In my earlier post I left off with calling the adoption worker in
This is what she meant by "quicker".
Friday: I was going to drive up early and meet the kids
Saturday: My husband would drive up with the other kids (He had to work on Friday)
Sunday: All of us spend time together/Go to their church/Going away party
Monday: Bring them home
This was so fast I couldn't believe it!!
After searching on the internet for hotels to stay at I chose the Comfort Inn Suites. I had mentioned to them that we were adopting and asked permission if the new kids could spend the night and go swimming in the pool with us over the next couple of days. They seemed so happy and excited for us! They gave me a great deal on a room of $75.00 per night. This included a wonderful continental breakfast, and dinner served on Thursday and Friday. This alone saved us tons of money when you figure in a family of 6 eating out 3 meals a day for 5 days. This was just one more thing the Lord planned in the homecoming of our children. There has been so many other things that has confirmed this is what we should do.
I left early Thursday morning at 4:00 am. On the way there I was thinking "What in the world am I doing? I need my husband!"
For those who don't know me very well, I am very shy and have trouble holding a conversation without help. Its a real mess if I am talking to another shy person --let me tell you! My husband is the social butterfly. He knows all of our neighbors and is always talking to one of them. I'm the one in the house spying through the blinds watching it all. Then he comes in and I have him fill me in on what they talked about. Its pretty bad when kids show up at my door asking if my husband can play! Anyway back to my story....
Once I realized it was Satan in his doubting ways I quickly went from a state of fear to a state of excitement.
I arrived at the hotel and got settled in by 9:00am. The adoption worker met me at the hotel and told me a little bit more about the kids. She gave me their Life Books which tells the children the best they could about the information on their birth parents and about them as a baby. I will talk more about the Life Book in a different post. From there I followed her to the foster home.
Before leaving the house I looked up their address on Google Earth (which is spooky if you think about it). I was going into unchartered territory by myself so I wanted to be some what familiar.
Pulling into the driveway of the foster home my stomach was on the floor and I thought I was going to get sick. Fear is all I could feel at that point until I remembered....
This
is my command—be strong and courageous!
Do
not be afraid or discouraged.
For
the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.
Joshua
1:9
I got out of my vehicle and followed the adoption worker into the house. I was introduced to the foster parent. There were no kids insight. There was small talk going on between the ladies and inside I was screaming "Where are my kids?" but I never said a word. Come to find out the kids were down stairs and were afraid to come up to meet me. The foster mom went to the stairs and called for the kids to come up. Nehemiah (Nemo) was the first to come around the corner. He was very timid and shy but he had a smile. Alicia appeared right behind him and she looked like this was a big waist of time. No smile. She did say "hi". So at least we were getting somewhere! Nemo who can't not say anything grabbed the photo album that I made them and brought it to the table. He thumbed through it page by page pointing out all the things he liked about it. He was showing me this book as if I had never saw it before. This brought Alicia over and she started to talk and say all the things her friends liked about it and the things she didn't. All her friends thought she was lucky because of her new 16 year old brother. Little did she know he would get on her nerves. This was a great ice breaker!
After about 45 minutes of chatter and gradually getting to know each other we left the house. They both got in the car. The first question Nemo asked me was "can we change our names? I want mine to be _____?" I forgot what name he mentioned. Both were under the impression that when you get adopted they can change their name. I told them no they cannot. This was the first time they heard me say NO. The next question was "we call you mom?" I said "I would love it if they called me mom but that is not expected". My name was "MOM" from that moment on with both kids. It was so sweet!!
I took them to the hotel so they can see where we were staying. I think they thought they hit the jackpot. I had to apologize that they did not get adopted by a family with alot of money. They both said it was okay -- and off they were talking about something completely different. Alicia was opening up more and more. We also went to the mall where I bought them a shirt and we had lunch at the mall, and we saw the Gilbert House. Nemo thought it was funny how he could scare me with his dare devil acts. Little did he know that would come to a complete hault once we got out of the "fake world" we were in at the moment. I had about 10 heart attacks in one day! He was also trying to be tough - gangster style. I hope he enjoyed it now but I didn't want to scare him too bad but that was NOT going to fly back home.
That whole day was just me and the kids establishing ourselves. These were my new babies only BIG ONES!! Thank you Jesus!
Looking back I can remember how thankful I was. Thankful for the break at night. Since it was just me, the two of them constantly looking for me to entertain them. I didn't want to over treat them because I didn't want to mislead them on how home life was back home. It was finally 7:30pm and time to head back to their house. They kept asking can we just go to our house?" I was so happy they felt this way.
After dropping them off and reassuring them I will return tomorrow, I gave hugs and off they went inside. It was hard to leave them. After all, this was the moment I had been waiting for. On the other hand I was so tired! My husband was going to be there in the morning and we would get to spend another full day with them.
To Be Continued.................
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