1st week home... the good, bad and ugly

I am planning to lovingly refer to the 1st week home as the week from..... well something that rhymes will smell!!

We arrived to our local airport around 9:30 pm. 

Check out that post here http://grumpyjax.blogspot.com/2013/08/arriving-home.html

Many people were there to show their love and support for us and our new boys. 

My mom and Dad had been a huge part in bringing these boys home including: A huge monetary donation, door to door sales, making jewelry, bakes sales, Dad traveling on trip one and watching my girls during trip 2. They followed us home from the airport to bring all the girls supplies from the week and show off the awesome decorations they had done along with my Aunt Darlene and family.

Those first few hours home were surreal. The girls loved on their brothers, tried to help feed them and played with them. It was something I never thought would actually happen!

Then reality set in. The boys barely slept that night. I am pretty sure they were still on Bulgarian time.

I was up nearly all night. After being up for over 24 hours without much sleep, I needed and wanted sleep.

I was so happy to have the boys home that I just dealt with it. 

I fed them and they ate like champs. The girls wanted to help, love on them etc, but the girls also missed me a ton and wanted to climb on me constant.

I tried my best to enjoy it, but I was soooo tired.

The newness of having brothers wore off a little and jealousy set in.

This was my FB status the following evening As I walked upstairs to tuck Alyssa in something was different. I did not peer in at Matthias' empty bed and feel empty. I saw a handsome young man, my son, sleeping soundly. In his home with his family. As I walked into my room, I did not see an empty crib waiting for a child in need of a family. I saw a sweet child, my child sleeping peacefully and knowing he is loved..... oh how blessed I am!!

Matthias was out like a light that day about mid day from not sleeping the night before

Here are a few other pics from that first day

We stayed up late into Monday Morning 

This was my FB status.... Still awake and he will cry if he cannot touch or see me. Yep he has this mom thing figured out LOL. Oh the joy.

More pics from Monday

Matthias seems confused by the fact that the "night time worker" is the same as the "day time worker" here. When he woke up in the middle of the night tonight, he kept looking at me and smiling. It was so cute. I wonder how long it will take him to figure out that he is here forever and the same mom and dad will always be here.

Exhaustion was still heavy, doctors appts began and the devil tried hard to get us down.

Honestly, it almost worked. Each time I reminded myself that all 5 of my kids were home, everything was ok again (even if only for a moment)

Monday we saw our primary care doctor....

He was actually very surprised by how happy and how well they were doing considering how neglected they were. We set up several more appts for Adam and hearing appt for Matthias. Adam had a double ear infection, but Matthias seemed healthy.

Tuesday we saw The neuro for Adam...

On our way out the door for the appt, my oldest daughter tripped on a toy tractor and landed on her wrist. She started screaming which is not normal for her. She has a very high tolerance for pain. I assumed it must be broken, but Adam's appt (which had been scheduled for a month) was just 1 hour from then and a 45+ min drive. I gave her some motrin and showed her how to hold it against her body. It was just me with all 5 kiddos. What choice did I have? She cried silently most of the way to the hospital.

We arrived for Adam's appt. We were seeing a resident, so that we could get in sooner. I felt treating his hydro was the most important thing. She came in and I am pretty sure she was in total shock. She did not expect to see Adam so tiny and with so many "issues". She examined Adam then immediate left to get the head of Pediatric Neurology. He came in and also examined Adam. He said they needed to sit down with all the doctors to examine his file. He asked if we were ok to sit an wait. I agreed. He came in every 10-15 mins and would check something else on Adam, apologize for how long it was taking then leave again. They both came back in quite a while later, and they suggested we admit Adam to the hospital. He felt it would be best for him, so that he could get all the testing done at once and see all the specialists at once. I agreed. 

They could not get in touch with our insurance company since it was after 5 by this time. They decided to do a CT scan of his brain and some blood work before they admitted him. 

We left to go over to the main part of the hospital. My hubby was off work by now, so he met us at the hospital.

Matthias was sure happy to see him. He had cried all day not having Daddy home.

 Adam getting his CT scan. He did so well.

 He had to be poked twice.

We left the hospital after 6pm. Kevin took the truck with all the kids except Kaitlyn. 

I took her straight to the quick care. Yep she broke her arm. Poor kid had to sit for 6 hours in doctors and hospitals and did not complain hardly at all. She was a trooper. She was scared to get xrays, but did great. The doctor put a splint on, and he promised to try to get her a pink cast in 3 days when we came back.

The next day I received a phone call that said they were shocked by his results.

His blood levels were all in the normal range including his electrolytes. His CT scan showed that his shunt was not malfunctioning. They determined that they would not be admitting him to the hospital, but rather would schedule him to see a GI doc, neurosurgery, Orthopedics, comprehensive care and possibly a few more. We will get him all better soon :)

That next day was ALSO the first day of school for my 2 oldest kids.

We woke up bright and early (just like every day since the boys came home).

I was pretty proud of myself. By 7:30 am everyone was dressed and ready for the day,kids were all fed lunches were made, backpacks were packed and we were ready to leave. Although we did not need to leave until 8. I decided to do a mini photo shoot.....

 The girls took a camera and did a photo shoot of their own

It was fun having all 5 of my kids together.

Thursday my sister came into town.... I decided to meet up with them and my aunt at a pizza place that is very small and not busy. 

So I took the boys out today for one of the 1st times with another little Angel Stacey. We had Adam and Matthias in the stroller and Stacey was in her wheel chair. A man stopped as he was walking out and asked "How did you guys get lucky enough to have so many angels in one family." I responded that we were all blessed by adoption. He told us what a sweet blessing they are and said "God bless you" and walked away..... so thankful that the first comment we got was a positive one.

They came by the house afterward and 2 angels got to spend some time together

All in all it was a pretty good day :)

Then Friday came..... I picked the kids up from school, and we went straight to quick care to get Kait's cast put on. As soon as Brittany got in the car, she started crying. She said her throat hurt. Well we were already at quick care, so I thought I would get her checked. After 3 hours of waiting, it was determined that Britt did have strep :( 

Britt at the doc

 Kait proud of her cast

 Adam's ears were really bugging him, so he started scratching his face and ears :( 

I tried keeping socks over his hands, but he kept biting them off.

That first week home was a VERY LONG week with a lot of drama and craziness..... Week 2 was much better. More on that to come.