Questions Answered and Jet-Lag

I am working at getting back into my groove.  I thought jet lag was instant. I thought I had done all the right things and skipped it. Umm no. I got back Saturday evening and Sunday I was up with the Sun and we were busy with Patience's birthday and then Monday Mike and I had our physicals done (required paperwork) and then Monday night it hit me... by about 5 pm it was like someone pulled the plug on me and ALL my energy drained away and I was down for the count.  It was freaky weird! I couldn't keep my eyes open or form a full thought.  Needless to say we had a very different night. The kids watched a couple of movies while I slept on the couch.  So being the inexperienced traveler that I am that was my first experience with jet-lag and I didn't like it. 
   The trip to meet the kids answered many of the questions I had about them and their needs and their personalities.  Talia is SO Beautiful!  She has a gentle spirit and she can look into my eyes like she is trying to see  my soul.  She is almost 9 years old (next month) and yet she is very small. I expected this and so that did not surprise me. She can walk without assistance but she tires easily and she does not have an easy gait. Her steps are a bit unsteady and I don't think she bends her knees while walking. It is sort of a "frankenstein" walk as she moves her body from side to side.  Her feet are very tiny!  Not proportionate to her body.  I am talking infant shoes and her clubbed feet have been corrected but it was a very poor surgery but not as bad as I had thought.  I took pictures of her feet to show the doctor and we will see what if anything can or should be done for them.  She has quite a few coping behaviors and I found out that when she was four she was placed in a very bad institution and she was there for a while before being transferred to an orphanage. Now she has again been transferred to the family care type home she is in now.  If not adopted she would again be transferred when she reaches adulthood.  Our feeling is that many of her behaviors and delays are due to being in the very bad institutional setting and that she would have been far more advanced if she had been in a better place during those early years.  I see the spark in her.  She can be affectionate and she wants to communicate.  She does not talk 'yet'.  But she plays and shows interest. She has definite likes and dislikes!  She makes eye contact. She can and will smile but she also can get very stressed with unfamiliar people and environments. It is when she is stressed that we see her coping behaviors.  All in all she was very much the way I expected her to be.  I did not know some of the details about her social  history and they are negative but Miss Talia herself is positive.  I am looking forward to watching this little rose bloom!
     Tobias.  Well Tobias has never been in a really bad institutional setting. He is considered "well developed" for a child with ds. He walks very well. He has excellent coordination and body awareness. He can be very determined.  He talks in his native language but can not always be understood.  He is funny and he knows it! He will start to do something naughty and will try to distract you when you tell him no. He knows when he is being naughty and he will smile this charming little smile to get himself out of trouble.  No doubts he is a handful!  He enjoys life and he has the most infectious belly laugh!  He takes things in stride and is happy. 
     So I now have the information about the kids and I am working up some strategies on making the long trip home as easy and stress free as possible.  I believe with some forethought and careful planning it will be ok.  One of my biggest issues is with Talia's food.  I want to make it as close to what she is used to as possible but yogurt (not the sweet kind) mixed with rice and spinach or vegetables is not on the menu for the plane and I don't know if it will be possible for me to bring it with us.  I definitely don't want her to get hungry on the long trip home.  New places, lots of unfamiliar people, cooped up in a plane for several hours and HUNGRY?  No! Mama will find a way to work this out.  The airlines do offer specialized foods for people with exceptional dietary requirements so I will be contacting them.  I am using Golden Rule travel for our flight arrangements and they get us a humanitarian deal. So they look for the best rates available at the time we  need to travel so right now there is no way to know which airline we will be on.  I was on Lufthansa all the way for the first trip and it was very nice not having to claim and recheck luggage.
     All in all I am very pleased with how the first trip went!  I am also very blessed with what I learned about the care needs and the personalities of our children.
     "Can we handle them and their needs?"  This was the single biggest question in my mind as I went to meet them.  I know God would not lead us into a situation that would hurt us. That is not even a question to me. My question was "am I hearing God correctly?" I can honestly say that I have perfect peace about the children and the adoption.  Yes, I am fully aware that there will be difficult days and that there will be situations that we will have to deal with as our family grows and changes but we are not in this alone. We have a great big GOD who is always with us and is using us and our love to change the lives of two little orphaned children. Two little souls that are very insignificant to the people of this world. They have nothing and no one. They (right now) have no future. It is orphanage life and then  straight to institutional life then death.  BUT GOD...  has a wonderful plan for them. BUT GOD laid them and their plight on the hearts of a family far far away and then GOD made a way for them to come into this family and 'live'.  GOD is GOOD!