On our way home….to our cocoon

First, a bushel of thanks for our friends and family who have walked with us throughout this whole roller coaster ride and prayed, cried, and celebrated with us. You are all so special and we love you!

We know that you're all so excited to meet Joshua Rebira and we are excited for that too. For the first few days home, we are not open to visitors other than immediate family and those delivering those highly welcomed meals. We need some time to recover from jet lag and to let our little one feel a little more comfy before we add new people into it. Trust me the four of us are enough to make the kiddo feel overwhelmed!

Once the first few days have passed, we respectfully ask that you would call or email us before dropping by. We are just thrilled to introduce you to our blessed gift from above!

When you all do get to meet out little man please be aware that we are "cocooning" which is adoption speak for” controlling his environment and working on attachment and bonding.” Please remember that he came from a place he knows as home. Toukoul Orphanage is very different from our world..his new forever home. I know that this is so hard to read because you're aching to get your hands on him but we really feel this is what's best for him. Please do talk to him, play with him while he's on the floor, are great ways to engage him. We will be taking care of all of the holding and childcare needs at this time. This will slowly evolve as Joshua comes to know us as mom and dad.

Joshua Rebira will be slowly be eased into public environments. We can’t wait to bring him to St. Paul United Church of Christ, Hannah’s softball games and of course MEGA (Sarah’s second home), but will start slow with that over the next couple weeks. All of this is in the best interest of our son, which we know you all understand because you want the best for him too. He has been through so much loss and difficulty in his first year. Everything he knows is gone and we are trying to help him adjust to a new and sometimes scary world. We are hoping to build the foundation that he missed out on at the start of his life. All this hard work and different approach to parenting will pay off though and soon enough he’ll be out and about just like any other little boy his age! Watch out world!

Thank you for understanding and for loving us, our son and our family so much – we can’t wait to see you all and slowly get back in the swing of things! We are really thankful for those of you that are supporting us thru the Helping Hands calendar. If you need more information on that, please contact Shannon at tim_shan@hotmail.com. There will be a Welcome Home Joshua Open House towards the end of June at St. Paul UCC in Palatine. We hope to see you there.

With much love and thankfulness to all of you,

Michelle and Len