Visa Medical Appointment

Saturday morning we had to head out to Leo’s medical appointment for his visa.  Since only one parent needed to go Josh Kelley and the kids stayed back while Leo and I headed out.  I got a bit teary driving to the appointment with the other families who we’re there with our agency.  My mind raced back to this day with Everett and how Josh, Harper, Hudson, Solomon and me all went together.  Everett was so brave and just did his thing only getting a little teary when they drew blood.

I sat in the little seats filling out medical and prescription information holding sweet Leo and I just longed for Everett.  He would have loved being Leo’s big brother.  I know he would have been so helpful in loving and taking care of him.  I can get really angry if I let myself because I know this was not how it was suppose to go down.  He should be here with us.  Period.

I was completely unsure of how Leo would do.  He is so little and just did not fully understand what was going on, but he ended up being just as brave as his big brother.  He stood on the scale and let the doctors and nurses do everything they needed to do.  He only got teary when they took blood and was not a fan of me having to put pressure on his bandaid for a bit, but nothing a sucker couldn’t fix. 🙂

We finished up his medical and headed back to the hotel.  The rest of the day was pretty chill.  The kids all went swimming with Josh while Leo took a nap.  I spent some time writing about our trip and had the sweetest moment with Leo when he saw Everett’s picture on the desktop of my computer.  He kept pointing to him and I instantly cried and then told him all about his big brother.  Leo would likely never remember Shuai on his own…he was 1 when we came to get Shuai, but he will remember him because we do.  He’ll remember him because it’s so important to us for him to remember him.  It reminds me so much of Harper, Hudson and Solomon with my Mom.  They knew my mom so well, but they we’re so little when she died.  It was up to Josh and me to keep her memory alive and what an honor that is.  Same goes for Everett.  We have photos of him out and we talk about him every single day.  Leo will remember because it’s important to us for him to remember.  Keeping Everett’s memory alive is our greatest honor.

After dinner that night we all walked down to a 7/11 down the street.  This was our first normalish, fun moment as a family of 9.  We just walked around talking and laughing.  We all picked out treats to munch on and Leo got a bag of M&Ms all to himself.  We sat outside in the amazing weather taking each other in and the busy city of Guangzhou moving all around us.

Amon ate approximately 42 Kinders while in China.  Chocolate is easily Amon’s most favorite favorite food.  Chocolate anything is his kind of anything.  It didn’t matter how small compared to everyone else’s his little Kinder egg compared, he was in it for the deliciousness…and the toy.

One of my first memories from my childhood involved my Mom and M&Ms so it was extra sweet feeling watching Leo eat his little bag of chocolate treats.  It was a much needed, sweet day.

Added bonus:  I got my first Leo kiss that day.  Harper was the only one who had gotten one so far and we all had been anxiously awaiting our turn.  And it was finally my turn.  It was the sweetest little smooch and this guy has my heart forever.  I’ve been soaking up his kisses ever since.