Home 6 weeks

It very much feels like I was just writing my post about being home for one week.  We have been home and a family of five for 6 weeks!  I still absolutely can not believe Parker is already home and it (that part of the process) is all over.  The pain of that long wait and the feelings that come with it are still very real for us.  We still have some friends that we have met during this process that are very close but still waiting to bring their kids home as well as many families that we have only met 'virtually' but have travelled the journey beside us that are still waiting to bring theirs home.  There are still many concerns/struggles with the process that have not been ironed out and in turn, along with many other things, is prolonging children from being with their forever families.  Please continue to pray for the families and children that are still waiting to be united and for the future of Korean adoptions as well as ALL international adoption programs.

So.... what does being home for six weeks look like?  Night time and communication remain our two struggles.  We still have an occasional night when we feel like he is grieving and crying for his foster parents, but mostly we don't see this anymore.  It still takes him a while (at least a hour) to go to sleep but he spends a lot of that time talking/singing to himself or talking to us trying to get us to play.  He is still sleeping on a pallet next to our bed.  He eventually will be sharing a room with Ian and we just don't feel like he is at a point yet where he can sleep in there.  He still wakes up needing some comfort a couple of times a night and with Ian being in school, we don't feel like we can jeopardize any of his sleep.  We are hoping that can be a transition that we try out during the summer.  We are currently trying to work more on Zs sleep schedule (falling asleep by herself and staying in her bed all night) in order for Kendon to be able to handle bed time by himself when I go back to work (the week of May 19th).  It is going to be a challenge for him but he is a rock star and will (always has!) figure out how to make it work for them in order for me to continue to work nights. 

Parker is still taking a very good nap every day from about 1-3.  He has figured out that the others don't nap so he usually puts up somewhat of a fight but he always finds a comfortable place on my chest or in my arms to finally fall asleep and essentially wipes out the frustration of the fight.

Our days are spent playing and learning all that we can learn.  He can correctly show me his eyes, nose, mouth, hands, feet, and hair!  He is learning SO much, it is absolutely incredible.  Every day I figure out a word that he understands that I didn't realize he understood.  He will verbalize with no prompt 'thank you', 'cola', 'Ian',  & 'hungry' and he will verbalize almost anything with prompt.  Some things I know he understands but doesn't verbalize: eat, milk, water, bath, diaper, shoes, socks, dog, come here, and hug among a few others.

Playing..... this is improving (a tiny bit) every day.  The first couple of weeks he showed some biting behavior, we are VERY pleased to say we have not seen this since those first couple of weeks.  Parker and Z continue to be the two most alike.  If one of them has something, the other has to have the exact same thing.  If one of them has a toy, you better believe the other will be trying to get it soon.  When I say they always need the same thing, I mean the same drink, the same snack, the same toy, the same EVERYTHING!  We don't see this as much with Ian, I am assuming it is just the age difference and the completely different personality of Ian.  I hear weekly from one or the other, "I'm so glad that we adopted Parker".  Even on the hard and frustrating days, I know they love him.  We do have more than one tantrum/fit a day but these mostly are centered around being told 'no' or not getting what he wants.  I still believe the main drive behind this is communication.  He is frustrated and we are frustrated with the other not understanding and a breakdown ensues.  These are usually stopped by Kendon or I picking him up and taking him out of the room (usually to our bed), sitting there with him for a few minutes and telling him we don't throw fits.  He usually calms down pretty quickly and is again happily on his way.

He continues to eat pretty much anything I put in front of him, especially if I can mix a little bit of rice with soy sauce in with it.  He loves yogurt as do the other two, we should seriously buy stock in yogurt!  This last week, we had another appointment with our pediatrician to catch up on just a few immunizations and have some lab work drawn that our agency recommends.  If you are an adoptive parent and interested in this information please ask, I don't mind sharing with you our thoughts on this subject!  For those of you that don't know, Parker was a preemie born at 30 weeks (YES! very close to this mommas heart!) and let me tell you, he still has the veins of a preemie!  Looking at his arms/veins and knowing we are going to have blood drawn absolutely broke my heart- there was nothing there to stick!  We had a very good girl that got it on the first stick!!! Parker was such a BIG boy!  He cried with the shots, but let us comfort him and was quickly distracted with a sucker.  He cried with the blood draw also but only with the initial stick and even when he was crying and it hurt, he didn't fight.  He just laid his head on my chest and let it happen.  Unfortunately, something happened with the lab and they had to redraw his blood work :-( He again, was SO good!  This time he recognized and knew what was fixing to happen so he cried some before she started but he still just laid his head down, cried, and let her do it.  Thankfully, the same girl got it on the first stick again!  That should be all the mean stuff for a little while!

We are so blessed with this third life that God has entrusted us with and can't wait for the many adventures as a family of five!

Parker dancing in the car to one of our favorite DVDs 'Crazy Noise'....