First Days Home

When we picked Joshua up at the orphanage he sounded pretty congested and had a little cough but after coming home and visiting the doctor we found out that he had a double ear infection also.  That would explain why we had such a miserable plane ride home, poor little guy.  He was so good for us in the Philippines, with only a few tantrums only when he was hungry or tired.  We were even able to take him to the mall a couple of times and even the aquarium.  He seemed to love going out and exploring new places.  He never cried when we were out.  Then it came time for our plane ride home.  We had an 8 hour layover in Taiwan after our 3 hour flight from Manila and then another 10 hours of flying home to Seattle.  That made for a really long day/days.  We tried to get Joshua to take a nap in his stroller while we were waiting at the airport in Taiwan, but he was way too distracted to sleep.  I wasn’t feeling very well either and was pretty tired.  Luckily there was a hotel inside the airport so we rented a room for a few hours and both me and Joshua were able take a little nap.  I didn’t realize at the time how much I was going to need that nap.  Because of his ear infections and all the distractions, Joshua didn’t sleep for more than a couple hours the whole way home.  Jason and I took turns holding him and walking him up and down the aisles while the other person tried to sleep.  Needless to say it was a really long trip.  Here he is pretty happy before we left the Manila airport.  That plane trip was actually very pleasant.

Jason’s dad picked us up at the airport and because we had to go through immigration and have someone look over all of Joshua’s paperwork, we didn’t get home until after 8pm.  The girls were patiently waiting for us to get home along with my mom, who was so nice to come and stay with the girls while we were gone.  They made a nice “Welcome Home” sign for us and Joshua and even had flowers for us.  Joshua took a good nap on the way from the airport to our house, so he was actually somewhat happy when we got home.  The girls were so excited to meet him and followed him around wherever he went and laughed at every little thing he did.  They were so excited to show him his new toys and everything else around the house.

I don’t really remember a lot about the first few days we were home with him.  I got really sick and had a fever and was pretty tired and dizzy from the jet lag.  Joshua was also pretty sick and miserable.  Thank goodness we had my mom with us for an additional week.  She helped out so much.  I know she was frustrated at times, not knowing what she could do to help, but she did a lot more than I think she realized.  I think there was a short while where Joshua treated my mom and myself as if we were his caregivers from the orphanage.  Every time either of us walked in the room he would throw himself backwards and throw a tantrum expecting us to give him food or a bottle.  He wouldn’t do it with Jason or the girls, just my mom and I.  I’m not sure how they did things in the orphanage, but I have a feeling they comforted the kids a lot with food and bottles because he definitely seemed to expect it from us.  He also started waking up every couple hours at night screaming until he got a bottle.  We eventually had to wean him off the bottle at nighttime so we could get some sleep.  It only took a couple nights of him screaming for about 10 minutes several times and he has been fine ever since.  

Another quirk that we can’t figure out is that Joshua was deathly afraid of water.  We tried to give him a bath and he screamed like he was going to die.  He wouldn’t even touch the water.  I’m thinking they just used a sponge in a little tub in the sink and never used running water or something like that.  I decided to put my Occupational Therapy education to good use and slowly get him use to water by making it fun.  We got some towels out and a couple bowls of water and lots of toys and sat down on the kitchen floor with the girls and with Joshua in Jason’s lap and we all played in the water while he watched.  After about an hour he finally reached in the bowl to get his favorite ball that had sunk to the bottom.  I guess he realized that wasn’t so bad and eventually he was splashing around and having a blast.  The next step was me getting in the bathtub with him the next day with the bowls of water and we slowly started to fill the tub up.  He cried getting in the tub but was fine after a little bit and played as long as he was in my lap.  The next time I got in with him but slowly got him off my lap and he was ok as long as I was close by.  We did this a couple times and now he will take a bath with his sisters and seems to really enjoy it.  Now maybe we will be able to take him swimming this summer.  

Here are some photos of Joshua’s first time playing in water:

Here’s one of my mom with Joshua the day she had to fly home:

The girls were so sad to see her go.  They sure enjoyed having her here.  About a week after she left us we had a “Welcome Home Joshua” party for our friends and family to come and meet him.  My Filipino neighbor made some Filipino food and I made some also and we showed everyone Joshua’s life book.  We got a lot of nice gifts for him and even got some bags full of nice hand-me-downs which I was very thankful for.  Between those things and all the clothes my sister has sent, I don’t think I’ll ever need to buy him clothes.  Joshua did really well at the party.  We made it an open house so there weren’t too many people there at once.  He is a very social little guy and seemed to love the attention.  He gets shy when he first meets someone but it doesn’t take him long to warm up and become their best bud.