Two Months Ago ....

Two months ago we held our sweet little boy in our arms for the first time. Instantly we were head over heals in love with him. As the days passed by we were cautiously waiting for the "shoe to drop" per say but instead everyday this little boy continued to blossom before our eyes. His adjustment was more than we ever could have dreamed of. It is hard to believe that 2 months have passed. In some ways it seems like just yesterday we held him for the first time and in other ways it feels like he has been with us forever. There are days I forget that we didn't hold him until he was 17 months old and missed out on those precious months.

We have worked hard at bonding with our little man the past months. Max was Mr. Social and felt very free to reach out his hands to be held by anyone who talked to him and flashed a smile his way. We didn't let anyone hold him for the first 30 days except for Eric, I and the kids. We extended it a little longer after his traumatizing hospital stay but aloud family to hold him. Eric and I were the only one who fed him by spoon, bottle, handed him sippy cups or snacks. The kids were so great about handing the food or cups to us for us to give him. We wanted to establish that we were mom and dad and we were the ones to meet his needs. It was hard for our family and our friends because everyone wanted to get their hands on our sweet boy. It was hard on us to say "no" because we wanted others to love on him too but we knew in the long run it was important. All the efforts have paid off as we see wonderful signs that he is bonded to us and looking to us for comfort, security, for his needs to be met and to be loved on. Eric has had to travel quite a bit the last couple weeks and it has been amazing to see him turn his head when he hears his daddy's voice and crawl as fast as he can to get to him even after he has been gone for a week. He loves his daddy!

Max loves to eat! It never fails that when you give him a bite he says, "mmmmmmmm!" Sometimes he starts saying "mmmmmmmmm" the minute he gets in the high chair just knowing the food is going to be good. The picture above is him doing just that. The first month home his favorite food was bread, just plain old bread. He didn't like too many things that were cold or sweet. Well his taste buds have moved past the good old bread and he now swats it to the side and moves on to the good stuff. He isn't picky and tries almost anything. He also had decided that sweets aren't too bad especially a couple bites of ice cream.

One of his favorite snacks in good old graham crackers. It is hard to believe that Max didn't even know how to pick up food and feed himself when we first got him. He would down his bottle so fast he would sweat from drinking it so fast. He would have a death grip on that bottle so we couldn't take it out of his mouth until he was done and even when he was done he often would cry when we would take the bottle away. We often wonder what feeding time was like in the orphanage and why he felt the need to drink so fast and hold on so tightly. We still are giving him a bottle in the morning and at night. We love this bonding time with him as he looks into our eyes and we get to cuddle him. He often doesn't even hold on to the bottle now and many times leaves milk in the bottle. When he is full he now stops. He has learned his needs are being met and there is not time restraints on when his bottle will be taken away.

His sisters love him to pieces and he knows it. He begs at their feet for them to pick him up. He knows who will love on him and play with him.

He knows when we pull up to school that the girls are leaving and starts waving to them as we pull up. When we pull back in the garage he starts giggling like he is so excited to be home again. He knows our routine that is obvious.

The boys love their morning in their pajamas. I knew we wanted to focus on helping Max adjust and attachment so we don't have too many commitments right now except for loving on this little boy. This is often what our mornings look like at home. The boys stay in their pajamas as we bring the girls to school. When they get home they have way to much fun together. It has been so much fun to see Shane embrace the roll as "big brother!" That is a whole post in itself.

Max developmentally was more like a 12 month old when we got him. It was hard to know if he had any language because we don't understand Chinese obviously. He did babble a lot. We were told he didn't move much and yet hours after we got him he was crawling all over the place. When we were in China he was quickly pulling himself up and standing by things. It was very obvious that he wasn't on his feet much. His feet were tiny and he had very little muscle tone in his legs. His little ankles were just tiny too. Since he has been home it has been fun to see make great strides in this area. He got this little walking toy from my aunt and from the time it was put together he was off. He has figured out how to go fast, turn and go backwards with his little walker. He would walk around everything but just couldn't muster enough courage to let go and take steps on his own.

