When Adoption becomes Family Life

It seems like I spent a lot of time posting about "adoption" before Nes came home. Now that he is here, everything has become "family life." This seems wrong, since prior to him coming it was paperwork and waiting, and waiting, and waiting. My wait was very short compared to many, so I feel like I escaped that fire.

Now he is here and the real work of adoption has begun. I have an extremely easy child. He is very sweet and eager to please. He loves to be near me, he eats most anything, although he is beginning to let us know when something does not need to be on the menu. He sits still longer then our daughter. He is very organized and conscientious. He is picking up English well, and what he doesn't know he is able to show us. All of that said, he is still a child. He whines about things he doesn't like. He tests the boundaries. He provokes his siblings when he is tired. He knows what he wants and if he doesn't get it he can get out of sorts. And he thinks cookies should come after every meal. We have had lots of tears over cookies, in fact some are working up right now.

The challenges today are how to keep the children busy in constructive ways. Which battles are worth fighting and which ones can be dealt with later. When he gets emotional, trying to figure out if this is plain old stubbornness, or if there is history here that I don't know. He seems very normal in comparison to my other children. He is developmentally right with them. Sometimes it seems like he has been here from the beginning. I was flipping through my calendar yesterday filling out more paperwork, and realized he has only been here weeks, not months. Adoption is an incredible experience. People are amazing beings, it gives me hope and great joy.