Today began early. Too early for my liking. I woke up and was convinced T would be waking up any minute. I was awake for a while before I checked the time - 2:04. T was not getting up any time soon. Around 3:00, Brian and I were up talking about life and the stress therein. I fell back asleep somewhere between 3:30 and 4:00. At 4:06, Brian woke me up to tell me T was running around, and indeed he was. We were told he typically wakes up around 6:00. It was too early. I ushered him back to bed and offered to rub his back. For the next hour and a half, I rubbed his back. Every time I thought he was asleep, I’d try to get back to sleep next to him and he’d roll over and say, “Rub more.” (He rolls his Rs and, lucky for him, it’s adorable.)
When our alarm went off at 6:15, our day began in earnest. We played with toys, read books, and did school (writing 1s, 2,s and the words for both). Brian was able to get some work done today as we didn’t have to shuttle all over the place. It was good, too, because we are finally able to get an idea of what sizes T wears. We were told 7 because he’s 7, which makes no sense. T is a small dude and size 7 clothes would fall off. Thankfully, we found out T’s Smashing Pumpkins t-shirt fits! We’re going to have to bribe him to wear it (he took it off right away), but it fits!
We grabbed a quick bite of pizza for lunch, then headed back to the guest house for swimming. We bought a huge inflatable floating crocodile (T’s choice) and some floats for the pool. After 10 minutes of blowing the darn thing up, we were ready to go! T had a lot of fun. He hopped on and I would fling him around the pool. It quickly became apparent that T does not like to fall fully into the water. After a few tumbles into the cold (and I mean cold) water, T was done. One of the owners of this place told him he could store the crocodile in the pool, so it’s floating around as we speak. I count this up as a blessing because I wasn’t sure where we could store a 4’6” long, wet inflatable crocodile in our current residence.
After the pool, we showered and headed back to the care home. T wanted to see his friends. I think this kid is a genius—10 minutes after we showed up, they rolled out the snack train. With snacks inhaled, the kids had a new vigor for playing. While T played with his friends and showed off his new wallet and watch, I got to talk with two gals from Frankfurt, Germany who are volunteering for two months at the home. It was great to talk with them and have the automatic commonality of loving the same city (I lived there for three years from 5-8 years old). We commiserated over the extremely relaxed culture and mourned for schedules and clear guidelines.
Avocado tree in the backyard of the children's home.
After some good friend time, we headed to a mall to grab some healthy snacks and dinner. At dinner, I could tell T was torn over his visit to the home. In the last 24 hours, he had spent less time with his friends than he had ever spent. I asked him if he liked seeing his friends and he shook his head no and nodded yes (we’re working on talking about our emotions). I told him it was ok to feel two things. He didn’t say anything.
Coloring at dinner. He's wearing a new t-shirt with scuba skull and crossbones.
After dinner, and with healthy snacks in tow, we headed back to the guest house. After changing into pjs, we finished the second half of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. We stopped in the middle to do a quick call with Uncle Chance as it is his birthday. He got to talk with T (I say he talked, T grinned from ear to ear) and T got to meet his cousins Louis and Edward (Nasko was at school).
T is now tucked into bed and sleeping (I assume). Please pray for him—I can tell this whole thing is really starting to hit him as he’s now shifted from us coming to him and then leaving at the end of the day to him being with us 24 hours a day. Pray we will know how to comfort him and love on him as he’s working through these big emotions and life changes.