Wednesday and then HOME!!!!

Wonderful Wednesday!  After a grueling Tuesday (12 hours away from our hotel room, much of it spent in the van, with two boys under age two) we were ready for a day of rest and this was it!  We
woke up with no plans until our 2pm late check out and taxi to the airport. 

John Paul loves to stick to one place.  The longer he is somewhere the more he likes it.  Transition, not so much.  Hanging out and realizing Mommy and Daddy aren't leaving him, he likes that a lot! 

So every minute we stayed in the room was like a notch up on his personality meter :)  He laughed and played and explored (loves to pull toilet paper off the roll - ha!) and even skyped with Grandpa back in North Dakota. 

He spent most of Tuesday attached to Matt - clearly his first preference (Matt is loving it, by the way!).  Since Tuesday was so long and difficult we decided to go with what was best and easiest, which meant he was in physical contact with Matt pretty much the entire day.  Wednesday he was venturing back and forth from me to Matt and burst into tears when I left the room for three minutes. 

We are speaking to him in a mix of Chinese and English.  It's definitely easiest to use Chinese, since we want him to understand us!, but we've started repeating ourselves in English too.  The girls are using mostly Chinese, but I think that'll gradually switch to English too.  He is a smart little guy and is quick to understand simple directions (in Chinese) like "take the car and give it to Mommy" or "Daddy is getting your water, look over there, he's bringing it to you". 

Our first full day at home was intense.  I hardly had a chance to think more than about fifteen minutes into the future.  (thankfully Mom and Dad are here and providing tremendous amounts of help.... tremendous amounts!)

John Paul is a big fan of the big family.  He follows the older three around, always checking to make sure Matt or I am close by.  We got out the pool this afternoon and he was loving it.  I'm pretty sure he'd like to spend every afternoon of the rest of his life playing in this little pool! 

But as much as he likes to play and engage, he also emotionally/physically/mentally checks out at times.  This morning I scooped him up and sat down to snuggle him in the rocking chair.  And right there, at 11 am, in the middle of our living room, surrounded by noise and siblings and all sorts of whatnot he fell fast asleep for about 30 minutes.  It's almost like he just can't handle all that's happening (understandably!) and will choose to snuggle down and disengage. 

We know from his foster mom that he was part of a community, with other children, neighbors in his world.  And, clearly, his foster mom taught him to love the water.  It's quite hot there in the summer, and I'm guessing on the hot afternoons she pulled out a tub of water for him - he is clearly a very experienced water-play-er! 

So I feel like we're in the middle of, well, everything.  Massive transition, learning how to best love and care for this new little guy, trying to figure out how life and family (and meals, and rest, and ....) work with our new normal.

But it's good.  So very good to have him home.  Almost surreal.  I can't believe he's really here, sleeping in the pack n play next to our bed.  I also can't believe how exhausted I am at the end of each day.  It's 9pm and I am about to collapse.  Good night.  Thanks for praying for our sweet boy.