Family Day!!

It’s been one full year now.

We celebrated our first Family Day together (some call it Gotcha Day) on March 19th. It was one year from the day we walked out of the orphanage (two orphanages to be specific) with Andrew and Bethany in our arms. The original “uppies”, if you will.

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It’s funny, at different times, different family members have asked us about the then upcoming celebration. In each case they assumed that we would be celebrating the day we first arrived home with the kids; understandable. That was a big day, when they all met the kids, but, hey, we were already a family for five days by then. We do admit to feeling in a bit of a holding pattern with the kids while in Russia and traveling, until we were snug as a bug in our own rug; letting us breathe that sigh of relief…home at last.

Gayle says that she can not believe that it has only been a year, and that it is hard now to imagine when the kids weren’t with us. No, no – it’s not that hard to imagine it. Aaah, the peace and quiet; when coming home from work, meant relaxing. Now, sometimes going to work is more relaxing.

In future years we plan to make Family Day a favorite tradition. This year, since the kids are so young and don’t even know the concept of a year, we went back and forth trying to come up with a suitable activity to mark the day. It was difficult because we are always out doing special things. The weekend before, we were at the Irish Festival on Saturday and on Sunday went to a family fun center with guests staying with us from out of town. Then the weekend after was filled with Easter events every day.

We finally landed on bowling. Always enjoyed seeing other people’s kids bowling in the past. It was fun! Both were very excited about dragging the bowling bag, wearing the shoes, trying different colored balls, and anticipating the ball return.

Taking turns went well enough and for the most part they stayed in their own lane. We did have a problem at first with the release. Tried having them stand at the foul line, bend over and push with two hands, then tried having them sit at the foul line with legs spread apart and once tried standing sideways and hurling the ball.

Even using the lightest balls, they didn’t seem to want to push very hard. We quickly got three balls that stopped part way down, in short succession. Each time we had to call for someone to retrieve the ball. To avoid a next call, we stood at the line just in front of them and as soon as they released the ball, if it appeared that there was not enough momentum, we gave it a push.

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We were planning a trip to the park afterward, but there was a potty incident. Bethany repeatedly went to the potty while we were bowling, perhaps as a controlling/diversion thing. So when on her way out she wanted to go yet again, we thought, she can wait until we get to the park.

One of those regrettable decisions. She didn’t wait, and instead went while in the carseat. We went straight home. When I took the carseat out it was dripping. The type of moment where you get so mad, that it just seemed pointless to yell or make any fuss. The kids had fun playing in the driveway while we struggled. I estimated that over two days, it took six parent hours to disassemble, clean and reassemble the carseat.

All the more memorable a day.