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You know the saying “if you can’t say something nice, you shouldn’t say anything at all”? I was wondering if I should leave the blog at just that tonight. Oh my goodness…. rough day. Rough day doesn’t even do it justice. Last night, sleeping was all over the place. He was up at 8:30, 10:00, 12:00, a whole lot of times between then and morning. We did notice him awake and just sitting in bed a couple of times in the middle of the night, so I think that is good… the fact that he wasn’t crying? Morning came all to early, but he actually did better today getting ready. Aaron has been P H E N O M E N A L with this little guy. Can’t praise him enough. He has been super patient and is wiling to try anything to entertain him… today was lots of dancing and cranking up the music. All was good until we came down for breakfast and then major meltdown. We took him around to see what there was to eat… he shook his head no at all of it. He wanted water, then a bottle, then no water, then no bottle. Lots of crying and fidgeting. We ended up eating in shifts again this morning just to not disrupt everyone’s breakfast.
Immediately following breakfast, we met one of the social workers in the lobby to head to the embassy to get his visa processing to come home. We left at 8:30 and then waited fooooooreeeever in line on the sidewalk outside, and then sat in a (thankfully air conditioned) waiting room for the next 3 hours. He did pretty well while we were there and that is saying something for any kid, I think. Snacks and bottles fixed most of our problems, and he eventually fell asleep, 5 minutes before it was our turn and we had to wake him up. We were the last ones waiting, and the process was basically walking up to a window, answering a few questions about our time in Thailand, and then we were notified that our visa would be ready…. wait for it… tomorrow. Tomorrow is NOT what we wanted to hear. Our agency notified us that the earliest we could book flights home would be Tuesday. So we did. It also was the reason that we booked a weekend at the beach, because we thought we would have tons of time to kill. Lots of frustration was felt by all today and we just kind of crashed on the couches in the lobby when we returned to the hotel out of exhaustion and frustration at the process…. maybe the lack of details and information in the process. Thankfully, we’ve worked out a late checkout tomorrow, so Aaron will go pick up the visa tomorrow while we hang out at the hotel, and then we are going to split a cab fee with the other family to all head to the beach together.
We are tired. We have been spending every moment we can out of the room because our son cries every time we walk in the door. We kind of felt like we just needed to wait out the crying and he needed to realize that he wasn’t going to be able to go “home”, so we did…. for about 3 hours. Lots of crying and telling us that he wanted to go home. We had about 15 minutes of peace in there where he was really happy and playing well (see photos of us looking like we are having a great time as a family), but in a split second, his mood would change and it would be all tears. Random note : Toys are like nothing to him. Every time we get one out, he puts it right back where it came from. It’s like he doesn’t want to let himself have fun. He does interact well with both of us sans toys, and the biggest success in something to play with is this set of colorful plastic bowls I brought with some colored crafty pom-poms. Could have saved some room packing there. We decided to come down to the pool to see how that would work… again…. short bursts of fun with breakdowns intermingled. Such a frustrating afternoon.
Evening got a little better. We went up to the room to get him some dinner and he wanted to eat a meal for the first time since Tuesday (he’s just been snacking and drinking lots of bottles in between). I warmed up some of his dinner that we got him last night, took it out on the balcony, and he ate two plates of food with me feeding him… and he was happy! We packed him up in my ring sling for a walk to pick up our laundry and he loved it. Walking back into the room, Aaron helped him into his pj’s, I made a bottle, and we prepared ourselves for lots more crying… only it didn’t come. He pointed where he wanted me to sit, grabbed his bottle, climbed up into my lap, laid down, and was asleep within a few minutes. Hallelujah!
Aaron and I ordered pizza tonight and ate on our bedroom floor with the door closed so we wouldn’t wake him up out on the couch. We’ve been sneaking around all evening, hoping he stays asleep. I am down in the lobby writing tonight so we don’t disrupt him. The courtyard is full of blue twinkle lights in the trees and it looks serene and beautiful.
In good news today, when Ty is great, he is GREAT. His smile lights up a room and his laughter is awesome. He is still coming to both Aaron and I for comforting and we are thankful for that. Today he said “good job” in English… still working on “mom” and “dad”, but he definitely recognizes us as such. Walking back from laundry, Aaron had crossed the street ahead of us and I asked “where did dad go?” He pointed right to him.
Please keep praying for us and keep writing!! I don’t have the time to respond to each of your messages, but I read each one and cherish them so much! Tomorrow should just be packing, picking up visas, and then heading to the beach in the evening. Hoping and praying that a change of scenery is good for us. Aaron and I both are feeling sore throats coming on and are hoping that they don’t turn into more. Can’t imagine being sick and keeping up with this kiddo. Must sleep!
