Just learnin'

I read those blogs listed on my sidebar over there in order to learn about other people's experience with adoption, life in Haiti, and how to raise adopted kids. I'm especially learning from "Life outside the Box" right now. She's very open about her experience with her 3 year old adopted son.

It's been very reassuring to hear her talk about "the look" her son gets right before an episode of tantrums, screaming, whatever. I saw that look a couple of times with CC while we were in Haiti. His "episodes" were not a huge deal by any means, but one time when Tim took the paper and pencil from him to show him how to write something I saw him draw into himself in a way and knew that he didn't like the fact that Tim took the pencil from him and wrote on "his" paper that he had been drawing on. Then when Tim gave him back the pencil he threw it across the room. We immediately told him he shouldn't do that and that he needed to go pick up the pencil. He sat there very quite like and didn't make a move toward getting up to get it, but when I told him that I was going to go with him to get the pencil and took his hand he didn't fight me, but rather went with me and did indeed pick the pencil up. He gets a little bit of a far away sort of look, but it was so manageable while we were there. Another time in which he cried pretty hard was when I tried to show him how to write "Daddy" on his paper...again "his" paper that he had been writing on. The other time was at the table and had something to do with his food. I think he wanted to put something in his drink like ketchup or something strange. He had seen me put sweetner in my hot tea and stir it up. Around here I let the kids make "concoctions" where they mix weird things together...not real often, but sometimes, but there in Haiti at a restaurant I didn't feel it was appropriate,so we didn't let him. And he got real quiet and "far-away." The language barrier doesn't help either. All in all, I feel like he did amazingly well with us! He slept peacefully through the night, obeyed us amazingly well, laughed and seemed to have fun with us, loved on us...

I don't doubt that there will be challenges when he comes home with us, but reading about how others deal with it and the reasons why some of those fears and frustrations are there helps so much! Personal property is a big deal when you've lived in an orphanage all your life with a great many other kids. But the other side of this story about our CC is pretty cool too!---

I can't remember if I shared it on here, but when he had to return back to the orphanage with Hal and some other kids on their way back from school, we told Hal that CC had a little bag of "goodies" that he had been collecting (granola bars, breakfast bars and crackers from our stash) and whatever he thought best about dealing with those "goodies" was fine with us. He kinda' looked beyond us and said, "I think CC already has that dealt with." We turned at that point to see our precious boy passing out his "treasures" to the other kids in the truck! Did my heart good to see that kind of unselfishness in one so young and so inexperienced at having "extra's." ---Challenging? Sure. Blessings to be had? I'm sure of that too!