Well last week it happened. Our little boy got brave and started letting go of things. He was so proud of himself he would just giggle when he realized he was standing by himself. When he would fall he would giggle some more and clap for himself. I wonder where he learned that. Yes, he has quite the cheering section over here. The kids work hard at teaching him new words, helping him walk and teaching him all kids of new tricks. So any new thing he does he gets lots of applause. Well he is so stinkin cute and just joins right in clapping for himself.

Shane spent close to an hour the other day having him walk to him. It was the cutest thing I have ever seen. Here is Max concentrating ... this is serious business.

And of course the celebration after 6 big steps. Look at Shane's face. Do you think he could be any prouder of his brother. I think we just could have a walker on our hands soon!

Along with being brave comes some tumbles. Yes Max crashed on the coffee table and got his first black eye.

(I took this picture with my phone so not great quality but I love this sweet picture of him)

We are hoping we are on the upward swing on the health side of things. As many have probably read we had a hospital stay that was a bit traumatising for our little guy. We finished our antibiotics and went in for a follow up about 10 days after his release. Just a day after our follow up where everything looked good he started coughing. By the end of the week he was running a high fever, coughing and throwing up. We headed back to the doctor to find it was an ear infection. The poor little thing was miserable. One afternoon I came in the kitchen and he had crashed on the floor. His little body isn't used to all these new US germs. Since home he has his fair share of needles, pokes by nurses and doctors, antibiotics, and some rough nights. He is back to his happy little self and back to sleeping through the night. We are hoping now that Spring his almost here we are done with our doctor visits and sickness.

Max's sisters and brother love to teach him new things. Alexa is busy teaching him where his belly button is.

Max's very first English word is "uh oh!" We said this a lot as he threw toys and everything he could find off his hospital bed. Well the week we got home he started mouthing it with no voice behind it. I wish I would have gotten it on video because it was so cute. The voice quickly came and now he says it all the time. The kids think it is so funny that when they try to get him to say anything else he automatically says "uh oh!" He understands most of what we are saying and we will keep submerging him with a lot of language in the months to come.

Look what else has grown the last 2 months. Yes, his hair is getting crazy long. He has a mop of thick hair like his brother. I think they will be visiting the hair dresser chair frequently together.

This is one of his other favorite things to do. It is his sign for "all done!" He ofter says

"uh oh" with it.

Brothers wrestle ... it just comes naturally! Boys are just are born ready to wrestle and Max is no exception.

He continues to be our Curious George and loves to check everything out. This is what I found in the kitchen the other day. Yes, Curious George decided to empty a box of noodles on the floor. Instead of quickly cleaning it up I had fun watching him be entertained by a box of noodles. I spend a lot of time watching this little boy and just taking him in.

Max continues to be Mr. Personality. I am pretty sure he doesn't have too many grumpy bones in his body. He gets fussy or whiney when he is hungry, tired or sick but who doesn't. He is so much fun to watch as he entertains himself. He will do something and then just laugh at himself. He really does think he is pretty funny. There have been numerous times that Eric and I have just watched him in utter amazement. We know and we saw the environment he was in. We were told he didn't move much, make much noise and didn't get a lot of attention. He was in a room with red carpet, red mats and not a toy in sight. The other kids we saw in his room laid lifeless with hollow eyes. I cry just thinking about him being in that room. Yet from the time we started the process we prayed that God would protect and hold our little boy until we could. We prayed for protection of his mind, body and spirit. We watch our little boy in amazement and wonder how a little boy can display so much personality and love for life within hours of leaving his red room. God is good, he is faithful, he protected our sweet boys mind, body and spirit. Our little boy is full of life.

Two months with our sweet brown eyed boy. We are forever grateful that God called us to bring a little boy from China home and he blessed us with our sweet Max.

One of my friends brought this over filled with yummy carmel corn but the note on top is my favorite. Yes, from WORLDS apart to FAMILY! We are family. The chinese symbol means "happiness" translated blessed or fortunate.

We are blessed!

Happy 2 Months with your forever family sweet boy!

"For I know the plans that I have for you, says the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you plans to give you a future and a hope."

Jeremiah 29:11