4 Completely Full Days...

As you have probably noticed, I have been posting photo’s without many details the past few days as it’s about all I could manage.

My life has had some crazy times in it, but I think these past 4 days have been right up there at the top for “go-go-go.”   And given it was also my first week back to work, I didn’t have a lot of time to think about stuff until it was happening (maybe that was best!)  And I have to be honest and say that we pushed Samuel too much and we feel guilty and bad.  I know we over exposed him to people and places.  We were just trying to balance events with having family in town, along with giving back to all of the wonderful people who have supported us.

I feel bad if people think we are not allowing him to “visit” and be held as much as they would like.  But we are trying so hard to work on this attachment thing, as he doesn’t know what parents are (it has only been one month.)  And after you read the below details, we know we would be considered “failures” to date, per the experts.  To Samuel, we are just “a safe place” right now, but he could easily go to other people to meet his needs…  So, I ask that people just be patient with us while we work through this.  We want to get this right; we only have one shot. 

Thursday:

We presented at the Baptist church downtown Portland.  We had put together a 10-minute video of the our story to bring Samuel home, so that made it relatively simple.  We share the time with 2 other volunteers who were actually in Haiti during the earthquake.  There were about 20 people who attended and it was fun to share the story of GLA, Haiti and help get the right facts out there…

Jamie R. stopped by and we played, watched Survivor and got sandwiches…  Jamie was one of Samuel’s volunteers in Haiti this past summer (though we had no idea until later on!)  She was in town (from Southern Oregon) to play a couple of basketball games in Portland.

Friday:
Joe went to his elementary school (Greenway) where he was presented with a “big check” for $1473.09 – the amount of fundraising the school has done thus far for God’s Littlest Angels!  He spoke about how the money would be used by GLA to improve the lives of babies and other member of the surrounding community.

My parents came to stay with us (5.5 hour drive)
Joe’s mom and grandma came to stay with us (3.5 hour drive)

We enjoyed time with family…  just playing with the kiddo and catching up with each other.

Saturday:
Aunt Martha stopped by and dropped off a big box!  It was full of cool gifts for both Samuel and US!

Our WONDERFUL friend’s Shannon and Amanda put on a “Toddler Shower” for us.  We spent from 12-3pm enjoying time with friends, eating delicious food and opening some really great gifts!   I was so thankful to S&A for doing this for us!  And also so glad people were able to share in this event.  I feel like so many people have truly helped bring Samuel home...  Samuel made a quick showing, but took a nap from 1-3pm, which was great!

We then took my parents and went to see Jamie R. play the second half of her basketball game.  Samuel was SO GOOD and sat on our laps the entire time.  He was completely engaged watching the game and we were able to snap some photo’s with Jamie after the game.

Sunday:
Samuel’s dedication at church.  Let me preface by saying…  Samuel is a good kid.  He did awesome all weekend and was just calm, pleasant and really good at just being quiet (I realize this is NOT NORMAL!)  JBut this has become “his norm” for us, so we were pretty confident he would do just fine for the dedication.  (as proof of this calm nature, he is currently just sitting on my lap as I type completely content.)

He did fine on Sunday morning… he had got good sleep, was being good, etc…   However, once we got to the church, took some photo’s and went back inside (to wait at the back of the church until we were called up front) he decided that he didn’t want anything to do with church…  There might have been some issues with his parents giving of “stress vibes” as we were kind of shocked by some people we didn’t know just walking right up to him and touching his face and hands, etc…  It just wasn’t something we needed right at that moment.

And so… when we were called to go up with Pastor Randy, Samuel was a complete wiggle worm and quite frankly a little pill (this is NOT a term I have ever had to use for my son (honestly, I keep waiting, but he is truly just a good kid – the typical words have been “sweet, pleasant, kind.”)  The only cute & redeeming factor was that he was waving to the crowd.  But we made it through... no harm, no foul in the end.  We just exited into the foyer, headed to the car and went directly to Starbucks (leaving all of our family at the church service.)  There was just no way we were sticking around with this little attitude!

We then had some friends/family over for a get-together after the service…  And I have to say THANK YOU to Michele and Meagan, as they organized and made food for the entire event!  I could not have pulled this off without their help (a complete last-minute ask on my part too.)  It turned out to be fun and a good way to spend a bit more time with people.

That night… we ordered Thai food (thanks Dad!) and enjoyed a bit of down-time.  Then my sister and her kids dropped by to see us before M&D had to head back home.  We enjoyed time with the cousins, though Samuel crashed to bed before they left (he was exhausted.)

So…  I am tired yes.  We made some wonderful memories and so thankful for everyone who was involved with one or more of these events!  It was definitely a crazy few days and I think I might need a “weekend for my weekend.”  But unfortunately work does take priority and I was back at it today.  I am just glad we made it through all the events semi-successfully!

Now we hope to just chill out for awhile, stay in our “cave” and enjoy doing nothing for awhile… Is that bad?