Danny received his flag on Flag Day as expected..... Miami! I was so excited, I started dancing! No one was watching; I was listening in to the ceremony from the adjacent conference room hallway, carrying an antsy, fussy Giannina.
Thus our new adventure took a turn for the complicated. We celebrated Dominic's birthday by going to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum the day before Congress shut its doors. That night Danny took the older kids to see Disney's Planes. They had the theater to themselves. We spent the next week trying to balance life in a new, smaller hotel that was not so family friendly, and following the play-by-play on Capitol Hill. Could I feel any more disoriented? We decided it would be best to part ways so the kids could have a more stable, suitable living arragement. The next weekend, the six of us drove down to Miami. We arrived at my mother's house at 11 pm Saturday night; Danny was on his flight back to DC by 4pm the next day.
The kids and I are now living in my childhood home with my parents until God provides an alternate arrangement. My mom helps with the cleaning and the laundry and meals. We help her by filling her house with joyful noises from sunup to sundown. Unfortunately, my mom's favorite sound is silence. We also help her to grow in patience and mercy. She doesn't appreciate this growth quite yet. In the meantime, I try to avoid accidents like Dominic falling in the pool on Toby's tricycle while carrying Lego sculptures. I try to keep Dominic from climbing the walls (handprints!) and I try to keep Toby from driving his matchbox cars on the furniture (scratches!), and Noemie from throwing dramatic, screeching tantrums (nerves!) Gia is a saint.
Toby's had the hardest time with the transition. For the first week, he cried for an hour before going to bed, making up all kinds of reasons he had to sleep with me. At first, our trips back to church would get Toby whimpering that he wanted to go back "home" (meaning our old apartment). But I think he's starting to accept that abuela's house is "home" for a while. In any case, he stopped being afraid of the crickets he believes to be living in the ceiling.
We make the hour drive to Plantation about 3 times a week....church, house shopping, homeschool group, birthday party... There's always something!
In other news, Noemie leaned to tie her own hair into ponytails. My budding fashionista is taking wing. Dominic also has learned to fly- he learned how to ride his bicycle without training wheels and there is no getting that boy to come inside the house. Toby got a haircut. Gia.... is a saint.
Now that the shutdown is over, Danny can start his training in GA. We hope to join him by mid-November, staying in a nearby town. That way, we can spend time with him on the weekends. Can't wait to see his face again.
1 comment:
My son always tells me that he sees a man in the ceiling. I would take the cricket fear over that any day!
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