As I write this, I’m sitting in a van headed back to Debrecen with the kids. In the back seat, Our soon to be middle child has fallen asleep on Amy’s shoulder and our oldest is playing Duo Lingo learning English. Here in front with me I just had to gently nudge the youngest into a better position so his sleepy little head didn’t fall into his lap. How are kids that age so…so…bendy? I wanted to start this post now because of what all is bouncing around in my mind. No doubt every parent who adopts goes through this, the day has come. Amy and me, I think at this point, are suitably excited and terrified at the same time. I can’t help but think about what is going to happen over the next 24 hours. These three kids will sleep in the beds and home they’ve known for four years for the last time and will say goodbye to a truly great foster mom. It’s going to be a whole new world for all five of us. It’s likely the youngest and even the middle don’t fully understand what it means, but even knowing doesn’t keep this kind of big change from being painful. Just yesterday we had our first meltdown with the youngest, and while the girls went grocery shopping I stood alone in a house in a foreign country with a little child yelling “I want to go home,” over and over again in a language I had to translate. After an hour all was fine and we were gigging and watching a cartoon, and “home” eventually came. Starting tomorrow though, home won’t even be on this continent anymore and it’s going to be a while before that’s even processed.

Tomorrow afternoon, if all goes well, we will be taking temporary custody of these kids and starting the thirty day bonding period. This, most likely, will be the most difficult few days we have here as the reality sinks in for the kids. They won’t be going back to the foster home and this sweet woman and the bearded guy who don’t speak their language are taking care of them now. I’ll be stressed, Amy will be stressed, they’ll be stressed, there will be crying (I’ll try and hide it from the children). We’ve been told that while this first month in country is about bonding, it’s also about “survival”. Having lived in another country before I can definitely say that it can be complicated and exhausting just on its own, and we’re now adding a whole new layer to it, three actually. Right now there are a lot of mixed emotions. In order to get to the ultimate goal of these kids having a forever family we have to go through a process, and that process is going to cause pain. Ultimately, these are great kids and while we expect there to be a rough few days and weeks ahead of us as we all adjust we know it’s just a season (not to mention the funny story potential here is a gold mine). That all being said, we’re not sure when the next time we’ll be posting exactly so stay tuned, the next post could very well be titled: #Bashampartyof5: Hungarian Mutiny

(Sorry if there are more misspellings and grammar problems than usual. I didn’t have a lot of time for editing)