Autumn in July

It doesn’t feel right – that cool fall air in July. There were a few times while walking to McDonald’s last night that I forgot St. Louis was only a few days away from lighting fireworks.

In the night, temps dropped into the 40s. With no central heating, we had to make sure Yali stayed under the heavy duvet throughout the night. He likes to kick off his blankets.

At this point, I’m pretty confident that we are the only American family at this B&B. Several French families share it with us, all adoptive families. For hours after Yali was tucked in last night, we could hear their voices, children’s voices, muffled French through the walls.

“Funny, it doesn’t matter where we are in the world, people will always think we put our kids to bed too early,” Oxbear chuckled.

6:30 bedtime for Yali. So far, so good.

After another Skype chat with Puck that afternoon – he spent his day visiting an aircraft museum and lunching at Cracker Barrel – the skies took on that familiar gray shade again. Everywhere: rain.

Yali was a huge dirty mess. He’d found plenty of dirt in the back garden already. Dirt in buckets. Dirt on the clothes. Dirt in his hair. And, of course, dirt in his mouth. I can be confident now that he is officially 100% boy.

The owner of the B&B introduced herself to us later, joined by her twin five year-old sons playing ball in the foyer.

“This is your home,” she expressed to us sincerely. “Seriously. This is your home.”

We paused for Yali’s hot bath. He warmed up in my sweater like a little papoose to watch part of “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs”. Then he saw the peanut butter jar sitting on the desk. My back-up. It was a hit.

“Ah-ooom!” he says when something tastes good to him.

That’s when the Colombian Program Director dropped by for a brief visit. There were complications with our paperwork; a few missing words in our medical documents. Of course. We would know more tomorrow.

Yali certainly wasn’t bothered by these potential delays. He happily sat in his high chair for a plate of spaghetti to stuff himself. Mostly with many doses of the heavy meaty sauce.

And back to our room for the now-usual routine. Yali sleeps, Oxbear Kindles, and I catch the game on the KMOX radio feed.