Sam Sibley: Day 4

I changed it up and actually typed this up at night which I generally don't do.. but this afternoon the bliss of sitting on a random toddler bed in our room and enjoying the quiet while the now FOUR Sibley men slept was just too tempting.

So here is our update!

Last night, we met up with Ted's friend Juan from MMI, at what was found to be the wrong mall. While waiting for Juan and his kids to catch up to our wrong-ness, we harrassed the local Colombians outside who were minding their own business. We amused them greatly by falling out of trees and falling into landscaping.



This is us breaking pretty much every child restraint rule of the USA.. while in Colombia, you ride as the Colombians do.



Okay so changing gears.. there are things about being here and entering in to a toddler's attachment process that are challenging. Sam really struggles with transitions. He is a little ball of sunshine during play time, when he is free to toddle about and play with what he wants. That all changes when something needs to be done or we need to go someplace. This is when the difficult part of adoption comes out because he is terrified every time he doesn't know what is coming next. I have spent hours pacing while he screams.. and although I understand why he is screaming and where that is coming from, the surrounding Colombians do not. It is hard to be starred at while your child grieves, but it is just a part of the process. I remember it with Ben, and he came out the other side and it will come with time for Sam as well. Luckily for me, Sam is so much lighter that it is not nearly as physically taxing this time.

Lucas and Ben have been superstar big brothers. They love to play with him and encourage him, and I am so thankful! Here is an example.



We have also learned that Sam enjoys the occasional play time in his own space with his own stuff. This makes sense, since he spent a lot of time this way in his former life when he was on lockdown with his various bouts of bronchitis etc. This picture gives you an idea of just how little space he takes up in a pack and play compared to his older brother!



Here are a few pictures from Sam's play time with his brothers today, while they were talking to Uncle Evan on skype! So friends and family, if you want in on this action, every night at 6pm we are excited to chat with anyone who wants to watch our kids play and hear about their Star Wars guys, if they pooped in the potty that day, or how far they can push their car, or what kind of juice they picked out.. ya know.. the big deal stuff we do.



So tonight, Ted was doing night time prayers with Lucas and Ben, and they both decided that they all needed to go over to Sam's crib to do Sam's prayers for him that day. Besides Ben's commentary to God regarding vegetables, they thanked God for baby Sam and that he had a good day, and he was their brother, and that he wouldn't be sad any more about missing his friends because they love baby Sam.

This made my heart happy. God is good. He works in the hearts of little people to love other little people.

I leave you with something, however, that made my heart laugh really hard.

This is Dr. Ted Sibley, showing off some of his best parenting. Thank you, Ted, for your contribution.