Eleven Months Home

Wow, eleven months! Lots have happened this month, and mostly with Adam.

Adam has been attaching better and better with us this summer. He is less sneaky, more honest, more affectionate, more helpful. He really is a great kid! Yesterday he was on a roll. My sickness last week made for a house that was less than spotless, so he took it upon himself to sweep and mop the kitchen, vacuum the whole house, wash the car, and even after doing all that, he didn't complain when we asked him to help dry the dishes. He very rarely complains when we ask him to help out with something, and in fact, he takes it as a high compliment that we would trust him with such a job. Oh, I forgot to mention that yesterday he also woke up early to help pack John's lunch. I had totally figured that these helpful streaks would be a thing of the past by "eleven months home," but with Adam, they're coming MORE frequently. AND, I should add, that his room is spic and span. He struggles with putting his dirty clothes where they belong, but if we remind him, they are picked up within three minutes. He is still accidentally breaking things, however. He isn't very careful when he plays. (Understatement of the year right there; Adam is really impulsive at times). Yesterday he was playing with his kite in the livingroom, and smashed the light fixture in the ceiling fan. BUT! (And this is where we saw some progress too!) He did NOT lie about it, and did not try to pretend it didn't happen. Instead, he ran outside where I was watching the girls swim in the pool, and told me to come and look. He showed me what happened, and said, "Mama, I almost lie, but my brains think, 'Adam, you need tell Mama.'" I almost jumped for joy! I gave him a hug; we cleaned it up, and went on our merry way.

The neurology report on him showed that he does have some brain damage mostly in the right hemisphere of his brain, and that it formed that way (as opposed to a stroke, etc. at birth). He'll never get better or worse, but he'll just need lots of help with math, need some PT for his foot/balance, and some help with his speech. (Actually, this month, his speech has made profound improvements, but it is far from "normal." He's using complete sentences more and more, but definitely not "most of the time." When we tell him, "Adam, can you say that better?" He'll 9 times out of 10 say it the right way though. He still struggles with his "r's" and "-ng's." Basically, if we'd had this neurology report our first few weeks home from Ukraine, it would have really freaked me out, but we know who we have right now. We know his condition isn't something that is going to make him a non-productive citizen of the world. It'll just slow him down in some areas. He's a friendly, outgoing, kind, helpful boy with a giant heart. That counts for a lot, I'd say!

Liana is still doing great as always. She is a sweetheart. Really, she is. I know I paint her to be a controlling, bossy little girl sometimes, but that's only a small part of her. She has a giant heart, is smart, smart, smart, and of the three kids, she really seems on the same plane as me most of the time. She seems lots, lots older than the little almost-seven-year-old that she is, and therefore, I call on her to be my sidekick in lots of projects I'm working on - whether it be helping with cooking, cleaning, or whatever, she's just always in the thick of things. The other day I was making a bunch of extra meals for the freezer (Yay, we got a freezer!), and she insisted on helping me brown the hamburger. Now, under normal circumstances, there is NO way I'd let a 6-yr-old do such a thing, but knowing Liana like I do, (and knowing I was right beside her browning my own pan of burger), I let her. And she did an excellent job. Just as I knew she would. She not only was extremely careful safety-wise, but she did a great job breaking up the meat and cooking it all the way through, etc. She amazes me.

Then there's Leks. This summer she has made strides that I didn't think she'd make for another year at least. I don't know if it really is the Omega vitamin pills that others in our adoption group have raved about and I finally broke down and tried on our kids, or what, but it really does seem like since we started her on those, she has been a little dynamo.

She loves to count things. If I'm reading her a book, and there are lots of pictures of the same thing on a page, she MUST stop me, and count everything. She just can't not do it. She also loves to play the "where's the letter X on this page?" game. She's learning so much! We also have attribute blocks and cubes for her. She has to sort them out by color and shape and THEN she can start playing with them. I have a "Building Thinking Skills" book for her (that's what it's called), and she has been doing really well with it. She is even COLORING! She has to put attribute blocks on the page where the outlines are, and then she has to color each one the same color as her block. She loves it, and really, she's doing great! Her coloring is even getting closer and closer to being inside the lines all the time. She's also become a little problem-solver. She absolutely loves digging and playing in the dirt (read MUD). I let her dig under the deck all she wants, but I've really had to get after her lately for bringing her mud to the yard or driveway and then have a mudpie-bake. Mess. So, she found Liana's plastic vinyl carrying-case, filled it with dirt, added some water, and "Presto!" she has a portable sandbox that she can lug all over the world with her and I won't get upset about a mess. I thought it was pretty ingenious!

All three are little sweeties! We are really blessed. I mean, REALLY. We're getting so that we don't necessarily feel like we have to entertain the kids or be a hawk and watch them every minute. One will be off doing one thing, another will do another, and the other will do yet another thing, and it isn't a stressful thing anymore. The thoughts "Oh no! I don't see Adam! Is he off playing in the soap again?" don't really cross my mind anymore. Feels SOOOO good to have come this far! :O)