Deciding to adopt two children was a huge decision for Papi and I. We talked a lot about how it would change our lives and how to prepare ourselves to take care of children who may have a lot of hurt and fear, as well as a lot of questions growing up. We also took a large amount of time preparing Charlie. As it turns out, no amount of preparation on our part could actually prepare her for the sudden introduction of two children to the household, but we limped along none-the-less.
It started out with a big baby and a little baby, as we called them. We thought we would welcome two small children and we told Charlie one would be a big baby and one would be a little baby. We talked about the different things a big baby could do verses a little baby. We talked a lot about toys, who has them, who gets them, what happens if Charlie takes them away, what happens if the big baby takes them away… what happens if the little baby slobbers on them – you get the idea. From our first conversation to our last, Charlie’s attitude continually warmed to the idea of having more kids come to live with us.
The first few weeks were very rocky. Like any older sibling, Charlie had a lot of angry (and also playful) feelings toward the boys. After 2 months, she began calling them her brothers all on her own. It wasn’t that her angry feelings went away, I think she just started to love them more. Today when the boys and I picked Charlie up from school, she asked me if we could keep M and S forever. She even said, “please.” It was awesome. It made me think that we had, in fact, done the right thing – not just for us but for Charlie as well.
Charlie holding S the day we brought him home.
M trying to feed S his bottle a day or two after he came home.
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