Hi Hungary, I’m Dad

Now that I’m officially allowed to make Dad jokes I figured I’d get in a two-fer right off the bat. I’m pretty proud of the one in the title (ok, I’m still technically not a dad, but I own the blog so I make the rules).  We have now, though, spent the last three days visiting with the kids and it’s amazing how awesome and awkward it can be all at the same time.

The old-school introduction is pretty basic. The little one shows up in the world and meets mom and dad not long after the first breath. Save for some time with Grandparents they get a steady diet of attention from both and that’s just who they are, mom and dad. It’s obvious and unquestionable. Heck, they don’t even have actual names other than mom and dad, you know, until the little ball of sunshine become a teenager…

Now, contrast that with this. You knock on a door, you’re welcomed in, and in front of you are three kids who can walk, talk, and do basic math (which beats me by at least one). Hi kids…this is mom and dad. *record scratch*. Not gonna lie, it’s a tad awkward, and I’m a grown 35+ year old man. How must that feel to a kid? Even more weird? I actually had to figure out what clothes I was going to wear to meet them in for the first time. By and large I don’t even know what clothes I’m wearing any given day until around lunch, after I’ve put them on. Nobody wants to show up to this interview and say, “Hi, I’m dad,” and get the response, “…really? And that’s what you chose to wear?” After a few minutes of warming up to us, and us coming to grips with the fact that this wasn’t a hallucination, we settled into getting to know each other. They gave us snacks, they brought us a drink, they even told us the English words they knew. Every little bit was amazing. Somewhere in there our adoption guy apparently had to ask “do you want to continue with this and start the paperwork to complete the adoption?” Of course, what a silly question! Besides, I’m busy watching a kid beat my high score on a game they’ve only played for three minutes.

Awkwardness aside, I can say that the last three days have gone really well I think. Every day we get up and can’t wait to see them again, and the kids can’t wait to see the tablets we have with us. Don’t give me that look, I’m not above bribery right now, and those little things are magic in small doses. They’ve also been great ice breakers. One of the first interactions the kids initiated with us themselves was while we were eating lunch at KFC, they’re a chicken sandwich kinda place over here. Not an extra crispy chicken leg or cup of slaw in sight, *sigh*. We were waiting on our order (#Bashampartyof5 takes a wee bit longer to get food than #Amyandwhats-his-face)  when one of them figured out how to communicate to mom, “hey, uh, this would be a great time for one of those tablets…” Mom was on her toes enough to say tablets after we eat. How she got that across I have no idea, I was waiting to hear a number that I wasn’t 100% sure I was going to understand (they apparently made a note that we spoke English and called it out that way, thank you KFC…).

In the long waits between bouts of touchscreen fun we’ve done other really fun things with them. Day two we took them out of the house and to an indoor playground. Trampolines blow up slides, a gigantic jungle gym, the works, it was awesome…the kids had fun too. Amy and I both were able to keep up with them the whole time but the next day I woke up remembering that I’m not in my 20’s. Good times. After that hour+ of non-stop exercise we went to the mall for KFC and topped it off with some coffee. We enjoyed the coffee while they enjoyed the tablets, with us helping when we could and just generally trying to bond with them. Today we were blessed with good weather. We spent some time getting information from the foster mom and asking questions. Then, when the kids were good and bored with all the adults talking we took them to an outdoor park to play, got some pizza for lunch, and followed that with ice cream (most of this was just us and the kids). The pizza took a while to arrive so dad (yeah…that’s me) tried to kill time “acting” dumb and asking them how to say things in Hungarian. I’m actually pretty good at that type of acting. A natural, you might say. We had a few laughs and played a simple game while eating ice cream. Sadly, we then had to take them back home.

While we know we’re getting only the “good” parts right now and there will likely be rough days ahead of us in the short term (for them and for us), we’re just going to enjoy it and take the time to soak it all in. Tomorrow we start where we left off, one step at a time…with tablets.

Want to Share?

email

Twitter

Facebook