around 7 or 8 maybe? So then he calls the other boys over, not saying why, but just "c ome look guys" and laughing. So... WHAT DO YOU SAY?????

I tried not to make a huge deal out of it- these are kids- and we started walking to the car. Finally, out it came "your girl, it's not funny, I know, she just reminds me of someone. Doesn't she remind you of Mrs.???" (he said this to one of the boys). "She (Emma) looks just like her." There's my break! "Does Mrs. ??? have Down syndrome?" I asked them. Well, yeah. All three of my little ones have Down syndrome. We just adopted Emma and Micah all the way from Ukraine on the other side of the world. They're pretty special to us." With this, they boys started to take their leave as we loaded the car. "Goodbye sweethearts, bye cuties!" they called as they walked away. Mockingly? I don't know. I'd like to think it wasn't but I really have no idea. That's got to be the most unusual reaction I've had to my kiddos so far!!!!!

Ok, well, that's all for now because I'm finally tired. More stories to come :)