Thank you

It is midnight here and jet lag has me awake.  It's been a long day and one of the hardest in so many ways.  Yet the peace that passes all understanding is pouring over our spirits as the prayers of the saints are being lifted on our behalf.  We are speechless at how many are reaching out to us and to our boys.  Thank you from the very bottom of our hearts.

Aaron fell before we arrived tonight.  His face was swollen, his lip was cut and the scrapes and bruises on his body made us want to cry.  He was close to tears when they brought him to us and was again refusing to make eye contact.  We were not sure if it was from the fall or from the fact that we did not visit him this morning.  When we were here before, we visited him twice a day for a total of three hours.  I believe the combination of the pain of falling and the terror that we had left him again were the reasons for his demeanor.  Rob held him on his lap for almost 40 minutes.  We looked through the photo album that we finally were able to show him.

 Sometimes mistakes are beneficial.  When we came before, we had brought a photo album that had pictures of our family, the house, Aaron's bedroom etc. etc.  The album was left in one of the taxi's and we never were able to show it to Aaron.  While home I printed a whole mess of pictures that I took of Aaron.  On Wednesday, I inserted those pictures on every page (Luda found the album for us) - mingling them with the family pictures.  It means that at each turn, he sees himself and a picture of either the boys in all their goofiiness or the house or his bedroom.  The child STUDIES those pictures.  He makes little response but it is a big deal for him.  Yesterday and today we carefully went through the album with Aaron, looking at each pictures (there are a lot of pictures) affirming and confirming that he was a BIG part of our family.  After the album we read his other favorite book.  He did not want to walk around so we took the new truck and some other smaller vehicles and sat and just played quietly.  At the very end of our time he was finally willing to get up and walk. I think the pain from his fall had subsided by that point. We are going at his pace and in his time.  Loving on him, kissing him (Mommy's can't help doing that) and just being with him.  He is NOT the same child we were with a month ago.  It hurts that his hurt is so evident.  His laughter is contagious and to not hear it makes the world a bit more lonely.
    I will say it again and again.  God is good.  He is wise in ALL of His ways and despite what took place today in court, we know that we are going to be okay.   I could write more but need to rest.  The comments and e-mails and Facebook messages are precious.  Thank you to the RR people who have banded together to not only minister to us but to our boys at home. 

We do have internet access in our apartment.  That has been the one really nice part of the day.  It is not great for Skype but allows us to have better access to the outside world.