Ok, this is going to be a hard one to write about, but I will do my best to record it.
We all slept very well again last night, but woke up to tears this morning from the little guy. He woke up, looked at us, looked around, and started to cry. He had done the same the previous morning, only this time, it was quite a bit harder to calm him down. He did rally, though, and gave us some smiles and a couple laughs. He has been expressing his opinions rather well for a non-talker, and we are of course paying close attention to every little sign.
We went down for breakfast, and he didn't have much of an appetite. He ate a bit of the pancake, maybe about a silver dollar size, and some fruit, but that was about it. Very little to drink. We headed back up to our rooftop toddler party palace, and the tears started to flow some more. We pulled out every trick we had and all our toys, but he was a sad one today. It surprised us, but then again, not too much. We were more expecting this kind of sadness yesterday, but had a fabulous day then instead. Every kid is different, of course, and every situation is different, and I guess this was the day for some sadness. With someone his age, we couldn't really ask him what was the matter. We just assumed it was him missing his foster mother, but then again: was it the wrong kind of formula? Was it the wrong kind of nipple on the bottle? Did he really not like pancakes? Was he working out a #2, and having a rough go of it because of being in a new place and not knowing what was going on, and eating such a huge breakfast yesterday? It could have been any of those things really, but we were really thinking it was just sadness.
I remembered back when Mario and Erik were really young. Mario was 3 and Erik 2. I was volunteering for Vacation Bible School at our parish. I put them in Junior Camp for the week, which was set up for the little kiddos of parents volunteering at the camp. They were not very used to being without me, but everyone gave them lots of positive attention and plenty of popsicles. They did ok for about a day or two, Mario better than Erik, but after that, they didn't want to get far away from me at all. They had just had it after a certain amount of time, and then would not leave my side, even if it meant walking back and forth the field with me 100 times. So, I was thinking today that our little guy was maybe experiencing something like that. He just really wanted his foster mother back.
Anyway, we pulled out everything from our bag of tricks, and nothing much worked other than holding him and walking around and around and around. Jerry took a shift, then me, then Jerry, then me, through much of the morning. Even still, tears and sobs would appear. At one point while Jerry was holding him he fell asleep. It was nowhere near naptime, but we did not argue! Jerry managed to sit down with him for a little while, but after maybe fifteen minutes I think, he woke up again, and sobbed. We even saw some anger this morning. We would try to distract him with a toy or whatever, and he would get all red in the face and arch his back and holler loud that he was not amused. Nothing was really working. Not that we are the best parents in the entire world, I'm sure, but we are experienced parents of two other boys, and have a few tricks in our bags. He fell asleep again during one of my walking around shifts, and I managed to lie down on the sofa with him. We stayed put for probably a couple hours which is amazing but true.
I just lay back listening to the sounds: our little one's breathing, the literally never-ending sound of car horns honking, car alarms going off, police or maybe ambulance sirens blaring, motorcycle engines reving. I even heard the ice cream man coming by pushing his cart with his bells jingling. There was also some banging like hammering happening somewhere nearby. Mostly though it was the sounds of traffic. The breeze felt nice and managed to keep me relatively cool, considering that I had a sleeping toddler on my tummy for two hours.
During one of the prolonged crying spells of the morning, we called Ileana to see if she could arrange it with the foster mother to come earlier. As much as we wanted to spend as much time with our son as we could, we didn't want to unnecessarily prolong his sadness. It being Saturday morning, his foster mother was out at the market, though, and didn't make it much before the previously scheduled pickup time of 3:30.
It wasn't all tears and sadness, luckily. We did get some smiles and games periodically, but after all the frivolity of Friday, it was not very much. We expected that as soon as he saw his foster mother, he would just run to her and cling for dear life. That didn't happen. He was quite tranquil. When she arrived, I was walking around with him in my arms. After a minute of him just not making any movement like he wanted to get down, I set him on the ground, thinking that then he would run to her. That didn't happen either. So, I picked him up again and walked over and set him in her arms. It is making the tears want to fall from my eyes just thinking about it, but I am just going to try to continue and get it all down for the record.
We told her again and again how healthy we thought he looked and how it was obvious that she was taking excellent care of him. We thanked her again and again. Then we said goodbye, gave him another thousand kisses for the road, and they were gone.
I managed to hold off the tears until he was around the corner.
In a very kind attempt to boost my spirits, Ileana suggested that we go to KFC. That's right: Kentucky Fried Chicken. Tegucigalpa has all sorts of fast food, I think every kind you can imagine. And since I have already eaten KFC in eight countries, we joked with her earlier in the week that I would have to visit the Colonel in Tegus in order to make it nine countries. She very thoughtfully suggested that we head over to KFC, which we did.
The Colonel did not disappoint. I had the popcorn chicken with rice and beans on the side and a bisquit. Lots of ice in my diet pepsi too. They have a huge playplace for kids, and there were several birthday parties that we saw. It was a nice diversion.
Let me talk some about Ileana. She is absolutely wonderful. I could not imagine doing this without her. She has made everything happen for us: driving, translating, sightseeing, shopping, everything, everything, everything, and she is really very very special.
So we're now back at the hotel. We're just about all packed up, and are waiting to skype with the boys. Our flight is tomorrow at noon.