One month ago...

At about 10pm, exactly one month ago, I was reunited with my husband at the Milw airport after being separated from him for 20 days. Elijah finally got to see his Papa again. Unfortunately, both of us (me and Elijah) were too tired from almost 30 hrs of travel that our reunion was very tearful. He was crying because I had to take him out of the Ergo, where he was napping, in very cold wind and put him in a carseat for the first time ever. He calmed down fairly quickly and got back to sleep. I was tearful for many reasons...I was very happy to see Pat! I was also SO relieved to finally see him and know we were only a couple hours from home after the stressful travel day we had. (It had gone well up until we got to O'Hare, but it was still stressful as any flight across the ocean would be with a child you hardly know.) I just couldn't hold it together anymore. And quite frankly, I was ticked. I was ticked that our flight from O'Hare was delayed, delayed, delayed and finally cancelled after the gate agent assured us it would go out that night. I was ticked we had to take an hour and half bus ride to Milw. I was also ticked for selfish reasons now that I'm a month out from it. I felt like I was "robbed" of the family reunion at the airport with my kids, lots of photos and lots of friends and family there to welcome us home. It was going to be my big emotional moment when I could finally let it all go because we were all together again. Kind of a closure if that makes any sense. Like that first moment after I've had a baby and all the kids come to the hospital to see their new baby sibling and we're all together again. I guess I'm still grieving that "loss" in some ways as I can't bring myself to watch other people's airport homecoming videos on their blogs since I've gotten home. BUT....God knew. God knew that perhaps it would completely overwhelm Elijah and me. God had His reasons. Of course, the most important part is that we got HOME!  It was anti-climatic, but we got HOME. :-) Plus, it was one less blog post that I needed to do! LOL

So, anyway, sorry for the downer opener to this post. I don't think I ever blogged that, so I just wanted to share so you all know how selfish my heart can be!  But, of course, I know you all want to see photos!

I'm posting some photos from January 2nd and some from January 28th. You can't help but notice how Elijah's cheeks have filled out! It's amazing to me what a lot of love and some good nutrition can do for a child!  (My back can tell he's filling in too!)

January 2nd when Auntie Debbie so graciously volunteered to come and watch Elijah and Rachel so I could go see the kids' rescheduled Christmas program at church.



January 2nd when a BEAUTIFUL blanket that Mrs. S knit for him. Thank you so much for your thoughtfulness!

 

Elijah and Rachel are getting along MUCH better these days! Thank you so much for praying!
(Btw, don't you wish you had his flexibility???)

Dress up time! Love those cheeks!!!

Forgive me for the little buff colored rectangles in some of hte following photos...It's info about the photo and I used SnagIt to grab a low resolution copy of the photo and didn't realize it was there. Then of course, now blogger won't let me upload new photos to replace them and I really just want to get this done and go to bed. So, we'll have to live with it. Sorry!

Our friend, Ben, teaching Elijah how to use the video game controller. :-)

Brothers were made to wrestle each other, right?



Yes, they can be this close to each other and not be crying. God is Good!



Rebekah always has a hug for Elijah!

Having fun with Auntie Debbie!