Adoption is hard

I felt like I needed to disclose that in case anyone reads this blog and thinks that I am trying to make bringing a two year old who does not know English, has never been part of a family and is non-verbal seem easy.  It is messy.  It is messier with a three year old who thinks he is the center of universe.  But very few things worth doing are easy.  Striving to serve God is never easy for me.  Mothering in a loving, firm, unconditional way with patience is work for me.

So along those lines, I show the face that I see regularly.  I get this face when Sam is not the center of my undivided attention which is sometimes necessitated by the fact that is not an only child.  Other times, I have no explanation for this face.  This face represents progress for me.  It means he is sharing his feelings the good, the bad and ugly.  It is a step change for him in that he only cried a couple of times in the first week we were together.  He now believes that someone cares when he is upset so there is purpose in crying.  He also cries now at bedtime and when he wakes up.

Other times are fun times.  Learning to play with a box.

Learning to play at the park.

 

 

John Hinton four wheeling.  

 

 

Hanging out in the dryer. 

 

Don't call DHS. I've never cut it on.

The Latest

We are over jet lag and just got back from a two day trip to UAB to meet with specialist and surgeons for Sam.  Both days were over four hours with no lunch or nap.  We were only suppose to be there one day but the International Clinic was able to get us in to see the doctors at the Cleft Clinic the following day. We got lots of great information and will be moving forward with some of Sam's surgeries soon. We found out that he isn't hearing very well, likely due to years worth of untreated ear infections. Hopefully, that will all be resolved with tubes during his first surgery. We don't expect him to be able to verbalize much until he can hear us. Since we stayed an unexpected day, we were able to visit Jessica! That led to this cuteness. Jessica bought Sam some adorable clothes and James had the same outfit.
 

Lest you think that my days are filled with only cuteness, I started my day off today spooning through Sam's poo with a small shovel so we can send it off to see if he has parasites. There is no reason to think that he does. It is just standard for kids adopted from overseas. The bad news is that I have let John Hinton and Sam bathe together and Sam pooed in the tub. It will now add insult to John Hinton's injury if he gets the parasites. It's all very glamorous. 

Home

We are home.  We are jet lagged, but we are surviving.
John Hinton has only asked to send Sam back to China once.

Almost home!

Just a few more days and our family will be together. Everyone says enjoy your time China. I think being separated from our family at Christmas and cutting short our traditions made our trip a little more difficult for me to enjoy this trip. But more so than that, one of the biggest parts of my heart is half way around the world. While we have added Sam to our family, my family is not complete until all four of us are together. John Hinton is doing great and has been such a trooper. I think nonnie and pawpaw will be glad when we get home. I've never said he wasn't an exhausting handful. Just that he was my love.

I'm pretty sure trig may be the happiest to see us come home. I understand John Hinton has gone all Caesar Milan on he and piggy.






Here is pictorial evidence of Sam's communication. This was right before the waitress came over pointing and fussing and both us. And then examined his deformity on his lower lip and kept pointing it out to me and fussing at me like maybe i had missed it.





Sam has had a good day. We can't wait to take him home. We are still getting to know each other but he is not sobbing when he wakes up anymore. This is us in a nice park across from the hotel.




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