We did the mad dash out the door but all is good. We are all camped out in the worldclub – waiting for the next flight. Mom is doing her 10,000 steps, I surf the net.
Tomorrow at 1pm is d-day (or shoud I say mommy & daddy-day).
Doggy is at Tom and Christy’s and last I saw of him was his ass running up the steps to bask the love of his doggy cousins.
So some people, on their last childless evening, do a date night. Others, like us, push to the last minute. Joe is still at work. I am running to target, doing laundry, doggy knows something is up. Tomorrow before our flight I meet with a freelancer to offload some work.
I am quite tired. I’m pretty much on edge. It will be fine. But, that’s us.
Joe and I have been putting thought into Zachy and his new reality. Zachy has always been a bit of a fragile dog veiled as a bully. Really, the moment anyone (except me) calls him on his shit, he calms down. He just doesn’t do well when one of us is out of town or something anxiety inducing has happened. He also has a great need to be in the middle of things. Joe thinks he was the runt of the liter and that totally makes sense to me. He’s needy. When Joe is Europe for a week, I can just see him slowsly start to freak out more and more. I feel for the guy. I also think he has abdandonment issues.
Next week he will stay at my brother and sister in laws for one night and then with my sister for the rest of the week. She spoils him seriously so I think he will be fine.
Joe and I just aren’t sure how is going to mentally handle his new position as #4. I think it will be hard. I am also hopefuly that Nathanael doesn’t freak out. Our new reality.
So, we put the crib together this week-end. I’ll try to get a photo up. We also put together the stroller and bought a rug for Nathanael’s bedroom. We wiped the whole bedroom down.
It’s almost feeling real!
So, Joe and I leave on May 31st in the afternoon and arrive just before 10pm. On Sunday, we are meeting the foster family at 1pm for a meal and we hope the kids want to stay and use the pool. My heart is pretty heavy. We feel so blessed that Nathanael is part of their famiily. Whenever we talk to the foster mother, she tells us that all she want is for us to love him and that a little bit of her heart will go with him. It was really important for me to have my parents join us to that they could feel good about us. I told the foster mother that she is Nathanael’s second mother – the first being the birth mother and me being the third mother. A lot of change for a 9 month old (which he turne yesterday)!
I really worry about Nathanael’s little heart. He was a bit dazed on our last visit trip and I think he was suffering from transition issues. One of the big things in adoption is attachment and bonding. Kids from an orphanage are likely to have issues because they haven’ had a primary care taker. I do think the first few weeks are going to be hard as he has put his trust and love with his foster family and well, I’m sure it’s gonna freak out his little soul to have them disappear. Generally speaking, this is a good problem because it shows he is capable of attachment. But, I think it’s going to be hard. We need to help him build his trust in us.
In hindsigt, it was really good that we had a few miserable nights on the last trip. The first trip was so magical that its unrealistic to think that it’s always going to be that way. Those few sleepless nights really tested me and I think my expectations are more realistic.
On June 2 we have ou embassy appointment. Of course, I have his little outfit picked out (if I can find it)! We pick up his visa on June 3. When we land in the US on June 7, Nathanael will automatically be a US citizen.
Ours 