Dr. Visit 180

One week after Elias went home I took both boys to Columbus for Elias' first visit to the International Adoption Clinic. This visit was very stressful. First of all they lost my appointment (it was later found, but not after I thought I had gone crazy and not made the appointment to begin with). That led to a VERY long wait in the waiting room that had no toys and was not an enclosed space, so Elias kept trying to run away while Noah (who was having a very hard time accepting his new brother at the time) was literally throwing the books and magazines around. Noah is normally a pretty well behaved kid, but he was not listening to me at all and we were still getting to know Elias and he was very overstimulated by all things American at that time. Both boys were also bouncing off the walls during the appointment. I can hardly remember a thing the specialist told me. Needless to say I was exhausted and VERY embarrassed by the end of the appointment. I must have looked like to most clueless mom ever.

Fast forward to Friday... Noah had his four year check up and Elias was coming along to get some shots that he needed. Both boys played together in the waiting room as we waited and held my hand as we calmly walked down the hall to our room. Elias watched while the Dr. completed Noah's check-up and then Noah assured Elias that his shots wouldn't hurt that bad when it was Eli's turn. Both kids were good listeners and no one destroyed any of the office's property (although Noah begged me to let him take the reflex hammer with him). It wasn't till we were on our way home that I remembered the previous appointment and became overwhelmingly grateful for how far we had come. There may be hope for us after all :)