A Tale of 2 Phone Calls

So we talked to S- (2.0) with our translator last night.

We called last week as well, and it was just so awkward. The first call is always is tough though I guess-plus it had been so long since he had heard from us) Last week, I think his caregiver was right in his ear listening and saying stuff. (Like my friend Katya that was translating said she heard her mumbling to him-"just tell them to come and get you!" or something like that-------probably because he is such a handful and probably drives her crazy with temper tantrums and etc. He is at a boarding school, and I imagine they are pretty strict there.

He totally didn't sound like himself for most of that call-only once did I hear his "real tone of voice" and that was when he was answering a question. Actually at first we thought it wasn't him, because we asked her to ask, what was his favorite thing he did with us this winter, and he answered "skiing". So we were like, huh we didn't go skiing! But we think he just misunderstood the question, because then he said something about riding bikes.....But now we know to try skiing next year.....

He didn't even say I love you back to us last week-which is TOTALLY not like him-this is the kid that told me he loved me the second day he met me and followed me around the house all during winter hosting- telling me I was "his mama" and told me he loved me about 10x a day minimum (or wrote it on a piece of paper, or put it on the computer for google translate)-but he may have felt uncomfortable with the teacher there in his face listening in and making comments last week.....

BUT then last night, he sounded just like himself. :-) My friend Natasha (the translator last night) said "This boy is not shy at all" lol. I could also tell he didn't have anyone there right in his face for this call...

He got our packages that we sent him finally. Then of course he was asking us to send him stuff that we can't (nerf guns, his remote control helicopter, etc, lol). It was really good though, even though I had to tell him no.

He told us he was sad and missing us a lot yesterday, and then later his teacher told Natasha that she found him crying his eyes out on his bed last night, and she asked him what was wrong and he said "I just miss them so much" So sweet and so like the boy we love.

He wouldn't let us off the phone, every time we said, OK we need to go, he would tell Natasha "I want to keep talking." So we were on the phone with him for over 30 minutes.

Then at one point in the conversation (probably after he told us that he had been missing us the day before) he told us he missed us and started crying....so he was crying for awhile (softly). BREAK MY HEART. He was crying and saying he missed us and wanted to know how much longer it would be till he could come back, and obviously was not happy when we told him it would be July.....But so sweet, and responded back to "I love you's and I miss you's" and etc. Just a really good conversation where he sounded like himself.... slightly irreverent at times, making fun of us, and us making fun of him. We even got a laugh (that was loud enough for us to hear) out of him.

Anyway, it was so good. So I am happy, and yet sad. It was hard to hear him cry and it made me cry, but we got him cheered back up and I think it was really important for him to talk to us. It was good to hear the full personality of the boy that had me in stitches for 3 weeks again....We will call again next week.