Catch-Up

After being home for a week, we are finally back to our normal schedule and have caught up on everything we missed while we were in Kyrgyzstan (sleep, mail, laundry, etc). I was concerned that the boys would have a few adjustment problems after our absence. I thought they may be more clingy or whiny than usual, but so far no problems. For the first 24 hours after we got back, the Monkey would come up and hug me every 2 or 3 minutes, almost as if making sure that I was actually there. So cute!
They are super-excited about their baby sister and can't wait until we bring her home. They were so proud to take her picture to school to show all of their friends. Of course, most of their friends were confused as to why they just had a picture and not an actual baby sister. I'm sure both of their teachers had several adoption-related questions that day!

We are head-over-heels in love with our little girl and are constantly looking at her pictures. She is adorable and we are amazed that she is actually going to be our daughter. We are so lucky! I know many of you are anxious to hear details about her; unfortunately we can't share much until she is officially ours. If all goes well, we will go to court in early July (our coordinator does this in our place; we don't have to be present for court). After every court decision in Kyrgyzstan, there is a mandatory 30-day wait before it becomes official. It takes about a week after official court decision to get various pieces of paperwork together and then I'll be able to go back and pick her up. So if everything goes according to plan, I'll be flying over in early August to bring our little HotDog home. After a lot of discussion, we've decided that I'll make this trip alone. The trip will end up being about two weeks again and we simply don't feel comfortable leaving the boys for such a long stretch so soon after our first trip. Plus, the Chipmunk will be in Kindergarten by then and won't be able to miss school like he did during this trip. In addition, Stu doesn't really have the vacation days for another big trip like that. While I felt comfortable with this decision all along, Stu was unsure. However, after this trip he agrees that it shouldn't be a big deal. I made sure that I could do everything on my own (airport transfers, money-exchange, buying groceries, etc.). Hopefully, we'll also be traveling with other families so I should have company. Our only big concern is the trip back home with her. It ends up being around 24-hours of traveling which is a lot for one person, much less having an infant to take care of. I'm sure it won't be fun but this is the right decision for our family.

So many people have asked if it was so hard to leave her. I want to say "yes, it was horrible," but it honestly wasn't too bad. Of course we would have loved to bring her home with us but we knew going into it that it wasn't a possibility. This is our third time doing this so I suppose we don't know any differently. We were so homesick and anxious to see our boys that we were happy to leave. My feeling was that we had two little boys at home that knew we were gone and missed us terribly, while HotDog is so little and has no idea what is going on. We were also thrilled with the care she is receiving at the orphanage. We know she is in good hands while we are gone. And we know several other families that will be visiting the orphanage in our absence so we hope to receive periodic updates on her too.
It has been almost a week and a half since we saw her and my arms already feel that ache to hold her again. I know it will get much harder as the summer progresses. But we have a lot of fun plans this summer (including a family trip to the beach in a month...yeah!!) so hopefully the time will fly. I also need to start working on her nursery and gathering baby items that we will be borrowing from friends/family. Plus, it's time to go clothes shopping! I've been eyeing baby girl clothes for SO LONG and now that we finally know her size there will be no holding me back now.

I'll leave you with a picture of Stu and me in front of Burana Tower. The history of Kyrgyzstan is incredible and the landscape is breakthtaking. We will be forever changed by our travels to this country.