HOME!

After a VERY long flight and lots of drama I will cover in another post, we finally made it HOME.

Maia is doing GREAT!  Other than a few issues with eating, you would have never guessed she just came home two days ago.  She's so laid back and really goes with the flow.  (Part of this is institutional, so we are working with her on getting involved and communicating with us in little spurts.)  She has figured out how to tell us when she wants more food and she will crawl up to us and put up her hands when she needs some extra attention.  

She has taken especially well to Nathan, and he to her.  Something tells me they will be best buds.  Alex is a little momma and tries to do everything for Maia.  She will bring her the bottle, share toys with her, and talk to her in a sweet little momma voice.  Maia, however, wants nothing to do with her yet, lol.  

In an effort to not throw the balance of the family off too much, we have been spending a lot of individualized time with our bios.  They are LOVING all of the extra attention.  This is easy to do now because Maia needs lots of time to herself to watch things from a distance.  When she starts getting involved more I'm sure we will have to find a balance.  Right now I spend about 5 minutes one-on-one with her every hour and that's as much as she can handle.  The rest of the time she's playing with the kids or watching them from across the room.  This gives me time to get some housework done and pull Nathan and Alex aside for extra loving.  

It almost feels like she's been here all along.  She really does fit right in.  

Nathan takes his job of "big" brother very seriously with Maia.  We were a little concerned that he would have trouble adjusting to her, but that hasn't been the case at all.  He is caring, gentle, and very understanding with her.  He has lots of questions about the noises and motions she makes, but they are just curiosity.  And I answer them at least 10 times a day.  lol.

We explained to Nathan on the first day home that Maia doesn't know how to be gentle yet.  Without knowing it, she will kick, hit, and scratch us if we aren't keeping a careful eye on her.  This is all institutional and has already greatly decreased.  We told Nathan that we have to teach Maia how to have "gentle hands" and "gentle feet" because she didn't learn how in the orphanage.  He will intentionally get close to Maia and when she reaches for him he will show her how to be gentle.  I'm so blow away by how understanding he is with her.

Alex wants to be involved so badly and (as always) will do everything Nathan does.  Even with her interactions with Maia.  She loves to make Maia laugh and get RIGHT in her face and talk to her, lol.

I know we are still in the honeymoon phase with this whole thing, but we are so blessed with how well all three kids are handling this transition.  God is definitely watching over us.  We are, however, getting a little stir crazy already.  Even Maia does better after a quick walk around the block to get out of the house.