To sum up: We are doing wonderfully well. I am amazed at how well Micah Marvin is adjusting, as well as how we are adjusting to him. Attachment is a 2 way street, and we are working hard at it...but it's been much easier than I anticipated. Partially that must be a personality thing with him, but I also think the 6 weeks I spent with him in his home country this year (2 weeks in August, plus the entire month of November) helped out a TON. We were able to transition gradually, which isn't the way it's done in most international adoptions - it's required in Uganda because the process takes a while... we waited 2 weeks beyond court and embassy paperwork, just for MM's passport. 2 weeks that almost killed me as I was missing my boys at home and longing to have our family all together...but 2 weeks that helped MM a LOT along the road to trusting me and preparing for his new reality.
We cuddle and giggle and play a LOT around here, and we've made lots of memories...
Last Saturday we had our first snow (well... the first snow since we've been home. Nebraska's first snow happened - to my DELIGHT - the first week we were in Africa, enjoying sunny skies and beautiful tropical weather)...
Followed by Micah's first hot chocolate... (both were a hit, as you can tell!)
We're trying to teach Micah Marvin the word "cold". I don't know what it is in Luganda, but I'm pretty sure he never had a reason to use it. He calls EVERYTHING hot. He always wants to know if food is hot, and says "HOT" after every sip of hot chocolate (even though of course it's more cold milk than hot chocolate...) But he also says "HOT!" when I sit him on the cold toilet, when I put lotion on him, and (most hilariously) when I strap him into the freezing cold van. It's hard not to laugh when your child is shivering with cold and has as close to blue lips as he can have, and is yelling, "HOT!!!" :)
We've had lots of other firsts... First brother bath (which makes a bigger mess than I could have imagined)
First trip to Target...
(actually, we've had our first AND second trips to Target already, what does that say?? I haven't gotten back into the swing of grocery lists and getting everything I need in one trip. We've also made our first trip to Hobby Lobby, I think it's funny that those are the TWO places - along with church - that MM has been in his first week home.)
We put up our Christmas tree...
Got our traditional Chrismtas PJs (and I remembered my love affair with footie pajamas)...
Made our first fort (forts # 18 and 19 are going on in Tobin's room, as I type...)
Made SLOW steps toward getting over M's fear of dogs (praise the Lord, because I am not getting rid of my dog! He's the best dog EVER.)
And last night celebrated our first full week home with pizza in our pajamas and "A Charlie Brown Christmas." I am in love with this picture, it's my very favorite from this week.
That's our week in pictures! We are THANKFUL for the many friends and family who prayed us home and are now celebrating with us. We are the richest people I know.
** I have an iPhone. I'm a little embarassed to admit it, since I just came from a third world country and am leaning toward not even buying my children Christmas presents this year because I can't stomach celebrating Jesus' birth by buying each other things we don't need.
But my blackberry was on the edge of death (the battery barely lasted me 2 hours into being back in the states. Grrr.), and our point and shoot camera is on it's way out AND too big to really work for what I need it to (aka, always having a camera on me when I don't want to haul around the big nice one. With a point and shoot this big, you might as well lug around the big daddy, you know? But who wants to risk always having big daddy around, because if big daddy gets broken we can't afford to replace him!)
So...despite my inexplicable resistance to all things Apple - mostly because despite it's many devotees, I'm convinced it's a brand thing and for iPods at least, you can get the same memory and function for less than half the price. But, the iPhone? As a camera and as a phone, I'm kind of in love.
