12 Days and Counting...

For the past week or so I have been in a bit of a dark place - a completely kid and adoption unrelated dark place, but one which has made blogging extremely hard and unproductive.so for that I apologize.  I know that there are many of you out there who have been waiting (mostly) patiently for any Jack-at-home update I might post, so hopefully this will hold you over for at least a little bit.  :)  Things for me seem to be moving back into the light for the most part so now that everything ordinary is not being dealt with through a melancholy fog or exasperated by jetlag and timezone differences I will hopefully post a bit more often again and you can share in Jack's accomplishments and adjustments as I document them here in blog-land. 

Before I go any further, however, I do need to put one more apology out there... I unfortunately don't have tons of pictures to share with you as that is one major downfall of the mom-alone-with-five-kids lifestyle.  All picture taking falls upon my shoulders and if I forget the camera or I simply don't pull it out we end up with nothing.  But I will try to do better with that too.  No promises though, I am after all a woman willing to acknowledge reality.  =)

Okay, so let's begin...

Jack has now been home in Maryland for 12 days.  Our flights home from Hong Kong all went smoothly and Jack was a real trooper.  After I woke him up at 5:15 a.m. Friday morning to head to the airport he made it about half-way through our first 4 hour flight (and half-way through Finding Nemo) before falling back asleep. Our first lay-over was in Japan and really not very long.  We had time for a potty stop, a quick meal from McDonald's and a little bit of people/Tia-chi watching and then it was back onto an airplane.

The second leg of our journey was a nine-hour flight to Salt Lake City and it is somewhat ironic that I just typed "leg" because Jack spent about half of this flight sleeping with his legs kicking Katie in her legs, side, stomach, etc.  He handled the flight well though and was very patient as we waited for the Immigration Officer to process his paperwork.  Then, it was off to find our next gate and wait, wait, wait.

We had about 4 hours to kill there in Salt Lake City which unfortunately meant more sitting.  Well, that and watching the weather reports as Hurricane Irene was pretty much the only news making the air waves that day.  Jack did decide he had had enough at this point, but after a brief meltdown he gathered himself back together and stuck it out.  And finally it was time to board that last flight.  I actually nodded off for a few minutes and missed most of the safety announcements, but when I woke up (just in time to hear the flight attendant sign off) I found Jack already out which is exactly how he stayed until I woke him up at the gate in Baltimore.

And then it was time to head home.  Of course our plane parked at the very outermost gate so at 11:30 p.m. a very tired me got to carry a half-asleep Jack about a mile-and-a-half to the baggage claim area.  My mom met us as we came through security and Jack smiled and waved to her like he'd known her forever.  My dad, who was waiting closer to the baggage carousel was met with a similar greeting, but it was the stroller my mom had brought that made Jack smile the brightest.  (And I have to admit it was a welcomed sight for me as well.) 

It took almost 30 minutes for our luggage to turn up, a reality I really don't understand as there was not another single airplane along the entire concourse I traversed to get to baggage claim, but it was what it was and around 12:15 a.m. we finally headed out to the car.  My dad let me drive home which I am sure seemed strange to Jack as we had been letting other people drive us around for two weeks now.  And we finally arrived at our humble abode at approximately 1 a.m.on Saturday morning - a full 32 hours after I woke Jack up in Hong Kong to start this journey.

Since arriving home Jack has been doing great.  I wasn't exactly sure what I was going to do about the sleeping arrangements once we got home, but Jack pretty much took care of that for me.  We had been sharing a bed in the hotel so the first night we were home I figured that was the easiest thing to do.  Well, that and I wasn't sure he was going to go back to sleep since he had slept so much in transit, but we finally hit the hay about 2 a.m. and he did not waste anytime conking out.  We were both up early the next (same?) morning though so I'm not sure how that happened.  Saturday afternoon at resting time, however, when given the choice of sleeping in my bed or his own Jack made it very clear he wanted to sleep in his own bed so that is where he has been ever since.  This seems amazing to me as I have heard so many stories of kids needing to stay in the master bedroom for long periods of time to work through night terrors, fears, etc., but other than the occasional (and typical) 4-year-old anti-nap regalia we haven't had any sleep issues thus far - Thank the Lord!  But it does help that even on the occassions that Jack fights going to bed, once he is out he is O-U-T.

One of my other mild concerns about our homecoming was our dog, Charlie.  I knew from our two weeks together in China that Jack is a huge dog lover, but I wasn't quite sure how he was going to respond to sharing space with an actual living dog.  I needn't have worried, however, as Jack fell in love with Charlie the minute he saw him (at 1 o'clock in the morning!) and still gets extremely excited when they are close to each other.  I'm not exactly sure why Jack feels the need to point the dog out to me everytime he (the dog) is near, but lo and behold, if Charlie shows up I am always made aware by a very excited smiling little boy.

