We watched a movie in the living room and blew up the giant air mattress for Ro and I to sleep on - Charlie got the couch. He had an extremely hard time settling down to sleep, playing quietly for a couple of hours before finally going to sleep, and he called out in the night. And, unfortunately, he woke up EARLY - 5:30 - but the two of us made pancakes together before I returned him to the Dursleys before church.
Grace was away at camp for American Heritage Girls, so we just had this one-on-two time with Charlie. We were exhausted by the time it was over, but it was a great evening.
The following week, we attended our first therapy session with Charlie and Mr. Dursley, a sort of passing of the baton so to speak. Mr. Dursley again brought a load of his things over - mostly puzzles and toys and clothes... because the following day would be MOVE-IN DAY.
Charlie moved in to our home on Friday afternoon, November 4th, with a WELCOME HOME CHARLIE sign on the front door. The Dursleys brought him over after school. Robert and Chris were at a concert out of town that night and Josh was working, so Grace and I took him to the library again and had dinner at Good Times.
The first couple of nights, he really had trouble settling down again for sleep time. He was put to bed before 8pm both nights (his standard bedtime is 7), and stayed up very late playing in his room. He was still awake the first night when I went to bed at 10 or 11. Both times he woke up at 4:30 a.m. the next morning. AYAYAY! We're too old for that! He did settle down after that, thankfully!
On Saturday we decided that although we were all tired, we'd still go on a hike with the AHG group. He handled it pretty well and seemed to enjoy being outdoors, although he was pretty tired on the last leg back to the trailhead (and we only did half the hike!).
(How I wish I could show you more pictures - the one of us making pancakes together is one of my favorites! - but he isn't ours... yet.)
You may remember that back at the beginning of this process, although we came to find out about Charlie through the family who was adopting his brother, the powers that be were concerned about interaction between the two boys. Because of that, we decided to avoid that altogether this first week of his arrival, and we visited a different neighborhood church on Sunday. Charlie did very well, playing quietly throughout the service with Wikki Stix. He loves touch - I don't think the Dursleys were big cuddlers - and I noticed that some of his nervous habits and tics would disappear when I would gently rub his back or neck or head, at least for a time.
The rest of the week was spent trying to establish a new routine. Getting three kids to three different schools at three different times (one of which is on the south side of town) (thank goodness Chris can get herself to school), mediating between the two youngest for lap time on Mama, making weekly therapy appointments and CASA appointments, getting ourselves established as new faces at Charlie's school... it was exciting and new and very, very busy, but we survived week 1 with nary a blemish.
As a family now of six.
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