There's no place like home :)

Friends and Family,

We can't even begin to tell you how amazing it is to be home. We are settling in little by little, but are still feeling the exhaustion of the last 12 weeks. We are trying to remain consistent with discipline and routine, but it's been hard with the time change and all the excitement of so much newness!! Overall though, things have been better than we anticipated and we couldn't feel more blessed to have these two little lives finally in our home!

Here is some info on our trip home as well as a few updates on our boys!

1) The trip home was difficult at best. The run-down is as follows:

• 3 hour drive to Kampala
• 4 hour wait in Kampala to which we had a goodbye lunch with our Ugandan friend Clare and we let the boys run around and play a bit before we were going to force them to constrained to a seat!
• 2 hour drive to Entebbe
• 1 hour wait outside the airport until we could check in: the boys were delirious at this point!
• Checked in and through immigration! Thankfully the immigration officer was kind and we had no issues getting the boys through! Thank you Jesus!
• 3 hour wait in the airport until we could board
• 8 hour flight to Amsterdam: the boys were both asleep before we took off. Sebastian slept most of the flight. Jordan was up almost every 15 minutes. I would then pick him up, rock him back to sleep, and then repeat about 100 more times :) I shed my fair share of silent tears on the flight home due to fatigue, but I tried to keep my head in check, as this was truly the home stretch!
• 7 hour layover in Amsterdam. This was torture. We were all exhausted. There is no good place for kids to play or run around and there were a million people everywhere! The boys were definitely getting grumpy at this point, and it took a lot of patience from Paul and I to keep them calm. 
• 8 hour flight to Dulles: the boys slept on and off for the first 2 hours, but were then up for the rest of the flight. We didn't have any huge meltdowns or tantrums, but the boys were antsy and stubborn most of the time. Even with a large sampling of kids movies and shows on the flight, they were only interested in watching something for about 30 minutes. We couldn't believe it! We thought for SURE they would LOVE to have so much interrupted time to watch TV, but no...they were totally disinterested. We thought this would be clutch, but Paul and I could've cried when we realized this was going to be a no go. Once we saw we still had 5 hours of flight time left, we finally gave in and just gave them our phones and iPad to play with. This kept them content for a couple hours, but it was still constant attention for most of the flight. We were spent.
• We landed in Dulles at 3:45 on Friday afternoon, went through immigration, got our bags, went through customs, and finally saw our family! It was such an awesome moment for the boys to meet their grandparents and surprisingly, they both did really well! Sebastian was so excited, but Jordan definitely had some reservations, which was exacerbated by the fatigue. Plus, little guy was pretty sick during our whole trip home, which made all of this much worse. Regardless, we were FINALLY home and it felt so good. Here's a sneak peak and a few of our homecoming pics! 

