What is that they say? It takes lemons to make lemonade?

So, when I last checked in we were still in honeymoon mode (a term actually used in the adoption world). However, a little over 5 days ago, it ended very abruptly. Rory launched into his first of major 'episodes' as we call them. The first one was by far the worst and lasted hours. How do you comfort a child who is living in a world of loss? Rory has lost everything- his country, his climate, his friends, his caregivers, his language, his normal food, his routine, his school, his EVERYTHING. Yes, we are his parents and love him more than anything in the world, but there is no way to explain that to a four year old, much less one that speaks Creole! He hasn't been a part of a family in a very long time, and he just learning how things are supposed to work. He's spent the last 2 years taking care and fending for himself and now, he is trying to adjust to the fact that we make most of the decisions, and a lot he doesn't like :(

Brandon and I are totally exhausted either trying to deter an episode, meet one head on, or recover from the last one. However, they do end and the other 20 hours of the day are just fine. We've been prepped very well (as we are now finding out) by our agencies and literature recommended to us. This is very normal and we've actually been told that it's good that he's testing us this early, with hope that he'll learn to trust us that much quicker. This is by far the hardest thing that we've EVER done, and we have a long, long, long way to go before Rory feels comfortable here and with his new life.

With all that said, the roller coaster is still so awesome and totally worth it! There are still so many funny, sweet, priceless moments that happen every day that are completely worth the worst outburst on earth. Like today, I woke up with a fantastically huge zit on my face. Rory got out of his bath and was getting dressed when he noticed it. He grabbed my face with both hands and looked at me with those huge brown eyes and kissed me right on the zit. Before I could say "EWWWW- gross!" he said "mama ouch". Gulp. Then, today we were out in the backyard looking for a big stick and he was crouching and looking into the brush/treeline. I walked up and he shushed me. And I said "Pourquoi? WHY?" He said "rabbit mama bird mama" He was looking for animals:) . To bad we live in a suburban desert. Poor guy. We did venture out to walgreens the other day and I thought HOLY OVERLOAD! And we turned a corner to find something (can't remember what) and found ourselves smack dab in the middle of the toy aisle. Uh oh. I was sure he would be grabbing at everything. Not being a parent until just days ago, I never really realized how much more colorful the TOY and CANDY aisles are at stores. Anyway, Rory didn't notice. In fact, he didn't even show interest (which I'm sure will change). What did he go crazy fo at the walgreens? The stinkin' flashlights and reading lights! Oh, and the reading glasses.