We also have a cat which I figured I didn't need to worry about because she is terrified of her own shadow and I figured it would be weeks before Jack ever caught a glimpse of her, but I was WAY wrong there.  The very first night (yes, that 1 o'clock time again), there she was standing at the bottom of the stairs just as cool as a cucumber.  And if you got the impression that Jack was excited about the dog, well, he about came out of his skin when he saw our cat.  I couldn't believe she didn't go running for cover when he squealled and pointed and told me repeatedly there was a cat, but there she stood and she even lets him pet her.  I'm telling you, as excited about animals as he is and as friendly as they are toward him I can definitely see veteranian school in his future. 

And then, of course, there are the animals of another nature - Jack's sisters.  It has been interesting to watch them with Jack as you would never know he just got here.  From the very first day they met him (NOT at 1 o'clock in the morning!) they have included him in everything.  Jolene dotes on him as if she were his mother and decided early on she was going to teach him English right away.  Luckily for Jack she has backed off of this ambitious decision a bit and is allowing him to think for himself rather than be her puppet.  They play beautifully together, however, and Jack is quick to give her a hug as soon as he sees her each morning.  Becca and Sophie have taken right to him as well.  They are pretty fixated on playing with ponies and Barbie which really aren't Jack's toys of choice, but that doesn't keep me from finding them curled up together watching tv or playing together in the sandbox outside.

And then there is Ellie, roommate extraordinare.  Before Jack's arrival Ellie was always the easiest to put to bed and the first to go to sleep, but not so much anymore.  She absolutely adores having Jack in her room and somedays it is next to impossible to get her to stop talking to him after lights out.  They have also become bath buddies which is hysterical as they pour water on each other and splash and splash.  They other night I was trying to take their picture as they are just so silly in the tub and they put on quite the show.  (I'm not really one for posting the whole tub shot scene, but their smiles are just priceless so they will have to forgive me.)  It is also not uncommon to catch the two of them chasing each other back and forth across  the living room giggling up a storm.  They definitely have their disagreements, usually over a toy both wants, but there are way more smiles than arguments going on.

As for the little day-to-day things, Jack is doing quite well there too.  He is picking up more and more English and I've gotten a few impromptu words out of him.  He can say a lot more than he is willing to say and every once in a while he gets frustrated with me for making him say "More, please" rather than grunting in my general direction, but we are getting more words out of him slowly.  The past couple days he about drove me mad as he decided that "Ma-Ma" could be used to relay absolutely any piece of information he wanted to get off his chest - I'm hungry; I need to go to the bathroom; I want to wash my hands; more please; look at that!; I want this; I don't want that; open my window; are we going in the car?; are we going now?; an airplane!; Charlie!; no; yes; etc., etc., etc.... It ended up being about 48 hours of straight "Ma-Ma, Ma-Ma, Ma-Ma" and I was very happy when he woke up this morning and didn't start in again.  I don't mean to sound ungrateful, I am blessed beyond measure that he has learned this word and feels comfortable calling me Ma-Ma, but one can only hear that word said so many times in a given period without going insane, and that doesn't even include the numerous times my other children use the term.  Needless to say, by dinner time on the second day I very clearly announced that for the rest of the evening I would only be responding to the phrase "Mother, Sweet Mother." 

And then there are the little successes...  Things like going to use the bathroom without feeling the need for a motherly escort.  This may seem a silly thing to be excited about, but ask Katie - Jack has come a long way in this department.  He still hasn't learned that he doesn't need to stop and get my permission before going to the restroom, but we are getting closer there too.  The funniest part is that when he does take care of his business completely unassisted he will inevitably come out of the bathroom to give me a thumbs up and a smile when he is done.  I am always quick to respond with some version of "Yeah!  You did it!", but I also have to throw in some form of, "Now go put your pants back on, Silly Boy."  Definitely not a problem have had with my girls.

We also have the "J" success...  We have a set of alphabet magnets that Jack has loved since he discovered them.  For the first few days, however, he would bring me any letter he picked up and ask if it was for him.  (For "Jack" that is.)  Each time I would tell him what the letter was and if it was not a "J" I'd send him back to find "the blue J".  Yesterday he found it more quickly than on previous days and today he came into the kitchen with the "J", held it up for me to see and then held it against his belly with one hand while pointing to himself with the other.  All with a huge smile on his face.  Aw, the sweet smile of success.

Jack has also conquered his fear of climbing on the backyard toys, absolutely loves to ride in the car, made it through his first Bible Study/childcare experience this morning, and for the first time today got excited about looking at a book.  He has played in the sandbox and the water table, visited a petting zoo, joined the Phineas and Ferb fan club and even shucked corn.  So... all of this to say - things are going great.

 

 We've had a few bumps in the road, but nothing that hasn't been expected and nothing that any other 4-year-old wouldn't deal with as well.  I'm sure that more bumps are coming, but we will take those in stride and Ma-Ma will do her best to address them with a good measure of patience and a lot of prayer.  Thank you again for each prayer you say in our stead, we couldn't possibly be doing this with even half of much success if it wasn't for the prayer warriors I know we have in our corner.  Please keep it up, we've got a long road ahead of us and I for one desperately need you to hang in there with me.  Please just don't call me "Ma-Ma" more than 100 times within any given 90 minute timeframe and all should be well.  Thanks!  And I will try to post more stories soon.  =)