Sam Sibley: Days 1 and 2

Since this picture was taken so early on May 2nd, it counts as being part of "Day 1". It may not look like much, but it was a nostalgic moment for me. I remember getting all weapy on Sept 5, 2008.. sitting on my plane at the Bogota airport with a 4 mo old Lucas on my lap when he was about to leave his country.. and I remember making one of those silent promises that we would be back soon and that I wouldn't be one of those people who lets their children forget where they came from. So.. it made me happy to see my little boy looking out the window of the airplane, now 5 years old, and finally being back in the city he was born!



So I still remember Henry after 5 years. He was a great driver for us back when Lucas was a tiny baby, and we were so excited to see him holding a sign and waiting for us at the airport after our long journey! Here we are safe in the van and on our way to El Refugio in the early morning hours.



When we arrived at El Refugio, we went straight to sleep for 2 hours. We were awakened by the sounds of group breakfast below, and we emerged to chug the coffee. Once that was done, Ted took the boys out in search of "postre" (sweet baked goodies basically.. a.k.a. cookies in the case) to help motivate Ben to stay potty trained through all of this. While they were out, I got to showering and moving into our room. Carmen arrived about an hour later, letting us know we were leaving for presentation at 11am or so.

A little word about presentation. Presentations are a lot easier when you have no kids.. or when you have older kids. What you didn't see in those photos (and what I assume most people also don't photograph when they do this with multiple little people) is all of the 30 minutes of insantiy prior to Sam walking into the room. A few considerations:

1. We thought we were being smart getting L and B each a "present" from Sam to help distract. This was basically a good thing, except that these presents happened to be Star Wars action figures, which resulted in pretty much every staff member of Fana being "blasted".

2. Do you know how hard it is to keep a 5 and 2 yr old boy(s) clean that long? In new dress pants? In the raining season?

3. They hadn't slept much.

4. Ben fell off the leather sofa approximately 30 times.

5. Ben attacked Flor with a Storm Trooper (that was our "low" moment of parenting for the day). She was gracious and reminded me that she has worked with children for decades.. but STILL.. ya don't attack a leader of Fana with a Storm Trooper.

6. The Green Room is full of pretty framed photos of hundreds of happy families and their children from Fana. You can guess how that went with my children present.

7. We had to meet with the head nurse at Fana to do the final go through of all of Sam's medical stuff. This was done with 2 whiny children hanging from Ted's neck. We hadn't thought through that this was directly during nap time when they were already sleep deprived. We were in the zone and thinking like newbies or something? Parenting 101 had escaped us.

So after the presentation and the happiness and clapping and crying.. all 5 Sibleys reported back to our room to nap like we had never napped before.. which I suppose is a very truthful statement, as we 5 SIBLEYS had never all napped together before!!

I couldn't resist at least one picture of Sam out cold.



Following our power napping, we went out for Sam's "Gotcha Day" celebration. He had been in pleasant enough spirits up to this point, which is remarkable since strange people just came into his home and took him out of it. It was during this window when the smiles stopped and the scared face started and went on for the majority of the rest of the night. Completely understandable, and actually a good sign to see he was nervous. The other two, made up for it like eating at Crepes and Waffles was their new favorite job. Mommy even had a small glass of vino blanco to celebrate.



When we got back last night, Sam was pretty overwhelmed which was very understandable! He and I did some quiet time while we waited for dinner. After dinner (which was past Sam's fana bedtime) Sam decided that it was now time to party loudly. Lucas actually became rather annoyed with him at this point, as all were tired and snuggled into our beds in the dark, and Sam was standing up in his crib yelling at everyone and dancing and waving with great enthusiasm. After 5+ or so returns to his crib to lay him down and remind him what time it was, he finally chilled out and played with his feet and things got quiet. All 3 Sibleys slept quietly through the night, which is a small miracle considering the days events.

This morning, we power walked around or corner of Bogota. The boys were very excited about their new umbrellas and Sam has adjusted much more to the feeling of the Ergo carrier. In typical Sibley fashion as his brothers before him, he got all snuggled in.. took in the sights of the neighborhood, and checked out.

Check out some pics of the Sibleys on the streets!



Sam is a real champ with his toys. Here he was showing us how he does shapes this morning, and Lucas was "helping" him.



Tonight we plan just to go get some shopping done for everybodys various pottying needs and some snacks.. and then for our first skype with Grammy and Papa Holl!!