Our first week home

Arriving in St Louis with the boys was so exciting. We were so glad to have finished traveling, and we were anxious to introduce the boys to our girls and my mom, who was staying at our house with the girls while we were gone. One of the biggest things that Stephen and I had been praying about was the chemistry between the boys and the girls. We really prayed that they would not only get along well but that they would really love each other!

We made our way to the pick-up area at the airport and watched in fascination as we opened the doors to the car and the kids all started giggling and hugging each other. It was so incredibly beautiful! Jude climbed in the back seat with Keira, and she excitedly showed him how to buckle his new booster seat which he actually enjoyed doing. Kinsey wanted to buckle Liam into his carseat next to her, and they played peek-a-boo and giggled together for a good while. It was so precious to hear the boys try to say the girls names which ended up being, "Kiss-ey! Kiss-ey!" and "Ke-a! Ke-a!" :)

The car ride to our house was loud with laughter. The girls kept trying to get the boys to repeat random words in English which the boys happily went along with. When we got home we spent the first few minutes on the front porch as all four kids sat on the porch swing together. The picture I took of this is definitely one of my favorites so far. Then we went inside and the girls excitedly showed the boys every inch of the house. We ended up in the boys' room and spent a good bit of time showing them all of their toys and clothes. Liam just looked at everything with wide eyes and occasionally would smile or giggle at something, but Jude kept exclaiming, "Wow! Wow!" with each new thing.

One of our good friends from our church brought dinner that evening, and the boys ate good amount of chicken and rice before heading upstairs for a bubble bath which they thoroughly enjoyed. Stephen and I took turns rocking the boys in the glider in their room at bedtime before laying down with them. They cried off and on for a few minutes as we rubbed their backs and sang to them but fell asleep quickly.

Our first week home was filled with lots of excitement. Each day the boys would say new words and try new things. They played very well with their sisters, sharing everything they saw. They also bonded really quickly with my mom and were always calling, "Gigi!" which is what the kids call her. :)

Unfortunately, Stephen had to leave after a few days because the band still had two weeks of camps left. He was going to the first one by himself, coming home for the weekend, and then we were all going to go to the last one together that way we did have to be away from daddy for two weeks. :) I was concerned that the boys would be really upset while he was gone, but they didn't cry at all. Occasionally, we would look at pictures of him and they would point and say excitedly, "Daddy! Daddy!" I wanted so badly to explain to them that he would be back in just a few days. When the guys did return, the boys were really excited and Stephen spent the whole evening chasing the kids around the house and being silly.

The main challenge we saw the first week was with us establishing authority with them. They were super sweet and happy the majority of the time, but during the times that we would have to tell them no about something they would get really upset and cry. Often they would try to get it anyway, and we would take them upstairs and sit down with them for a few minutes while they calmed down. But only took about five minutes for them to calm down, and then we would hug them and they would say, "I loooove you!" I was honestly really surprised at how quickly they would move on and be hugging and kissing us again. And each day we would see a significant amount of progress. Sometimes we would say no about something and they wouldn't even get upset. But other times it was the end of the world, at least for a few minutes. ;) All in all, though, it was a GREAT first week!