We are on the verge of going to Ecuador to pick up our 2 year old daughter. We used to live in Ecuador, and she was allowed to live with us for 7 months. We had to leave the country and move to the U.S. before any of the adoption matters were sorted out. The little girl had to go back to the orphanage where she originally lived. That was almost a year ago. Since then, she has certainly forgotten us, and our 5 year old has forgotten what it is like to have another child around. In addition to all of this, she has forgotten all of the English she was exposed to and now only understands Spanish. On top of everything, she is black and we are white living in a white town.
So.......any ideas about transitioning? Should our son go down with us to pick her up? Should he and I stay in Ecuador until we can all come back together or should he and I come back earlier and get her room ready and buy her clothes and toys? He is in kindergarten and will miss several weeks of school if we stay down the whole time. I want for both of the kids to have the easiest transition possible in what has been a very difficult year for all of us, esp. for our little girl. She could be a total wreck...we just don't know how she is doing after being "abandoned" by us. By the way, we had no choice. We were forced to return her.
So, ANY and ALL suggestions would be appreciated.
