28. Our Honeymoon!- The Happy and the Sad

Mama S here- Hey everyone! Mama A and I just got back from our honeymoon! Yeah!! We went to Ireland and Scotland for 2.5 weeks and it was stunning. The weather was fantastic – barely any rain at all , the food was good, and the sights were stunning. I did lose my phone on our first tour day which was crummy, but I was happy it happened on the first day so I only lost 1 day of pictures, but our trip overall was what dreams are made of.

Back home, life was a bit rougher. P struggled with our being gone. We knew things were going to be hard, but we were just not fully prepared for what that meant. Leading up to the trip we talked about how long we were going to be gone, that we would call when we could, I wrote cards for each day telling her we love her and with questions about where we were that she could research and answer, and we talked about how much we love her and how we were going to miss her so much. A couple days before we left P and I had a conversation about if we were for sure coming back. I reassured her that we would for sure come back and that seemed to settle nerves a bit.

When we left things were OK. Then, the first day of our trip I lost my phone. That was our way of face timing every morning. We tried to face time but were rarely by WiFi at the right times and it got harder and harder as we were on tours on busses without reliable internet. Slowly but surely things got harder back home. Refusal to read, sassy comments, not listening, she stopped eating her usual amount, things at school got hard and the principle had to call home a few times, and everyone was miserable.

By the time we were coming home, everyone was stressed out and it was clear to everyone that we can’t go out of town for that amount of time ever again. We called the morning we got back and said we were back; just like that her attitude changed and she had a perfect day at school!

We learned many things by taking this trip. One of which is that we are bonded to a level that no one expected at such an early point. Mama A and I were so happy to be back at home with P and she was happy to have us back. Our family members learned that we are not crazy when we stress routine and they saw first hand what happens when the routine is not followed. Her school saw the behaviors that we have been preparing them for and planning on how to handle since before school started. The most wonderful part is that even though things were hard, the experience brought everyone on the same page and we can move forward as a more cohesive team.

We don’t know what the future holds. We don’t know if P will be with us for another month, 6 months, or longer. What we do know is that we will do everything in our power to show her security and the love she so desperately needs and craves. We will continue to partner with whoever we need to get her the support she needs and we will most definitely continue to partner with her biological parents to limit P’s feelings that she has to “choose” between them and us and so that no matter what happens we can continue to be a support for this wonderful little lady.

Thank you for reading! I have about a million topics to write about but will try to space them out