This is my life.

I follow the blog of a fellow AAI family whose newest son and daughter happened to be VERY good friends with my boys at Layla! :0) Obviously S and & B love to keep updated on their friends and were amazed to see pictures of them in America with their new brother and sister. This lovely adoptive mom just wrote a post that IS. MY. LIFE. I'm was so glad and refreshed to read that someone else is there. That they just get it. I don't have to explain, they just understand because get this - she's living it too! Amazing!

Here is her post:

"We've been home nearly four weeks now and the kids have pretty much figured out how things work (like the TV remote, the sliding glass door, the dishwasher, the sprinkler system, the automatic car doors, moon sand, bike helmets, the shower, and virtually everything else in their new American universe). They are also pretty certain that we won't leave them or send them back and have really developed fairly strong attachments to us. Sometimes their attachment to me is so strong I think I may be crushed to death. "Mom..." precedes every word out of their mouths. If they want me to look at something amazing they've discovered (like, say, everything) they need to say "Mom, see" at least three times. If they come in from outside, they immediately say, "mom, mom, mom, mom..." infinitely until I respond, even if I'm upstairs. Thomas and Meredith aren't much different and now they need to work twice as hard to get my attention, so it seems like they say "mom" as much as Tinsaye and Solomon. One day last week it was lunchtime and I had already heard "mom" about 20 million times and I thought my ears would melt right off my head. I said, "Okay guys, I can't take it anymore. No one is allowed to say "mom" or ask for me for the next 10 minutes." It suddenly got eerily silent and (I was actually counting) after 9 seconds a tiny voice said, "...mom...?"

Okay, so they love me. Awesome. That means that they feel secure enough to move into Phase Two, which is characterized by a super fun game called "I wonder what she'll do if I __________?" and every 20 minutes or so there's a new activity to fill in the blank. For example, "I wonder what she'll do if I:
-refuse to get out of the pool?
-refuse to eat my lunch?
-refuse to do my math worksheet?
-pretend I don't hear her?
-pretend I didn't understand her English when she told me no?
-sneak off to the basement and watch TV on after I've been told to turn it off?
-ride my bicycle up to the front of the neighborhood alone without asking?
-cover my wall with stickers?
-take my sister's/brother's favorite whatever?
-ask one more time for something she's already told me NO 3 times?
-lay on the floor and cry?
-climb in her lap and cry?
-sit at the table and cry?

So far they've learned that I will drag them out of the pool, take away their lunch, make them do extra math, hide the TV remote, lock up the bike, make them clean the walls, make them apologize, continue to say no, and hold them when they cry. I am REALLY tired now and we are going through a LOT of kleenex. As exhausting as it is for me (physically, mentally and emotionally), I know we are making lots of progress. I'm just glad I'm a professional educator and experienced parent. I've had over 3,000 students try all this manipulative crap on me for the last 17 years and I don't fall for it. I've also had 10 years of experience as a mom and I can dish up plenty of love along with the discipline. But seriously, this is really hard work."

Here was my comment on her blog:

"You just wrote my life story. Amazing. Thank you! Seriously, I just read this outloud to my husband and he's laying on our bed shaking his head yes, amazed that someone else can put my life into words like this. I'm sooooo glad I'm not alone, although I must say, we've been home 6 weeks and it's not any better. Whew. Keep up the good work girl, I'm trying to stay strong as well! "