He may not have my eyes. He may not have my smile. But AJ has my heart!
Sitting here watching AJ sleep, I am amazed how blessed we are. He has already changed so much in a week and a half. He becomes a little more free each day. Free in just being able to cry, and he knows his cry is heard and we care. This afternoon we hit a milestone when he became frustrated at his balloon getting stuck. Tears came to those sweet brown eyes to show me this is important to him and he needs help. It was a big deal for him to show that emotion to me. It shows he trusts us a little more now. When he fell running today and got his first boo boo with us, AJ welcomed me holding and rocking him. We are making progress daily getting his trust. The best way I can describe this kind of trust action is like having a newborn baby. A baby cries and learns these people will pick me up when I cry. The baby cries again and learns these people will fed me. Over and over a baby will learn to cry to get her needs met. A baby in an orphanage will cry and nothing may happen. After a while an orphanage baby will give up making her need known and will self soothe. Make sense? Maybe? Well, just take my word for it and know today's actions were important.
Something that hits me everytime we do a bath or I'm putting lotion on him is I have no idea how he got some of his little scars. It's strange not knowing how your child got a certain scar. They are just little reminders of how much of his life I have missed. This is something I had not put any thought to before adoption. Just a little detail of the lives of our children not to be taken for granted.
So back to the blessed part! While it's only been a short time of having AJ, it feels like he's been in our life much longer. The kid has my heart! My heart melts when he smiles at me. I like watching him enjoy food. I love watching him experience things for the first time. His curious look makes me laugh. He is a delight to have in our lives! What a special treasure we have been given! I feel so blessed to be Brody and AJ's mother.
*Medical appointment went well. TB test was negative. Tomorrow is our embassy appointment.
Hello Brice Family, It's great to hear things are going so well for AJ. I adopted my daughter from India three years ago, and wanted to make a comment about the scars - Nina's skin scars much more easily from my other children, and even a small scratch will leave a scar for months. AJ's scars may be from nothing more than the simple falls and scratches of childhood.
ReplyDeleteCarole