Himali. Nelum. Beautiful, exotic names belonging to two twin angels who came to our family from faraway Sri Lanka.
They just joined our family last week, and it's been a huge adjustment period for everyone. We can't believe that after all the waiting, uncertainty, the fear, that they are finally here. It's been a huge answer to prayer!
My name is Bettye Joubert. I live in Dyersburg, Tennessee, with my husband, Robert, and our two sons, Mark (8) and Quenton (5). Now we have two daughters, age three, twins, to call our own, and we can't be any happier than we are right now!
Happily, Nelum and Himali are healthy, no known diseases, defects, or disability to speak of. They were adopted because they were unable to be cared for by their parents; the parents already had ten children when the twins were born, and it got to be too much.
They were put into an orphanage, where they remained for nearly three years, before they were put up for adoption.
Now we don't speak Sri Lankan. Communication with our two daughters is difficult; however, we've found out that they love ice cream. They can't seem to get enough! They also love balloons, and they love bright, colored toys or clothes. We pantomime a lot, use our bodies, as a way to get the message across. It works about 85% of the time.
We took our two newest children to church this morning, for the first time. Everyone oohed and aahed over them; it scared them. Nelum reacted by burying her face into my side; Himali cried; she would not calm down until I took her to the restroom, where I could hold her in my arms until she settled down.
They aren't used to people they don't know; we realize that this is going to take a lot of time. It will also become easier as they pick up more English words, learn more about their new home, family, country. Everything is still brand new, unfamiliar to them.
I know with God's help, He'll get our twin daughters through this adjustment period; He'll get us all through. It's also a huge adjustment on our part: we're used to boys; we're not used to having girls around. We're not so familiar wtih things like dolls or dresses or hair doodads; to us, things like football, soccer, kissing bruised knees or faces or nursing black eyes seems more familiar territory.
Life is already interesting since Himali and Nelum arrived; it's only going to get more so.
Ahh, the adventures of international adoption!! :)
