Well it's December 31, 2010. The end of the year and one that I can say I'm looking forward to ending.
It's been a year of thoughtfulness, kindness, ups and downs, the emergence of temper tantrums, and realizations.
2010 brought me some realizations the biggest one being that I'm not alone. It also brought me a new friend who brought me this mind blowing realization. This new friend has children with the same diagnoses as mine. We have become very good friends and confidante's and we both know that we can turn to one another in our joys and our defeats and know that the other understands wholeheartedly. That's one thing I want to help other adoptive families (pre and post) understand. That you need others who KNOW what you're going through and understand all the joy and frustration that comes with adopting special needs children. YOU NEED PEOPLE WHO ARE WHERE YOU ARE AND WHO'VE BEEN WHERE YOU ARE! And YOU need to be there for those who are about to be where you've been. Support is a 2 way street, just like friendship and love. You need alot of friendship and love when you're adopting. You don't always get to be Mum and Dad right away. But that's a topic for another day.
This past year saw my husband and I making decisions for our oldest son that quite honestly we thought we'd never have to make. His 2009/2010 school year was really hard for him. So decisions had to be made. Some of his difficulties were due to his diagnoses and others were from outside influences. We made the decision to first, change his public school. When that didn't pan out we decided to home school him for the year. That has turned out to be a blessing and a curse. Home schooling a very strong willed, intelligent beyond his years 7 year old is very challenging and rewarding. Challenging because he doesn't like the new routine, and the repetitiveness of the school work and rewarding because he is so much further along in his work than he would have been if left in the public system. It makes me so proud to look at him and praise him for the work he's doing. It's not praise for just showing up either. I'm praising this child for actually doing his required work and getting it all right. It's rare for him to make a mistake. What really makes me happy though is that he is in grade 2 and his reading level and comprehension rivals that of a child in grade 5! He has had to explain some of his science projects to me because I didn't understand the instructions (and I'm no dummy either) but he did. LOL I think the problem is that I over think the instructions. I'm still struggling with wrapping my mind around the fact that work is for a child in grade 2.
This year with homeschooling I'm seeing the emergence of a very late blooming sense of humour. Now I know sarcasm is the lowest form of wit but I'm happy with any type of wit I see coming from this child. He had a question in a math text that asked him what the answer to an equation was and then asked him how he knew. His answer (written in the blank provided) "because I'm a smart boy!" He got quite angry with me when I burst out laughing, but I explained that that wasn't the answer they were looking for. That his answer was funny but why did he put that? He told me that if they couldn't figure out that he counted the blocks to get the answer then they didn't deserve to know the truth!
Like I said he's intelligent beyond his years.
So some of our days are like that and some are very difficult to even get him to start the day.
2010 saw the emergence of our youngests temper tantrums. This was completely foreign to us as our oldest never had a terrible 2 stage. No really he didn't. This youngest one doesn't seem to want to leave it! I'm hoping it magically disappears on his 3rd birthday! I know, I know it doesn't work that way. But I can hope can't I?
So with the closing of this year, I'll bid it a fond farewell at midnight and welcome 2011 with all it's challenges and rewards and hopefully the addition of our next children. 2011 is quickly shaping up to be a year of wonder and delight and any challenges that come along the way will be dealt with swiftly and surely so we can move on with all the positives. Here's to 2011 being the year of hope. I hope that all the children in BC who need their forever family get them. I hope that all waiting families find their children. Including us.
Happy New Year!!!!!!
"Amen"
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