As I wrote on my last post the first few days or weeks for that matter, upon arriving at home were quite difficult. I kind of explain it this way, when you are about to have a newborn baby people tell you that you will be tired and that it will be difficult, but you never truly understand it until the time comes. I felt that way with Isaac, I knew it would be hard but did not understand the emotions that were involved. I thought that once we had him home the roller coaster ride of emotions would be over, not even close. I struggled with what kind of mom to be to this new little guy in my life, should I hold him more or less, should I give in when he throws fits or discipline him? And what happened to the son we had known in Korea, full of smiles and laughs and curiosity. For the first few weeks his personality virtually disappeared, he cried well more like screamed a lot, and I wondered if he would ever find himself here with us. As the days past we began to get into more of a routine, I found myself relaxing more and trusting my instincts. He began to open up, to show us his beautiful smile, and began to laugh again. I will never forget the first time he laughed, he and Travis were playing and roughhousing, Travis' whiskers tickled him and he let out a full out belly laugh. My heart about jumped out of my chest!
Almost as quickly as his personality disappeared it returned and people were noticing quickly. He began to explore more around the house and at church. He began to babble a lot and Anna taught him how to squeal (Much to our delight, Ha!)
The last month or so have been great. He sleeps through the night most of the time. We still have to lay in the floor sometimes when we first lay him down in his crib. It is so funny to see him peeking over the bumper to see if we are still there. He is still taking a bottle at bedtime, for those of you who know me well know that I looked very forward to rocking him to sleep. I am afraid that if I take the bottle away he won't let me rock him! Our doctor has told us not to be in a hurry getting rid of the bottle because it is still good for bonding time.
Isaac loves to eat, I can't really explain how much he loves to eat in mere words. He would eat constantly if allowed from morning until night. We have found very few things that he does not like and when he eats he is very messy. I have told many people, if you want Isaac to like you just feed him! I have never seen a toddler eat like him, I guess he is making up for the extra time on formula! Isaac has learned some basic sign language, the first sign he learned was more (when asking for more food of course), he knows eat, milk, drink, and has made up his own sign for dog.
Dogs are his next favorite thing following closely behind eating. He loves our dog Bacon and asks for her constantly. He only wants to look at pictures of dogs in his books and kisses them all the time. Dog and Dad were his first English words.
Many people wonder about the language barrier. It has been amazing how well he has picked up on English. He understands everything we say and is beginning to repeat our tones and sometimes words in his babbling. I am even working on the C-A-T-S Cats! Cats! Cats! cheer. He smiles and laughs almost constantly now, at times cracking himself up. A sure fire way to get a laugh is to juggle, he thinks that is so funny.
Isaac and Anna bonded right away. He looks for her when she is gone and loves to be in her room. She is very attached to her brother, she wants to hug him and kiss him all the time. Sometimes she gets too close and may get hit, but most of the time they are inseparable. Which will make if very difficult when she goes to school in a few weeks.
I am absolutely amazed at how much of a perfect fit Isaac is to our family. He has endured himself to the hearts of all that have spent much time with him at all. I am blown away by the fact that God saw fit to place this little boy in our care. I cannot believe that God even looks my way, let alone sets all of this into motion, even when I tried to mess it up. I am grateful beyond words for his blessings and I pray that this will only be the beginning to the amazing things that God is going to do in our lives.
And to think I could have missed it, I could have said no it's too hard, or no we don't have the money or no I've never even been on an airplane I am definitely not going to South Korea! I tried to say no, I really did but when I look into my little boys eyes as he leans in to give me a kiss, I am so glad I didn't!
Continue to pray for us as we seek to be the parents and the people God desires for us to be. I am sure there will be many more ups and downs in this Amazing Race. Isn't it funny that as you type ouramazingrace together that it also says Our Amazin Grace, and that is what this race is truly all about, the Amazing Grace our heavenly father has given to us by adopting us into his family, those who put there faith in Jesus. We have already began to teach our children about this amazing grace and pray that through our story you have been touched by it as well.
We will continue to post updates on our family as we wait for the adoption to be official, until then know that I am loving every moment of being a proud mother or two!
