Starting to find the new normal

So the past few weeks have been hard.  We knew that they would be, but no amount of preparation helps you become more ready for sheer exhaustion.  We're so grateful for all the support we've had this pat little bit.  Just knowing that people are out there praying for us has made a huge difference.

We survived the 15 hour flight from Hades where we were seriously very close to walking away from luggage and children at the endpoint, and either Heavenly Father took pity on us or the boys realized they were THIS CLOSE to making their parents truly snap, because they both slept during the last 2 flights home.  Looking back, I have no idea how we all made it home safely, and it reaffirmed our prior feeling that our family is now complete, because we are not going to repeat that experience any time soon.  

The current update is that both boys are doing really well.  We're still working hard on attachment, and on the boundaries in our home, and thinking back to two weeks ago just amazes me at how far we've already come.  The boys have made so much progress, and overall it's getting a little easier to manage life each day, which is definitely progress for Kerry and I compared to when we first got home.

Kerry and I are starting to experience moments where this parenting and family thing is actually fun again, which is weird, and gives us hope that those moments are the new normal that we're working toward.  Their personalities have been coming out full force this while time, but now we're starting to appreciate them more and more.

The part of this whole thing that has been the hardest has been watching Kate try to deal with all the changes and challenges that have been happening.  She really has done so amazingly, but it has been so hard for her.  The boys have required a lot of attention this first little bit, and learning to coexist with 2 new brothers has been difficult.  I've been so proud of how much she's been willing to share and help out.  Even with all the difficulty, there have been plenty of moments where she has a blast playing with the boys, and enjoys being silly with them.  We've been trying really hard to carve out some Kate time each day so that she gets some one-on-one with one of us.

The medical update is that the boys are both really healthy and within the normal ranges for growth and health.  Since there's no immunization record, they just have to start from scratch, and they've been champs with all the shots.  We're also having them tested for any other possible bugs, and Yeb is currently being treated for lice.  Yuck.  The boys also had their dental appointments today, where we found out that Yeb has wonderfully healthy teeth, and that Tam will have a premature pumpkin smile after having his top four front teeth removed soon.  It will be so nice to get all this initial dental/medical stuff out of the way!

We have hardly any pictures of the boys because any time the camera comes out there is an inevitable meltdown, so we've avoided bringing it out at all.  We need to get going, though, because I really do want pictures of this stage of our family.

Thanks again, everyone, for all the love and support!

Still At Extremes

After suffering from some over scheduling yesterday and the resulting meltdowns and other behavior, we decided to take it really easy today, and overdid it a tad. The only outing we had planned was to go to the airport right after breakfast to get the luggage, which left the ENTIRE rest of the day unplanned. Of course we had a few ideas of things we could do here at the guesthouse, but in reality we were sadly underprepared. The critical error is our reliance on parks and other outdoor spaces that we have such awesome access to at home, so killing an hour or two isn't that hard at home, but there just aren't places like that here. To try to keep ourselves from going insane, we ended up going for 3 walks to various destinations (or with no destination), colored with chalk, played with balloons, played in the hose that was running when we came home from one walk, played soccer, hide and seek, tinker toys, Legos. and Yeb got a good nap this afternoon. Despite all that, we still suffered the effect of some boredom.

The guesthouse is in a nice residential part of Addis, where the streets are cobblestone, the outside of people's gates has some trees or other foliage, and the people we met while walking around seemed more well to do than most of the city. Our 2nd walk of the day was to search for a little store that sold soccer balls. Our big mistake was to take the double umbrella stroller that we brought for the airports coming home, but we thought it would be fun to let the boys ride in it. As we were leaving the guesthouse I realized that I hadn't ever seen any strollers here in Ethiopia, and yep, as if we weren't already very visible, the stroller pretty much made us into a circus act. Both boys were really excited to ride in it, but as soon as we got outside the gate Tam was embarrassed and insisted on walking, and then commenced to make fun of Yeb for being in the stroller. Fortunately, Yeb was still waking up from a nap, and couldn't care less. After we found and bought a soccer ball, Tam decided he wanted to ride, too, until a passerby made a disparaging remark about strollers, and then Tam wanted nothing to do with it again.

After buying a ball we went down a quiet side street to kick it around, but after about 5 minutes the boys seemed ready to go, and as we started heading back to the guesthouse we realized that there was piece of wire wound in one of the stroller wheels. We stopped to try to get it put, and after about a minute a young teenage boy came up and asked if he could help. Pretty soon a whole bunch of his teenage friends were gathered around, with them and Kerry all trying to get the wire out, and a couple of them kicking the ball around with Tam. They were such good kids! They were able to fix it after about 15 minutes with the help of some pliers one of them borrowed from his house, and we were sad to say goodbye. The funny thing was the actual conversation I had with one of them where I had to explain the purpose of the stroller, and where he politely tried to hide that he was perplexed about why anyone would need such a thing.

The day ended with us walking to the little store to buy some snacks for the trip home, where we as ones that the price of snacks and juice was going to be a lot cheaper than mental health treatment if we stayed put all evening. After buying some cookies and mango juice awe sat on the ledge next to the sidewalk and ate them and watched cars go past. The highlight (for me at least) was watching the boys reactions when a man herded a cow down the sidewalk right in front of us. They seriously had no idea what to think, and we had to convince them they weren't in danger. The weather was beautiful, people were out and about, and he sun was starting to set, and it made me really sad that we're leaving tomorrow. On the other hand, living out of a hotel room long term isn't tempting, and we sure miss Kate and are excited to get home to her and family!