Mama

The look on her face says it all. 

We had just arrived home after 17 days in China adopting our new son and a new brother for the children. We had made amazing arrangements for our children that we were leaving at home. An amazing friend offered to stay in our home with her children (whom she home schools) and ours so there would be as little change for Twink as possible. All the children could go to school and Twink could still have the stability and comfort of our home. We talked to the children via Skype while in China and Twink would come over a few times but she was usually her busy self.

When we arrived at the airport Twink had just awoken for her nap. This is NEVER a good thing especially if it is not a long enough one. She needs to wake up gradually and on her own terms. Needless to say she was none to pleased to see us. She literally screamed if I got close to her. She only wanted Michele (my friend). Known this is how she is when she wakes up I thought I'd give her a few minutes and all would be good. Boy was I ever wrong.

When I heard the words Mama come out of her mouth I was excited for a split second. I say a split second because they were not directed towards me, they were directed towards Michele. It was an awkward moment. Michele was trying to calm Twink and explain to me that she had just started calling her that in the last couple of days. She had been calling her Wawha up until two days before we came home. 

Our luggage did not arrive so we had to wait around for what seemed like forever. Anytime I would try to get close to Twink she would become upset and I would receive some serious glares. I even tried to bribe her with a lolly pop. It became evident our luggage was going to be delivered to our house so The Count took Twink from Michele. Then it happened. She started to scream.....for.....Michele Mama! 

It....was....awful!

I was having flashbacks of China all over again. Was she? Just what was she thinking? I was literally left standing there looking on with friends and family as The Count walked away with our baby girl screaming for another woman she was calling (thought?) Mama. Did I mention she VERY seldom called me Mama? I could go through the long list of emotions I was feeling at that moment but I really just longed to hold her. I wanted her to want ME!

It will be a VERY long time before we leave her again. Never in a million years did we expect her to react the way she did. If I had known she would reacted like she had, I would have stayed home.

Think about this for a second. Any of us adoptive parents go to China for about two weeks. We hope and pray that our new child starts to form a bond to us by the end of our two weeks, right? We are replacing some important people that stood in their lives for either a short period of their lives or for a very long period of their lives. While Evan was bonding with us in China, Twink was bonding with Michele back in our home where she felt safe.

I do not know if it goes back to her time in China. I can only guess. I can only guess that she thought we were not coming back. I'm sure there are people out there that will think I'm over analyzing. I've seen her reaction to her adoption video and she remembers something!

It took the entire weekend to regain Twinks full trust again that we were not leaving her. She tried to push our buttons, refused to eat, and started calling EVERYONE Mama! All is well now and she is calling everyone by name and I am now officially Mama! :D

I will never forget that I am replaceable!

Signing Off

I'm signing off on this blog until we return from China. We leave Wednesday the 17th and will return March 5th.

Our flight arrives from Chicago on March 5th at 4:47PM if anyone is interested in meeting us at the airport. When we return this will be our main blog again. :)

Wordless Wednesday

It's Back!

The stomach bug that is! Oh please make it go away. I'm begging here. We have all had some form of it but if we have to actually vomit then we still have three more family members to go. I think I'm going to lose my mind if anyone else gets sick between now and the time we leave for China. Keep those prayers coming.

Could you also pray that it will stop snowing down on the poor mid-Atlantic? Our agency (friends and family) is in the heart of these storms and has not been able to go into the office to finalize the last of our travel details. We are awaiting our passports and airline tickets as well as a few other items. Did I mention we leave next Wednesday?

Spitfire's class has been learning about Chinese New Year and made this cute banner. We hung it up on our front door and it looks great there. They also sent home a great ABC book and it described all the things Chinese people do to celebrate CNY. It is a really neat book and you can find it here.

I'm off to prepare for our upcoming trip! :)

Party Time

Thank the Lord, we are all over the dreaded stomach bug! It was pretty nasty around here this last week. I'm glad it is all out of our system and hopefully we will come down with nothing more before we leave for China.

The children went to my nephews birthday party two weekends ago. It was a bowling party and they seemed to have a blast. Twink had a great time but could not understand why she could not keep rolling the ball down the ally. Why did she have to take turns! LOL She bowled three frames and had enough. Here are some pictures of her on her first two shots.

  

Picking out a ball

 

Isn't there a golfer with this approach?

  So proud! (it took forever for the ball to reach the pins!) ;)

  

Jewel was a huge help when Twink actually played. As she helped Twink.

  

Dash trying to get a spare.

  

Spitfire was in the lead for a long time.

 

Last but not least this was my sweet rambunctious nephew who turned 6!

Stomach Bug

We've had colds and croup, we've now moved on to the stomach bug. It seems this is what is running ramped in our local schools right now. I guess it is good that we have it now and not on our way to China but we have some miserable people in our house right now. Please pray this is the last of the sickness in our house.

Busy Times

I can hardly believe it is the last week of January! Boy does time fly by. It's a week of appointments that makes this week go even faster. Twink saw her ENT yesterday and all looks great with her tubes. She did much better in the way of not crying forever and extremely hard when the doctor came in. She still hates going to any and all doctors offices. He knows how much she hates it and was very slow and soften spoken to her. Totally helped in my opinion. He is happy to hear her speech is coming along as well.

I go in tomorrow for a nerve block in my neck. Not looking forward to it but is something that needs to be done. Praying that it helps with some if not all the nerve pain that I've been dealing with in my arms.

So glad we did not travel this week as Twink has been sick as well as Spitfire. When the two of them come down with it you know that I'm not far behind. Spitfire is home sick with me again for the second day.  I think Jewel was the one who started the whole thing! ;)

Won't be long now and it will be warming up outside. Oh how I can't wait!