• We spent a little time in the airport for everyone to acclimate then loaded up in a van and got the boys strapped into their CAR SEATS! Can I get an amen?! We ate dinner on the ride home, and the boys were asleep instantly after they finished eating :) They slept almost the whole ride home, which I think we could've done as well!
• When we got home, we carried them in, took them to the bathroom, changed their clothes, laid them in their beds, and they were asleep before we finished praying for them. It was SO surreal for Paul and I and we stood there full of awe, joy and exhaustion as we looked at them sleeping in their room. The room we worked so hard on and spent so many weekends creating. The room we used to look into when it was empty, and couldn't wait for the day for the beds to be full. They were finally home.
• We chatted with our parents for a bit after the boys went to bed, and then we relished in all things comfortable. We sat on a couch! For the last 3 months we've only been sitting in plastic lawn chairs, so this was amazing. I took a long, hot shower! The first one in 3 months, and the first one where I didn't have to hold the shower head the entire time only to have cold water come out! And finally we climbed into our bed, which literally felt like sleeping on a cloud. Pure heaven.
• The boys slept well that night and were up at 6:30am. We let them explore their room for a bit before heading downstairs to the living room. They were excited at so many little things, and it was fun to see what made them giggle! In the morning, both sets of grandparents came over, and we spent all day inside, playing, exploring, and letting the grandparents take them in :) The boys got more and more comfortable as the day went on, and it was great to see them go to our parents to play. Their nap felt like night to them, and we had to pick them up and get them into daylight to wake them...and even then they just wanted to go back to sleep. The afternoon was pretty chill, and I don't think Jordan ever really woke up. After dinner we gave them a bath and then put them to bed. They went down easy, and we were SO thankful, but unfortunately it was to our detriment. At 2:45am, Sebastian got out of bed to go to the bathroom, and at 3:05am they were both in our room wide-eyed and bushy-tailed! We scooped them up and put them back in bed, and they never went back to sleep. There were many other details surrounding the morning, but needless to say we were all up at 3:05, and we have been draaaaaaggggginnng all day long. 
• It's been SO nice to have some help with the boys and with things around the house, and Paul and I have been so grateful to not be doing everything ourselves all day, every day. We don't know how long the transition will take or how long we will feel like zombies, but I imagine this is much what it feels like to have a newborn, except they're not walking and talking yet :)
• To say the least it feels amazing to be parenting in our own home and with our own rules. There were so many stipulations on what we could and couldn't do in the Ugandan culture, and we often felt like our hands were tied in so many different areas. With that said, it is bittersweet to have just a drastic change to our family routine, and we have been trying to keep up conversations with the boys about Uganda and our time there. It's clear they have happy memories of our guest house and it's been good to keep those up :)

2) We are changing Lawrence's name to Sebastian (which was my maiden name!). There was a lot of thought and prayer that went into this, but every time we go back to Sebastian for his name, so we will be legally changing it once we apply for their citizenship :) He has embraced it well and will now refer to himself as Sebastian. Jordan still needs some prompting, but is also calling him Sebastian more regularly. So with that said, if you see us, try to call him Sebastian! We still slip and call him Lawrence occasionally, but he is definitely our little Sebastian :)

3) Jordan is a happy, lovey, tender boy, but after seeing certain traits now that he's gotten more adjusted to us, we believe he may have a sensory processing disorder or even low-level autism. We are NOT claiming this for him and we are not ruling out God's intervention, but at this point I want to give you all a heads up, as he definitely has triggers that come and go based on the day. Initially we thought most of it was just habits from the orphanage, but it's clear that there is more going on in many areas. This is obviously complicated as we don't know much of his past medical history or much of his family's background, and since Ugandan standards are SO different than ours, it's hard to get any concrete details. Even though he's 4, he is really at the emotional and developmental stage of a 2 year old, and we are trying to parent him at that age. It's been VERY difficult on us, and there are many other details surrounding all of this, but we at least wanted to give you all some understanding for when you meet him :) We in NO WAY want this to change your perception or view of him, because he's AWESOME!!! but we want you to know that if he acts a certain way or does something, it's not because of you! He just needs some time to adjust to new things and new people, and I know once we're more settled in at home, he will only get better. We plan to get a full developmental assessment done on him before the end of the year, and we're hoping that will shed some light on how best to help him. 

4) It is with great pleasure that we can finally post pictures of their faces! So without further adieu, here is the full Stevens Party of Four!

Jordan Paul Stevens Age 4, Birthday: July 12, 2011

Sebastian Kadaga Stevens Age 3, Birthday: December 5, 2011 In the next few weeks we will have our first social work visit, we will need to follow-up on their green cards, apply for their social security cards, take them for medicals visits, begin vaccinations and so much more. Much of this is required within the first 30 days of arrival, so we know we will be busy bees! Please continue to keep us in your prayers as we move forward, as there is still a long way to go. Even though we are home, there is still so much hurt to work through and a lot of bonding to do. So while the biggest hurdle is out of the way, we are believing that God will continue to heal our boys, and give Paul and I wisdom every step of the way.

We again can't thank you all enough for your kindness, love, support, prayers and encouragement. Every day is a new adventure, and now that we're home we know it will only continue from here! We can't wait to share more pictures and videos with you in the coming weeks, and we hope you will all continue to follow-along on our journey.

Love,