We have officially been home for 6 months! Many people ask what life is like now with 3
boys and our best response is that it feels “normal.” We are so thankful that our transition home
has been so smooth and so far the boys are blossoming and doing so well. Here are few highlights and firsts that we
have experienced over the past 6 months.
October saw many simple firsts. Disa was home from work and Gibson returned
to pre school so Cavin and Caffrey had a lot of attention. They took trips to the grocery store and
did a lot of playing. Cavin also
was introduced to solid food and had a lot of food firsts. Caffrey also enjoyed a lot of food firsts as
well. Both boys loved their first
visit to the park where Caffrey was the adventurous one and Cavin explored
cautiously. The month ended with the
whole family attending the Fall Remix Retreat, which was their first ministry
event and first real public outing. As
children of a High School pastor this seemed like a natural time to introduce
them to the ministry. Halloween happened
to occur while on the retreat so they had their first opportunity to dress in
costumes and receive candy!
November began our life out as a family of 5. We introduced the boys to church and restaurants
and just did “normal” life together.
Disa was still home with the boys so a lot of life was spent playing and
exploring at home. Blair had the
opportunity to take the boys on their first zoo experience. They also experienced helping in the kitchen
to prepare some of our family’s traditional Thanksgiving food.
December was mommy’s last month home with the boys. They were invited to a Birthday party which included their first experience with inflatables. Caffrey being the more adventurous one enjoyed this while Cavin preferred the bubble machine more than the inflatables. This month included making of gingerbread houses and attempting our first Christmas photo. Family visited near the holidays and the boys loved the visitors, presents, and Christmas decorations. Trips at night were very entertaining as they included lots of excited oohs and ahhs at the bright lights. Both boys quickly figured out the opening of presents and loved spending Christmas day playing in their new pjs. After the holiday we took our first family trip to visit Blair’s grandparents in Florida. A highlight from the trip was the golf cart rides with great-grandpa.
January, Disa went back to work and the boys started preschool! Our morning routine became a little more chaotic as Gibson now had to leave for school early with mommy. Daddy had to get Cavin and Caffrey ready and to school on his own. This made for some tired evenings but it seemed like everyone was in a good rythym after a few weeks. Our biggest first came near the end of the month when we got our first big snow. The boys would have had snow in China but we are pretty sure they never got to play in it.
February had one first, Valentine’s Day. It didn’t seem to make much impact on the boys other than they got a little extra candy. Again we attempted to take a picture of the day, but we still struggle to get all 3 boys to smile at once. We also celebrated Chinese New Year with the traditional red envelope gift. Gibson understands getting money but Caffrey said, "Daddy's money." Cavin seemed more excited about the envelope.
March started off with a party. Cavin turned 3! He enjoyed his cupcake and having us sing to
him. In the middle of the month we all
traveled on our first mission trip to the Bahamas. This is the 3rd trip for Gibson so
he was an excellent tour guide for Cavin and Caffrey. We took 20 high school students and 3 leaders
to serve at Camp Bahamas. The boys did
much better on the short flight and were very flexible on the trip. They got to experience their first time at the ocean but mommy and daddy were so busy supervising that they didn’t get any
pictures of the momentous occasion. Another first came as the boys experienced their first Easter. They loved egg decorating, but again we struggled to get all boys smiling/posing for the holiday photo. The
month ended with another celebration as Caffrey turned 3. He loved having a whole day dedicated to him and
he spent most of the day saying, “My Birthday!”
