Bad Blogger!!!

So, I feel like the blogger who is gonna get her hands slapped since it has been sooooooo long since we updated this!
Well, I gotta tell ya: having 2-3 year old "instant twins" is well. Uh.......ALL CONSUMING!!!!! And, as Dr Phil says "this ain't my first rodeo!" and it's still ALL CONSUMING!!!!!
Tomorrow will be 7 WEEKS HOME!!!! Oh my goodness that is hard to believe! In those 7 weeks we have had: Lovely's 3rd Birthday complete with a full Haitian dinner (I surprised myself at how well they said it turned out :-), long hikes in our backyard forest, longer hikes in the fort don the street, too many doctor appts, blood tests, stool samples, and shots and perscriptions to count :-(, Spring Break at the Beach House with Monica (big Sis) Joslynn and Marquis, discovered they joy of Library story time and Playgym! Learned to love apples, grapes, pears, and try raw carrots and cucumbers and not spit them out, the transition from complete meltdown when even seeing Elijah's dog Muffy to being able to "somewhat coexist" with her and be in the same room with her and not ALWAYS scream at the top of her lungs! Learned to ADORE BATHTIME and cry taken out of the water instead of when taken out :-). Colored Easter eggs for the first time and dug into an Easter basket still not sure what it was all about,.,,.but loving the candy.
The transition has been and quite frankly still is hard with a Capitol H! I will not go into a lot of details on that tonight but am trying to compose a blog in my head of what it has/does really look like daily for those who are adopting......but, will wait on that for now. Suffice it to say: throwing 2 toddlers who both have some pretty serious issues (and one who is severely traumatized and is working on healthy safe ways to express that) telling them "brother, sister......ok, go" is as hard as it sounds and then some. Our days include on a regular basis: biting, hitting,kicking, pinching, rages that can last for over 30-45 minutes, and a whole LOT of screaming ( and it's not usually me screaming ;-) and within arms reach and in eyesight supervision at all times.......pretty darn exhausting! For being "seasoned parents" (19 kids now have come through our home!!!!) and even very experienced and lots of training with traumatized, in great transition kiddos......this has still topped them all and ,any days has just flat out "kicked out butts!" (in case you are adopting and wondering...........we visiited Lovely 4 times during our 25 month wait and NONE of this behavior was apparent in any of those visits, or during the first days home......so, it pretty much blew us away when it started)
Will we get through this time.....you betcha!!! Do we need your prayers still.....YOU BETCHA!!!!!! God can heal these little hearts and protect and strengthen the heart of the big brother who is oh so tolerant but is also growing weary. Someone said to me recently "I'm so happy the transition is going so well, the pictures all look so happy!" To which I finally after hearing this so many times said "you know, we parents don't
Normally post the crying,screaming, raging pictures....we post the smiling, getting along pictures!" The person did not respond,,,,oops!
So, if I have not blogged.......this helps you understand why :-). Will get more pictures on here soon, in the middle of the chaos our computer also crashed-boo.
Thanks for supporting us, loving us, and most of all PRAYIING FOR US STILL!!!!!!
So, I guess the blog I was tossing around In my head for those adopting just kinda got added here after all! It is extremely scary putting yourself out there and speaking your truth and reality, being vulnerable, and wondering "oh my, what are people going to think of me'" and knowing many will most likely think "that won't happen to us" or "they must not have been prepared or knowledgable on the subject" or whatever and I guess I covered that with the reminder that we have adopted 6 times now, and been a medical foster home for 5 years now, had 19 kiddos with all level of need medically and emotionally come through our home and this is still by far at the top of the list of most challenging. We ADORE OUR DAUGHTER!!!!!!! And TOTALLY KNOW JESUS IS HEALING HER HEART and redeeming her little spirit right now!!!! Just felt with so many adopting parents reading our blog it was really important to be brutally honest with how it can look like "after the Homecoming"
If I offended any.....I sure did not mean to!! If I scared any..... Maybe that is not such a bad thing to help you in the process of preparing yourself. Your spouse, and your other children----especially if they are very close to the same age as the child you are bringing home! Maybe you will know delete me from your blog list. And I guess I can live with that more than living with not really being honest about how it is "really going".
Ok , think that is more than enough for tonigh and I hear quiet from the twins so I am going to rest too!!!
We love you all and appreciate you sooooooo much!!!!!
Shelly