Hosting through P143

Our Latvian host girls departed two weeks ago now.  I haven’t written about it because it’s taken two weeks to mentally process.  Goodbyes are always hard for me, and there really aren’t words that can adequately describe that kind of goodbye:  handing two girls back to their (wonderful) chaperone so they can get on a plane to travel halfway across the world, knowing you may or may not ever see them again because nothing about the idea is for certain in any way.  We might be able to write to them again, and we might not be able to.  Watching siblings say goodbye to host siblings is probably the most excruciating thing ever, I think.  It was a rough day to be sure.

Although maybe not as hard as the last time.  That was even worse.

Their situation is very complicated and there are multiple people needing to make important decisions, including us.

Dr. Peds was away on departure day, so the girls and I took the airport shuttle down to the Cities to get to the airport, since driving in traffic really, really stresses me out, and on a day like departure day, less stress is best.  Also, I got in a few extra hours of cuddling before we arrived at the airport.

When I arrived back home on the airport shuttle, it was weird.  Going from the energy of six kids to four kids is disconcerting.  For five weeks I spent almost all of my waking hours on a structured schedule with my host girls, because they do best when they know what to expect and the reason why they are here is to connect with a parent.  That kind of output and activity level  just started to seem normal  All of the sudden there are only four independent kids left.  Only four kids to herd into the van.  Only four kids to keep track of at the beach.  We eat when we are hungry instead of by the clock. All four of these kids sleep in during the morning.  No one is using my toothbrush except me (electric toothbrushes are just so . . . irresistible).  It’s weird. A little lonely.

We read books when our host girls were with us every day, but we didn’t just hang out and read books for hours on end, and we’ve been doing that a lot the past two weeks.  Binge reading before the school schedule starts.  It’s been a quiet house filled with kids lounging about with their noses stuck in books.  In some ways other stories help us process this story.