Abundant Joy- Six Month Update

I don't want to jinx anything, and I know we are not totally out of the post-adoption craziness, but I just want to celebrate for a minute how far our sweet boy has come.  We met Charlie in July.  If you asked me 6 months ago to describe him, I would've said: crazy, energetic, volatile, emotional, smart. If you asked me 3 months ago, I would've said: controlling, majorly sensory sensitive, energetic, fearful.  If you asked me today, I would say: joyful, inquisitive, loving, happy, and so, so smart.

He still has some fear, but nothing like he did.  He is becoming much more flexible.  He is reading Braille, he is mastering English.  He still gets jealous, but so does Kate and she's been home 6+ years. He is appropriately sad when we leave him and appropriately happy when we return.  He doesn't ask us if we're going to come back, because he now believes that we will.  He knows when he is behaving and he lets everyone else know it too.

Three months ago, I had little hope that much was going to be better in the next year and now, looking back, I cannot believe how far he has come in the past month!  His Orientation & Mobility teacher was a nervous wreck at the beginning of the year due to his crazy energy and volatility, and now she is volunteering to take him out in the community twice a month.  Both sets of grandparents can handle him now, and we can easily find sitters for him (Hallelujah!). He has playdates that I don't even stress over and he is already asking if he can go to day camp this summer.

During basketball season he kept asking us when he could play a sport so we could all cheer for him. We're not there yet, but we did sign him up for swim lessons at the YMCA and he keeps asking us if the "whole family" is going to come cheer for him on his "swim team."  He also wants to run a 5K with Sam this spring, so training will soon begin for that.  If anyone has the energy to be a runner, it's Charlie.

We have a dear friend that is pregnant.  Stephen took the kids to visit with their family last weekend while I was away at a retreat.  (Oh, yes I was.)  I am sure that Charlie has been around pregnant women before, but he was not close enough to them to be aware of it.  Well, sweet and patient Jennifer got an earful of questions, because Charlie said he had never known anyone with a baby inside of them before.  How did it get there?  How will it come out?  How does it eat?  How does it pee?  How does it breave?  Etc, etc.  If you don't like curious kids asking you a million questions, you might want to steer clear from Charlie.

We celebrated Chinese New Year (the year of the monkey, how appropriate!) and found a new Chinese restaurant that we were all very excited about.  We rarely eat out with the whole family these days.  With Charlie's behavior, lack of table manners, etc. it's usually just not worth it.  But this place was not crowded, we did not have to wait long, the food was very good and the workers were very nice.  Charlie said the music they had playing made him feel calm.  His behavior was excellent and he ate a TON!  We will definitely be going back there!

Charlie is still busy, but not in a crazy, out of control way.  He loves his sensory bins (one has rice, one has water beads), he loves a trike that his friend is letting him borrow.  He does laps around our house, and listens to music or gives Sam and Kate a ride.  He is on that thing more than he's off, it seems.  Life with him is a lot more fun than it used to be.  Things are still fairly crazy, but that is partly because we are still just adjusting to having 3 kids!  Charlie is enjoying spending more time with Stephen and last week when he was out of town, he really missed him.

He is excited about Valentine's Day and made his box all by himself.  He loves so big and so well, and this is a day to celebrate love.  We love him and it is absolute joy to watch this happy boy become so real with us.  He is a blessing to all he meets-- except to the strangers that don't enjoy his 20 questions!