Home Safe & Sound

Tired, but safe and sound.

Most of our 12 hr flight from Beijing to Toronto, Faith slept.  Not me…almost every 20 minutes, she would be uncomfortable, let out a little moan, I would find a spot that would work for her then she’d sleep for another 20 minutes or so.  When we arrived in Toronto, my cousin, hubby and 4 boys were there to greet us with a new pair of sparkly slippers – Faith was instantly in love with them!!!

The nights since we’ve arrived in Canada have been many sleepless nights, and no real routine.  We get 4 hours here, 3 hours there, but no consistent sleep.  It’s really draining on all of us, except for poor Noah.  He is all rested and ready to go and not quite understanding why Mom & Dad are so tired and not in the mood to play games or stay up and watch movies.  Poor guy….

Arriving home, Faith was so sweet checking out all of her things.  As soon as we came in, the house looked FANTASTIC…our house sitter did a TERRIFIC job (a BIG thank you for Caroline)!!!  Mimi, our dog, was VERY excited and wanted to jump up and lick but Faith was really unsure and a little scared.  We walked her down the hall and pointed out each room by saying: ‘Faith’s Room’, ‘Noah’s Room’, ‘Mama, Baba’s Room’, etc….she got it quickly and knew where her room was at.  We didn’t have very many toys out, thought it may overwhelm her.  She played (mostly with) her shoes and a little with her shopping cart and plastic play cutlery. 

We decided for Jacques to go to bed and I’d stay up with Faith (considering how much sleep she had on the flight and drive).  So I unpacked while Faith familiarized herself with home.  Every so often, she will stop what she’s doing, hold her hands up in the air with little fists, start to vibrate while screaming and laughing all at once.  MY Goodness, she’s probably so overwhelmed with all there is in our house (even though it’s not that big) thinking to herself, ‘what kind of princess castle am I in?’!!!

So for the past 3 nights, we’ve had very broken sleep and a child who is really trying to test the limits.  One morning she was really content, then this morning not at all.  She is NOT the same personality she was in China…wonder if this is normal?  I assume so….still sweet, but just testing more. I feel like I am in a fog, not knowing how to do this, on the verge of tears.  I KNOW it will pass…and hopefully it won’t take too long. 

Some things to remember since arriving in Canada:

Meeting extended family:  Wow, I guess I wasn’t really prepared for her to be SO open to go to my family when they came.  During the visit, I thought it was really sweet and was so happy for my family.  After we got to the airport, we soon realized that Faith wanted little to nothing to do with me.  When we got off the plane in Fredericton, I carried Faith and ran across the tarmac into the building where Jacques sister was there to greet us.  Faith VERY easily went to Linda’s arms…at this point; I kinda thought this was odd – considering the events of earlier that day.  Hmmm???  On the drive home, Jacques and I spoke and soon realized that maybe we had allowed Faith to go to other’s peoples’ arms a little too quickly and my heart was broken.  She NEEDS to know that WE (Jacques and I) are her ‘GO TO’ people (for a period of time) BEFORE others do this.  How could I have done her wrong like this, when I had read SO much about what TO DO and what NOT TO DO???  OK…don’t beat yourself up Tara….just make it better.  So we decided that if we had visitors, we would keep it to a single person at a time.  As well, if Faith was to motion to be picked up, or have something done for her, to the visiting person that they would direct her to Mama or Baba’s direction. 

Getting home:  She came in, walked around and is clearly scared of this 4 legged animal that keeps trying to jump on her and lick her.  She ate supper and explored.  Within 1 hour, she was found jumping on her bed while playing with her flower light, found ON the kitchen table, tried to squeeze through the baby gate, then carried a step stool over to the gate and tried to climb over it….oh boy, I have my hands full with this little peanut! 

 Canadian Food:  So far, she is still stuck on yogurt (which she pronounces VERY well now) & mandarin oranges.  Some new foods she loves are apple sauce & cheese.  She seems to want to start every meal with a yogurt…so I happily comply.  As for Mama’s homemade spaghetti, she wanted NOTHING to do with (until she had her fair share of yogurt and oranges) – then she gobbled it all up.

Words:  Her vocabulary is growing rapidly, it’s quite unbelievable.  She tries to imitate so many words but her pronunciation is not very good (will be asking the doctor about this for sure to get services lined up in the event we need them).  The most used words are Baba, Mama, Noah, shoes, NO, bu-bu (bye-bye accompanied by blowing kisses), ogr (yogurt), o alee (more please). 

So now we are home safe and sound and real life begins.  I will be starting a new family blog for our family of 4 to keep documenting progress, etc. (when time permits)!!!

For now….thank you for all your prayers, encouragement and ‘faith’ that our family would grow.  Here we are – WE MADE IT!!!

Much love,

Tara (Jacques, Noah and Faith, too)!!!

xox