The Homecoming

Over the holiday break we had a few play dates with the girls to get them ready to move back in with us. They got to meet my sister and her husband who were in town from Virginia.
B loved living with Melissa's family and it was devastating to her to have to leave. She wanted them to adopt her. Melissa was wonderful about repeatedly explaining to her why she thought our home would be best for her and T.
B had asked me to decorate her bedroom and surprise her. Everything was hearts, zebra print and One Direction. I had so much fun getting ready for the girls to come back!
It was a difficult transition for B. We decided to keep her in Melissa's school so that she could keep that connection to her family and so that she didn't have to go through yet another change. She had already changed schools once that year when she moved in with Melissa. Three schools in one year would have been too much. It turns out that her school was only a few minutes from Dave's work, so he drives her to school each day.
A few weeks after the girls came to live with us, B asked me what would change when she got adopted. She did not want to return to live with her birth family. I told her that she would call me and Dave "mom" and "dad," and she called us that from then on.
T, on the other hand, called every woman she saw "mommy" and every man she saw "daddy." When we were at the store, I would point to a woman and say, "That's a lady. Where's mommy?" and have her point to me. It took several months before she attached to me as her mommy and called other females by their names. I'm so grateful that I have been able to stay at home with her full-time so that I am her only caregiver and she can understand what a mommy is.
When I started volunteering in B's classroom, she introduced me as her step mom. It was hard for her to explain to her friends who I was and why I didn't look anything like her.
B decided that she wanted to take cheerleading classes. She absolutely rocked at it! She practiced all of the time at home. She was one of the only students in her class to learn both of the cheers. Her teacher gave her a solo in her performance. Her caseworker and many family members came out to support her.
Once again, life felt unreal. It was like the previous six weeks without the girls hadn't happened. We settled into a wonderful routine and felt like a family again.