All Set for Trip 2 and for More Homeopathy!

On Thursday night the luggage's were finally packed and weighted, the crisp bills counted, and our passports with our visas received! I also called C for any last minute advice on our court appearance and was suggested to bring few pictures of Diego just in case the judge asks about him. And somehow, after the thousand of pics we have of him, I realized we didn't have many handy so I sent some for printing and got them few hours later.

Diego and I flew to Houston on Friday morning, where my sister and her family lives and where Diego will stay while we are in Russia. My dad few on Thursday from Ecuador and he will be in charge of Diego, since my sister has triplets and an extra pair of hands will be needed to take care of my boy! Tomorrow Mark will join us and celebrate his 34th birthday all together and on Tuesday March 30 we will depart to Moscow. This trip is really short and on April 3rd we will be back in Houston to pick up Diego. Then on April 13 we will be traveling again and hopefully Gotcha day will be on April 15th, on our daughter's first birthday!

In preparation of trip 3 when Diego comes with us we decided to pack some of his gluten free foods and clothes, the care giver's gifts, and Nina's clothes in our luggage for this trip. We hope that since we will fly direct from Houston to Moscow there will be no lost or delayed luggage as we experienced during our trip 1. Then for trip 3 we will not check anything and it will be just three of us, a carry on, a stroller and a car seat. Does it sound crazy? Maybe, but that's the plan.

Every time we travel with Diego to visit family, which is not too often since our family is spread among Canada, USA and Ecuador, I found myself kind of out of sorts and getting a bit stressed out. I guess I am a creature of routines and I follow somewhat simple routines with Diego, which I kind of believe it has help him. But when you are surrounded by 4 kiddos between 3 and 4.5 years old and all the excitement and busyness around I just have to let go and go with the flow, right? But it is not too easy for me. And then is when I start thinking and wondering how will our new adjustment as a family of four be?

Also when we travel and there are changes around is when it is a bit more evident how sensitive our Diego is and how little or lot of help he may still need in the emotional area. Right now one sign of his anxiety is the grinding of his teeth at night. His homeopathic doctor gave some remedies and they were working fine until we have noticed a lot of grinding for the last 4 nights, just in time for our trip 2! We also need to pay attention to his magnesium intake since he has been a bit constipated. Magnesium is also supposed to help relax at night, so we will make sure he will have his doze while we are gone.

So after the last few days here in Houston, when I am trying to get Diego re-acquainted to my dad and have some fun with family, I decided to get more into homeopathy to help Diego and contact my sister's homeopathy doctor (my sister is REALLY into natural medicine). Hopefully in April after trip 3 we can start focusing on strenghtening Diego's immune system (this winter was kind of hard for him to stay healthy) and helping with managing his anxieties and emotions. After we take Nina to the naturopath to check for food and environmental allergies and other doctors to check few other things, we will also get her strong with homeopathic stuff!

So, that's the update here until we arrive in Kaluga. I know, not your most typical pre-trip post, but those are the thoughts in my mind. I can't believe it has been a bit more than 2 months since we saw Nina - I can't wait to see and hug her again!