So I don't have a lot of pictures from Defendor of Minors ("court") this morning.. mostly because I had all 5 Sibleys, our driver, our lawyer, and the actual 2 Defender of Minors squished into a small office.
Here is Ted and his hijos on our way to court. As you can see, none of them like each other.
So how was court? Chaotic to the standard of some folks, but for us, as good as one could expect with 9 people shoved in a small office where 3 of which don't handle being confined in dress clothes that well.
Sidebar: Our master plan of not dressing the children until we were 2 minutes from leaving the house almost backfired, but all made it to court relatively clean. That is, Ben did not have any giant mudskids on his stomach, face, knees, or back of head.. which is a normal day for us.
While in court they asked us many of the same questions as in the past, but they were also interested in our plans to handle all of these little boys and how Lucas and Ben were liking being big brothers. It was a solid mix of realism as well as optimism. Sam was quite happy to sit on Daddys lap the entire time, and interacted sweetly which is always a help. Lucas did his normal "I'm going to be super shy with adults I don't know thing", but he was so excited about his handheld game that I only let him have at strategic moments, that at least things were pleasant.
Ben, as expected, was the slightly more challenging character. He played his game briefly, but he also did all of the following things:
1. ran his face into the table and screamed about it
2. knocked an entire stack of papers off of the Defender of Minors desk
3. found and nearly ingested a paperclip but then showed it to me from his mouth. We have become experts at the "BEN SHOW ME WHAT IS IN YOUR MOUTH!!" It's usually random fuzz or something else gross.. but this time it was sharp metal. In court. I am competent parent. Honestly. :::insert sweet smile here:::
4. wandered out into the waiting area
5. drove his car all over our lawyer- the tallest colombian man I have ever seen
Lucas' only offense was whacking Sam for hitting him with a toy on accident.
So at the end.. the Defender was like "So you know you have 3 little boys now right?" They were also very happy that I am a stay at home Mom and intend to stay that way. Sam was sweet and happy through the entire event, which is really what the whole point is. We aren't all destined to be the first child, sitting quietly in court wrapped up in a blanket with the full attention of two parents. I appreciate that they realize and can read from Juanitas report that Sam is loved and will have a Mommy and Daddy and big brothers that love him for the rest of his life.. which is more than most of the kids in the system will ever have, especially kids with health and development issues. He seems pretty cool with the whole idea.
So I would have gotten an angelic photo of all of us post court, but we had to send all 5 Sibleys into a public Colombian restroom and that is a distracting event.
It should also be noted that our Colombian lawyer (very nice guy) was chatting with Sam and picked him up to hold him.. and Sam swung around quick looking for me and reached out for me with both hands. He actually looked a bit freaked.. but in his world he has only been with us a week, and he doesn't know it is permanent yet and probably won't for a long time. So if a big official Colombian picks you up.. it would make sense that you are being taken back or being taken someplace else.. and that's what his face read, at least to me. Given how much he has favored Dad, I get pretty excited when I see he likes me too.
Here are the 4 Sibley men, on our return.
On our way home, we witnessed our first Colombian motorcyle accident which was a bit scary. Luckily as we were making our way buy, people had jumped out of their cars and were getting the cyclist out from under/behind the car that he had rear-ended it seems. He seemed more freaked out that seriously hurt. The traffic is bad enough here that you never get going faster than about 30 mph, so when accidents happen they don't seem to be that severe. I think the car had to slam on its breaks and he couldn't react quick enough. Scary though! The cyclists whip in and out of traffic or between lanes here much worse than at home.
This afternoon, in celebration of our passing court, we will be taking the boys out for ice cream to a place down the street with a play center. It will be good times.
I have 3 Sibley boys sleeping while the Sibley man is out to change monies and buy more diapers. Mama is going to paint her nails, because its possible no one will touch me for the next 20 minutes! Rebel without a cause. Living on the EDGE.
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