Meeting the Kids

Ok, here's a very long post about meeting our kids for the FIRST time!

The first thing we had to do was have a meeting with their caseworker, adoption caseworker and their boss. We went over a "parenting plan", basically it said when we could pick the boys up and when we would bring them to their home. Sunday night, if everyone was comfortable, we were allowed to have them sleep over at our hotel and we would drop them off at school on Monday morning. Once that was all decided and every t had been crossed and i had been dotted, (which I think took about an hour but felt like an eternity because we were ready to meet them!) we followed them to the kids' school. When they came out, the caseworker brought them over to our car (it was raining) and we said a quick hello! It was so incredible to meet them in person finally!! They seemed nervous, as were we, so we were unsure if they would be open to hugs or not. We then followed them to a restaurant and when we all got out of our cars, they both ran up to us and gave us hugs!!! (Fear vanished!) They each took one of our hands and we walked into the restaurant. I ordered a salad but basically picked at it, as we were both too busy watching the kids and asking them questions about their favorite things, foods, toys, superheroes, sports and things they didn't like. L was a little quieter than B but he is also younger so I think he is used to B answering for him. It was a little hard to get to know them because it felt like we were being watched. (Which we were). I felt pressure to bond with them immediately and get to know everything about them all at once. After lunch, we went back to the cars where they hugged us goodbye and we told them we would pick them up in the morning. 

The next morning we drove to their foster home and they were waiting and ready to go! We took them to an arcade, lunch, a park, out to dinner and then we took them back to their home. When we were at the park, running around with these little munchkins, it suddenly hit me that we were a family. This was going to be life now and I am so so excited. We had SO MUCH FUN. When we were driving them home, B asked me if they were sleeping over that night and when I said no, he was a little disappointed. The bonding was so immediate, they both gave us hugs multiple times during the day and L would run up at any moment to give us hugs. Earlier in the day, Cliff asked them if they knew what adoption meant and told them that we were going to be their forever family and they could call us by our names or they could call us Mom and Dad whenever they were comfortable. They flip flopped a little the first day, sometimes calling us by our names and sometimes calling us Mom & Dad when one of us was gone. For example, when I went to get their food they asked Cliff were Mom was. Dropping them off at their home was so so hard! We wanted to keep them overnight but it wasn't in the plan.

When we picked up B&L the next day, they were so excited because today was the day they got to spend the night!! We went to a museum, which was where L called me Mom for the first time and I didn't even turn around because I'm not used to being called Mom! Then we went to lunch, the store to buy some legos and back to the hotel. Hubs then left to go get pizza. I was sitting on one bed, the kids were on the other bed and B said "I'm going to come sit by you, Mom"! My heart melted! We built their legos, they played Mario on our phones, and they asked me where Dad was. Heart melted again! When he got back, they were so excited to see him and gave him hugs! They went to sleep as well as can be expected for being in a hotel room and woke up really well. As we were driving them to school, L said "I can't wait to tell my friends I got new parents!!" I about died, it was so adorable! Dropping them off at school was one of the hardest things I've ever done. We were uncertain about when we would see them again, as we were leaving that day, so we couldn't tell them "see you next week or in two weeks". I'm not sure L understood that we weren't picking him up later but B knew and as we drove away he looked so sad, I wanted to just take him with us. 

It was the BEST trip ever! I had so many fears going into meeting them and NONE of them came true. They are two of the most respectful, caring, sharing, polite kids I have ever met and it is unbelievable that they have been in the system. We miss them SO MUCH! We do get to talk to them on the phone which is nice, however difficult because they are just not phone talkers. It also breaks my heart every time one of them asks when they are coming out here. We have no answer to that question and I wish so much that we did! 

xoxo

nikki