A Family of Five Together at Last!

The ride home from the airport had us just a bit worried although admittedly everyone was tired and not feeling their best.  Claudia did quite well at the airport but became jealous when her new siblings were in the van.  She put up a bit of a fuss but settled down after a while.  I don't think anyone actually fell asleep in the van.

When we got home, the dog and cats that Milena had been excitedly talking about for 3 weeks terrified her to the point that she was shaking, jumped on the couch and tried climbing the curtains!  I had just a small inkling that it might happened but was upset when it did.  I wish I knew more about her past experiences.  I'm happy to say that now Milena loves all of the animals and has great relationships with them.  That was not the case at first!

The first night everyone slept quite well in their own beds.  The next day was spent getting to know each other as a family unit.  Claudia did surprisingly well as did the other children.  Milena was shy with Jason but the day went well.  That night I don't recall difficulty getting the children to bed but in the middle of the night Claudia climbed into Milena's bed with her and slept till morning.  Claudia seemed to really like having a big sister!  Jason and I woke early the next morning and were downstairs where we heard it... the crying!  We both ran upstairs to see what the matter was Milena and Claudia were both in the top bunk crying.  We asked Milena what happened but she shut down and would not respond.  Claudia was crying because Milena was crying.  They settled down quickly and we got them ready for the day.

That morning I had to get out and into a "real" store.  We really did need a few things and I was quite sure Milena would do OK if I took her with me.  I didn't want to leave Jason with all three kids by himself quite yet.  So he stayed home with the littles and I took Milena to Wal-Mart GASP!  She did very well except she wanted to touch everything!  As we were about half way through our shopping trip, Milena started talking to me in her broken English.  It took me a little while to understand what she was trying to say but she was telling me the story of what happened that morning in bed.  Milena said (I'm paraphrasing)

"Claudia came up into my bed, I told her to get down but she didn't listen (that happened earlier in the night.) Then (in the morning) Grace (the cat) jumped on the bed and Milena cry, Milena cry, Milena cry (remember she was terrified of the animals.)  Then Claudia cried and pushed the cat from the bed.  Mama and Papa came up and asked 'What happened, what, happend!"

Milena then proceeded to tell me this story about a dozen more times before we left the store.  BUT how awesome is it that she was able (and confident enough) to tell me that story!?!

At the checkout on our Wal-Mart adventure a middle-aged man with Down syndrome came behind us in line.  Milena took one look at him and pointed between herself and the man indicating she understood that they were "the same."  It was a sweet moment!

The early days of being home were mostly spent at home with several trips made to the local park so we didn't go too stir crazy. We spent a lot of time learning how to be a family.  Claudia took to her new brother and sister very quickly although she did get jealous when Jason would hold Aleks.  She always told Jason to "give the baby to mom."  Below are some pictures and a video from our park adventures.