This day had no preordained plans and it was up to the families what they wanted to do. Anyone that knows us, knows that given a choice we will be as lazy as possible and stay at home and do nothing......so that is what we did. This had more to do with us all adjusting as a family than with us being lazy though. Many of the other families were going back out shopping. Although we could have used more gifts and would have loved to join them, we didn't think it was wise to drop the boys back off at the care center. We didn't want to lose any of the headway we had made with Seb. We also couldn't take them with us as it is against custom to take small children out in public. I certainly was not ready to take care of the boys on my own. There was no way I would let Mike go out for us. So, The Bailey's kindly offered to do some shopping for us and we had them pick up a few items while they were out and we couldn't have done a better job ourselves.
There wasn't much to tell or describe from this day. We just spent good old fashioned bonding time together. Playing in the front room, in the courtyard grassy area and swinging on the swing. We fed the boys rice cereal and formula. They ate on our laps for meals. Ben with no teeth and Seb with two, enjoyed the injera and wat, but to this day hated eggs. They smiled and cried and pooped and smiled and cried and played and pooped. We were really settling in. Tomorrow we would have to say goodbye to our wonderful travel mates. A new group would be coming in. We were staying a couple of extra days because of flight availability. The Hilton may have been a better option as the next group was HUGE, but not knowing that ahead of time, it did allow us the chance to meet more people. That night another couple from CA would arrive. They really reminded us of home as they were from San Diego and the typical cool, surfer So. Cal folks. They would have the other small room across from ours until our group left and that night and following day we shared the bathroom. We gave them the overview - the lay of the land- and they scoped out the rooms to see which they would take when our group left and before their group arrived. We had dibs on the Bailey's room which was closest to ours, but a bit bigger and had its own bathroom.
It was nice to have a down day to take things easy. The previous days, although enjoyable, seemed like we were rushing from here to there. So much to do, but no time to digest or think about the events of the week or the experience. This day....we could breathe and kind of soak it all in. I think it was this night that Mike and Nathaniel went out after dinner to pick up some Metro Pizza. We were ready for a little taste of home and pizza seemed the best way to accomplish this. Anna and Heather helped me keep an eye on the boys until the guys returned with our snack. We enjoyed the company of our travel group and I was sad knowing that we would all be retreating to our own parts of the country tomorrow and the following days.
+++++Fast forward a year......being it is Saturday and the perfect day to celebrate, we are going to celebrate becoming a family today. We are going to spend every moment of today grateful that we found each other and thankful that we are a family. If the boys will cooperate, we will have their 2 yr. old picture professionally taken - hopefully it won't be a crying, screaming, tortured look like the last time. We will go out to lunch. We will come home to our nice backyard and CA weather and set up their little pool and relax for the rest of the day. Life is good!!!
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