At three minutes after 8 am this morning, Hope Faith became legally our forever child. We celebrated by going back to the hotel and swimming. Hope had several bouts of "I don't want to be adopted", intermixed with "I want to go home" and one " I hate you! You are an ugly Mommy". She really likes the water and even let me catch a couple of quick cuddles while we were "swimming". When we came back, Hope put on panties and informed me she was too big for pull-ups. Seven hours later, she is accident free. We drove to have lunch with Mom in the Trench and 6 of her children. We found a Mcdonalds with a play ground and the kids had a blast. GB, as usual, tried to run everything and MITT's kids were happy to let her. I will go on the record- MITT is as smart in person as on her blog. I had a really good time.
About the time the girls had about enough of everything, it was time to go anyway. Hope started showing her aggression and anger- and she has a lot of both. She definitely feels safer around men. She was pushing, hitting and poking GB, so GB's Dad took her for a walk. Hope dissolved into a wild mess of fear. She was screaming, flailing on the floor, and throwing things. When I was silly enough to get close, she scratched, kicked and hit me. She tried to bite me, but I saw it coming. When the Dad came back, Hope melted into his arms. It took an hour for her to truly calm down. GB is even closer to the edge then she was... she doesn't take physical aggression well. We have to figure out a better system for protecting her- especially in the car. Sometimes I will be driving and then there will be no safety officer protecting GB. Today was a much better day than I had any right to expect.
9 comments:
Congratulations on having Hope join the family. It is a shame she is so physical with her aggression. But it is a blessing that she has decided to wear the big girl underwear. I will keep you three in my prayers.
It was so good getting to look at you while I talk to you! I want to keep all of your experience in my back pocket. Your kids are beautiful. I am sorry for the aggression. This is the first day of healing. :) I pray you have an uneventful trip home.
Wow! Love the picture of you three! What an amazing journey this is, thank you for sharing it with us all!
Congrats all around, looking forward to hearing more. Have a safe trip back
PS I was hoping you lived that close to the fair grounds we will so hook up!
Congratulations! I've been quietly reading along and today seems as good as any to de-lurk!
Congrats! She is a beautiful child. Thank-you for sharing your amazing story with us!
I think I'd yell and scream and hit and say hateful things, too. But I know you know that she's got to experience what she's feeling. In a way, I see it as a good sign of her mental abilities; she has a clue what being adopted means, and that she *should* be mad at the whole thing.
Something overall just doesn't feel right. If she was more attached to dad, how come he was as happy and smiling as anything just hours from when she would be leaving him forever? But perhaps it is that he didn't care and his lack of caring came out as less discipline, which made him more attractive.
One thing was clear to me. They weren't in the kind of town to be able to get any of the services Hope needed.
Have a safe and uneventful trip home.
I'm praying for Hope (and all of you.) What a difficult time this will be for her (and all of you.)
Post a Comment