Three Weeks

Wow, I can’t believe we’ve been home for three weeks already!  In some ways it seems like we just got home but in others it seems like RJ has always been here.

He’s doing GREAT!  Probably still honeymooning but he is just truly a joy.  Here are a few fun things from the past week:

• We cut down our Christmas tree last weekend.  He LOVES everything Christmas and had fun decorating the tree.  Excited for him to understand a little of the true meaning of Christmas.  The kids made countdown prayer chains and daddy helped him with his.  Not sure he understood it but he came up with some good ideas.
• We participated in a dedication ceremony at our church last Sunday making a commitment to raise him in a Christian home.  The pastor called him Ranjit and then asked him if he likes to be called RJ and he gave him a big thumbs up.  It was super cute :)
• We continued to get things set up for his home schooling program and got all of our materials.  It’s a completely free program for online public schooling and it is very organized.  We hope to start this week.  Of course this is just one more thing in my life I said I’d never do and now here I am.  Funny God, real funny.
• I realized that the language barrier is getting harder as he continues to get more comfortable and wants to talk more but doesn’t necessarily have the words.  All day I hear “Hey mom, hear this……” and then he can’t figure out what to say.  He doesn’t seem to be frustrated by it though.  I however am not as patient as him.  Everyday stuff is fine but as I have been doing more and more school work with him I’m starting to really wonder how I will teach him actual curriculum when I don’t have the language skills.  Please pray about that for us.
• The boys are bonding more and more.  The big kids were leaving him out a lot so I had a talk with them about it.  They weren’t trying to be mean it was just hard to play games when he doesn’t understand what they’re saying.  This was something I didn’t really think about before because kids always seemed to go beyond language barriers.  I told them that RJ is forming opinions of them right now and they can’t wait to include him until he can fully participate or else he may have already thought they were mean and excluding.  It really seemed to sink in this time and now they play together a lot.  I’ve also been praying with the boys and praising God out loud for the wonderful gift He gave them in each other and their brotherhood.  The yhave a built in vest friend for life.  It’s really working to help them have a good attitude about each other too.  Kind of brain washing them into it ;)
• RJ’s night time crying has stopped completely in the middle of the night and almost completely at bed time.  The other night the boys decided to share a bed (twin bed even!) and since then RJ hasn’t even needed us to lay with him.  He’s building that bond with Jackson and feels comfortable with just him in the room :)  Loving watching them grow together.
• Got the results back from RJ’s bone study and it turns out he’s only 7.  Not sure what all that means and we’re looking into our re-adoption and possibly changing his birthdate.  It’s a very controversial thing to do but since we have medical proof it’s something we need to look in to.  I could really care less how old he is but this may really help him in the future.  It will make a lot less explaining for him later in life for him because he’ll be closer to the age of the peers in his class in school.  Turning 7 in kindergarten is way more common than turning 9.  This would mean he’ll graduate high school at age 19 instead of age 21. He doesn’t know how old he is right now so it’s not going to be huge change for him. He’s actually not really going to understand it until he’s older and hates us because he could’ve gotten his driver’s license sooner if we hadn’t gone with the medical proof ;)  His birthdate was just picked basically at random before since the police had no information about him when they found him.  More to come on that as we find out more information on the process.  So it turns out he and Jackson are twins :)
• He got invited to his first birthday party!  Jackson’s friend had a birthday this weekend and was so nice to include RJ as well.  I didn’t feel he was ready to do something like that on his own nor did I want the parents to have to worry about him so I went along.  We got to eat at McDonald’s and play at funflatables.  He kind of hung back by himself but he had a lot of fun.  It was very interesting to watch how he compares to other kids his age physically.  He’s quite a bit slower, smaller and you could definitely see the abnormality in his legs as he ran around and climbed.  I will be interested to find out exactly what’s wrong with his hips/legs and if there are things they can do to fix them.  Again, his cute little sideways waddle run is SOO adorable to me now but as he gets older and possibly wants to play sports or even just keep up in gym class, we’ll want to make sure we do something to help if there is something to be done.
• We made our appointment at the eye specialist but couldn’t get in until January.  All these medical things up in the air.  Can’t wait to find out what they can do to help him.
• Over the past week both Laila and RJ had doctor appointments.  It was kind of comical to watch each of them get jealous for attention at the other’s appointment.  It was very cute however as RJ was getting blood drawn last week Laila yelled at the nurse and said “Don’t you hurt him!!” and then said “Mom, he got poked!!”  I love that she is also forming attachments with him this early on and was concerned for his well being.  I really wasn’t sure how much of all this she understands but I just know there are so many thoughts floating around in her amazing brain that she just can’t articulate.  What a blessing to have these two special children.  I actually feel sorry for people that dont’ have contact with the amazing joy special needs children are.  They are so eye opening and humbling.
• RJ can entertain himself really well and is great at cleaning up after he’s done playing.  A mommy’s dream!  Right now anyway…..
• I’ve had the privilege of talking with a few families over the past few weeks since the adoption workshop that we held and helped them get in the direction God is leading them to help orphan children.  A few are going to foster, one adopt and a few are going to sponsor children.  Every time I get to share what God has done for us and pray with another family about the direction God is leading them in their lives, I just fill to overflowing with thankfulness for being used by God.