Homecoming

We were up bright and early on Monday to catch the 6:23am bus to the airport. Jacob wasn't a fan of being up that early, but he did fine. At the airport, Jacob had a great time watching the airplanes take off and land. Our flight left at 10:30, and it seriously couldn't have gone smoother. We ate and played for a couple hours. Then he slept for a couple hours. Then he played quietly for the remainder of the flight. The flight was a total of 13 and a half hours. And he was GREAT. It was so uneventful, that I don't have much to say about it. He cried a little at the very end when we were landing and his ears were popping, and he refused to drink some water or eat his lollipop. Plus he was so tired. Then we had to go through immigration. When you bring in a newly adopted child who has an immigrant visa and not a US passport, you have to travel with an immigration packet that has a ton of info in it. So after the first immigration officer looked through our paperwork, we had to go to a second one who did the exact same thing. Then we got our bags and went through customs. The first customs officer required us to go through another customs line to have our bags x-ray'd and ask us some more questions from a second customs officer. Thankfully, they didn't require a full search of our bags. Finally, a third customs officer welcomed Jacob to the US. Whew. That process took like an hour. We headed out to our car, and it was obvious how incredibly tired Jacob was.

And then there was the carseat. OH MY GOODNESS. He has obviously never been in a carseat in his life. When we strapped him in, he screamed like a wild animal. For the next 20 minutes, he screamed and cried and tried to break loose from his carseat. You would have thought it was eating him! Poor kid. I pulled out the ipod touch and showed him how to play a game. That quieted him down for a few minutes, until he let out a tired cry and feel asleep for the remainder of the drive home (which was about 3 hours total).

When we got home, Elijah ran out to us and got so excited to see Jacob. He kept saying "Jacob!" and pointing to him. It was cute to watch. Elijah was so excited and Jacob was checking Elijah out. Elijah has a very sweet and loving nature. He loves to make people laugh. And Jacob warmed up to him right away. It wasn't long before they were playing with trains and Elijah was making Jacob laugh. Elijah was showering him with hugs and kisses. Elijah also showed him the ropes. It was easier to show Jacob what we were doing when we did it with Elijah first. For example, we were able to get in our first good teeth brushing because Elijah showed him it is no big deal. And the bath was adorable. The boys had a blast playing in the water! And at night when we were saying our prayers, Elijah reached over and gave Jacob a huge hug, and that made Jacob very happy. It also made Mommy and Daddy very happy. And now we are in the playroom watching as they are playing and laughing.

Sleep went pretty well too. Probably out of sheer exhaustion, but we went to bed around 9, and woke up around 6. Rob and I are still exhausted, but that was way more sleep than I thought we would get. I slept in the bed with Jacob, and Rob slept on the floor. He is used to sleeping on the floor with his foster mother, so it will take some time to transition him to sleep in his room by himself. He took to the bed no problem, but I doubt he will sleep alone for at least a few weeks.

He was mostly potty trained while in Korea, but once we got him, he regressed. Once he is ready, it will probably be pretty easy since he has been potty trained before, and Elijah is already potty trained. However, he pee'd in a plastic cup for this foster mother while in Korea rather than in the potty. I am not sure why. However, he pooped in the potty. Maybe that's a cultural thing. He did pee 1 time in the potty for us in Korea. We switched him to cloth diapers right after his bath, and he actually smiled when we put on the cloth diaper. I don't blame him. Those pull-ups do not seem comfy.

The language barrier isn't so bad. Jacob catches on pretty quickly with everything. He can catch the gist of what we are trying to say. He seems to be very smart. He catches on quickly, and learns fast.  Jacob even tries to repeat English words that Elijah says. Rob took the boys for a run in the stroller this morning. They had a blast. When they came back, Elijah said, "Mommyyyyyyy!" And Jacob looked at me and said, "Mommy!" with a huge smile. I almost cried. He finally said my name! 

We are still struggling with getting him to self-feed. Sometimes he does it, but a lot of times he doesn't. I think this is another area of regression, but I think it might be mixed with some cultural issues that we are not aware of. We figured some of the cultural issues were with him needing the head male to eat first, and with turning your head from an elder. When he does self-feed, he looks to us for approval before almost every bite. Some more of i could be that the food is new to him. He seemed unfamiliar with some of the fruits that we have. 

So here we are. Watching our boys bond, and getting to know our Jacob. I can't wait to see what the days ahead bring.